believe it or not

From our hotel window we could see a giant gold hand, and it turns out it was connected to the Believe It or Not Museum. The boys really love all the creepy and strange illusions in there ;)

sea glass carousel

This is such a cool carousel ride right at Battery Park at the edge of the ferry terminal. The original music, light and movement is so unique.

Seaglass Carousel from LB on Vimeo.

ferry

It was a bit gloomy, but we cruised past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island Ferry (eating the big bags of candy we'd collected at Candytopia). We saved the Statue of Liberty up close visit until after they are done renovating the National Park area.

candytopia 1

This place! There was a surprise around each corner!  So many fun things made out of teeny tiny candies!

candytopia 2

Such cool art!

candytopia underwater

Every room had such a feel to it - and a chest full of candy to collect!

marshmallows!

The whole experience ended in a room with a giant pit of foam marshmallows! It's such a thrill to jump in and swim around!

candytopia photo ops

So, so many photo ops!  The confetti was still in our pockets days later!

broadway

We couldn't decide between Lion King and Aladdin so we went to both! The Lion King was both boys' first official Broadway show, and what an epic show it is!  We were in the third row on the aisle and when the giant animal puppets come up the aisle at the intro it was so much fun to watch the expressions on the boys' faces! Aladdin was such a fun show with some magic and comedy mixed in on a really spectacular set!  From the second row you really felt like you were part of the action!

ice skating

The iconic ice skating on Rockefeller Center!

m&m

We stayed just south of Times Square so there were many walks through the action. Can't beat chugging some M&Ms!

lego

Turns out they can make Rockefeller Center even more fun with a huge LEGO store!

nintendo

The only Nintendo store in the world!  There were two visits to this highlight!

nyc!

The birthday boy woke up on his big 1-1 and went straight over to do what he loves at his Saturday acting rehearsal from 9-1pm - Then we swooped him off to Union Station for the quick train ride up to NYC!! We arrived in time to soak in some of that NYC magic (and then go to bed - poor momma was sick, a walking Mucinex commercial, but we made the most of it!)

pokemon night

A favorite family fun night for the Brennan brothers, Pokemon night! This year they were in full trading and playing mode decked out in their gear.

2nd class party

Keaton has such a nice class that gets along so well! They danced to the monster mash and wrapped each other like mummies.  Then it was crafting time along with giant pudding graveyards. It's always fun to get to know more of this classmates. He did so well moving to a new family group at the school this year and has adjusted to barely knowing anyone in his class really well... although he still misses his old friend he still gets to see them sometimes and I tell him that it means double the friends once he gets to third grade!

run for rocky

It was all superhero smiles from these kids that got lucky with a clear morning/afternoon to run laps to earn money for their school. This year J was out of town so he missed a chance to rock it out as Rocky the Raccoon again. Check out Aiden's teacher Mr. A nomaly rocking the top hat and round glasses checking off their laps on the superhero building windows.

spirit parade

The elementary school plans their big fundraiser Run for Rocky on the same day as the spirit parade. Aiden's class planned their class party around all the other time that day - games and Harry Potter! Hat sorting, wand painting, fortune telling, Potter fact bingo, twister, butter beer, and lotsa treats!  Keaton's class dresses up as storybook characters and he used our old wolf hat, vest, and tail to be a wolf from one of his favorite Magic Treehouse books.  Aiden's class and the rest of the 5th graders made paper hats out of a math/science/vocab concept... He made Angles out of paper towel rolls - acute, right and obtuse! The brothers were pumped to see each other during the parade!

halloween night

The block party was hopping this year at the end of the culdesac with some trees really showing off their color.  It was such a mild night everyone lingered and the kids just kept going and going from house to house - I went through tons of candy in my house covered in green light spiders crawling around ;)

pumpkin

This year it was the Triforce Eagle from Zelda and this "demon toothpick mouth" Aiden carved himself.