Birthdays in the City

We really went all out on the birthdays this year, and the celebration continued over the weekend. Saturday morning, Andrew, Lucia, Greta, Mom, Dad, and I all drove into the city to continue celebrating the girls' birthdays. Saturday was one of those perfect New York days when all the stars are aligned and everything just goes beautifully. Perfect weather, everyone had fun, the things we did were super fun. All a big success.

First stop on Saturday: the Lego store, of course, where Lucia and Greta both selected new Friends sets. Next we went to lunch at Wagamama, where we all had ramen--we all loved the restaurant and our food. The girls ran around across the street at the playground at Madison Square Park for a while after that, with their lambs and bunnies. Then we strolled down to Union Square, making a couple of stops on the way at Dylan's Candy Store, and an AMAZING store called Flying Tiger, where we were all overwhelmed with cute Danish bargains. L&G ate some candy at the playground at Union Square and played on the giant dome/slide thing there. All very fun. 

Our afternoon complete, we drove to the Conrad, our hotel for the night. L&G love staying here, and Mom and Dad loved it too. We had rooms next to each other. As we relaxed, someone knocked on the door and delivered a plate of macarons, a delicious red velvet pastry, and six movie ticket vouchers to me, Lucia, and Greta to mark our birthdays--gotta love that kind of personal attention. We felt very pampered and decadent. 

Then we headed out to dinner at Benihana. You may frown at this as being too New Jersey--traveling into Manhattan only to go to a chain restaurant--but I wanted something different for the girls' birthday dinner, not just a regular (albeit delicious) meal at a regular place. It turned out to be really fun. The girls loved watching the chef's tricks and they loved the food. Greta ate her weight in shrimp. They were sung to in English and Japanese when their ice cream arrived. A big success (though by the end Greta was practically falling asleep at the table).

The car ride back to the hotel was insane, with the girls overtired and ridiculously punchy with their second wind, and it took them forever to fall asleep. They had a great day, though. 

In the morning, we had the delicious buffet at the hotel, always spectacular, and then headed up to the Met. It was a rainy, rainy, rainy day. L&G were tired. We saw some paintings and mummies and then decided to head back home, where the kids spent the rest of the day putting together their Legos. We ordered falafel for dinner and--gasp!--celebrated my birthday with presents as well. Bet you forgot it was my birthday too--Mom and Dad almost did! They made up for it by delivering a new cement gnome for my collection.

And that, my friends, is the conclusion of Birthdays 2017. It was big, and bold, and endless. And all pretty great.

*Postscript*

I think Mom would agree that the high point of their visit to New Jersey was running errands with me on Thursday night. Usually I'm on my own for pre-birthday errand-running, but when I invited her to join me, she agreed. First: Dollar Tree for birthday balloons. Two of the balloons were deflated by the time we got to the car, so we went back in, and I swapped them for fully inflated balloons tied to a display. Next: Shop Rite for cake supplies. Then on to Target for last-minute Num Noms, because when you're in this deep with birthday overload, there's no going back. Next: Whole Foods for pumpkins, because in all the craziness this month Andrew and I still hadn't managed to get any. I got three giant pumpkins which subsequently would not fit on the floor of the backseat, and the balloons were in the trunk, and in the midst of trying to get everything sorted out one of the balloons flew out of the car and floated away. At that point it was just too much. Too, too much. We could only laugh, though I did have my forehead on the car window as I did. Sigh.