Madison Square Park with Sabs & Luca!

After Sesame Street Live, we went to a beautiful playground in NYC that we have never been to before but have been meaning to go to. The weather was 64 degrees!! It as a perfect end to a lovely day.

Sesame Street Live!

Giacomo has no school all week, most of the schools are on winter break. So on Monday were were invited by Sabs and Luca to see Sesame Street Live! at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden. The tickets were only $15 each so how could I resist. Giacomo used to love Sesame Street but doesn't watch it so much anymore. But w/ cheap tix like that, I thought it would be a great activity. Plus we've seen now a few low-cost productions, I thought it would be nice to see a hi-cost production! Now I'd love to take him to see the Lion King or the Little Mermaid, but those tickets cost $100 each!

Anyhoo, we thought we'd have the worst seats all the way in the back, but since we arrived a little late everyone had mostly been seated, so when we got there the ushers said we could pick any seats we liked, so we got to pick great seats! In the first row of the second section, probably $75 seats.

I think Giacomo loved it, but he kept aking me after every number if it was over yet. I think he was just curious about all the applause.

Dorian on the otherhand enjoyed the first half, but was very cranky since he was missing his nap time. I nursed him about 10 times! Just so he would fall asleep - and of course he did so 5 minutes before the end! Oh well, they say the 2nd kid always suffers!

Anyhoo - It was a fun experience and I'm glad we did it.

Valentines Day Party

Sunday was a busy day for us. After all the excitement of Emma's birthday party and the kinkajew, we had our playgroup's annual Valentine's Day Party. It was generously hosted by Giacomo's friend Gabrielle's parents. This is a great event because since Giacomo goes to a Jewish school, they dont celebrate (Saint) Valentines Day. And remember when you were in elementary school and you used to give Valentines Day cards to all your friends, well this party was just what that was made for. We made Valentines Day cards for all of Giacomo's friends in his playgroup, some younger siblings included and that made about 21 cards. Every kid had a bag with their name on it and what fun it was to open all the cards when we got home.

And, once again, Giacomo got to play with his buddy Alexander - who he really only sees at Playgroup events - because they live all the way uptown and go to a different school. But they really like eachother alot and were acting so silly. They were singing a song, which goes a little something like this: "We are crazy poops, tonite!" over and over....

2 Plays in the Village

Saturday we went with Giacomo's classmate Matthew to see 2 childrens plays in the city.

The first play was called Wiseacre Farm, and was about all these farm animals, and the pig was having a birthday but the fox was always stealing the cakes. The kids loved it! They had audience participation but Giacomo and Matthew didn't want to. It was perfect for their age, recommended for ages 3 and up. At the end they got to meet the actors, it was very nice. The theater was so tiny and intimite, like a jewel. And there were only about 5 families in the audience. It was right in the Village, called The 13th Street Repertory Company.

The second play was Rumplestiltskin. That one was a little more advanced, recommended for ages 5 and up. In the story the king and queen meet a peasant girl and want her to spin straw into gold, but a stranger she meets in the forest named Rumplestiltskin actually spins the straw in to gold....basically. The kids were really not familiar with these words or concepts, but they still liked it - even though they really had not a very good idea what was going on.

But they were both fabulous plays and I want Giacomo to gain a real appreciation for the theater. Next its Sesame Street Live or bust! And in a few weeks the Velveteen Rabbit!

NYC with Matthew

Here's Matty and Giacomo frolicking in the Village in between the 2 plays we saw on Saturday.

More Kinkajew!

Sunday we went to the birthday of Giacomo's classmate Emma. Her parents had hired a lady to come with exotic animals! She brought a frog, a lizard, a salamander, a snake (that's Emma with the snake), a wallabee, a chinchilla, and .... a kinkajew!

That was really funny, because at the party there were quite a few jews, since Giacomo and Emma go to a Jewish school, so when they brought out the kinkajew, we all just about lost it.

Unfortunately I did not get a good picture of the kinkajew, but it looks like a ferrit, and likes to wear Gucci.