Cousins

This past week Ashley, Bryn & Gemma came to visit. They are our former neighbors and more importantly, family. Ashley is married to Rob, Matt's brother, and Bryn and Gemma are our nieces (Chloe's cousins).

The three girls enjoyed playing together and jumping on the trampoline. Bryn, the oldest, would devise the games and Gemma and Chloe would happily play along. Chloe also enjoyed imitating her older cousins and learning new games and lingo from them.

Of course, we had to hit the NYC highlights for children. Our first trip was to the Bronx Zoo where the girls went on a camel ride, rode the monorail, the skyfari and visited the Children's Zoo. We made the complete rounds with a few exceptions but the kids were worn out from all the walking and I don't think they will complain that they missed out on anything.

We also made it to the American Museum Natural History and thanks to a certain movie now on DVD, we were able to take in all the important sites and landmarks from the film. We were the only ones doing the "Ni&ht at the M*se&m" tour as we kept running into the same people over and over again at the "sites". As a treat, we bought the girls the DVD and they watched it on the drive back from the city. I had never seen the movie so I had to watch it later that night to see what the fuss was all about.

The big event of the week was our visit to the Americ*n Gi&l store on Friday. I had made lunch reservations for us all and we did a little shoppy afterwards. Bryn and Gemma were armed with their lists in hand. Chloe got a baby doll which she named Kylie. Of course, I quickly learned that it wasn't at all about the baby doll to Chloe but the accessories. As soon as I removed Kylie from her box, Chloe put her down and informed me that the doll was asleep and to bring on the diaper changing kit and backpack carrier because she wanted to play with those things not the doll. I did learn though that a Chinese-American doll, Ivy Ling, is coming out this November--just in time for Christmas and Nana has already said she would jump on the chance to get it for Chloe (thanks Nana!).

NYC may have the Statue of Liberty, ferry boats, subways, shopping, etc. but none of NYC's landmark sights could compare with the premiere of Hi&h Sch%%l Musi*al 2 on Friday. I learned a great deal more than I ever wanted to about it from my nieces who were glued to the tv on Friday in anticipation. I made an unfortunate decision in an effort to be a cool aunt and recorded the show on the DV-R. BIG MISTAKE! I believe the show was played and replayed no less than 10 times over the weekend. As someone who had never seen 1 (and didn't really want to) and didn't get what all the fuss was about over #2, I know I could sing every song in the movie now as they are still running through my head---thanks Gemma.

Now that all the fun and excitement is over, Chloe is completely worn out. She loved having her big girl cousins come to visit and has been talking incessantly about it since they left.