A Few Pictures

I'm sorry, but if you like to take photographs, it's impossible to go to NYC and not take a ton of photos. That said, I'm going to share our day with you in pictures...and lots of words!

We got an early start, picking everyone up at 8:15 and making the 9:20 train. The excited girls...(l to r) Allison, Baileigh, Hailey, Emma and Maddie.
The Mommies, Jul, Me, Lisa, Katie and Melissa.
Hanging out in Time Square.
We ate lunch at Carmine's in Time Square. It was great! The best part was we had a reservation and we were seated within 5 minutes, unlike the crowd standing around waiting for almost two hours for a table! While we were eating about 200 Santa's walked by the restaurant! After some research by Katie we learned that this was an annual gathering...Santacon. It's a colorful group of people wearing cheap Santa suits that gather for annual conventions...and essentially to party, apparently Santa style.
Apparently there were over 500 of them that gathered in NY on Saturday...here is one photo (I didn't take it) at Grand Central.
Also in Time Square we came across the Naked Cowboy. If you're not familiar with him you can read about him on Wilkepedia...he is quite the narcissistic personality but an icon in the heart of NYC.
Don't worry, he isn't really naked!
Our girls, from blond to brown...this wasn't even planned.
After a yummy lunch in Time Square and some shopping at the Toys R Us it was finally show time!
Since I had to turn my flash off I couldn't get any really clear pictures, but this one turned out okay and gives you an idea of one of the sets. I meant to take more but I was to enthralled in the show. This was the first Broadway show that I've seen based upon an animated film. Initially I think Baileigh was a little disappointed and confused as to how different it was from the movie...but once she let go of the idea of the movie in her mind she really started to enjoy the show. It was fun to watch her expressions and see her singing quietly to songs like "Kiss the Girl". She really got into it and began applauding after each scene and whispering to me her thoughts about the scenery and actors.
The lights throughout the city were beautiful.
Our gang across the street from Radio City Music Hall.
My date...days like this make me realize how quickly Baileigh is growing up! She is still my little girl, but frequently I'm having more and more moments when I look at her and see a teenager, or a mommy with her own girls. She kept up with my city pace and never complained. She was still wide awake on the drive home, despite the 8 and 10 year old girls asleep on her shoulder in the back seat!
We spent a few minutes in Rockefeller Center to see the tree. IT. WAS. A. ZOO! Unfortunately I never got a great shot of the tree despite playing with my flash. It was beautiful and my picture doesn't do it justice.

Less then a block from Rockefeller I got caught in a mob. Literally. We were heading to The American Girl store to do some shopping when the crowd came to a stop. People were backed up from everyone stopping around the tree to take pictures, but in addition there was a light and music show on the side of a building that was going and everyone had stopped to watch. Below is a picture of the street I'm trying to walk down. I took this while just standing. Stuck. In a sea of people. Everyone was friendly, and thankfully Baileigh went with one of my girlfriends to The American Girl Store another way...but I kept thinking that if anyone gets mad or starts pushing that this could really get scary! I don't mind crowds, but this was a little claustrophobic even for me.
Once we finally made it to American Girl we searched the entire store for GT 22, which was Baileigh's favorite girl. I've steered Baileigh to the less expensive Target version of these dolls, but she still asks for an American Girl doll and likes to look. I was never big on dolls or barbies, but now that Baileigh is 6 and I see so many toys that are geared towards her that I find too mature, or focus on technology or just plain don't like (Braatz dolls, yuck!) I'm extremely supportive of these kinds of dolls! They are innocent, require imagination, don't prematurely advance her growing up and I don't mind her younger sisters playing with them either. So if that means an occasional overpriced doll to accompany her less expensive Target dolls in order to surprise her at Christmas, then it's worth the cost. The marketing of these dolls is insane. That is probably my complaint. Over commercialization. It sells though...matching outfits, restaurant for you and your doll, a theater, hospital, professional photos...yes, you can do all of these things at the store! The idea is to come into the store with your matching doll, buy matching outfits for you and your doll (another $125!) and then whatever else you can think of...including this handy little holder in the bathroom so your doll won't have to be set on the floor!
Flat Stanley joined us for the day in NYC. Baileigh's cousin in NC is doing a Flat Stanley book report so we did our best to add to his adventures!
Three mommies who, by the looks of their bags, spent too much money! Actually, I believe one of these bags belongs to me, but we helped each other out with the shopping (too bad not the buying!) in order to keep our secrets!
Flat Stanley on the NYC subway. Brave little man.
The end of our long day...still enough energy to wrestle with Allison on the train ride home. It's good to be 6!
We had a great day! We sat by an aspiring actress on the train ride home who looked like Ariel and told us that was the show she had wanted to audition for...she was in NYC getting her head shots taken and celebrating her 22nd birthday with her parents. She told us that the first Broadway show she saw was when she was 6 years old and it was her dream to be on Broadway ever since then...I don't know if Baileigh will ever have aspirations to be on Broadway...but I hope she'll remember fondly her first show when she was six years old.