fairytale of new york

'You were handsome,

You were pretty,

Queen of New York City,

When the band finished playing

They howled out for more.

Sinatra was swinging,

All the drunks they were singing

We kissed on a corner,Then danced through the night '

-Pogues with Kirsty MacColl

New York was big and hot. We had a fun time showing the sites to the munchkins. Avoiding the major tourist attractions, we stuck to walking the streets and taking in the local flavors.

But we did hit the big toy stores! As much for us as for the kids. The toy stores are complete sensory overload and Ella was near tears most of the time because she was just frantic to hold and have something to call her own. And with kids grabbing things left and right, running and yelling...it was a bit much for her! Finn is quiet and goes straight for his intended toy prey, none of that running and yelling from him, he's serious about his toy needs.

Ella adopted the sweetest baby doll, but that afternoon she managed to swipe a ballpoint pen across the baby's face! And it won't come off! I've written to the company asking if they have any secrets to cleaning and there are several sites online that suggest putting oxy zit cream to remove ink from vinyl baby dolls.

I found The City Quilter shop right down the street from our hotel and splurged on a few fabrics. Things that I wouldn't likely find in Atlanta. You had to ring a bell to be buzzed into the shop, and that nearly kept me from going in. I like to shop without the entire place knowing I'm there. So ringing that bell and looking like a desperate fabric dork on the sidewalk took all of my courage in tapping down my anxiety. And then, when you ring it and they all look at you, are you supposed to smile? make a goofy face? Look serious? Or just wide eyed and scared? I think I had the wide eyed look. But they buzzed me in, so I guess I didn't look armed and dangerous.

I got to see the Cath Kidston store! It felt just like I knew that it would and they were playing The Smiths! I loved it in there. I could have just cozied right down and stayed.

FAO Schwartz toy store had marbles!

The toy store also had guys dressed up like toy soldiers to open the front doors. The kids were so impressed with this until one of the guys saw a customer's shirt that he liked and yelled out, "AW! HOLY CRAP!". That totally blew the fairy tale image there, bubba.

But inside there were Steiff toys and beautiful dolls. Not enough action figures to keep Finn all that interested.

By this time in our trip, our friend Kasra had joined us and he got to experience trying to keep the munchkins herding in the right direction. But he was so good with the kids, even if he probably needed a strong drink afterwards. The kids adore him and really wanted to please him. And because they are Hans' children, they tried to please him by giving him food from their plates. They get that from Hans... the world moves about better if you make people happy by stuffing their faces.

Finally, we are back home and I have a ton of laundry now and general cleaning. Plus all of our orders that came in this weekend have to be packed up!

This picture is for my Dad.