Sweetness

Instead of taking his usual 2 full week vacation time this summer, Matt has been taking Fridays off.

It adds an extra fun day to the weekend and gives us the ability to do things in the city without having to fight the weekend+ tourist crowds.

There are still a bajillion people, but slightly less on Fridays.

There are also less if you go before lunch, but we can't always drag ourselves out of bed early.

This Friday, Matt got tickets to go and see the 9-11 memorial with the older kids.

I went and saw it in April when we were up here house hunting, it was really neat, but not something I needed to see twice and with little kids who couldn't care less.

We parked at Staten Island and I hopped on the subway with Grey, Jane and Roe while Matt and Zane, Emma and Kate went to the memorial,.

Our first stop:

FAO Schwarz.

Home of  every toy you could ever think of and the giant piano.....

So much fun.

They have you pose in front of a green screen for a picture before they let the kids go play on the4 piano, then they let in groups of 5 or 6 at a time go play for 3 minutes.

That was great because the kids didn't have to wait to go try it out, but they didn't play on it long enough to have it be a parent's nightmare.

I coughed up the $22 bucks for the picture, but I haven't scanned it to post yet.

I think the candids of the kids playing are cuter, anyway.

We stayed for about 2 hours, and left before we had seen everything.

We walked about 6 blocks to go to our next destination, Dylans' Candy Bar.

Oh my.

It was REALLY crowded and the candy was crazy overpriced, but they had everything.

It was a literal Candyland, for sure.

The kids had a blast.

Ten cent candy sticks for a buck each?

Mom's a softie, she said yes.

It was like a candy museum, they had candy from other countries, candy that I haven't seen since I was younger, and Grey was cute saying things like 'I haven't seen this candy since I was a kid!!"

Hey- you're still a kid.

Don't you be growing up on me too fast.

 If  Mom still takes you to toy and candy stores,  you're still a kid.

After we spent way too much money on not very much candy we went to the third floor and ordered their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate from the cafe.

We all had so much fun.

 I think it was the favorite thing any of them have done so far since we moved here. We've done some seriously fun things and it was a good one to serve as a final summer trip to the city for Jane. She, Grey and Roe were smiling from ear to ear the entire time.

That's going to be one they talk about for years to come.

I'm thankful that we've been able to pack so many fun, new things into this summer.

I hope that when school starts next month, the things that are different can have as many good things that come with the change as we've experienced with out family activities.

The closing ceremonies of the Olympics is about to start- another sign that summer won't last forever.

I have about 40 hours of games I fell asleep during on the DVR, so hopefully I can drag it out until I'm sick enough of it to hold on for two more years.

Dotty

So, I saw this post:

http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-girls-rooma-year-in-making.html

and fell in love with the polka dot walls.

Like, more in love with them than I ever was with Ricky Martin.

We don't have to tell him that.

I'm sure if he saw these cute dot walls that he would understand, though.

photo/projects by http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/

I totally copied the idea.

I made my own stencil out of a stencil blank and circle cutter.

They aren't as evenly lined up as Kimbo's, but we all know I don't measure things.

I love how it turned out.

So does Miss Roe.

When We're Not Touring.....

I'm still doing that class at Big Picture Scrapbooking with the sketches.

I haven't done all of the sketches, partly because we've been traveling so much and partly because some of the layouts involve way too much photo hacking.

Here is what I have finished:

I'm using supplies from my stash, which was one of my goals. For some reason we scrapbookers tend to spend a ton on pretty papers, then we save them for the perfect layout. We all do it and it's silly because I have never done a layout and thought "If only I hadn't used that blue swirly paper I bought last month!!" A large part of the craft is making something cute out of the variety of supplies you have on hand.

It's too easy to just have too many supplies and then you really only use what's on top.

So some of this paper is 5 years old, which is nerdy and sad but I'm glad I'm using it and keeping the looks of the layouts current.

I did go out and waste 20 bucks buying a dozen rolls of washi tape.

Because You Care Where I Put My Sofa..

We settled on what to do with that difficult front room.

It's not for everyone, but Matt and I are both excited about it and we're going to go mid century modern with it.

Don Draper, eat your heart out.

There are so many vintage shops here and massive eclectic flea markets here, we're hoping that we have a lot of fun searching for the items we need.

We settled on the furniture layout  after playing around with the layout of the room on this site:

http://www.planyourroom.com/

Every single wall has either a radiator or a door on it except for one. Ergh.

Since it's a vintage house, we're going to go with it and take the room back into a time warp....

 I purchased this leather covered table for $25 bucks last week, we pick it up on Saturday.

Depending on the actual color and condition of the leather, I may swp that out for something more contemporary.

 We also purchased this sofa. I'm hoping the dimensions are right because the price really was.

It will probably need to be re-upholstered in the long run, but in the short run, I think we have found our perfect curved sofa for our wacky space.

Next on the list...

DC

I'm so so tired.

We went to Washington DC, just for the weekend.

Grey and Roe stayed with their dad and it was just us and the kids who are less prone to whining.

It was too hot. 

We saw the Lincoln Memorial, The White House, Washington Monument and The Wall.

A post about our trip to The Wall will come later, when my eyelids don't feel like they weigh 100 pounds.

It was too hot to keep walking outside, so we ran for cover in The Smithsonian

Hours and hours of art, history and amazing things that we'd mostly only read about and seen pictures of.

Now we have pictures, too.

Words will come on another day.

Too tired and I have a heavy heart.

Aunt Gail passed away last night. We saw her in November and she gave the kids rubber ducks. Roe has about 20 rubber ducks now,she started collecting them after that visit.

It was cancer, we thought she had it beat, but it came back and wouldn't let go this time. 

The date on the calendar changes and just like that, she's gone. 

I'm sorry, Mom and John.

We're a Little Gamey

On any given evening, if you stop by the Olson house you will find that we love games.

Right now we are all glued to the TV watching the Summer Olympics, we are big Olympic junkies here. We got an upgrade to our Dish Network package and can record five different broadcasts at one time now and we have already filled up all of the space with Olympics. We're going to have to set up an external storage to get the rest of the stuff recorded so we can drag out the experience to keep us warm this fall.

We could all seriously watch Olympic games all day, every day. Matt is bummed that he's not able to watch more as his day is swallowed up by work and his commute. I know the next year is going to be a tough one, but hopefully, after he's made his mark in the NYC office, he will be able to have a schedule that allows for some flex time/work from home scheduling.

The kids have been watching fencing, volleyball and rowing during the afternoon. They mute it during the fencing because the freaky squawking noises they make are disturbing.

I tried to find some video on youtube, but got distracted....

***Eh, NBC won't let me embed the video, so if you're so inclined, head over to youtube and just try to get the song out of your head for the rest of the day***

http://youtu.be/YPIA7mpm1wU

When we're not watching the Olympics, we're playing a lot of board games this summer.

I know we're late to jump on the Ticket to Ride train, but we just got this game a few weeks ago. We've played it at least a dozen times. I think I have as much fun when my goal is to mess up every one's strategy as much as when I try to play to win.

  We've also been playing these games a ton:

Thanks Chad for introducing us to Flux

Just got this on Tuesday and the kids are loving it, I haven't played it yet

We use to own this game and then the kids played it and left it out and it got lost so I didn't r4eplace it until just this week. We played four rounds last night.

Grey gets a little bit silly during games. It's funny when it's a game like this, but really annoying when it's a strategy game. We refuse to play Settlers of Catan with him anymore.

I got an email from  my cousin in law (is that what it is? cousin in law?) with some recommendations of other games we would enjoy and I've already ordered one so we can add it to our list of Olson Family Nerd Night activities. Thanks, Paul. :)

What about you?

What are your family favorites?

Fancy Food

Before Parker headed back to Utah, we made sure he was able to get  a taste of one more thing they don't have out west, White Castle.

 The burgers come in a "30 pack" box.

They're just sliders and I think they are absolutely disgusting, but teenagers and potheads everywhere love them.

He didn't actually eat all of those, they kids thought it would be funny to give him their empties and have him pose like Crazy White Castle Man.

Jane thought they were okay, but wasn't in love with them.

I hear you, kid.

Please ignore the kitchen that I just brought to your attention..we have been frustrated that the dishwasher barely works and realized that the moron who remodeled the house hooked it up to the cold water instead of the hot, so Matt fixed it right after we ate.

Parker left yesterday and is safely back in Utah. We will see him again for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It was really nice to have all seven of my kiddos here in this still unpacked and new house.

For a few days, all was right in the world, even though nobody had enough hot water.

I miss him already.

Love love love my kids.