We started the day out early after a much less than ideal night of sleep. Amy, Mike, James and Olivia spent the night over so that we could get out early. Unfortunately, the big kids were very excited and the little kids didn’t want to sleep. We finally got them all to sleep, but we didn’t get to sleep until nearly midnight. Sue and I got up at 5am to prepare and get the big kids ready.

Our plan was to get out of the house early and pick up a nice breakfast from D&D. I’m not sure what world we live in, but D&D was not open at 6:30am. We ended up buying coffee and semi-palatable breakfast foods from Cumberland Farms. A gas station breakfast for the four of us.

We ended up at the meeting place early and got a chance to meet the driver. The woman in charge of this pick up spot had the nerve to ask us to get off the bus so that she could count us. WTF. There was only four of us and we were already settled in. She was late, not us. Not a great way to start the day, but we were still happy to be getting out.

The bus trip was relatively short and uneventful until we reached NYC. The kids had a good time and we well behaved. Thankfully the bus had a bathroom, which Emelia took care to use multiple times on the trip. Shortly into the trip the “leader” of the group announced that she had some movies that we could watch. She allowed the youngest on the bus to choose, which was Emelia. Out of the more recent Christmas movies she chose Elf. It ended up being a good choice, which the group enjoyed.

The only real interesting part of the trip was when we got a chance to watch a woman get out of her wheelchair, pull her pants down and piss on the side of 42nd street. The only thing that probably kept her bottom from being see was that she hid it behind the side of store door. The more amazing part was that there were two cop cars, with cops immediately right next to her. She just pulled up her pants, got back into her wheelchair and left. I was so stunned I didn’t even think to post a video. It could have gone viral!

None worse for wear, here are the kids posing in front of the New York Library. Just about ready to head out to see the sights.

Our first stop of the day was Times Square. It was only a few blocks from Bryant Park. At nearly each intersection were people dressed up as Elmo and other monsters. The kids enjoyed seeing them, but Emelia didn’t want to go near them.

Times Square was busy, but not so much that you couldn’t walk around. M&M’s World was our first stop. Toys R Us in Times Square was too busy to event think about going in. From what I heard they were giving out numbers so that you could shop at a scheduled time.

The M&M’s World store was pretty nice. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Three floors full of people and M&M’s branded merchandise. We checked out nearly everything and decided to buy a little bit to remember the trip. James is really interested in baseball so we bought him an M&M’s baseball and bought us all some Pretzel and Almond M&M’s for the day. They were of course overpriced, but we bought a few as a treat. It’s hard to resist when the walls are literally made up of huge bulk contains.

Emelia waited on line with me to pay.

Afterwards we made our way back down Times Square to the subway station. We took some token pics on the way through.

We had a lot of trouble getting a decent picture. The kids were too happy and giggly to stand still. Tickling them while we posed may not have helped either.

We bought a Metrocard and got on the subway for a short trip uptown. It was too cold and too far of a walk for the kids. This was to be our only trip on the train for the day and it was James first time ever on a subway. Emelia was accustomed to taking the subway after our trip to Toronto last year. He got quite nervous on the platform, but loosened up once we boarded the train.

Our next stop was to be FAO Schwarz. However, we were all hungry and needed sustenance. After seeing just how long the line was to get into FAO we figured that it would be best to eat first and then go shopping. Having not had time to plan ahead we spontaneously chose the only restaurant in sight and ended up having lunch at a place named Pop Burger.

It’s a small, expensive burger joint. The food wasn’t bad, but not great either. I had a burger, the kids each had a hot dog and mom had a caesar salad with chicken. I think we were all satisfied except for Sue. The chicken on her salad was very dry and hardly edible. I traded the last of my burger and tried to get her salad down. Blah. I’m not one to complain about food in a place, but I am one to give a less than good online review if a meal is bad. Other than that it was an okay meal. The place was small and busy, which means little seating.

After eating we headed over to FAO Schwarz to wait in line. I’m not sure what miracle happened, but it only took about 5 minutes to get in the building. I was expecting something like 30 minutes, but was pleased to be in the store so quickly.

It was our first time in FAO Schwarz. None of us have been there before. It was well worth going into the icon store, but I am surprised at the lack of holiday decorations. I expected the store to be bigger and better decorated. If it were not for the scores of people I would never have known it was the pre-Christmas season.

Emelia and James took in story time in the book section, which I scoped the place out. It was absolutely packed and difficult to get around. I figured it was best to find the places where we wanted to go without the kids. James was in love with the puzzle section and I found the Butterfly Container toy very cool. Emelia had a great time checking out the books and the dolls. We were liberated of a few bucks to buy a book for Caitlin and a Christmas toy for Olivia.

In the doll section the kids played with a Barbie themed foosball table. It was a custom made table and only cost $24,000 to buy. It made for a great place to take pictures with the kids (look for the kids posing).

Untitled from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

While we waited to get out of the building one of the guards entertained James. He had quite the personality and took to the kids quite well despite his age. It was unexpected. We got a nice surprise on the way out of the store. MasterCard had a deal where you would get a complimentary taxi ride if you bought anything in FAO with your MasterCard. We bought the book using ours and gratefully took advantage of the free taxi.

It isn’t much monetarily, but having a free taxi ready and waiting was a very nice treat. No running around to find and flag one down. We just hopped into a warm car and were off to Rockefeller Center. The kids both got a kick out of it. This was another first for both of them. They got to ride in a taxi in NYC traffic for the first time. The driver was nice and joked around with the kids too. Nothing but high spirits filled the car.

Our next stop was Rockefeller Center to see the tree and to check out a few other stores. It was amazingly busy as you would expect. Since it was only 2pm we were able to move around and actually get close to the tree. It’s nothing but a huge tree in the daytime, but amazing to look at when the sun goes down.

The crowd on the side where the angles are located was much thicker. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was where the entrance to Lego World was located. That was our next stop. The crowd on our side was thick, but maneuverable.

I love the architecture of the area. I may have to bring my grandma back here just to see this area. From what I’ve read the view from the top of Rockefeller Center is amazing and not as busy as the Empire State Building. I wish we had time to do it on this trip, but it wasn’t to be.

Trying to get a picture of the kids on the angel side. The couple behind them were damn near making out the entire time. I think he may have hit second or maybe third base in the few minutes we were there.

Angels and the tree. We are at the complete opposite from where we were earlier. Only took us 20 minutes to get there with all of the people.

We finally made it down to Lego World. It wasn’t bad, but I thought it would have been crawling with Lego kids. The big drawn were the bulk bins of Legos. You can buy a small or large cup of them for a lot of money. James is fascinated with the Star Wars sets. We had an extremely hard time getting around in there. Emelia got fed up and asked to be held. Bending down to her level I can see why. She sees nothing but crotches and butts at her height.

After losing Sue in the crown I had enough and tried to escape. Some poor woman was trying to get out of the store and people kept tell her to take her stroller through the revolving door. I’m not sure how that made sense. I told her there was a real door, but she couldn’t get there. Being a little pissed myself I made way in the crowd for her. Being large and having a big jacket on myself I had no issue parting the way and blocking the entrance so that she could get out. She was very grateful and I felt good to get some frustration out on the crowd.

I didn’t take many pictures after this, but we did plenty. We headed over to Nintendo World just to check it out. The kids took the opportunity to try out the many Nintendo DS’s all over the place. Sue and I got a chance to sit and rest. Afterwards we headed to the NBC store for a quick look and decided to get a warm drink. We bought some Starbucks coffee for us and hot chocolate for the kids. It was also another chance to rest. Mom and the kids were getting tired of all the walking.

After checking out the skating rink and waiting in line for a lifetime to pee we headed out. My plan was to walk back down to 42nd street and maybe stop at the NBA Store on the way. Either the directions on Google Maps were way off or the store is closed because we didn’t find the NBA store. When we reached 42nd street I decided to make our way down to Grand Central Terminal. The kids have never been there and it is an impressive building to see for the first time. I think it was a bit lost on the kids, but we went regardless.

Our next and final stop was dinner at Hunan Manor on Lexington. We were in the mood for Chinese and this was the closest of two places in the area. It ended up being a nice find. It’s a small restaurant that specializes in Hunan food. It’s across the street from another Chinese food place that seemed to have American Chinese food than Hunan Manor. We were looking for more authentic food.

To keep the kids happy we opted to get them some basic sweet and sour chicken. They were not really hungry and ate half of the dish. Sue ordered me some 五香牛肉, which I’ve come to like. It’s a five spice flavor beef/beef tendon that is formed and then served thinly sliced and cold. It’s a simple appetizer.

The second dish that I chose was smoked pork with leeks. It was also good, but Sue didn’t eat much as it was made with a piece of fatty pork. The smokiness is strong, but with the leeks and some good white rice it is a nice dish.

The last dish is one that Sue picked out. I don’t know the name of it and I couldn’t venture a guess. The three primary ingredients were hot red peppers, pork and cilantro. I have never eaten chili peppers like this. There must have been a ton in there. We usually cook a dish with 6-8 of these and never eat the peppers themselves. This dish contained dozens and they were a main ingredient. Cilantro is also there is large quantities. I’m not a big cilantro fan. The pork was minimal and very thin.

I cannot say that I liked the dish much, but I did eat it. It wasn’t terrible, just not to my liking. It was definitely spicy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. The peppers were still dry and tough. I’m not sure if this is normal for Hunan food or not as I have no experience with it. Since the other dishes were done well I assume that this is normal for this dish. On a plus side I can say I ate it.

After dinner we took a stroll back towards Bryant Park. It was still one hour before our pick up time so we decided to try and reach Rockefeller Center again. We really wanted to see the tree in the dark where you can appreciate the lights. Emelia was beat and kept asking to be held. I kept her going by playing her favorite game where we run away from a monster. We ran most of the way back with James and Sue bringing up the rear.

We made it back to see the tree in 10 minutes flat, which is not bad considering we had kids with us and they were winding down. The crowds were as bad as you would expect, but we found a nice place to take in the tree from a distance. We didn’t even think about trying to get up close. It was a madhouse and not worth the fight.

Having still yet more time to kill we started our walk back and ended up and Barnes and Nobel. The kids wanted to check out the books and toys they had on sale. It was super busy, but the kids got to pick out some nice books. Both of the kids are at reading age so the store is fun for them. With 30 minutes left we trotted the rest of the way back and waited for our bus.

It took us a bit to get out of the city with all of the traffic trying to get back to the Lincoln Tunnel, but we got out in decent time overall. The trip back was quiet for the most part. We watched The Santa Clause and the kids both crashed. By the time we reached the car it was 11:15 or so. We were able to get home and get everybody into bed by 11:45.

As expected it was a busy, but a very fun day. The kids both did well despite the normal issues of not listening well. Nobody got hurt and nobody lost anything. We all got to eat well and took a few things home to remember the trip. We gained a lot of new memories and checked off some of life’s todo’s. The city was busy and crowded, yet people were polite and not annoying as you would expect. I even chatted up a few strangers while waiting.

One last thing about the trip. We all noticed that there were hundreds if not thousands of people dressed as Santa while we were there. You usually get a few eccentrics doing it, but not that many. Most were in their early twenties. According to the news they were dressed this way for SantaCon. Around Grand Central we found that there were even some drunk folks carrying OWS signs. There large groups of police officers armed with nylon handcuffs in the area too. According to SantaCon NYC the event is not political. This didn’t seem to stop some from showing some OWS love at the same time.

This is pretty much how the streets looked for most of the day. By the time dinner rolled around you saw some small groups, but still plenty of red outfits.

Here is Caitlin posing with the car all decked out with my bike on the rack.

It was certainly an investment, but thankfully it only takes a new fit kit to put this on a different car. And thankfully this car uses 58” bars, so I can load it with two bikes and the cargo box.

To celebrate and to break it in nicely I picked up Caitlin from daycare early and took her out for a bike ride. Earlier in the day I talked with somebody about kayak classes and found out where they teach the classes. When checking it out I happened upon a local bike trail. This is the trail that I took Caitlin when we went for a ride.

This was my first real ride since hurting my ankles months ago. It was great to get out and enjoy the great weather. Taking Caitlin out for a ride was also a test to see if she could handle it. I would not want to bring my bike and carrier on vacation if she wasn’t willing to ride. I got her very excited about the ride and she showed some nervousness while I was strapping her in, but that went away immediately as we got on the trail.

We went a couple miles before stopping to take pictures of the river that the trail follows. Caitlin was really enjoying herself.

It was a nice view of the river.

We road 3.5 miles on way and back to the car and then another 2.5 miles in the other direct and then back. In all we did a solid 12 miles of riding. Caitlin was done after about 10 miles, but put up with the last 2 miles. Her biggest issue was that she was hungry. If she didn’t want a snack we could have gone further. She enjoyed the ride and view.

When we got back we walked down to the river where there was a small boat launch. You could launch a kayak or canoe here.

Caitlin told me that it looked like the plants were dancing. I had to get her to say it again on video just to capture it.

Dancing Plants from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Taking a water break. Caitlin insisted that I take a picture of her. I’m one to oblige.

Posing for daddy to take a picture.

More posing. Caitlin did all this on her own without any input on my part. I just took her pictures as she asked. What a ham.

After visiting the water we snacked on a couple of granola bars and enjoyed the silence. It took some coaxing and there was plenty of whining, but I was finally able to get Caitlin on her way to the car. She was very insistent on staying home even when I told her mom was waiting for her. That usually gets her moving, but not this day. She said, “No, not now. I said no now daddy!” Very insistent on staying until she was ready to leave. I guess you could say that she enjoyed herself.

Here we are waiting to get on a car ride. This was one of the bad choices. It took nearly and hour to wait for the ride. At least the kids all had a good time.

Caitlin “drove” me in a cute red car. Emelia “drove” Sue.

James “drove” Amy. Unlike some car rides these allowed you to actually steer, but not beyond what the track allows.

Here are the girls riding on a plan together.

James flying with some other boy.

After the rides we headed to the water park. The kids all changed into swimming suits and with sunscreen they proceeded to raise hell in the water. We made a few potty runs, but the kids had a good time. It was nice to cool off. We rounded this off with a trip to the wave pool. James enjoyed this the most and did his best to reach the deep water and swim in the waves. I was there to “rescue” him when the waves became too much.

Once done in the water park I took James for his first, real roller coaster ride. He wanted to ride the Boomerang, but the line was long. We opted to ride the Comet, which is an old, wood track roller coaster. I have not been on a roller coaster in nearly 20 years and never on a wood one.

I have to be honest I was a bit nervous on the way up the big hill, but decided at the last moment to let loose and enjoy myself. I relaxed my death grip on the bar, raised my hands in the air and proceeded to yell profanities at the top of my lungs. I feel really bad for James and the young girls (teens) in the car in front of me. Neither showed any indication that they heard me, so maybe they were consumed by the ride.

We had a great time, although I could not get James to let loose. He had a strong grip on the bar and would not put his hands in the air. I tried, but he was nervous. It was his first time on a real roller coaster, so I give him a little slack.

The only problem with the ride is that it took a solid 30 minutes to get off. The ride has two trains that keep the lines moving. When we reached the end of the ride the stopped our train to let the other out of the station. They stopped them immediately at the bottom of the big hill and didn’t let us into the station. We saw EMTs and other people scrambling. I figured somebody got second thoughts, sick or hurt.

After 10 minutes somebody finally told us that they stopped the ride because of a funny noise in the station. After 20 minutes they let our train into the station. The people on the other train had to walk the planks back to the station. They took our names and phone numbers down and let us go after 30 minutes. This sucked, but we took it all in stride. It was nearly closing time, so we found the girls and made our way home.

Here is James waiting with me in the train car.

We got to the stadium early as it was in an area I am not familiar with and I wanted to make sure we got there without having to sit in too much traffic. We were not alone. There was already a number of people there.

Just like anything we do the first thing we did was buy something to eat. Amy bought us some very tasty, freshly made kettle corn.

Not great seats, but not bad either. We didn’t get much for foul balls in our area, but we were far away from the batter.

Before the game started a few of the players came by to see the fans, mostly kids, and to sign autographs. It was a very family friendly game.

The Valleycats warming up. They had a very different warm-up routine than the Renegades.

The game was decent. I cannot say that I’m a baseball fan, but it made for a nice evening out. If it were not for the kids I would have called it relaxing. Without them I could have comfortably drank a couple beers and enjoyed the show. Unlike our neighbors in the next row over I didn’t feel the need to pound four beers (both parents) while out with the kids. That would make for a messy ride home.

There were a couple of good plays about half way through the game. The Valleycats quickly scored many runs. Between each inning there was some sort of entertainment. We even saw a marriage proposal. By the 7th inning it started to drizzle. We tried to tough it out, but ended up getting umbrellas from the car. The game ended at the top of the 9th inning at 14-3 Valleycats.

On the way out James got his wish and got to give the mascot named Charge a big hug. The rain had stopped by then and we made our way home.

As I said I’m not a big baseball fan, but it was a nice experience. James has a lot of interest in baseball lately and really enjoyed himself. Emelia could could not care less about the game and spent the entire time being bored out of her mind. The only fun she had was eating sunflower ice cream and dancing to the music. By the end she kept whining about going home. I was glad to take her out when the game was over.

We commandeered this table for ourselves and the kids. There were crafts for the kids to keep them occupied and covered in glue and we were able to keep them cornered and out of trouble.

Posing for pictures. Amy.

Sue with Olivia.

A bunch of people I don’t know.

Jason at the head table. We were lucky enough to be sitting there with the star of the show.

Amy and Olivia.

The kids busy at work on their crafts.

Popo with Olivia.

Yours truly with Olivia (yes, she is in a lot of these pictures).

Double happiness.

The star of the show.

Amy with Ivan.

Caitlin taking a crack at the crafts.

I didn’t take any pictures the rest of the night. We had a good dinner and the kids were pretty well behaved. I ended up making a late night run to a local pharmacy for Balmex, but otherwise dinner was uneventful. The ride home on the other hand was definitely “eventful”.

Most of us left at about the same time. Amy and Olivia drove off with Jason and Lily. Mike was with his parents. I drove Sue’s dad’s van with my kids, Sue and her parents. We all left the restaurant and made our own ways home. While on my way to the highway and the bridge home I noticed that there was an awful lot of traffic on the highway. I didn’t want to get stuck in it with the kids as it would definitely end up being a night of screaming and crying. I’m pretty familiar with Long Island and parts of Queens, but not enough to find my way around the local streets. Fortunately, I know the highways in the area very well having driven them twice a week, every week for over four years.

I figured the best bet would be to find my way to the other bridge to cross over. I did one brave thing and stopped at a small gas station to ask for directions. I had my doubts when I stopped seeing as there was a group of about six guys hanging outside the store. I took a chance and asked for directions to a highway. They said take the one right over there and I said I can’t since it is a parking lot. I told them I wanted to get to the other bridge. They kindly gave me directions that I could follow and I left happy and relieved that they were so kind and willing to help. You never know when in NYC what you’ll get as a response.

It took a little driving on the local streets, but I eventually found my way. Once there I was home free having used that highway more times than I can count. During our trip we had called to see how others in the family were doing and they ended up going a different direction. I tried to get them to go the same way we went, but they refused.

I’m very proud to say that we got home in record time. If you compared the time it took to the time it would have taken had there been no traffic, the times would be nearly the same. It took about 15 more minutes to take a detour to a different highway. All in all it took us two hours to get home. Sue’s mom looked very nervous the entire time. It wasn’t until we reached home that she believed me when I said I knew where I was going. She really thought I was still lost. According to others the delay at the bridge cost them over an hour of delay. The other car took a different route and they too took over an our extra time to get home.

The night before the big day we got everything ready. The kids were doing there part.

The tomatoes were collected and washed. It doesn’t look like much, but there is just over 40 pounds of tomatoes here ready to go. Three large platters, one small platter and a large bowl full of fruit.

The next morning we started off the day by coring and quartering the entire batch. Mixed with seasoning it was all put on the stove in the biggest pots we have.  On the stove the tomatoes quickly broke down.

With all the juice and gel from the tomatoes it looked more like soup than anything. The orange tint comes from the handful of yellow tomatoes that were in the batch.

Shortly later everything was broken down and ready for the blender.

Blending and straining the mixture seemed simple at first, but it was also a learning experience. I learned quickly that blending hot tomatoes releases steam, which makes for a hot messy spray coming out of the top of the blender. We also learned that we didn’t have the proper equipment to strain the mixture. Sue make a quick trip to get some pieces and we settled on using an OXO strainer that happened to have holes large enough to trap tomato seeds, but large enough to let through the puree. Where complete we ended up with two large pots of puree.

The pictures don’t do them justice, but they are both quite large. The puree was quite soupy. You only noticed the meat of the tomatoes if you coated a spoon with the puree.

After a number of  hours of simmering we were able to reduce the puree down enough to fill the large of the two pots. This was taken just shortly before we started to can (jar actually) the sauce.

Almost ready to get started.

The finished product: 14 pints of goodness

The girls were still doing their part.

Seeing we are winding up gardening for the 2011 season we are making plans to grow some paste tomatoes. We are trying to sow some San Marzano tomatoes. We’ll see how that goes.

I’ve never seen this before, but all kids must wear tags. It has their name, address, phone number and teacher name.

James playing with his friend at the new daycare before leaving for school.

Ready to get on the bus for school.

Load them up and move them out.

We left the city early and made our way back towards Niagara. On the way we stopped off at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. It was late in the season, but it was a wonderful place to visit. I can see that the place gets busy in the spring when the flowers are first in bloom and the schools schedule visits. The kids were okay, but Emelia was pretty much at her breaking point. She had a little break down when not listening and ended up in time out. Despite that she kids were well behaved and enjoyed themselves. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

The arch walkway that you can use when visiting the other gardens.

Caitlin quickly getting down to business by checking out the flowers.

Emelia joining in with the exploration.

One of the many walkways.

I’m not sure what this plant was, but it provided a nice contrast to the surrounding green.

Playing around on the stairs.

Decorative cabbage plants.

A very large planter.

One of the very few rose plants left this late in the season.

A beautiful reflecting pool.

The state of affairs for the roses was sad. It was very late in the season for roses, but with the huge number of plants it must be spectacular to see in the spring.

A vine covered trellis walkway.

I really enjoyed the plants overflowing the beds.

Black-eyed Susies.

Decorative plants overflowing the ledge.

Stout looking flowers.

I believe these ladies were volunteers working in the gardens.

I like how this tree was trained to grow into the trellis. I wonder how long it has been there.

The same tree.

Photo op!

Garden art

More flowers.

Furry friends.

If you look closely you can see the water drops on its back.

We eventually headed out to the trails. It was refreshing to be in the shade.

A black squirrel.

Back to the reflection pool.

Very decorative drainage grates.

I really loved these flowers.

Time for a rest.

Taking a closer look at the water.

Royal Botanical Gardens from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Helping hands.

Caitlin taking a break.

It was such a beautiful day.

The following are pictures of a large vegetable garden area. I believe this was designed for teaching kids about farming and growing food.

After a couple hours we made our way back to the main building before heading out to the car for the drive home.

This was a very cool water fall curtain. What you see are many streams of water dropping straight down.

Water Curtain from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

We packed up the kids, planned our trip back and headed to Niagara. Since it was just about lunch time we headed back for an encore meal at Mandarin. We were better prepared for this trip. We enjoyed another good meal, this time next to the big fish tanks to keep the kids occupied.

After lunch we made our way back home. The GPS directed us to a different bridge. Our goal was to reach the rainbow bridge early to avoid traffic, but we ended up crossing at the peace bridge. It was much larger and it was a quick trip through. We ended up on some local streets in Buffalo, but made our way back to the highway home. We even stopped off for one more double-double at the last Tim Hortons we saw.

I won’t spoil my summary of our trip, but it was very obvious that we were back in New York. Fast, rude drivers kept us company through Buffalo and home. The kids did well and made nearly the entire way home without incident. At 20 minutes out from our home Caitlin started to act up, but given that she was stuck in the car for over six hours we cannot complain. We were all happy to be home.

I spent most of Friday running around doing errands as well as getting ready for the party. Nothing like impending guests to make you want to clean house. I also took the time to decorate the house nicely this year. I was disappointed with myself last year so I made up for it this year. It was simple, but the girls loved it.

And now for the pictures.

Neil, Jess, Amy and Ivan

Amy holding Ivan

Caitlin with a silly photo face

A more natural, surprise look from Caitlin

Jason enjoying the food

The little ones sitting at their own table. I remember those days.

After snacking we all got a chance to catch up with each other. Sue was a slave to the stove cooking up a wonderful meal of chicken parm for the family. Shortly after the big meal it was time to open presents.

Emelia in her hat with braids. She spent all of Sunday and part of Monday in this hat.

Opening presents from great-grandma

Time for hugs

Last, but not least, it was cake time.