A Little Goes a Long Way

I spent the morning prepping my kitchen and diving into a big cake project that I’m verrrrrry excited about. But I find that when I’m deep in a project I sort of shoo my kids out of the way and encourage (beg) them to do anything but follow me around the kitchen. Gunner was at school, so without proper distraction, Nella was relentless. After fielding about 78 requests to be included, I finally agreed to make a few cupcakes for them to decorate when G got home. That got her off my back for a few minutes.

Chinese New Year

The weather has been so bitter cold lately. The snow is so beautiful, at least when looking at it from the warmth of my apartment. Haha. But last weekend we had a little taste of heaven/spring! It was in the high 40s and we were not about to stay inside and waste such a gorgeous day!

I don't know why I've felt so compelled to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Maybe it has something to do with the time I spent in Japan (except thats Japan, not China) or maybe its because it always looks so cool in the movies... But, I have been dying to experience a real authentic Chinese New Year celebration!

Friday night was the big fire cracker festival, and Sunday afternoon was the dragon parade. Unfortunately for us, Saturday was the only day we could make it down there. I was so bummed out, thinking we would miss all the excitement!

Once we got into Chinatown I noticed the stores were selling a lot of traditional holiday looking things, but there wasn't really any sign of celebrations. We were meeting Ellen at her favorite Chinese place (Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, it lives up to its name!) and as we turned down Mott street we found the party!

Everyone was shooting off fire crackers and there were streamers and confetti everywhere! There were a ton of cute little Chinese kids playing in the street and dancing. It was so colorful and lively! We met up with Ellen and had the tastiest hand-pulled noodles ever! This place is definitely a must-try!

We found our way back to the party and bought ourselves some fire crackers! This was like an hour PAST Gunner's nap time so he was not so excited about all the noise and flying confetti (but I was!) And it made for some awesome pictures!

After the police shut it down, we found our way to a cute little bakery in Soho (Little Cupcake Bakeshop) The cupcakes (and mini pies, and icebox cake) were heavenly. But, the company was even better. Guess who held the door open for us as we came through the door. You guessed it! Queen Latifah!!! (Did you really guess it?) She held the door open for us and then admired sleeping Gunner and his tiny little "Chucks". We all exchanged looks, confirming that yes, this was Queen Latifah and decided to play it cool!

Now, I'm seriously wishing we didn't play it cool because we have no proof of our encounter! Especially because meeting a celebrity is on our bucket list, but we can't cross it off without proof. Dang it! Next time, I'll just throw caution to the wind and go all star-struck/paparzzi!

Ellen and I are like good luck or something because we always see celebs when we're together. Like ever since we were kids! We've met Billy Crystal, Ryan Seacrest, Kathy Ireland, and NOW Queen Latifah. We really should spend more time together!! It is so much fun living close to her again. 

Happy Year of the Horse Everybody!
XOXO
SD

Just a Walk in the Park & Another Cupcake

Last week was sort of a whirlwind because like I said before, we've been trying to do everything outside while the weather is still nice, and starting Nov 1st, life is about to get crazy! Zack is flying home to Utah the first weekend, I'm flying to Chicago the second weekend, my very oldest friends are coming up the third weekend, and Thanksgiving is the fourth weekend!! Then of course December is like the craziest month of the year as always! But, I've been missing family and friends so this craziness is definitely welcomed!

Zack decided we needed to get the unlimited metro card (to ride busses and subways as many times as we want), and I finally agreed. So, now that we've spent the money I feel like I need to put it to good use and use it everyday! We bought it last Wednesday, so Thursday I was going to go meet Zack for lunch after his morning class and then we were going to go to the Central Park Zoo. We have been dying to take Gunner to the zoo (I don't know why. He probably could care less about animals right now.) This was my first time traveling downtown all by myself so I was pretty nervous!

Usually we walk about a mile to the subway stop, but now that I have an unlimited metro card, why wouldn't I take the bus right from my apartment?!? The only problem with that is I have to collapse my stroller to take it on the bus (which we don't do on the subway). So I strapped Gunner to my chest in the baby bjorn and pushed my stroller down to the bus stop and then tried to collapse it and carry it on with all my other stuff. (I couldn't carry my real camera all pics are from our cell phones! :( ) I was quite a sight. Luckily, a very kind woman saw my struggle and carried my stroller for me. Once I got to the subway stop, I realized there were no Manhattan bound trains stopping at our station all week long because of construction. What the heck!?!? So I had to get on the North Bound train ride it all the way up passed the construction, then get on a Manhattan bound train. It was very confusing and too eventful for my first day traveling solo!

The hardest part about traveling alone is having to get my stroller up the stairs when a subway station doesn't have an elevator. I had put Gunner in his stroller for the subway ride, but was regretting it as I jerked the him up, one stair at a time! Another nice soul took pity on me and helped me carry the stroller up the stairs. (Who says New Yorkers are mean?!?) Hahaha I was a little embarrassed, but I'll get this all figured out one day!

Zack had invited a friend to lunch, so it ended up lasting a bit longer than expected, but it was fun to get to know one of Zack's school friends! We didn't get to central park until almost 4 and the zoo closed at 5 so we decided to try again another day. But, with the sun still up we had plenty more of the park to explore (after all the park doesn't close until 1 am).

We walked over towards the Bethesda fountain and terrace. This is probably one of the most recognizable places in the city! They say it's the most filmed part of Central Park. It's really beautiful, but they were setting up a haunted house while we were there so there was all sorts of junk in the way! But the fountain and terrace sit right on the edge of the lake where you can rent row boats and take gondola rides. We'll definitely be doing that in the spring time! 

As we walked through the park the fall leaves took my breath away! I'm sad we didn't get up north to see the New England country side, but Central Park will do! 

I was sort of obsessed with this tree!!!

On our walk back to the subway we decided to take a quick detour to Crumbs Bakery! They are super famous for their big giant yummy cupcakes! I got the pumpkin and Zack got the Thin Mint (omg!!!!) We devoured them! Those cupcakes didn't stand a chance. We found out the next day that Crumbs doesn't even bake their own cupcakes.... What a let down... But they sure were yummy! Do you remember the last time we got a cupcake and I was so excited to share it with Gunner... and he slept through it? Well this time he was wide awake, and he LOVED IT!!!

It ended up just being a laid back, stroll through the park, kind of day! But the pictures with the leaves and he fountain are priceless. We are not going to know what to do with ourselves once the winter hits! We spend 90% of our time outside when we're downtown. We need some good indoor ideas to add to our bucket list! 

I'm in heaven.
Xoxo 

SD