A Cab Queen and Her Princes

Those who know me know that I am a cab queen. I love cabs and New York City has one (or 20!) on every corner. In NY, we took a lot of cabs. So much so that Shane and Owen got pretty proficient a hailing them.

Check out their technique.





Right after that, Owen turned around to walk back to the sidewalk and fell in a big rain puddle. Oops. But...he got the cab. lol.

I should also mention that they were obsessed with finding the Cash Cab. Shane "saw" more Cash Cabs than I knew existed. He had worked out a deal with Ken before we left that he would get half of the profits for any winnings that we got from the Cash Cab. lol

So if I am the cab queen, I guess that makes Shane and Owen a cab prince because they are now experts at finding, hailing and using cabs!

She's The Boss

Mary Mayken is the boss of Mary Mayken.

And of everyone else in her path.

Since my mom and dad are coming up this week, I thought that I would give them a heads up about what they're in for.



Of course, since Ken took her down at the knees on the trampoline, she's moving a little slower these days and is a little more manageable. Or not. ;)

The City Mouse and The Country Mouse

We've all heard the story. The city mouse goes to visit his cousin in the country and an education into how the other half lives commences. Then the country mouse visits the city mouse and an education into how the other half lives commences.

I'm not a mouse but I do have a friend who lives in the city. The real city. As in New York City. And he's like the city mouse. And I'm like the country mouse.

He is Ken's friend too and we went to dinner with him a few years ago when we were in the city to see The Police at Madison Square Garden. The first thing he said was "wow...you sure are southern." LOL.

I didn't realize my accent was so pronounced but I guess it is. Especially to a New Yorker I suppose.

So...anyway...about a year later, he came to Fredericksburg for a few days on vacation and lived the life of the country mouse for a few days. I took him to my favorite luncheon counter/pharmacy, Goolricks, for lunch where you can still sit at the counter and order lunch. Nothing fancy mind you. Grilled cheese, hot dogs, soup...and a milk shake or cherry soda. Made the old skool way.

And of course...when you're in a small city, you're bound to run into someone you know, which we did and then he got to meet my best friend and her youngest son. That sealed it for him. If he didn't think I was the country mouse before, he definitely thought I was then. ;)

Because that's the way it goes in the "country." And Mike was calling it Fredneck by the time he left too but I think that he enjoyed the slower pace for at least a few days. I'm not sure that he realized folks still lived this way.

So, when we were in NYC for Easter, he came and had breakfast with us and took us into his world.

His crazy, kooky world of New York City where anything goes.

And he's the person that you want to be with in that crazy, kooky world because he's tall and he keeps up with you when you get dizzy from all the people. He's easy to find in a crowd too. Much easier than Ken, Shane or Owen. He's an awesome co-pilot for sure!



So, we took a little stroll down 5th Avenue to see the Easter Parade. Which really wasn't a parade at all. It was rather a gathering of people in the "finest" bonnets.













Or wackiest costumes they could find or just bizarre sightings that make you go "hum."





I just thought that the contrast between the secular world and the religious world was too much not to snap the picture.



And, of course, the Easter Bunny had to be there.



Who knew that the Easter Bunny had a family or attended St. Peters church? He was waiting for the service.




Neither Mike nor I knew who this woman was but she was obviously someone who was someone. If you know who she is, let me know.



I really could have stayed there all day taking pictures and I kept drifting off from everyone but Mike was awesome about keeping up with me. And Ken. And Shane. And Owen. Somehow. Because there was tons of people there. All while he was shooting video too. He's a true city mouse!

So, thanks to Mike for showing the country mouse the city. You are an awesome tourguide!

And, as your reward, Shane is bestowing a new avatar for you as he promised. Enjoy! :p

New York City - Spring Break Style

The boys begged us to take them to New York and since we never go anywhere for Spring Break, I thought it would be an educational and fun trip and I thought they were ready for it.

I thought that they wanted to see the sites but in reality, they just wanted to go to Nintendo World. ;)

And since it was 40 and rainy almost the entire time we were there, they would probably have been satisfied with just going to Nintendo World, dropping a few hundred of our dollars (not theirs, of course!) and going back to Virginia. :p

I'll just hit the highlights here but will blog other specific pictures separately.

All Aboard the Amtrak train. Last stop...New York City.

As you can see, Shane still likes his Ducky. I'm waiting for the sad day when he no longer will want them. :( But...if he's 16 and still carries them around, I may worry. ;)



The only difference between boys and men is the prices of their toys!



We arrived into Penn Station and came out of the terminal. Ken handed Shane the roll bag and we told him to keep up. Man. Out of the frying pan into the fire. There were people everywhere. Wall to wall.

Maybe that was a little more of pulling him out of his comfort zone than we intended. As he pulled the suitcase through the throngs of people, with it twisting and turning in every direction, he walked in front of a guy who tripped and almost fell over him.

Usually I would fuss at him but I turned around and said that it was the guy's fault for not paying attention and Shane just needed to press on and keep up. I think I got that "New York every man for himself" attitude as soon as I came off the train. We were in survival mode! :)

First stop...Nintendo World.

Shane made a beeline to the new DSi's and then proceeded to let us know that he was sad that he didn't have one. lol



While Shane was drooling over the DSi, Owen was trying to figure out which Mario plush he wanted to add to his collection.



Eventually Owen made his way over to the DSi's with Shane. That was 30 minutes of free play. Probably the only thing free in NYC! Oh no. Wait. It wasn't free. We walked out with a (much) lighter wallet!



To my friends Liz and Craig, this is what the Pokemon obsession will come to. Nintendo World. But...with Craig's love of electronics, it will probably cost you twice as much as it did us! ;)



But Shane did love his mom and dad after we rewarded his stinky behavior with a new DSi. Meh. We'll be turning in our Parent of the Year Award. :p



I scored a deal for $129/night at a new Hilton Garden beside the Empire State Building. This is the view from our room. Unfortunately, we never got up there because it was raining and shut down the couple of times that we tried to go. Meh.



We saw a few "celebrities" while we were there. Helllllloooooo Spiderman!



M&M World. If they could put a logo on it, it was there. Except for the rat trap that I saw in the corner. It is NYC I guess. ;)



Second celebrity sighting...Hello Kitty!



I :heart: this picture and the boys loved watching the ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza. It was fun to watch the skaters. Some were really good. And then others...weren't.



We took the boys to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was a great show. Shane loved it. Owen fell asleep. Oh well. At least he didn't whine and complain.



We did Times Square. Several times. :)



And you can't take kids to NYC without taking them to see the big ferris wheel in the ToysRus in Times Square!



I took so many pictures in NYC. It's going to take several posts to get them up. I hope that you enjoyed installment #1 of the Da*elers Do NYC.

A Girl and Her BFF

Girls and their BFF's. They all have one. If you don't know what a BFF is, you're obviously not a girl or don't have any girls for kids. It's like your Best Friend For-evar. Most girls have several BFF's. They usually rank them as 1st BFF, 2nd BFF and so-forth and so-on.

Evidentially even two year old girls have BFF's. Just ask Mary Mayken.

When I asked her who her best friend was last weekend when she was here, she said (without missing a beat) "daddy is my best friend." :)

I think that her mom is her second best friend because she said that her mom was her best friend too.

Ken was her third best friend. Was until he told her that she couldn't take her gold fish upstairs. She said yes. He said no. Then he said to give him the goldfish.

So she did. Even the chewed up one in her mouth, which she spit out and gave to Ken. lol.

She wouldn't speak to him for the next two hours and refused to look at him.

He dropped off of her BFF list.

Girls are fickle like that. You can be their #1 BFF one minute and off the list the next. Just ask Ken. He's off the list!