Preschool at Krop's Crops

Macy is part of a co-op preschool that started in September. There are 5 kids in the class and each mom will take a turn teaching. We each teach 4 weeks in a row. The general schedule of the class is the same from home to home with the topics changing each week. Macy loves it! The first week she got a little sad when I was going to leave but now she doesn't care. She gets excited when she sees her "teachers" at church. One of the 4 weeks can be a field trip instead of class at ones home.

The October field trip was at Krop's Crops in Great Falls. I had never heard of it before and it's a little low-key family farm that is perfect for 3 year olds. The best and most favorite activity there is the "corn bin." They have sectioned off a part of an old barn and filled it with dried corn kernels. Macy loved it as did the other kids. It was better than sand because it didn't make the kids dirty or get stuck anywhere. It was fun for them to walk in it because their legs would sink down into the corn.

We then took a hay ride through the property to a little field that had little pumpkins on the ground. They weren't grown there but placed there, a little interesting. The kids had fun choosing their own pumpkin. I told Macy she should get a big one for daddy and we ended up going home with the tiniest little pumpkin. 

Making corn angels

The sun was a little bright on the hay ride.

Playing on the old tractor

 Afterwards the kids played with the wagons that were around to carry around the big pumpkins. Macy was a nice friend to pull Hallie around. 

We had a fun field trip and Anna slept through the whole thing in the Ergo. She's such a helpful baby.

My Beautiful Butterfly and Precious Pumpkin

We had our first 2012 Halloween party this Saturday. To get ready for the party Macy and I got together all the items she wants to wear with her new Cinderella dress for Halloween. We got a black necklace, tiara, earrings, shoes, and tried to find gloves. We had everything ready but 30 minutes before the party she decided she wanted to be a butterfly instead.

She changed her mind because Suey said she wanted to be a butterfly and Ja made Suey butterfly wings. Macy then wanted to be a butterfly too. We tried to talk her into the Cinderella dress but that didn't work. We figured we have at least 3 more Halloween parties so we'll let her be a butterfly this time. Ja made Macy's wings and she colored and stamped them. I think we did a great job with items we already had at home and with only 30 minutes! I also tried to talk Macy into wearing a different shirt but she insisted she keep that one on. The antenna were Macy's idea. She noticed her butterfly necklace had antenna so she pointed to them and said, "Mommy, I need this one." Thank goodness for the pipe cleaners I've had for over a year!

I let Macy wear some of my makeup and I think she looks beautiful. Anna looks adorable in her little pumpkin outfit. Since Macy was going to be Cinderella I wanted Anna to be the pumpkin. Oh well, at least Anna still looks like a cute little pumpkin! I kept shooting photos because Macy actually wanted her picture taken which is very rare! After about 30 shots Macy told me to stop because it was too much. I'm glad I got some really good pictures!

Macy kept the wings on for the whole party and Anna kept her hat on too :)

Macy and Suey the butterflies

Love that smile!

So sweet!

My cute family!

New York City!

Granny Dot and Papa were going to be in New York City for the Presidential debate so we sort of invited ourselves up to visit them. New York is closer to us than CA so we took advantage. We drove up after church and made really good time. It's only a 4 1/2 hour drive and both girls did amazing. I fed Anna a bottle so we didn't need to stop. I packed fun things for Macy to do in the car but we didn't need any of it. She ate snacks, looked out the window, did her thing.

We stopped at our hotel (the Hilton on 6th and 53rd, a great location), dropped off our luggage, gave Macy a bath (not stopping to change her diaper got her pants a little wet, oops), and fed Anna. Then it was off to the streets to meet Dorothy and Greg at their hotel. Macy loved the walk and all the things to see. She would point at the sculptures, the water fountains, the signs and posters, all the people. There were so many interesting things. She also liked how tall the buildings were.

First stop: looking at pictures on Granny Dot's phone, and Anna napping with Papa.

I was a little concerned how the nights would go with all 4 of us in one room and Anna waking up multiple times a night. We had two double beds so Ja got his own and Macy and I slept together. Anna was in a porta-crib. We didn't make it to bed until 10:30 the first night so Macy was wiped and didn't take too long to get to sleep. She did wake up each time Anna woke up in the middle of the night but she always went right back to sleep. We all slept in until 9:30 a.m. and leisurely got ready and went to breakfast downstairs. I was so happy and we were well rested.

Monday was spent at Central Park. It was a very short walk from our hotel. First order of business was a carriage ride through the park. Macy loved the horses and had a smile on her face the whole time. She told me, "This is fun mommy!" Every time she would see another horse she would point and yell, "There's another one!"

Then we headed to some playgrounds. Macy was having a great time and Papa went on the swings with her. Dorothy took some great pictures with her camera so I hope I can get some of those.

 After the playground was the carousel. Macy knew exactly which horse she wanted and doesn't need help holding on anymore. She's a big girl! Then after a minor tantrum (she was tired and wanted me to carry her but I was holding Anna) it was off to lunch at a great Italian place.

Greg and Dorothy were off to meetings so we had rest time in our hotel for a couple of hours. It was very nice to rest after all the walking we did earlier that day. We decided to visit FAO Schwartz that night (also a short walk from our hotel). Macy loved the "Big Piano" and of course the toys, candy, and princess dresses.

She wanted to buy all the dress up clothes right now! I told her we would take pictures of the things she wanted to put them on her Christmas list. She told me she wanted to text the pictures to Santa. She is so funny. Tantrum averted!

It was pouring rain on our walk home. Luckily Anna was completely covered and dry and Macy only got slightly wet. We got into some warm clothes while Ja picked some dinner up for us. It had stopped raining as soon as we got into the hotel. Oh well. 

Macy helped feed Anna a bottle and things turned silly very quickly.

Tuesday we headed to Central Park again. Macy had so much fun there we had to go back to explore some more. Ja found this great playground for us with this really cool granite slide. Macy could have spent all day there climbing up the hill and sliding down (on one of our laps of course). I could have too if there wasn't more to see. A mom there told us about steering little remote control sail boats on a little lake so we did that. Macy was actually pretty good a steering! She would move the controls back and forth very quickly. Call it beginners luck but her sail boat would go really fast.

Ja went off to have lunch with an old friend to BYU. I was left with the two girls by myself in Central Park. I felt like a real New Yorker :) We got lunch at a little place in the park then walked back the long walk to the hotel. Both girls did great and Macy was helpful and cooperative. We were eating outside so all the little birds and big pigeons were walking around trying to find food on the ground. If one came close Macy would yell at it, "No! Shoot bird! My food! Go away!" It was so funny. We took our time eating and enjoyed being outside with nothing else to do.

We met up with Granny Dot and Papa at FAO Schwartz. Macy was lucky to have her Papa there to buy her candy! Two kids in a candy store!

Papa also bought Macy a doll (which she later named Suey) and a Cinderella dress. Macy would not let go of the dress. As soon as it was purchased she wanted to go to the hotel so she would wear it. She carried the dress the whole walk back to the hotel.

Once we opened the dress we discovered that it lights up! I wish we had captured her face when she realized it lights up. She got a huge smile on her face and a look of pure joy. She loves that dress so much!

That night for dinner I randomly found a pizza place called Harry's Italian at Rockefeller Center (also close to the hotel). They did free delivery so we had a pizza picnic on the floor of our hotel room. Macy loved it and we loved the pizza.

That night Macy went to bed at 9 p.m. and was out in less than 2 minutes. She got up once in the night with Anna but very quickly fell back asleep and we all slept until 9 a.m.

Wednesday morning we rushed over to say good-bye to the grandparents. They had to fly back home. We were sad to see them leave, especially Macy who kept asking why they had to leave. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at Rockefeller Center to check out the cranberry bog they had set up for Oceanspray week at NBC. The two guys from the commercials were there too.

 

 Macy really liked watching the people "dancing" on the ice rink.

 A quick picture with Radio City Music Hall.

A perk of driving is you can leave whenever you want! We took advantage of our car being parked at the hotel and took the subway to Battery Park and then a Ferry to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty.

On the boat

Skyline from Liberty Island

There she is!

Macy's favorite pose.

 After returning to Battery Park Macy heard music and insisted we watch the people dancing. She loves music and always has to go see what's going on. It was a street show and we made it for the finale. IT was a guy jumping and flipping over 4 people!

After that we had a pretty uneventful trip back home. This time we did stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel and changed everyone's diaper.

 We had an amazing time in New York! I can't wait to take Macy and Anna there when they are older and watch their faces light up when they discover all the new things. They both are great travelers. As long as Anna was fed she was happy in the ergo or stroller. Macy does great and slept great. She's been traveling since she was 3 months old so she's a pro by now. Anna has her beat though, traveling at 7 weeks old! This was the perfect way to end Ja's paternity leave.

I love that city.

Beautiful Skyline Drive

Only an hour away in the Shenandoah National Park is a beautiful mountain range covered in trees. In the fall these trees change colors so its a popular destination for tourists to drive along the road called Skyline Drive. It's 104 miles long and it's the only road that goes through the National Park. We heard it's beautiful so we decided to drive it during Ja's paternity leave.

We only drove to miles 25 then turned around because Macy was not a happy traveller that day. She wanted to watch Netflix on my phone but the phone couldn't get coverage. Thus a very unhappy girl was born. I tried to explain to her that sometimes the phone can't get its 3G coverage when there are a lot of trees around and when we are high up in the mountains. She thought about this for a second then said, "Get off mountain!" We were on our way out of the park so we had to sing a get-off-the-mountain song which was "She'll be comin' round the mountain" a few times. When that was over we had to sing a trees go away song which was sung to "Rain, rain, go away." This bought us enough time to get 3G coverage again. We stopped for lunch at The Apple House and enjoyed a good meal and apple and pumpkin donuts.

Here are my favorite shots of the day. Ja took all of them except one. He has a great eye for photography.

This was the view from the top of the mountain. Growing up I thought there were big mountains like the CA and UT mountains everywhere. After seeing this "mountain" (which is more like a hill) I know I was wrong. 

This was my contribution to the photos.

 And this one.

Another view from a different pull-out. You can see more trees are changing. 

Macy had a great time pulling the weeds. 

I really love this one! I'm bummed the weed in right in front of her face! She was so happy to show it off though.

This is my most favorite! I love the genuine smiles on our faces. I love feeling Macy's tiny arms and hands wrap around me and squeeze me while she tells me that she loves me. So precious!

As you can see, not too many trees had changed colors yet. But the few that did sure are pretty.