Happy 9th, Delilah!!!!!!

Happy 9th, Delilah. You are resilient, funny, smart, curious, and confident. You do crazy things with your body and voice and face to make everyone laugh. You take excellent care of your little sister and want to play games more than anyone I've ever met. You love art projects and crafts and playing outside. You make friends easily and quickly feel at home wherever you are. You are a delight.

For awhile, it's been known in our family that each child's first visit to Broadway will be when she turns 9. I gave you a choice of shows, and you chose Wicked. What a fantastic choice.
On Friday, all four of us drove to Rye; Daddy & Noelle stayed at the Herz's, and you & I continued on to NYC via the train. We checked into our hotel, the Paramount, which you loved because it was so "fancy and posh." In the lobby, you kept saying, "thank you so much, Mommy. This is so nice. Thank you!!" We dropped off our bags, then headed out for dinner. I hadn't made reservations because I didn't think it would be that hard to find a place...I was wrong. I felt bad, but you spotted a Buffalo Wild Wings, and said, "Let's go there! I love Buffalo Wild Wings!" We had a fun dinner, and you got the biggest drink of your life. :)
It was finally time for Wicked. We had great seats, and you were mesmerized from the start. When it was over, you couldn't stop talking about it; I was thrilled your first Broadway experience was such a good one. In the morning, I ran down to the hotel's bakery and picked up some croissants...it was your first croissant and you immediately fell in love. I absolutely loved our overnight trip to the city...it couldn't have been more special.
We took the train back to Rye and met the Herz's for lunch and a playdate. Then we headed to the Beatty's to spend the night. Mrs. Beatty hadn't told Emma you were coming, and the screams and tears of excitement when y'all saw each other were one of my favorite parts of the weekend. A babysitter watched all the kids that night, while the adults went out to dinner. (For some reason, we forgot to take any pics with the Beattys...sorry about that!) In the morning, we headed back to Lenox.

I think it may have been the perfect birthday weekend for you. :)
We love you so very much, sweetie.

Canada!

About 6 months ago, I mentioned to Jennie that I was probably going to take the girls to Niagara Falls sometime soon. She said she had always wanted to go, so we decided to wait until Spring Break when she and Alexa were free.
We had so much fun! Drove up Monday morning, stopping at a hole-in-the-wall pizza/gyro joint for lunch...best gyro I've ever had made by the sweetest chef ever. The girls agreed that for our big road trip in May, we should try to stop at as many hole-in-the-wall joints as possible.
We arrived in Niagara that afternoon, after a disappointing trip over the border: who knew they don't stamp passports anymore?!?
Our hotel was not the nicest, but we made it work. We were surprised by how tourist-y the town was...sort of a cross between Coney Island, Sunset Blvd, and Las Vegas. The falls were amazing. We were there during the "off-season" so our Journey Behind the Falls didn't take us out into the falls, but we did get to go underground and view the falls from behind...very cool. We also had dinner one night at the Skylon Tower's revolving restaurant...775 feet above the falls! The visit to Bird Kingdom was very cool, even if I did get attacked by one of the birds during feeding time. On Wednesday morning, we left for Toronto, but at the last minute I decided to take the girls on the boat tour of the falls. I had thought the Journey Behind the Falls would be enough, but I just couldn't leave without taking the boat tour. So glad we did...it was incredible! We got soaked but it was worth it. The only sad part was a moment when Noelle went inside and started crying; I asked what was wrong, thinking she must be cold and/or scared, but she said, "I just wish Daddy was here. He would be having so much fun." Such a sweetheart!!!
After the boat tour, we drove to Toronto to have lunch with Franca and meet her new son, Elijah. Such a cutie!!! We had a lovely, long lunch and then headed to Montreal. We got to our Montreal hotel (which was an adorably chic boutique hotel) around 7pm, and decided to just order pizza and watch TV...we were exhausted!
Early the next morning we got up and headed to the archaeology museum. Well, I thought we were heading to the archaeology museum. Turned out I had us going in the wrong direction, so we wasted 20 minutes walking the wrong way. The girls were beginning to lose their good spirits, so once we were headed in the right direction, we stopped at a chocolate shop. Chocolate covered ice cream before lunch...happiness returns!
The archaeology museum was incredible; they actually built it around an excavation site, so there were real ruins to see in the basement. The girls learned about Montreal's history, and had a blast exploring the pirate ship exhibit.
We grabbed a late lunch  and were planning to start the drive home, when Delilah asked if we could please go to the Montreal Science Center that we had walked past. By the time we got there, there was only about 90 minutes before closing time, but it was worth it. Great hands-on exhibits...wish we had more time to explore.
We got home around 9pm, exhausted and happy. And I managed to bring home the flu...was knocked out for the next three days, but grateful that I hadn't been sick in Canada!
It was great to take a small road trip before our big one next month. The girls are fantastic travelers...easy going, adventurous, and happy doing just about anything. Can't wait to explore more with them!!

Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

The weather is turning warmer, finally, but there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground in some places. We decided to go on a local field trip and explore. The Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the Mass Audubon system and located just a few minutes away from our home. As the girls put it, "It's like a giant Rye Nature Center."  We took a brief hike around the pond and look forward to taking the longer hike up to the fire tower when it warms up even more!

Lots of pictures on bridges because the girls love bridges and do the "Happy Bridges Dance." Can't wait to see how this place transforms over the seasons!