He turned 8

Yep, I know he turned 8 almost a week ago.  I'm a bit behind in blogging his birthday, but I do hope you'll hang in there with me.  We've taken Caleb to see the Mouse every year on his birthday since he came home from China,  except the first one because he was home just two months.  Why?  Who wouldn't want to spend their birthday with the Mouse?  And who wouldn't want to do that when it's almost 80 degrees in January with no crowds?  It's a no-brainer for us.  This year's celebration was the hottest one on record though.  It's usually in the 50s-60s.  Yep, short sleeves and shorts were in order.

This birthday boy loved looking at the map and finding our location.

We started off in Tomorrowland, as we always do... People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Raceway, Buzz...and ice cream.

We managed to finally make it out of  Tomorrowland and hit up the New Fantasyland.  We rode the Barnstormer.  Madeline still likes it more than Caleb.  He tolerates it; she can't wait to go again.  We also enjoyed Dumbo and Winnie-the-Pooh.

We used Fast Passes whenever possible, as if waiting 20 minutes in line for stand-by was too long.  We're spoiled.  We know.  We headed over to Adventureland for Pirates of the Caribbean.  However, when we finally got there, it was closed.  We were bummed.

So we finally said good night to the Magic Kingdom and made our way over to Epcot.

 The kids loved ride Spaceship Earth.  I mean, who wouldn't?  It's so beautiful.  We had dinner reservations in Japan.  It was delicious!  Before we headed back around to the other side of the World Showcase, I thought I'd snap a shot of Spaceship Earth.

 I'm kicking myself that I didn't have my tripod with me. Thankfully, I could prop my camera up on a post to steady it some.  But I only slowed my shutter down to 1/25 sec because I didn't want to risk any blur from pressing the shutter (I didn't have my remote trigger either.  Grr..)  Anyway, now I know better for next time.

The dumplings also really enjoyed the Nemo ride and looking at all the sea animals in the tanks by the ride.  They spent a lot of time there.

We wanted to stay for Illuminations to watch the laser show and fireworks.  The dumplings were exhausted though.  So we only stayed for a little bit.

So all of that adventure took place the day before his actual birthday.  On the actual day, we took him roller skating with his sister, cousin, and a few friends.  I didn't snap any photos prior to skating or during because I was busy at the last minute working on his cake.

Now, I'm not an expert baker.  But I was determined to put a stop to the homemade appearing cakes that were coming out of my kitchen.  So I purchased a few tools and read a lot of recipes and tips online.

I made a vanilla cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream frosting because vanilla is what the birthday boy eats.  Not chocolate.  The verdict?  The cake was light and fluffy because I used a reverse creaming process.  I also made my own baking strips so the cakes didn't burn on the tops/sides or dome.  They baked evenly and without burning.  Score!  The buttercream frosting could've had a touch more vanilla, but I loved how light and non-sweet it was.  (I'm definitely making more and using different flavors!)  Since I added the dot border after skating and just before we ate it, I had no time to actually pipe the red baseball stitching that I wanted to do for the baseball loving birthday boy.  Instead I lined up the 8 candles with 4 on each side to mimic the stitching and called it done. lol  Also, since that handsome revolving cake stand you see didn't arrive until after I had smoothed the top and sides, I had too much frosting still on the cake.  Oh well.  Now I know better.

 Caleb scored a bunch of Legos to add to his collection.  He couldn't have been happier.  We are so thankful for all these years we've seen him grow.  He's becoming such a big boy.  He's so caring and compassionate, smart, athletic, and he loves the Lord. We are so blessed to be his parents.  Really.  Our God amazes us.  And in just two short months, we'll be celebrating another special birthday, which the birthday girl regularly reminds us of.  So now I have 2 months of cake making and eating to get ready for it!

NYC Days 2 & 3: Into the night

Before I share more about our trip to NYC, I would be remiss if I didn't express the pain I feel for all of the families affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.  I can't imagine the enormous loss they must be experiencing right now.  Death is never easy, even when you're prepared for it.  To have your loved one taken from you without the chance to say good bye?  Well, the hurt goes deeper still.  

Tragedies like this, and Gina's death, continue to remind me that my most important goal as a photographer is to capture the every day moments.  As I've said before, most of our lives are made up of these ordinary moments.  Don't let them slip by without documenting them.  Stop what you're doing and grab your camera.  You'll see in the images I'm sharing in this post that, while some of them scream Big Apple, some of them are quite ordinary.  And I couldn't tell the whole story if I didn't include those small, simple ordinary moments too.

Now on to the photos, which are a mix of big girl camera and iPhone shots.  Last time we went to NYC, we kept things low key at night because Madeline was only 2 1/2 years old.  Being that she's 4 1/2 now, we thought we would attempt some night time entertainment.  That meant keeping things low key during the day.  So the dumplings played with their stuffed animals and watched movies on the iPad.  

I had every intention of doing a wee bit of school like we did last time we visited the Big Apple, but the excitement in the air kept this teacher from focusing! lol

Since we missed seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center the night before, we decided to head over there on the second night.  It was a pretty short walk from our hotel.

I snapped this quick shot of Patrick with the kids on my iPhone.

And then Baba insisted  I pull my big girl camera back out of my bag so he could play photographer and snap a shot of me with the dumplings. Looks like I'll be turning him into a photographer sooner rather than later.

We love eating at Wu Liang Ye for dinner when we visit the tree at dinner time because it's simply delicious Chinese food.  After we finished up dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to freshen up.

And then we walked right back out the door and across the street to the Minskoff Theatre to see The Lion King!

We absolutely loved it!  And I was impressed with how well behaved Madeline was during the show!  She really listened carefully and kept quiet throughout the performance.  I was shocked. lol.  She's always so loud.  The costumes were incredible.  The only downer for me was that the character's lines were too similar to the movie.  It was a little bit different than the movie but not by much.  Oh well.  It was still a winner.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we really thought Caleb was going to lose his top left tooth.  So I snapped this shot of his "old smile" one last time, or so I thought.

Day 3 went on like Day 2....very low key during the day.  Then when Patrick finished up his meeting (oh, I think I failed to mention this part yet; Patrick was in meetings all day), he wanted to head back over to the tree because his iPhone had died the day before, and he wasn't able to capture a photo of the kids in front of the tree.  So we headed back there again....this time in the rain.

We passed by the Fox News Studio as we headed back over to Rockefeller Center.  That's Bob Beckel in the suspenders, and Dana Perino is the blonde to his left.

And since it was still raining, I snapped the dumplings in front of the tree with my iPhone too.

It continued to rain as we tried to catch a cab on our way to the Upper WestSide, but we had no luck, with the cab or the rain.

We stopped to get Caleb a pretzel to hold him over until dinner.  Unfortunately, it was like a hockey puck.

Well, we weren't just going to stand there in the rain and hope to eventually catch a cab during rush hour.  So we walked all. the. way from Midtown up to Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.  Well, three of us walked..in the rain.  Patrick carried Madeline, and Caleb was a trooper.  We planned on grabbing dinner around there and were thankful that Bar Boulud had a table for us!  I was thankful that the food was delicious...and the atmosphere was loud!  Great.  Madeline fit right in.  I'm beginning to think she was made for the city. lol.  Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Lincoln Center to catch George Balanchine's The Nutcracker! 

By intermission the kids were exhausted, and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it through Act II.  But they perked right up.  Every time Madeline saw a costume she adored, she whispered in my ear that she wanted it.  It was so precious.  Caleb remarked that he liked baseball more than ballet.  lol. He was a good sport.  He did enjoy the storyline; it was just too much dancing for him.  Again, Madeline really surprised me with how well she behaved.  Madeline does not know volume control very well at all.  She's on or off.  So I was so impressed that she actually whispered!!! lol.  Anyway, we truly had a lovely time at the ballet.

And to top off the night, I got to meet up with an old friend from childhood, Alex, and his beautiful and sweet wife, Ileana.  Alex and I went to summer camp together as teens.  We all used to sit around the piano at night as he played song after song, mostly Billy Joel.  We called him our own Piano Man.

We knew back then that Alex was a pretty talented musician, and we had no doubt that he would make it big in the industry.  Well, twenty years later finds him quite accomplished on Broadway. He's won Tony's and Grammy's for his work on In The Heights, and other recent works include Bring It On and Wicked.  Oh, and he's also played for the President, as in President Obama.  Not bad, eh?  We knew he would make it someday, and boy, has he made it.  We're so proud of ya, Alex!

And our trip didn't end there.  We had one more big day in the city!  Stay tuned for lots more photos.  I told ya I took a bunch!

Costumes and candy

This week the dumplings had a couple of opportunities to dress up and indulge in some candy eating.  Madeline's dance class had the chance to dress up during class this week.  I'm so glad they let us back there to snap a group photo.  Although she's partially hidden by sweet little pirate in front, you can see that she is a...drumroll please... Flamenco dancer.

I used McCalls 6418 to make the dress.

It really came together easily, although I didn't care for the zipper instructions.  So I just inserted it the way I wanted to.  It has three gathered layers for a lot of twirl power.  Gosh, I do love to sew for her.

Okay, back to the festivities...both kids had the opportunity to fill their bags with candy at our church's trunk or treat.  Caleb wanted to be an astronaut this year.  He loves to study science, so I'm not at all surprised by his costume choice.

Since it takes a long time to make your way through the line of trunks, we brought the stroller along.  Madeline was so funny getting her dress pulled up so she could sit comfortably. She's wearing six yards of fabric!

Madeline graciously let her brother rest in the stroller at times.  He's not a big gum chewer, but he thought he might chew some while he was waiting to move on to the next car.

Lollilops, of course, are never far from Madeline's mouth.  

Another favorite around these parts are Starbursts.  So we had some pretty happy kids.

And then after all the trunk or treating was over, the kids hit the bounce houses.  We actually packed a change of clothes for Madeline in case she couldn't bounce in her dress, but she did a fabulous job holding it up.  No wardrobe change was necessary.

Then it was time to head home.

And dig through each others bags at least one more time, looking for pieces to trade.

And there she goes again with another lollipop and her "I'm gonna look at my brother and pose" pose.

On Halloween night, we headed over to our friends' neighborhood to trick or treat with them.  This is how they passed out candy.

And here's our little candy eating crew.  The three big kids headed one way and the four little ones another.

The kids had a great time going door to door.  While a lot of people sat on their front porches passing candy out, some of them stayed inside and waited for little ones to ring the bell or knock. Well, Miss Madeline was so very eager to ring that bell.  She was too funny.

For more fun photos, stop by Lisa's blog.
Have a great weekend!!!