Adventures in road-tripping with a newborn and a toddler-Saratoga Springs, NY

Finally!!! The baby is napping, my daughter is out with Nana and the oldest is away at camp.  I am sitting in my childhood home which my mother has made into her own garden oasis.  I am enjoying a lovely cup of coffee and I have time to post!
Last Saturday, we drove our son up to The Adirondacks to attend summer camp.  On our way home, we stopped in Saratoga Springs, which was beautiful.
We had the younger two, so getting pics was a bit of a challenge since my daughter is still adjusting to the new baby and has become very clingy.
Anyhow, we spent time in Saratoga Spa State Park, which looks like one of those gorgeous college campus's from 80's films, but better and bigger.  There are big plush lawns and buildings from a time when beautiful architecture was appreciated.  There are geysers throughout the park and many have been tapped so you can just pull up and fill up your water bottles right there!  Which, many folks were doing.  People even pulled out there huge 5 gallon bottles (several of them at a time.)
We enjoyed walking in the springs, until my daughter didn't enjoy it.  She's at a stage where she likes something and then doesn't like it within seconds.  She's suddenly scared of bugs and the cloud of dirt that formed in the water when she moved, and a numerous amount of other things.  She has a strong personality and wants what she wants IMMEDIATELY, ha!  We also did a brief hike because my husband didn't pack the back pack to carry her and we didn't want to have to carry her all the way back.
After the park, we decided to head to the Downtown area, which was full of people and plenty of restaurant options.  We chose a Mexican restaurant and ate the quickest meal ever for several reasons.  It was noisy inside and too hot outside.  Also, it was the witching hour for Mena, so she wasn't into sitting in her high chair or with Daddy, and recently she's started doing this high pitched screaming-thing and then laughing when she's getting tired.  So we took a short walk around and grabbed some ice cream and headed to NYC.  FYI Ben and Jerry's has cotton candy ice cream that is soooooo good!
The ride home was lovely......NOT!  The baby wanted to nurse about every 45 minutes-1 hour, so a 3 hour trip turned into 5 1/2 hours by the time we hit the lovely traffic at Lincoln tunnel.  Thankfully, there was a parking spot waiting for us, which is huge here!
All in all, it was a lovely day!  We would definitely like to head back there and stay over for a few nights to enjoy the many mineral spring spas, visit the park again and try some different restaurants, but definitely not until the kids are a little older.

Central Park Zoo

Last week, us here on the East Coast were treated to Spring-like weather.  I happened to be in NYC for the weekend so I decided to take the kids to the Central Park Zoo.  Its a great small zoo and has an additional children's zoo, where they can see farm animals also.  After maneuvering through the subway with the stroller (I give it up to you NYC moms who deal with that on a daily basis), we made our way streetside again and checked out the zoo.

It's priced pretty reasonable ($12 for adults and $9 for children over 2 years old, $8 for seniors) and that includes admission into the children's zoo.  We checked out the petting zoo first and Mena was excited to see the animals from afar.  Idris, whose not afraid of anything, decided to introduce Mena to the goats, which was the sweetest sight to see.  Lots of people commented when I was pregnant that I was crazy to have my children so far apart.  I have to say, its actually been nice because he helps out so much and she really looks up to him.  They have this cute little relationship and he loves being able to show her new things.

Anyway, we fed the animals and then moved on to the main zoo.  There are a few exhibits, our favorites include the sea lions, the rain forest, the snow leopards and the red pandas.  Unfortunately, the polar bears were closed.  The weather was awesome.  I actually got to walk around without my coat on and rock my shades.

If you're in the city, definitely check it out.

Autumn

I'm back!  I got exceptionally busy the past few weeks and am finally starting to slow down and realized I haven't made a post in 3 weeks!  Anyway, we are officially in one of my favorite seasons.  I had my first pumpkin spice latte, ummmmhhhhh, what a treat!  Soccer season has started.  We visited a farm and got some caramel corn, gourds and Indian corn.  I got my fall decor, mums and pumpkins and finally rocked a pair of boots!

What things do you do to enjoy yourself during this season?

Hanging

This weekend was awesome!  My homegirl, Andrea, came up to hang out and have some girlfriend time!  We checked out The Roots Picnic, did a lot of walking and sweating, my God the sweating, had some food and drinks over at North Third and enjoyed ice cream at my favorite parlor in Philly before meeting up with my husband and friend.
The next day was equally as awesome and included brunch and a stop at the Brooklyn Flea in Philly.  There were so many fab vendors, Questlove was DJing and little mama slept through most of it.  Andrea bought a rug and a table and I got a cute scarf.  Its going to be a weekly event, so if you are in the area, definitely check it out.  Here are some pics from our outings...it cracks me up that the picture of the two of us is hazy and blurry, its reminiscent of the atrocious weather!

How was your weekend?

Spring is in the air

Spring has officially sprung!  I am so happy, I only enjoy the cold months for a short time.  Every year its like I am rejuvenated by May.  The older I get, the more apparent that feeling is.  I definitely get that Spring cleaning jones.
So far, I have redecorated my living room and cleared my son's closet of outgrown clothes/shoes.  I still need to sort through the attic and clean out my filing cabinet.  Those projects are daunting, so I moved on to something fun, repotting my plants!
I ran out and grabbed some clay pots, plastic trays and some organic potting soil.  We had beautiful weather last week, so I put my Lana Del Rey playlist on Pandora, threw Mena in her walker (which she loved) and got to work outside on the back deck.
I repotted my house plants and bought some parsley, jalapeno peppers and strawberries and potted those also.  A friend mentioned the strawberries would do better in a different planter, so I've got a project planned for next weekend.

Has Spring brought about any changes for you guys?  Are you growing any herbs/veggies/fruit?

Lessons

This weekend we visited family in Virginia.  My sister told my son that he could earn points for doing some chores and she would take him to buy a new video game.  My son, ever the hustler, devised this list of chores and with my sister's help assigned points to each chore.  One of the chores he came up with was to polish the shoes.  He told her he knew how to do this, which was news to me, since we never do it.  We have the supplies, but I never think about it.  Its weird, when I was a child my parents wouldn't let us leave the house unless we could see our reflection in our shoes.  I clearly remember my mom sitting me down and teaching me how to shine my shoes.   Nowadays, children usually wear sneakers (well, at least my child) and don't really need to know how to shine shoes.  So, I had never instructed him.

This gave me the perfect opportunity.  It got me thinking about a lot of things that children don't get the opportunity to learn and perfect anymore because of modern day conveniences and changes in standards.  Things like ironing, answering a telephone (we got rid of our house phone a while back, but recently got a line again), writing script (they don't teach it in certain places) and I'm sure there are more.  These are things I will have to teach him.  I think he did really well with the shoes though and he earned some points in the process!

TGIF...

So glad its Friday!  I am looking forward to my weekend.  Brunch with friends, going to the art museum and my mom's coming to visit, which will probably lead to an impromptu date night!  Which we are in dire need of.  I look forward to the weekend because the stress and grind of the week finally comes to a halt and I can enjoy my son without the stresses of making the bus, homework and after school activities.  Although, baseball is starting in a few weeks.  Anyhow,  I usually make a big breakfast one of the days and we lay around in jammies and bum around watching TV, listening to music and surfing the web during the cold months.  Not to mention, I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and read my magazines, when she takes her morning nap.  Once springtime hits though, I make everyone get dressed and we head out to the farmer's market early.
We usually plan to do something-a museum visit, hiking/biking or hanging with friends.  Our evenings consist of movie or game nights and some fun dinner like tacos, burgers or BBQ!
How do you guys spend your weekends?