ride the teacups and let go!

boys at Disney World on the tea cups

We are home from our magical vacation to Disney World. We had an amazing seven days away, and I can’t believe how quickly the time flew by.

We have some incredible memories from the trip, but honestly it was just such a joy to be away from home with just my little family of four. This was our first time to travel away from home for a vacation without any extended family. We did it. We loved it. (Not every single second of it, but we loved it.)

I plan to do some full Disney recap posts with everything we did and all that I learned, but first I just want to encourage you to spend some good, uninterrupted time with your families. We loved this time away together, away from almost all of our distractions, and I would go on a camping trip if it meant we got to have that kind of fun together again.

And I would even ride the teacups a thousand times if it meant I could see these faces just like this a thousand times more. What a joy!

New York City recap via Instagram photos

Sometimes blogging just falls by the wayside when life gets busy and fun! I was really dreading the start of daylight savings time, but now that it’s here I’m so excited. Excited about longer days and more opportunities to play with my boys outside. We’ve had such a fun week since I got back from New York City, but thought I better update the old blog before too much time gets away from me.

As is the new norm with me, I didn’t take a single picture with my big camera. I just took lots of iPhone pictures while we were there.

So if you follow me on Instagram, you’ve already seen most of these. But here they are again!

Over Christmas, my mom and I started talking about how we wanted to visit New York City together so we could just sees some of the shows we haven’t seen yet. We’ve been to NYC quite a few times and have done all of the big “touristy” things, but we just wanted a few days to see as many shows as we could see.

My dad happened to already have a trip planned for work, so my mom and I decided to tag along with him. Of course we got to spend time with him when he wasn’t working, but KK and I just packed in the shows!

We arrived last Saturday morning, and made it to our hotel in Times Square. We rested a little bit before hitting the streets, and I sent a picture to Todd and asked him to show it to Hudson. It was of me signing “I love you” to Hudson. And Todd sent a picture back of Hudson doing the same thing. And my heart melted.

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That night we went and saw Matthew Broderick in Nice Work If You Can Get It. The show was really cute, and it was fun seeing Matthew Broderick on stage. I posted this picture on Instagram and two of my friends left comments that they knew two of the performers in the show. I love how small the world is!

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The next morning, we met some of our family friends at the Waldorf Astoria for Sunday brunch. It was absolutely fantastic. It was a huge buffet full of everything you can imagine with breakfast foods, lunch foods, fresh seafood, sushi, lobster, and then the most beautiful little pastries you’ve ever seen.

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After brunch, we decided to do something we’d never done before in New York City. We went to a garage flea market and searched through all kinds of little treasures. We didn’t walk away with anything, but we did meet some new friends. My dad and I are always making friends with local dogs when we go on trips.

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After the flea market fun, we all went to see Newsies together. I have been dying to see Newsies since it debuted on Broadway. I have always loved the movie and the stage production was absolutely fantastic. I loved all of the dancing so much! The vocals were brilliant and it was just so great. I highly recommend it!

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We had just about an hour to kill before our next show after Newsies was over. So my mom and I ducked into a little Italian restaurant to grab dinner before going to the next show, which was Kinky Boots. Kinky Boots was still in previews when we saw it and it was so much fun! Cyndi Lauper wrote the music and Harvey Fierstein wrote the book. The performers were fantastic. The show was full of energy and pop-catchy music that really does remind you of Cyndi Lauper.

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I’m so glad that we decided to see Kinky Boots!

On Monday, we did as much exploring as we could. We went to the Kravet fabric showroom so my mom could do a little bit of work for her design clients. And then we went to FAO Schwarz to grab some goodies for Hudson and Hayes. And then we stopped by Saks just to shop the shoe department.

The Kravet fabrics are just so swoon-worthy. I am getting so excited about reupholstering some of our furniture before we move into the house.

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Monday was a gorgeous day. We made our way over to Mario Batali’s Eataly and did a little bit of shopping with all the fresh pasta, fish, meat, gelato. We were in heaven. We finally decided to eat in the Pescado area of the market.  The food was fantastic and the whole concept is just so cool!

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On Monday night, we were able to go see Tom Hanks star in Lucky Guy. Lucky Guy was in its second night of previews, and I can’t say enough great things about it. Tom Hanks lit up the stage and was just so dynamic! I couldn’t believe we were seeing him in person. Definitely star struck. Lucky Guy was written by the late Nora Ephron. I don’t typically like plays that aren’t musicals, but this was really great, and absolutely worth seeing Tom Hanks.

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My dad works at Ball State University and he was in NYC in support of the theater department’s “showcase” trip. They brought a few of their graduating students to NYC to perform monologues and short musical numbers for directors and agents. So my mom and I also saw them perform, and we really enjoyed it. I’m just amazed at all the talent!

We got back to Columbia on Tuesday morning, and I picked up the boys. Hudson was at school and Hayes was hanging out at my friend Anna’s house. (I’m so fortunate to have such great friends who love my kids.) I missed Todd and the boys so much while we were gone, but it was great to have a weekend with my mom.

I brought some Newsies hats back for the boys and they were so excited to have them!

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Hugging your brother sometimes looks a little violent.

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