Christmas in NYC

Today we met up with another hs mom and her son to go to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab on Madison Avenue. We got on the subwayat 10:15 and arrived at 59th and 5th in less than 10 minutes. Since we were supposed to meet our friends at 11, we had time to stop in FAO Schwartz. I've always enjoyed this store. Being one of the biggest toy stores we've ever seen, the kids LOVED it. Everything is larger than life in there, from the Lego people, to the stuffed animals, to the big floor piano (you saw one in the movie "Big"). W did the piano, created new animals from a trough of different parts, flew an airplane, watched a man do a Rubiks Cube in under 2 minutes, and both kids tried out slidey carpet skating.

The Sony Wonder Lab was really cool. They let 15 people in at a time, you get a card that registers your name, picture and voice. You swipe this card at each "station" which makes everything you do totally personalized. We learned about the history of technology, from the first photographs to the latest in computers and hi-def imagery. They tried out television cameras, video games on huge screens, sending their voices into outer space, and learned about news reports and weather stations during a hurricane, voice recognition with phonetic symbols, and so much more. We said goodbye to our friends when we were done and continued on walking around Manhattan.

We had streetcart hotdogs and iced tea for lunch and walked over to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza. We took a few pictures and watched the ice skaters for a little while. Across the street we saw the Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas windows. There are 6 big windows full of animatronic scenes. Then it was over to the American Girl Place again (we were there in August). J loves it there, so of course we had to go in. She was salivating over the new "Ivy Ling" doll and then sat and perused a few AG books. When we left there, we walked a few blocks to the ginormous Disney Store and had a blast seeing all 3 floors of stuff.

The city was crowded and loud and chock full of tourists, but still my favorite place in the world. The way every store decks their halls is just breathtaking and really puts you right in the Christmas mood. And to top eveything all off, it was lightly snowing and yet pretty warm out (maybe like 40 degrees). J said today was probably the best time she's ever had in Manhattan. W and I agreed!

It was a busy week so far. Wednesday we spent the day at the mall. I got some Christmas shopping done and the kids all got to hang out in their favorite stores (The Pet Store, Sharper Image, Dylan's Candy Shop) and go on the carousel. Yesterday, the homeschool group went on a trip to the Queens County Farm Museum where we had a class on quilting. We then made our own (yes, I made one too!) quilt designs on a piece of white fabric and got a nice tour of the farm. It's the oldest working farm (and only one like it left) in NYC. I've been meaning to get there for years. So glad we got to go.

Pictures! I couldn't find my digital camera, so I bought a cheapo disposable one. Only half the pics came out and they look all grainy, but at least we got something. And in case you've been wondering, yes, I do take normal pics of the kids where you can see their faces. We just do some with the blog pose too, lol!