kickin it in the big apple

our time with alyson, nicole and ro ro was really great. we did a lot of stuff, visited places we had not been yet, and got to spend some quality time just hanging out and making dinner and stuff. it was pretty cold the whole time they were here but we worked it out.

so right when they arrived i asked alyson if she liked imogen heap's music. she was like "oh my god, i just stumbled on her music and i LOVE it." and then she told me how one day when she was listening to it at home, ro just started doing this crazy dance to the first song "headlock." the song starts out real slow and then it picks up and really takes off. at the slow beginning, she pushes all her hair in her face and then when it takes off she just starts MOVING. of course, i had to see this first hand. here is a picture of the beginning of the dance:



now you know i can't pass up some dance action, so i got into with her. she was better at it and has a lot more hair than me so that part she definitely did better. by the end of their visit, we had listened to the song about twelve million times. good thing i like it. they arrived on thursday and i think we mostly chilled and got bagels for lunch and pizza for dinner. they got here so early that they were pretty exhausted from leaving their house at the ass crack. it was a nice relaxing day.

on friday we headed to the american museum of natural history. as per usual, ro fell asleep on the train and slept through the first hour of the museum. this gave us some time to just see stuff she might not be thrilled to see. my favorite part was the room with the huge whale that is all dark and blue like its underwater. they have this big screen and they show images of water and sea life. ro was still asleep and shortly thereafter, nicole took a little nap too:





ro woke up in that room and we started looking around. we spent the most time in the dinosaur area. she was really into the bones and the interactive exhibits with video and sound and of course she was READING everything. seriously yall, she is brilliant. she just reads like a maniac. here is a picture of the whole family, and then after that of just nicole and alyson. so cute.





the next day we went to the brooklyn children's museum and jes came with us on this day. i thought the museum was up near grand army plaza in north slope, but i was wrong. luckily, we drove because it was a cold day and we would have had walk some serious blocks. this museum is sort of nestled in maybe prospect heights or crown heights and it is so cool! it is really a hodge podge of all kinds of exhibits but i think ro (and us grown ups) really liked it. we knew there were going to be some special events for the chinese new year, so we excited about that too.

right at the beginning there was an exhibit on like bugs and snakes and stuff. here is a picture of rowan drawing something, maybe a turtle. they had these little benches with easels and pencil sharpeners. adorable.



and here is jes on nemo duty:



they also had this HUGE yellow python in a glass case (which was kind of sad). anywho when we first approached the case, she was kind of just chilling. then alyson came over with rowan and charmed her and she got all up and was smelling the glass:



there was also a music room where you could play different instruments. alyson was playing the tube drums:



while nicole and ro were breaking it down on the xylophones:



now there were two special programs that day. one was learn how to do a chinese yo yo and the other was the chinese lion dance. rowan was all about both. she sat right up front and when they asked for participants she was all over it. here is a picture of her learning how to do the yo yo:



and then here are two pictures of the chinese dragon. the big one is the dude who put on the program, and the little one is ro-ro trying it out for herself. how cute is that?





once it started to warm up, we headed to the park to play. we also went and saw the movie " a night at the museum" which takes place in the natural history museum we had visited a few days earlier. its a pretty funny movie. definitely worth renting on dvd.

at nights after rowan went to sleep we would either watch some tv or, on one night, we introduced nicole and alyson to apples to apples. i think they loved it. both of them were cracking up laughing within five minutes. i am not sure who won. either jes or alyson. they were both talking trash. as per usual, i pretty much sucked at it.

they left out on the beginning of the bad weather so i think they were delayed for many hours at jfk, which sucked, and then once they got to chicago the roads were a mess so driving home was hard too. luckily they made it home safe and sound. we all miss them terribly. except horace. he hid in some secret place for most of their stay.

whew that was a long post. one more to go and then yall are caught up.