Happy New Year!

We spent the last day of 2013 the same way we spend many days-Ray was at work & the kids & I did school. Ray DID get home from work early and around 8:00 we went to spend the evening with friends.

Before we left the house we pulled out some sparklers.

Richard & Katherine opened their home & we had a fun time eating good food, talking & playing! We did miss a couple of the families who had to stay home due to illness.

There were quite a few kids there & they had SO MUCH ENERGY! Most of them were outside most of the night, running around on the porch & playing on the swing set.

Jackson stayed up past his bed time but I put him in the guest room a little after 9 & he slept the rest of the time we were there.

Party Time!!!

Something that Richard & Katherine planned that was a lot of fun was celebrating the New Year each hour leading up to our midnight. At 10:00 we celebrated New Year in Brazil & gave the kids noise makers. To compensate for the noise we counted down in sign language.

At 11:00 we celebrated new year for Eastern Canada & counted down in Mi'kmaq (spoken in that area).

The Ladies!

Shortly before midnight we played a game of figuring out which flag belongs to which country & the capitol of that country. Let's just say it made me want to pull out my flags of the world flashcards to study when I got home!

With 15 minutes left of the year we read of scriptures, sang & prayed. There's no better way to end one year & welcome a new one!

Most of the kids made it the entire night but Audrey finally succumbed & passed out on the sofa.

It was a great night! We wrapped up & went home around 12:45. We had a lovely grey, cold day today (the highest it went was 60) & Robert & Briana came over late this afternoon. We had a potluck dinner & Robert helped Ray begin to install new screens on our windows. They'e in dire need & we appreciate the help!

Pennsylvania

On Sunday we left Jen & Gabe & drove the 1.5 hours to see Ernie & Ruth.

The kids were very happy to play with each other.

Monday morning Ruth & I took our youngest out on a shopping excursion. Breakfast at Panera, coffee & shopping at Target & a quick stop at Trader Joe's.

When we arrived home the kids were having a glorious time playing outside.

I really love Ruths' home. It's one of my all-time favorites. I really love the coffee nook she's created since the last time I was there.

On Tuesday morning our family went to Milburn Orchards. We love this little place! They have so many fun things & it's so fun going to a big pumpkin patch, so different from the ones around our house.

The kids played in a hay maze, a corn maze, "spider web" (a big rope play ground), "gopher tunnels" (awesome huge tubes underneath a hill). We also visited all of the cute farm animals.

I may've eaten three apple cider doughnuts.

The girls really loved playing with each other. They spent quite a bit of time outside "treasure hunting." These were their hunting clothes.

We stayed with them until Tuesday & left for the rest of our trip after dinner.

Manhattan and More

Last Friday morning we left Jen & Gabes & drove to take the (free) Staten Island ferry over 

to Manhattan. 

It took us to the financial district where we indulged in goodies from Au Bon Pain, visited the site of the World Trade Center & watched the girls fawn over costume jewelry. The nice guy on the left gave them each a ring (which Kate dropped in the water on our ferry ride back).

Tourist central, aka Times Square. 

Walking to Rockefeller Center. 

We walked a bit around the city & surprised the kids by taking them to FAO Schwartz. Of course they had to play on the giant piano from "Big." I loved that movie when I was a kid! 

After the kids played on it Ray showed them the clip from the movie on his phone. 

Clay didn't seem to impressed by his subway ride back to the ferry.

Before getting back on the ferry we grabbed a quick dinner at Chipotle-cheap & easy to eat gluten free!

After leaving the city we drove to Cranford, NJ  

to stay with our friends, Matt & Heather for the night. We hadn't seen them in over five years & we stayed up talking until 3am!

Matt & Heather have 3 girls & our kids had a blast playing with 

each other! 

Their little town is so cute & I love that you can walk to so many places. They also had a scarecrow contest going on & there were all different kinds of scarecrows around the town. It reminded me of being in Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls!

We walked to a great coffee shop, Rock'n Joes, 

before walking to the train station & going into the city. 

We took the subway over to Central Park. We were all hungry & conveniently enough Sabra hummus was at the park & giving away little tubs of hummus & pretzels.

After spending some time in the park we decided we wanted burgers. Two of the girls are gluten free so we walked over to five guys where we knew it would be safe for them to eat. 

After five guys we walked to Dylan's candy shop. I had promised the kids a few weeks ago that we would go & they didn't forget! 

The bottom floor was uncomfortably packed so we went upstairs to the sweet shop. We even scored one of the cupcake booths to sit at! 

Ready to indulge in some goodies! 

We had fun trying yummy beverages & chocolate fondue! 

Time to leave NYC

Our girls were naturals on the subway. 

We made it back to Cranford a little after 8 & stopped at Rock'n Joes - another 4 shots of espresso for me!

Isn't my drink pretty?

We hung out at their house a little longer & the kids ate dinner.

We also enjoyed another viewing of, "What does the fox say?"

We left Matt & Heather & drove back to Jen & Gabe. We got to their house around midnight & went to church with them the next morning. After church we ate lunch together & then left for the next leg of our trip! 

Philly

We arrived at Jen & Gabes' in time for pizza dinner last night, just like the old days. We always used to have pizza together on Wednesday night after bible study. Except in the old days they only had one child & Jen & I were both pregnant. Now there are 8 kids between us! 

They let their kids stay home from school this morning & everyone had fun playing together. 

Around noon we all hopped on a train to go into Philadelphia. 

6 of the 8 kids

Clay LOVES trains & was totally in his element on his first train ride. 

We ate lunch in terminal market before walking around the city.

Checking out the foundation of George Washington's home. 

Jen had called this morning to see if the liberty bell & such were open yet but she was told it was closed due to the government shutdown.  By the time we got to the city it was open again! It had just opened up at noon today. 

All of us (minus Gabe taking the picture) at the 

grave of Benjamin Franklin. 

The home of Betsy Ross. 

 

We also walked to Penns landing before hopping on a bus back to the train station. 

The kids were great the whole time & such troopers walking all over the city, it was such fun!