Spring Break

One of New York City's strengthens are the wonderful parks all around. We decided that we would spend Olivia's spring break exploring as many parks as we could. Unfortunately, winter weather returned and we weren't able to get to as many parks as we planned, but we were still able to get to some of our favorites!  

 

Central Park is definitely one of our favorite places and has no shortage of fun. One of our favorite Central Park activities are the row boats. The girls were so excited to take over rowing duties.

 

 

 

Somehow this was just Lyla's first time on the rowboats and she loved them. She wanted to be rowing duty at all times.

While walking through the park, Lyla, my pink-obsessed girl was absolutely ecstatic when she saw a tree covered in pink blossoms.

Our next park was Prospect Park in Brooklyn, this was actually our first trip to Prospect Park and it was a fun one!

 As we were standing by the water some swans came over to us. I was excited to point them out to my girls. Olivia liked the swans, but Lyla immediately told us that she didn't like swans and ducks were better.

 

Once my girls stepped foot into this structure, it immediately transformed into Elsa's ice palace and they both belted "Let it Go."

One things we were really excited about doing in Prospect Park was roller skating at their new outdoor rink. Our trip ice skating last winter wasn't as successful as I might have hoped, but for some reason I was convinced that roller skating would be way easier for the girls...that didn't prove entirely true for everyone.

Balancing on the slick rink proved to be quite difficult for Lyla, a local roller skating buff tried to give Lyla some pointers which did seem to bring about some improvement.

 

   Olivia was so excited to go roller skating. She didn't want any assistance she was ready to go out on her own. There were definitely some spills, but she got a little better and a little better as our time went on.

 

On our way back to the subway, we stopped by a Brooklyn pizzeria to grab some dinner. New Yorkers all eat their pizza by folding it in half. Matt and I do not follow that trend, but the second Olivia grabbed her slice of pizza she immediately folded it in half and started chowing down. Olivia is our true New York girl!

Since we have lived in NY, Bryant Park is our most frequently visited park...we love it so much!

 

 For the girls, the carousal is a big reason to love this park.

 

 We can't go to Bryant Park without stopping by the big NYC library. Once we go, we never want to leave.

 

We sure had a wonderful spring break together as a family, luckily we have the whole summer ahead of us to get to those parks we missed this time around.

Walt Disney World

 Our family had the most wonderful vacation to Walt Disney World. From the moment we boarded the plane in NY until we were walking off the plane in Orlando Olivia sang Disney songs non-stop...we knew Olivia was excited and we knew we were all going to have a great time!

Favorite Rides: One thing we learned on this trip was that we have 2 VERY adventurous and daring girls. Olivia went on every single ride and LOVED them. She was nervous for a moment when we were in the Haunted Mansion and the spooky voice screamed "there is no way out." Olivia immediately leaned over to me and asked "he's just joking right mom...there really is a way out." Her favorite ride was Thunder Mountain, which she wanted to go on again and again! Olivia was not the only thrill-seeker in the group, Lyla wanted to go on everything she could. Lyla's favorite ride was definitely the rollercoaster Barnstormer. It was a pretty adventurous rollercoaster and truthfully Lyla wasn't quite tall enough, but the first height checker let her on and then there was no looking back. We ended up going on that rollercoaster 6 times. After the first couple times Lyla felt she was a seasoned roller coaster professional and hopped right into the car pulled the bar down and would give me a big smile. She laughed during the entire ride and as soon as it stopped would begin shouting "again, again, again!!"

 Olivia loved Barnstormed too and would happily skip off the ride after it ended.

 

Another favorite were the Teacups. This came as no surprise, since these girls love spinning in circles at home to see how dizzy they could get.

Favorite Moments: I had put "visiting the princesses" as a bottom priority on our list of activities. My girls aren't really into the Disney princess movies and so I thought they wouldn't care either way if we saw the princesses. On our second day at Magic Kingdom, we walked by the Princess castle and the line was really short so we decided we would get in line. I'm glad we did, the girls absolutely loved meeting the princesses, especially Olivia and especially meeting Rapunzel. Rapunzel was so sweet to the girls. She told Olivia they had the same hair and told Olivia she could even borrow her brush...that's all Olivia needed to hear, she became an instant Rapunzel fan. Olivia loved Rapunzel and as a result we left Disneyworld with a Rapunzel piggy bank and pen.

 

Lyla enjoyed her visit with Rapunzel and Snow White, but that enjoyment ended with Cinderella. For whatever reason Lyla didn't like Cinderella and when the photographer came to take their picture he said "ok everyone smile," after waiting for Lyla to smile he "ok or your can just frown." And frown she did!

 

A favorite moment of mine was on the way home after our 1st day. We got ice creams on the way out and finished them on the bus ride back to our hotel. Lyla began offering everyone in the back of the bus a lick of her ice cream. No one took her up on her offer, but she had the back of the bus smiling and laughing all the way back.

Another favorite moment for me was sitting next to Olivia in the 4-D Mickey Mouse show. Olivia had never experienced a show like this and I found it very amusing sitting next to her as she ducked, gasped and zig-zagged her head throughout the whole show.

Parades and more rides:

 

More Fun:
The first night we got there we went to Downtown Disney and went to the Rain Forrest Café, the girls thought it was great!

 

Lyla was a huge fan of the gift shops!

As we were walking around we kept noticing Lyla's hat slipping down and so we would fix it for her...we finally realized that she was the one pulling her hat down, she thought it was fun to hide.

Everyone had such a good time. As we were driving to the Orlando airport, Olivia asked if we could please come back next week. Unfortunately we are going to have to wait a little longer than that, but it's been almost 2 months since our trip and I don't think there is a day that passes that the girls don't talk about Disneyworld.