They are down from Maine for a visit with Grandma and came by on their way to Jersey. I haven't see the kidlings in 6 months (gasp!) and can't believe how much they had grown. William is talking up a storm and Eileen is scooting around on the floor and giving out heart melting hugs. 
It was fun to play with them and chat with Karen again. We enjoyed a yummy lunch and some time at our local park complete with a rainbow shaped sprinkler which William really enjoyed 
My Co-worker and pal Marcela organized a group of us to go and convinced me to head over. I am glad she did. When we arrived it was clear we were in the right spot. Every "kid" there was between the ages of 28-32! It ended up being lots of fun to sit and cheer with everyone else at our favorite scenes while eating snacks and enjoying beer in secondary containers. 
It ended up being a gorgeous clear night and the rain that day ushered in a weekend of low humidity and cool temps. There are outdoor movies all over the city in the summer. If you are local definitely check one out!
One nice thing about jewelry making is I can get up in the morning and get dressed and then make a custom necklace to go with my outfit. Here is my white bead on clear elastic necklace I whipped up this morning while eating breakfast. Fun! It doubles really nicely too.
The colors are so pretty! 
Now I just need to design the project!
PERFECT! They held all the groceries, all fit in the cart and are strong enough to carry a lot of weight. Here is my bag on the left and the original template bag on the right. I just need to find a way to give mine a nice looking print too! 
Today I am packing up, picking up photos at Costco and having dinner with my in-laws tonight before getting on the plane. 
See, Ewan is sad to see me go! He is even cute when he cries! It has been a whirlwind visit but thanks Rachel for tolerating more visitors and thanks Mom and Dad for the free room and board!
Finally some awake time!
A big kiss from Auntie Lexie. He was being such a good baby at the mall and we will take every minute we can get!
He is even sweeter in person! Ewan is a very content baby (at least when I was there on Monday). 
Unfortunately he prefers sleeping to eating so mom and dad are working on keeping him awake long enough to get a good feeding. I was lucky enough to go with him to his first visit with the pediatrician who said he was doing very well. Mommy is doing well too.
Plus Matt and Heather.
I love my husband but these were the worst seats ever purchased. We were on the Loge level which was a great height but we ended up at the back of the section under the overhang. I can't blame him really since there was no info about the view online but this is how we watched the game:
Anytime the ball went in the air we lost sight of it. We had to bend down to see the scoreboard. It was terrible. Plus there was a leaky pipe over a couple of our seats which was kind of gross for the people sitting there. The game was OK. A little slow most of the time. We had one home run and ended up winning the game which was great. The saddest part was walking down to the bottom of our section after the game was over to see this:
The view we could have had! This experience made me want to take in another Yankees game. No matter how bad my seats were in that stadium, they were always better than the Mets!
Here it is on me in the office.
Mom got really interested in bead shopping when we went to the second bead store and she found a stone that perfectly matched the shirt she was wearing. We took it home and I made her a pendant necklace out of it. 
Those are some matching shell earrings too. I also made a necklace using some beads Marcia had sent me. 
It doesn't look like much here but it turned out cute too. I ended up making some little beads that matched that could slip onto a small hoop earring for a coordinated look. More items are in the works!
On my Mom's last day in town we decided to take in a quick tour of the NYC Waterfalls exhibit. This an art installation by Olafur Eliasson who likes to experiment with water. He has installed 4 waterfalls on the East River in various locations. We went down to the South Street Seaport to take a tour of the falls.
You can actually see all 4 waterfalls from the dock but what fun is that. For $10 we got to take a boat ride with Circline around the river to take a closer look at each one. The most impressive is the first photo, the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge. I think it is the widest waterfall. Next is the waterfall on the Brooklyn water front. The tallest I think of the 4. 
Being on the boat was really as much fun as seeing the falls. It was so nice being on the water and getting a nice breeze as the boat raced around. We stood right in the front for the best view.
Here is the waterfall on Governor's Island. We had a really nice view of the Statue of Liberty from here as well as lower Manhattan. The water was choppy here because of a great deal of boat traffic which made our boat bounce around. We loved it!
This sad waterfall on Manhattan's waterfront was turned off. We heard it was because the wind was blowing the water onto land and flooding the area. Not sure if that was true. The boat tour was supposed to be 30 min long but there was a little congestion at our dock so we got a second trip over to the Brooklyn Bridge waterfall while we waited for the dock to empty. A nice little bonus. It was a quick trip but we had a great time.
Another fun thing Mom and I did during her visit was go to Mood. We spent one day mostly shopping and stopped in at the fabric store that the contestants on Project Runway shop at. If you watch the show you know what I am talking about. It was so cool to be at this store we see all the time on the show. It really is like they show it, rows and rows of fabric stacked floor to ceiling, 3 floors worth.
Mom and I got a whole new appreciation for the contestants who often get only 30min or an hour to shop. This store is a huge jumble with very little rhyme or reason and the bolts are literally piled up. You can hardly see the fabrics without pulling things out to look at them which would take a long time. The people who work there are very helpful and eager to assist you which I also noticed on the show. We didn't buy anything this time but I got some good ideas for curtains and may go back to pick up some fabric. The photo below is from the home decor fabric area which they never visit on Project Runway but was still cool to check out.
Sorry for the lack of posting lately. As you know my mom was in town for week and once she was gone I had to study for my Stern math competency test (which I took last night and passed with flying colors). But the biggest news right now is that I became an Auntie on Sunday night. The Bothwell's welcomed 8 pound 3 ounce
We stayed for about 10 min but because of the rain we went home and watched the last 10 min on the tv. Who knew we had a fireworks view! On Saturday we went to Woodside to stroll through a street fair. 
Unfortunately it was a standard street fair and nothing special. Once again the rain started so we headed for the train. My mom had requested a visit to Grand Central Terminal after seeing a PBS special on the building so we spend the rest of the rainy afternoon there checking it out, shopping in the market and having lunch downstairs.
Then it was home for homemade pizza (it was cool enough to run the big oven) and a movie. I great first couple days.
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