A Trip to NYC

The day after Christmas, we trekked into the city to do some sightseeing (something we do too rarely when we are in NY). We decided on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, because both Abby and Benji are obsessed with Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and we thought the Greek and Roman exhibits woudl be interesting for them. Apparently, we are not the only ones, as the museum now even has a Percy Jackson guide among the free literature at the information desk!

Abby did, in fact, really like the Greek and Roman exhibits

Benji mostly liked following the map

Look, it's Sekmet!

Impressed by the giant temple of Dendur

Benji, trying to match up the room number on the wall with the map

After the park, we headed out to walk through Central Park a bit:

Street vendor pretzel

There favorite was all the playgrounds in the park

And the climbable rocks

Mommy's favorite was the frozen pond

Alice in Wonderland statue

We ended up at FAO Schwartz (yes, that is a LONG walk), where the kids liked the giant piano, but not the giant crowds

Christmas Day 2013

Letter from Santa!

First gift

Present from Santa

I think she likes it!

Looking on as Grandma reads her photo book

All dressed up

Which won't stop the horseplay

Setting the table for Grandma

Abby made place cards for Christmas dinner

Paquette cousins

Attacking the gingerbread house

Christmas Eve 2013

We spent a lovely Christmas Eve with our Payne-side cousins:

Making Reindeer Food

Putting food out for the reindeer

Baking cookies for Santa

And back at Grandma and Pop-pop's house:

All ready for Santa

Pop-pop reads Twas the Night Before Christmas

Winter Break Trip, Stop 2: Lancaster

We spent a day in Lancaster to see the Christmas Play at the American Music theater. We decided to try out the Turkey Hill Experience while we were in town. Definitely worth the time:

In the taste lab - you get to make your own ice cream flavor!

After you make your flavor, you also get to create the packaging and film a commercial!

The Great Winter Break Trip, 2013: Stop 1

We started our trip in Arlington, VA, with our friends the Cohens. 

Benji and Will ride cars while the rest play Horse

4th grade concert

Back from our holiday trip, with lots of catch-up to do.

The Fourth Graders at Greenbrier get the honor of hosting the school's holiday concert each year.  The theme was Holiday's Around the World.

The kids sang four songs, and each song was preceded by 2 poems written by students.  Abby's poem, The Lights, was chosen to be the first poem read:

Abby was also chosen for one of the 4 "instrument solos" to be played.  Here she is on the shakers during "African Noel":

The kids all looked great in their black and white attire, and the concert was a huge success:

Happy New Year!