Day Trip to NYC

 I'd been itching to get the kids into the city at some point... but since I gave away my double stroller, I was a bit worried that T wouldn't be able to keep up with all the walking... and that my ears wouldn't be able to handle all the complaining.
But he actually did pretty well!
Above, the boys are very excited to ride on the subway.
I bought tickets (T needed one, too!) to take the bus in to the city... we caught an express, which is GREAT... and then we traveled up to Central Park to visit with Kevin.

 Oliver is a bit obsessed with Central Park, New York. Could it be because The Wiggles have a song about it!? We must have sang it a dozen times that morning...

 At the Heckscher Playground.

 They climbed that thing all by themselves. And then I asked Kev to go up and help them down ;)

 Trenton found this ROCK. It was a BIG rock. He insisted on carrying it.

 And then decided that he'd leave it in the park.

 Although the weather was supposed to be 66 and windy, it was really about 75 and HOT in the sun. With little wind. So we ended up eating ice cream at 10AM. Thanks, Uncle Kev!

 Public drinking fountain = your kid is DEFINITELY going to put his mouth on it.

 Then we took the subway down to TriBeCa to meet up with Jen and the kids at the new Pier 25 playground. The new playground equipment is so imaginative, so physical... both boys loved climbing on this web.

 Look at this big boy! Benjamin is an absolute cutie and a great baby.
Below, the boys are absorbed in a Ninjago movie... apparently, it is the next big thing. Brayden had a bunch of Legos that they all played with in the afternoon.

 The big highlight of the day was a visit to the Children's Museum of Art, in SoHo.  Jen's family has a season pass, which is smart, because this place is AWESOME! There were many hands-on things for the kids to do. Above, the boys play with blue flubber and add to the creation on the wall canvas.

 The kids can make a mess-- stamping, stickers, markers, paint--- and someone else can clean it up! Nice!

 This Ball Pond was very cool-- large and medium-sized exercise balls were there for jumping and bouncing.

 One room was full of inspiring music that continually played through these kid-friendly headphones. Trenton totally rocked out to some of it... Oliver loved that he could reach the headphones and listen to whatever he wanted.

 Costumes! To dress up in!

 An enormous pink animal-thing! With extra large combs! For combing pink hair!

 The kids made puppets and could perform at the puppet theatre.
Below, Trenton and Brayden work with a voice synthesizer.

Brayden & Oliver experimented with stop-animation.

 This area encouraged young artists to create self-portraits.
Look at T, below. He's sticking his tongue out. He drew his picture that way, too!

(Finished product scanned in below)

 Ollie made his own tic-tac-toe board. It was adorable. We played together.

 Trenton drew this picture (of "NYC on a sunny day") and wanted to give it to Brayden, Barron, and Benjamin. :)

 The busy subway ride home resulted in the boys holding on to the pole. The two of them made so many people smile. Lots of little conversations with people along the way :) Everyone was in a good mood because of the weather, I think.

And a bus ride home. (Express again!) Ollie fell asleep for about an hour on my lap. T just watched the scenery out the window. They both needed a good bath. And they both want to go back again soon!