~NYC: A day fit for a Birthday Queen~

On my birthday morning we were all still exhausted so we slept in nice and late and I took my time getting ready... (but then found I still had to get all three of my children ready since my husband was still exhausted from the long drive) so we got into the city a little bit later than we had originally anticipated.  That's okay.  It just made for a faster paced day.  First stop, The MET!  Oh, and we of course had to get a picture in front of the Cordelia Drexel Biddle Duke Mansion still standing right across the street from the MET.  It's a beautiful, unique looking building from the rest of it's surroundings.  Part of me wishes I could go inside, though I'm sure it looks nothing like it did when the original Cordelia lived there. Yes, we are talking about Happiest Millionaire Cordelia, where I got Sister Cordy's name idea.  ;-)

Did you know that despite what the Children's book may say, you CAN take a balloon in the Metropolitan Museum?  All morning Lyssa carried around her pink dog balloon she got from the street vendor the day before. Poor girl was going nuts not being able to touch anything.  I could have spent days in that museum, but with kids we did an abbreviated tour.  The Egyptian Tomb inside the building was a huge hit, and I loved the giant church gate.  We all wondered how they got it into the building.  The building front inside of a building blew my mind, and Alec was pretty much obsessed with the swords and guns section.  He would have stayed there all day.  I thought Henry the Eighths Armor interesting, as well as Paul Reverie's spurs... but then I was ready to move on. ;-)

These two were some of my favorite art pieces of the day, and seeing how it was my special day I made sure to get some pictures with them both.  I especially love the golden angel.  Lovely.  Absolutely lovely.

Then we were up to the rooftop to recharge before heading off on our next adventure and check out the other rooftops of the big city.  Rooftop gardens are so cool!

At this point we split off and the kids and Nick/Ryan headed to Central Park and a really cool playground next to the MET.  There were water sprayers and fountains and ice cream... perfect for another almost 100 degree humid day in the big city.  The kids got as close as they could to the Central Park Castle, but it was closed for movie filming.  I'll bet that kind of thing happens all the time in NYC considering how many shows and movies are set there.  

Meanwhile, Erin and I headed off to do some birthday window shopping.  We made a stop inside FAO Schwarts, where I would NEVER bring my children.  It's the coolest toy store but they would want everything.  My thoughts: the Wizard of Oz dolls were borderline creepy, the dancing piano from the Tom  Hanks movie "Big" was not as exciting as I expected, the Diagon Alley corner from Harry Potter was really cool but too crowded and the Lego made life size figurings were fantastic!  With Alec's fascination with Captain Jack I made sure to get a picture.  We also browsed the windows of Tiffanys and other exciting stores until we made our way to Macy's where Erin bought me the prettiest gold flower sandals.  Somehow we never got a picture...

After we were done with Macy's, we all met up and sent the kids home with Erin and Ryan so Nick and I could go see a broadway show.  Sadly I realized my camera battery died right after they drove away so not only did I have to tote that thing around, but I didn't get any pictures of us in front of the Mary Poppins sign.  Yes, we went to Mary Poppins on Broadway!  I'll be honest that I thought it was just going to be a kids show so my expectations weren't too high going into it, but then I was blown away.  I loved it!  Thanks to Ryan we had some amazing seats right on the floor.  At the end of the show as Mary Poppins flew right toward me and then over my head across the audience I was so happy and giggly that I was actually tearing up.  I loved every minute of it.  

With a real bounce in my step we ran to the bus depot and rode all the way back to Erin and Ryan's place were we crashed on the floor, happily exhausted.  What an awesome way to spend a birthday!