Happy 6th Birthday, Caitlin and Courtney!

I can't believe our little baby girls are now six years old!!!!

Celebrating My Big Birthday in the Big Apple

On St. Patrick's Day, my friends, Tammy and Katherine and I headed to New York City to celebrate my big birthday in the Big Apple.  It was such a rejuvinating and relaxing trip.  I loved it!!!!!  We did so many fun things but the best part of it was getting away from the hustle and bustle of home and family with my amazing friends. 

We stopped on the way to the city at the New Jersey diner.  After all, New Jersey is the diner capitol of the world!

When we got to our hotel, we realized that the St. Patrick's Day Parade was still going on so we walked through Central Park to find it.  For once, the clothing color of choice in New York was not black. . . it was green!  The day could not have been any better.  We had perfect 60-70 degree weather the entire trip!

I loved finding signs of spring in the park!

We stopped here because we were so excited to see forsythia in bloom after one of the worst winters on record so we took a picture!

After a lovely walk through the park, we found the parade.  It mostly consisted of bagpipers, firefighters, occasional bands and police officers.  We had a great time screaming and clapping together.

After the parade, we headed to Carmine's for an absolutely delicioso Italiano dinner!  Mmmmmmm!

We then walked to the star attraction, "Catch Me If You Can" on Broadway.  It is still in the preview stage so we got tickets for half off.  We weren't sure if the play would be worthwhile or not but it did not disappoint.  We loved it!  It was much better than any of us expected.  The music, singing, dancing and acting were terrific!

We took this picture right as we got into the theater.  Then we were told to stop taking pictures immediately.

Tammy sneakily took this picture of the orchestra on stage. 

After the play, we decided we needed a little treat so we went to Roxy and had frozen hot chocolate.   Yummy!

Before hitting the sack, we took a moment to enjoy the ambiance and excitement of Times Square.

Katherine was REALLY excited!

 We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking.

Tammy gets in the Mood! 

After breakfast, we went to Mood, a fabric store made famous by the TV show, Project Runway.  I have never seen the show but my cohorts explain that the would-be fashion designers are let loose in the store to find materials for their creations with a time limit.  They rush around like mad people trying to find what they want.  Here, Tammy is demonstrating their crazy behavior.

 Katherine discovered a nametag at the cutting table with "Kat" on it so she had to model it for us.

 We took the subway to Chinatown where we did some bargain shopping.  Although it took a while to find what we were looking for, ultimately, we were successful!



Finally, we took the subway back to our hotel (despite Tammy's offers to get us a cab), ate a scrumptious lunch at Chipotle and drove home.  What a fabulous trip with my super fun friends! 





The Palmer Comet!!!

Rachel has been busy playing basketball and swimming this winter.  Her basketball game has improved a lot since she started and she loves it!  She plays center and gets tons of blocks, rebounds, steals, forces turnovers and points.  We call her Jimmera around here because she's getting good at shooting 3 pointers.  I can never get good pictures at games because of the lighting in the gyms and the fact that the kids are moving.  Unfortunately, nothing ever turns out!  But here's some blurry, dark and awful pics from Rachel's last game this season.

Warm ups

Rachel won this tip off!  The other girl jumped too early.

Rachel with the ball

Playing defense

Time out with Coach Jeremy

Rachel with one of her best friends, Corinne

Silly times after the game with Alyssa, Lauren and Rachel

Free throw shooting

The Science of Tsunamis

Spencer and Paul spent many, many hours working on Spencer's entry for the Science Fair this year.  They made a tsunami simulator.  They made a hinge in the bottom of a tub that when pulled up (like an earthquake shifts the ground), moves the water and creates a tsunami wave.  They had several problems and had to keep trying and trying to make it work.  The project ended up being one of the favorites, especially of the kids at the fair.  They all wanted a turn to try the simulator.  Paul was able to find some tiny people and palm trees at a hobby store that were to scale for the tsunami to wash away which the kids loved.

Notice all the kids wanting to try it?

Tsunami boy

Here you can see the simulator a little better

In front of the display