Lily is a Teenager!

I can't believe Lily is 13 now!  These years have absolutely flown by.  We are so incredibly proud of this girl and the young woman she is becoming.

Grandpops and Grandma Jan sent her these beautiful flowers to say happy birthday.

Lily's friend, Molly Kate, came home from school with us and spent the night.  We had dinner at Willy's and then came home for a slice of cookie cake.  The girls stayed up super late just hanging out and having fun together.  Lily loves being with her friends, so this was a wonderful way to spend her actual birthday.

I asked Lily my annual questions to see what some of her favorite are right now; I think it's fun to see how this changes over the years.

Color - Pink

Movie - Lion King (the new one)

TV Show - Jessie

Book - The Thing About Jellyfish

Drink - Dr. Pepper

Memory - Our time in Italy over Christmas last year

Friend - Molly Kate and Avery; can't choose just one

Bible Verse - Proverbs 31:25

School Subject - Math

Food - Soft Pretzels

Activity - Hanging out with friends

Place to Go - Disney World if it can be anywhere, but the Aquarium if in Atlanta

Game - Suspicion

Restaurant - Willy's

Animal - Otter

Most Thankful For - Friends and family

Goal for the year - Read the entire Bible, starting in January

Lily has so many great qualities.  She is such a loyal friend.  She is hilarious and clearly has inherited her father and grandfather's sense of humor.  She is inquisitive and you can see wheels turning in her head a lot.  She is naturally smart and enjoys learning.  I love listening to her play the piano or sing; she is very musically talented.  She is trustworthy and reliable.  Ryan and I are so crazy proud of her.  Here's to a great year!

NYC Mother Daughter Trip, Day 5

We couldn't believe Thursday had arrived; it was our last day!  We went to Junior's for breakfast; it was so good again.  Next door to Junior's was a store specializing in Broadway shows.  They had the marque posters out for all the current shows, so we had to get these two.

We walked back to Times Square; it's unbelievably crowded all the time.

We walked back to Carlo's as well, and this time I couldn't resist a slice of his rainbow cake with lots and lots of sprinkles.  It was quite delicious.

We walked over to test out Gulliver's Gate.  It was actually really cool.  It has so many scenes from around the world, but everything is shrunken in size.  It was a really neat way to see so much of the world!

Finally, it was time to leave the city and take a taxi back out to JFK.  We both liked these cool little iPads on lots of tables so you play around or order something to eat.

We made it home safe and sound that evening.  I put together these pictures of the steps we took Sunday through Wednesday.  We walked A TON.

This was a wonderful trip where we made a million memories in honor of Lily's 13th birthday.  I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to do this.  Taking a bite out of the big apple with one of my favorites was fantastic!

NYC Mother Daughter Trip, Day 4

Wednesday was another fun-filled, beautiful day.  We started off at Best Bagel for breakfast, and I'll admit, they were really good.  We both had plain bagels with blueberry cream cheese.  Yum-o.

We took the morning to walk down to Chelsea Market which was neat to see.  It reminded me a lot of Ponce City.  It's where Food Network is headquartered, so we were hoping to see some famous chefs, but unfortunately, we didn't.  Oh well.  It was still fun to walk through all the specialty shops.

After the market, we decided to walk back on the High Line.  This gave some fabulous views of the city.

When we made it back to Times Square, we realized there was another smaller Sugar Factory.  We couldn't resist!  Lily had the same "Lollipop Passion" but I tried "Ocean Blue."  Both were still delicious.

After taking a small break at the hotel, we walked back over for Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  It was neat to see all the patronuses on the wall.

We had to represent Ravenclaw too!

Part 1 is about 2.5 hours long.  There's a couple hours break in between, so we walked over and had dinner at Becco's which was a pretty tasty Italian meal.  Then we walked back over to the theater to enjoy Part 2 of the show.  The special effects throughout were unbelievable.  I'm so glad we were able to go see this.

NYC Mother Daughter Trip, Day 3

Tuesday morning started with a fun breakfast at Alice's Tea Cup.  We shared some Hawaiian Dream tea.  I had a couple of fantastic scones; one was mixed berry with clotted cream while the other was a savory ham and cheese one with butter.  Lily had an omelet and potatoes.  It was all delicious.

After breakfast we walked over to the American Museum of Natural History.  This has been one of my favorite museums in the world for a long time.  I was so excited to get back and introduce this to Lily!  The dinosaur exhibits is my absolute favorite part.

There were lots of taxidermy exhibits all throughout which were so well done and showed off so many different animals.  Lily took approximately a bajillion photos (okay, fine, it was 215) of all the exhibits, but I only put a few of them in here. 

This was a fun exhibit as Polynesian music was playing, and there were all sorts of fun things to see.  We loved seeing the Easter Island statue like from the movie Night at the Museum.

Other fun exhibit pieces...

The sea life exhibit was very interesting; look at this humongous whale that took up the whole room!

After spending several hours at this museum, we decided to meander through Central Park.  It was another gorgeous day, and it was so lovely to just take our time and wander.

On the flip side of Central Park was Dylan's Candy Bar.  It was awesome!!! (and incredibly bright).

We had to try their crazy milkshakes and fun drinks.  Lily's was called "The Carnival."  It was a died blue vanilla shake with cotton candy ice cream, cotton candy, rock candy, and a sour gummy rope on it.  Mine was "The Birthday Cake."  It was a birthday cake batter flavor with chocolate sauce shake with a slice of birthday cake with tons of sprinkles on top.

I loved this wall that was downstairs.  All sorts of fun candy sorted by color.

After being stuffed at Dylan's, we walked back towards Central Park where we took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park.  Patrick was our driver and Lucy was our horse.  It was a relaxing and fun little ride.

At the end of the ride, we got to feed Lucy some carrots.

After the carriage ride, we walked across the street to The Plaza Hotel's food hall.  It had all sorts of cool restaurant stalls.  Unfortunately, we were still stuffed from Dylan's so we didn't eat anything.

We walked back towards the hotel, but we stopped at some shops in Rockefeller Plaza on the way.  First up was American Girl.  It was huge!

After that we stopped in the Lego Store because that's always fun.

The last store was FAO Schwartz because it's an iconic store in NYC.

The Big piano!

We went back to the hotel to freshen up, and then we walked over to see Wicked.  This is such an amazing show!  It was awesome to be back on Broadway and seeing these incredible performers.  Lily loved this show and has said it was her favorite part of the trip.

Such a fantastic day!