Start spreadin' the news

I'm leaving today/   
(well, not really. We'll be leaving in October)

I want to be a part of it / 
(I just want to experience it for several days)

NEW YORK NEW YORK!

Love Frank Sinatra for these infamous lyrics.

I'm so stinking excited. 


Here's the story. I have a friend whose husband is a pilot and his airline offered a 'friends & family' perk of reduced airfare anywhere his company flies! I know!! While I'm the last person my friend ever expected to take them up on the offer (if you know me at all you know how much I love to fly - NOT), we decided to go for it.

And its New York City in the fall! Tom and I are taking the two big kids, while the littles stay home with Grandma & Gramps. God bless my dear parents for agreeing to this! But it will be a real treat for the little girls too, let me tell you, because Grandma & Grandpa are just the best. There will be chicken dumpling soup, apple cookies with icing, fresh bread and homemade jam and probably a trip to WalMart for a treat of some sort ... and tons of hugs, cuddles, and of course roughhousing around with Grandpa which drives Grandma bonkers.

We had our homeschool facilitator visit on Friday, after which, since school is done for us, its time for the annual academic achievement award. The award is usually something fun but never anything crazy like a trip somewhere. We put the little girls to bed and then coaxed the bigs out onto the deck (I was anticipating shrieking and didn't want them to wake the littles) to tell them the NYC news.

And shrieking there was! Brittany was trembling she was so freaked out by the news, it was so sweet. The big kids will soon be young adults on their own, only a few years left at home for them, so we really wanted to take a trip with just the four of us. Before the little girls came along, it was "just the four of us." There's a six-year gap between Alexa and Dawson, so the bigs do remember life before the family got bigger, and I think sometimes they do pine for it (because after all, life in a bigger family requires you to be less self-centered and give a lot more of yourself for the sake of the others, and often that's not as much, um, fun. You know?)

So here is our plan.

The big kids get to plan the trip. We will have 5 days to hit most of the "biggies." My own personal request though, is to see Van Gogh's Starry Night, Andy Warhol's soup cans  (don't judge), the Shrine of the Holy Innocents (where a candle burns for children who have died before birth, and that includes our little Luke) and maybe a fabric shop ... I think we are staying near one ... is that wrong? I think the kids can work that in. Don't you? 

So I'll keep you posted. I've checked out some amazing books from the library that give a great history of NYC - and it does have a fabulous history - based on that alone I think I will fall in love with it.

Hope you have a great week, may the Holy Spirit shower you with something really great!!

xo