Halloween Wrap Up

Wow I am not very good at keeping up with this.  I was planning on writing a few Halloween blogs, but instead I will summarize.

The month of October was super busy for us.  We had a Halloween related activity planned for every weekend.  I have to say Halloween has become one of our favorite holidays to celebrate with Eli, and this year we were able to do so along with great friends.

PUMPKIN PICKING @ ALSTEDE FARMS: 

As usual we took our annual pumpkin picking trip, and ventured out to a new pumpkin patch.  This time we visited Alstede Farms in New Jersey.  I'm not sure if this is a very popular farm but I have to say it was PACKED! They do have lot's of activities for the children and a great petting farm, but it was way too crowded in some areas.  Aside from that it was a great trip that Eli got to enjoy with his buddy Steven. Here are some of our favorite pics:

For this trip we had Delilah, Steven, and "Nina" Keyla join us.   

 Enjoying all of the hay

 The funniest thing was the boys laughing with the sheep... I don't know what was so funny but they laughed so hard! 

Picking pumpkins

I'll add more pictures on Facebook from this trip.  

HALLOWEEN ARTS AND CRAFTS:

Along with all of the activities we also took some time out to do some arts and crafts with Eli.  Most of it had to do with painting pumpkins and letting daddy do some pumpkin carving.  

The first pumpkin Rigo has ever carved. Eli picked the design.  Other than this our very crafty friend Delilah did an awesome Cookie Monster pumpkin with Steven, and I just had to steal her idea.  I have to say this is one of the best pumpkin ideas, i've seen yet.  

Rigo made the mouth, and carved it.  

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Eli painting the pumpkin. 

The eyes are made out of styrofoam balls, and I used a glue gun to glue the black candy melts for the eyeballs.  Also we used bamboo skewers that we cut, to stick the eyeballs on.  And like Delilah said to me "Don't forget the cookies" lol 

Please pardon Eli's dirty socks in this picture! I swear my house is swept lol 

GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER FALL FESTIVAL:

The weekend before Halloween we got to go to a fall festival that was held at the Greenburgh Nature Center, with some of Eli's best friends.  They had a blast doing lot's of activities.  Here are some of our favorite pictures from that trip: 

 The boys about to take their stroller for a ride lol 

 Trading dads (Sometimes people think Eli & Aaron are twins lol)

Eli & Steven

 Tired after a long day (we went through a lot trying to get this pic)

Under the parachute with Steven. 

HALLOWEEN: 

Halloween was def. tricky this year, given that Hurricane Sandy had just left New York.  Thank God that Gymboree had a Halloween party for the children on that day, and we were able to put Eli's costume on.  We also did very little trick or treating to the homes that had people standing outside welcoming trick or treaters.  Eli was really into it this year, and he was super happy to have his "nina" Keyla join us.  This year Eli was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. 

As you can see he played the role of Max very well! 

Last but not least Eli was invited to Aaron's Halloween party.  For this occasion he went as none other than Ignacio from Nacho Libre. 

There will be more pictures of the party uploaded to Facebook.

So there you have it! This has been an extremely loooong blog but I'm glad I got through it. Hope you all enjoyed catching up.  For now I am all Halloweened out, till next year! 

XoXo 

Mommy & Eli 

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze/Eli's 1st Election Day

It's Eli's first Election Day!  I decided to take Eli to the voting booth with us today.  One of the volunteers asked Eli if he was going to vote, and Eli's response was "yeah I gonna vote Obama".  He is just too smart! We are team Obama and proud! 

Shortly after voting 

I'm still in the process of catching up on our blogs, so here is how we kicked off our Halloween Celebration in early October.  We decided to take a trip to see "The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze" in the Hudson Valley which is really famous.  We had heard that tickets sell out fast and they were right.  We are very lucky to have went in early October.  If you have never heard of the Jack O'Lantern Blaze it's actually thousands of pumpkins that have been carved with very complex designs and lit up at night.  Words can't describe the beauty of this experience and pictures only do it half justice.

For this trip we had our favorite neighbors, Maria & Diego join us, and my mother also tagged along for the ride.  

Entrance to the Jack O'Lantern Blaze

Grave site made out of pumpkins

In front of the 3 Witches 

Fascinated by the lights 

One of Eli's favorite parts of the blaze were the animals that were put together.  Among the animals there were all kinds of fish, bears, elephants, spiders, cats, and even dinosaurs! 

And last but not least here is a picture of Eli and one of his favorite people Diego.  

We really enjoyed ourselves, and we can't wait to visit again next year! 

Luv

Eli & Mommy 

Visit to the Bronx Zoo

Hi Everyone,  what a crazy week it's been for the east coast.  We hope everyone is okay, and our hearts and prayers go out to the people who were impacted by this terrible storm.

We were able to make it through the storm safe and sound.  We did not lose any power, and we have heat and water. We are very fortunate.  In addition I think that being a parent has made me so much more responsible, because I made sure to fill up my gas tank before the storm and therefor the "gas crisis" has not affected us.

I'm still in the process of catching up on this blog.  With so many events in October it's been difficult to find the right time to sit and upload pictures.  When I opened up this page I realized I had started work on this blog but never finished.  So here is a blog that was intended for a few weeks ago.  It's a visit that we took to the Bronx Zoo in Early September.  Hope you enjoy!

As some of you may know the Bronx Zoo can get extremely crowded during the summer.  We figured in order to get the most out of it, we should visit on a Monday when people are working and the rest of the children are busy with school.  It was the perfect time for a visit.  It was practically empty, and we had the whole place to ourselves.  We want to thank Chag for the VIP treatment, it was greatly appreciated ;)

The first thing we did was go to the Children's section inside of the Zoo. There Eli fed a few of the goats which became his biggest fans.  They would follow Eli everywhere and even posed for this hilarious picture.  

For some reason when we got to the Zoo all Eli kept asking for was the Bear.  So we made it a point to spend a few minutes watching this Bear sit and relax.  Eli loved it. 

After we were done with the bear we got to check out the Dora 3D adventure.  This was one of Eli's favorite parts.  I didn't think he would be able to focus, but he paid attention through out the whole movie and even reached out to catch the "robot butterfly".  Needless to say he was talking about his 3D experience for days. 

We also got to check out the Butterfly exhibit, The monorail exhibit, and Eli got close and personal with a gorilla. I wish we would have gotten a better shot of that, but everything happened so quickly :( 

 intently looking at the "horses" (I forgot the correct name for this species)

Overall we had an amazing time at the Bronx Zoo, and it will be one that we will never forget.  We want to thank Chag for the amazing tour! 

Again our hearts and prayers go out to everyone impacted by Sandy, and to our fellow New Yorkers, we have faith that we will be back on our feet in no time!

Luv 

Eli & Mommy 

Norwalk Aquarium

Hi Everyone! It's been a while and I def. have a lot of catching up to do.  Every time I lose track of this blog I remind myself that one day Eli will be all grown up, and this will help me remember all of the wonderful times we have shared with him.

Summer has come to an end and we are quickly approaching Halloween.  The month of October is jammed packed for Eli with very cool activities.  I don't want to get too backed up with the blogs so it's time I catch up on how we ended our summer.

September 3, 2012 We took Eli to the Norwalk Aquarium in CT.  It's a short drive from where we live, and I had heard great things about it.  As we were preparing to head out Eli insisted that he carry a book bag.  Thankfully our neighbor Kelly had gifted Eli a small Skip Hop bag for his birthday and we were able to give him that to carry his snacks in.  He looked adorable carrying around his bag everywhere he went lol

When we arrived Eli was so excited to see all of the fish, and sharks. We let him lead the way to all of the exhibits.  Which were all pretty cool.  

There were a few things that really stood out about the Norwalk Aquarium that we have not seen in the others we have been to.  

They have a nice indoor toddler play area, that Eli really got to enjoy.  The space is full of matts, and other objects that the children can climb and jump on. It was a nice way for Eli to get rid of a lot of energy lol 

Eli also got to enjoy a pretty large sting ray exhibit.  The wonderful thing about this, was that the sting rays loved a good rub and would come right up to the people to ask for some "loving", Eli really got a kick out of this.  

There is also a Meerkat exhibit.  As you can see from the picture there is this small tunnel with a bubble that the children can pop out of to be "inside" with the meerkats.  Through out the whole time Rigo and I kept thinking of "King Julian" from Madagascar.  Eli is not into the movie just yet, but Rigo and I are fans.

While visiting we just so happen to learn that they had a "white alligator" there, and it was his last day at the aquarium.  We were looking forward to seeing that.  

Eli also got to enjoy a lollipop while sitting next to the alligator.  He actually was so comfortable he didn't want to leave LOL 

Overall the Norwalk Aquarium was great.  It was something that were able to do quickly as it is not overwhelming.  We look forward to going back to visit soon.  

Unfortunately the white alligator won't be there anymore, but I see that they have other great activities going on all the time.  If you are interested in visiting check out their website: 

http://www.maritimeaquarium.org/

Hope everyone enjoyed this blog!

XoXo
Eli & Mommy.

Hello Lancaster!

At the ending of August we decided to take a trip to Lancaster Pennsylvania which is a 3 hour drive

from where we live.  We had heard a few things about Lancaster and couldn't wait to take Eli there.  

We loaded up our car and headed on the three hour drive.  Many of you know Eli was just recently potty trained so I was a little worried about how he would do. Surprisingly enough, we had no accidents whatsoever.  Eli told us when he had to go potty and held it till we made it to the next rest stop.  He is AMAZING! 

We arrived at Lancaster in the afternoon and headed straight to Dutch Wonderland.  

Dutch Wonderland is a theme park made specifically for families.  They have lot's of rides geared to toddlers.  Eli loved every single minute of it.  

The best thing about the park is that it can be done in a few hours in it's entirety.  It's just enough to keep their attention, get all of their energy out, but not too overwhelming.  

The only negative that I found about the park is that their cafeteria was not very good.  The food tasted a bit old.  I would recommend that you take your own food instead.  We did see a restaurant and perhaps that is better than the food in the cafeteria.  

 Leaving Dutch Wonderland with his football souvenir, he couldn't put down :) 

We called it a day and headed to the hotel we booked for the night. We knew it was too much to do 6 hours of driving in one day. I did my research and found the Double Tree Hotel in Lancaster.  The hotel was very child friendly, with a nice kiddie pool to burn out the rest of the energy Eli may have had after the park. From this picture you can tell it wasn't much :) 

Needless to say Eli didn't even have enough energy for us to go out to dinner so we ordered pizza and had a quick dinner in our room.  Our stay at the double tree was great.  Their hotel was very clean, and the staff was super friendly.  

DAY 2

The next morning we checked out and headed to the Cracker Barrel for some breakfast.  Eli was very satisfied lol 

There was one more surprise for Eli before we headed back home.  For the past few months Eli has really been into choo choo trains.  During our research for Dutch Wonderland I found out that there was a place near Lancaster that had old engine trains.  This place is called the Strasburg Railroad.  Not only do they have engine trains they have "THE" engine train of ALL engine trains... Thomas! I knew that this was perfect for Eli.  Unfortunately the weekend we went, Thomas was not running (it's only on certain dates so check before you go).  However we were hoping they would at least let us get a glimpse of him.  

Upon our arrival we got to see one of the engine trains arriving and Eli's face was truly priceless.  

Eli also got to meet the conductor 

Beautiful scenery of the country side 

The ride is about 40 minutes which is perfect for a toddler with a short attention span.  We got to look at the country side, cows, and horses. They also blew the whistle a lot and that was Eli's favorite part.  

And FINALLY... We got to take a peek at Thomas...  That face of excitement means EVERYTHING to me! He was a little upset that Thomas wasn't running, but I just told him that Thomas was tired and he was resting.  Overall we had an amazing trip to Lancaster and are thinking of going back soon.  

Luv 

Eli & Mommy.