Weekend of Birthday

The weekend is over and Ben is now into his first week of being a 30 year old. I have to say that we have celebrated well. Beginning with Hawaii, then his family coming in for the weekend, dinner in the West Village at MAS Farmhouse (where the Obamas ate), surprise party in Tribeca at Silver Lining, walking through Central Park, and finishing with homemade carrot cake and blueberry pie! It has been so much fun. I wish we could have birthdays every week!

We had a wonderful experience at MAS and would suggest you go and do the 3 course tasting menu or just let the chef pick for you!

 Incredible chocolate goodness

 Such a pretty day in the park

1st Birthday in Florida

The Oscars were overshadowed by one very special little boy's first birthday yesterday! However, I have yet to make it one of my nephew's birthday parties. I hate living so far away so I live through photos that my mom sends me. She even did a walk-through video so I would feel like I was there. Thank goodness for facetime! Here are some funny pictures of little boy O eating his cake...

Final Day

Here is the last day of Christmas break. Little man made us breakfast and then we all played out in the yard. It was a great way to end a great break! Next week is all about fashion for 2012.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

A Different Christmas

This Christmas was different than any of the ones in the past. This year we had one little boy (although a big boy if you ask him) who was quite excited about all those gifts under the tree. Not only the gifts but also the Christmas carols, especially "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" and the classic Christmas movies. Every morning we watched either Elf, a video of the Rockettes, or The Nutcracker. It is so fun to see all the things we grew up with through the eyes of a 2.5 year old. Next year there will be two little boys that will be participating! 

Little Man is watching the Nutcracker for the umpteenth time while baby O (while not such a baby anymore) is in the background teething.

 Having what he calls "Little Boy Coffee"

 On their way to see Baby Jesus

 This happened a lot. They're such great buds

 Tucker is getting to old for all this excitement 

 Papa got a new Lionel train for Christmas which was a HUGE hit for all the boys! 

Beach at Christmas?!

Have you ever wondered what you do in Florida in the days right before Christmas? When I was growing up in the Sunny state I always wished for cold Christmases. But now that I live in New York where we get plenty of cold weather it's such a treat to visit my parents house where we play with our Christmas toys in shorts and flip flops! They only live a couple miles from the beach which means we can take spontaneous beach trips...

A couple of days later we decided to go back with the little ones right before dinner

 Dad with his girls

Montauk to NYC

Going from Montauk and now back to the city. However, this week in the city is spent with Mom! It's always fun when "visitors" come in town because that means shopping, dinners, and plays. That is exactly what we did yesterday. Here's the rundown:

Exercise video in the AM

Walk to South St to buy 50% off Broadway tickets

Shake Shack burger, fries, and of course a shake

SHOP

Fig & Olive for an early pre-play dinner (I love this place)

Broadway play - Memphis (awesome and yall should see it!)

Magnolia Bakery for cookies

Sleep

We'll see what today holds for us. I'm hoping a warm lentil salad from Alice's Tea Cup (and a scone)

Food Galore

Sorry for the lack of the post yesterday. I was a bit preoccupied by leaving my phone in the cab. Yes, it was one of those days. So I was planning on going through with pictures all the yummy places we ate at this weekend etc but atlas, no phone means no pictures. Lost them all! Sorry to all who emailed me about dinners. I promise I took a ton of pics from the meals we had but now I have no proof. The weekend along with all the food was fabulous! It was the first real Spring-like weather weekend we've had yet. Hubs' parents stayed up on the Upper Eastside by the park in a hotel called, The Surrey. It was small and very chic. Which means we started the weekend off in the lounge with a dirty martini. Then we found ourselves towards Midtown/Times Square area at Bobby Flay's restaurant, Bar Americain. The food was great! (Thanks for those suggestions, DP.) It was a huge place and would be great when people come in town and are going to a play or after a long day of 5th Ave shopping. Then we made our way downtown to the West Village for some jazz at Cornelia Street Cafe. The jazz took place downstairs which made it very intimate and cozy due to how tiny it was down there. Again, I would highly suggest this place, especially since the cover was less than most of the other places around the city. By then we called it a night.

We met up the next morning up by the park and walked our little hearts out until late afternoon when we stumbled upon Boat Basin, a place I've been hearing about and been wanting to try. It's on the Upper West Side on the Hudson river right next to Riverside Park. We enjoyed sitting outside (finally), watched the boats, saw all the active bikers, and even ran into some friends we hadn't seen in over 4 years. It was a great way to end the "day." The it was of course time to begin the evening. We went to Mr Chow down in Tribeca. Now this is only a few blocks from our apartment but a totally different scene than we're used to down here. We felt more like we were in the Meatpacking district watching models in fur than in our quiet little hood. The food was quite tasty though and it was definitely fun to watch the "scene." Hubs' b-day is coming up so we decided to celebrate with a drink and dessert at the Brandy Library. Again, another place I would highly recommend. It's almost an old fashion Madmen type of place. The drink menu is around 35 pages long. I took a pic but you'll never know. Then finally to end the eating escapades we had a delicious brunch at SaraBeth's on Central Park South. Everything I saw looked amazing, not to mention my dish was amazing! I now and having trouble fitting into my clothes but it was all totally worth it! I can't wait to go back to some of these places. And in a few weeks we'll be doing it again with Hubs' side of the family down on the West coast of Florida!! I can't wait!