The school’s Open House will be in a couple of weeks, and there is so much work to get the classes’ Art Vistas projects ready.  Since there will also be an art show during the Open House, the parent volunteers have extra work to prepare.  Out of the 6 projects we did throughout the year, we have to pick one from each kid to show at the Art Show and one to show in the classroom.  So last week, two moms from Connor’s class came over to sort through all the projects with me.  Connor was enjoying having them over and he helped us wrapping up at the end.  What was hard was that I had to go on and spend another 1.5 hours to work on Logan’s class projects too.  Since the mom from Logan’s class and I could not find time to work together, I had to sort through the projects while that mom would do the mounting for the show.  I had also made the teacher name signs last week, and now within the next week, I have to make 57 “paper bag portfolio” for each of the kids in both classes to hold their remaining art projects.  I need to remember about all these work in case I dare to sign up for this volunteering post again next year.

    The timing was not the best as I was away the previous weekend, but I had agreed few months ago to join a group of friends for a quick weekend trip.  So early Saturday morning I left Stuart and the boys to meet up with everyone at Revital’s house.  We took two cars, and the drive up to Napa went by fast while we chatted.  We checked into this beautiful hotel and headed for a quick bunch.  Then we all reported to the spa facility for our scheduled treatments.  This was where we spent the next few hours hanging out and relaxing.  I started with the 50 minutes massage which felt so good that I was not ready for it to end.  Next we hung out in the sauna and the steam room to chat.  I also stayed at the pool to read and ended up taking a nap.  Later we also took our time having some wine and cheese in our room, and taking a short walk up to the vineyard before we made plan for dinner.  We finally decided to use the hotel shuttle to go to Downtown Napa for a delicious dinner.  By the time we returned to the hotel, all of us were exhausted and divided ourselves up into our two rooms to go to bed.  A couple of us ended up watching a movie on TV and went to sleep a bit later.

    I woke up at early hour on Sunday as usual but stayed in bed to read until others were up.  When we were all ready, we went for a big buffet bunch and got ourselves stuffed with food.  This hotel was very nice and we definitely did not spend enough time there, but we had to keep our plan for wine tasting at Gloria Ferrer.  Honestly by then I was full and not as kin to drink more, but it was still nice to sample some wines in this beautiful place.  We hung out a bit longer and wrapped up our girls weekend get-away.  It was a cool weekend relaxing and spending time with everyone, but I was definitely ready to come home and spend the rest of the day with Stuart and the boys. 

    This was a great trip seeing the highlights of New York and spending some time with Gloria and Dora.  On Monday we packed up and had last round of bagel breakfast before we headed to the airport.  We then started getting airline updates to report our flight being delayed.  I was worried that I would miss my connecting flight.  The airline had issued me a seat in a later flight just in case, but I was still trying to be hopeful.  Finally I had to accept the situation as our flight was more than 1.5 hour late.  I was sad that I would not see the kids as they would be in bed, Stuart had to fend for themselves for yet another meal and I had 2-3 more hours to kill at the Denver airport.  Once we arrived at Denver, I said goodbye to the sisters and finally decided to go sit at a cantina.  Having a drink with chips and salsa while blogging was actually a good way to pass the time.  I really enjoyed the trip but I was definitely ready to go home to see Stuart and the boys.  Here are the album pictures of my trip.

     After two days of warm weather, it was quite chilly on Sunday. Our plan was to see Central Park and to check out the Metropolitan museum of art.  We made a mistake by deciding to walk there. Even though it was nice to walk through a different part of Times Square and seeing how beautiful the park was, by the time we arrived at the MET, we were tired.  We had planned to just check out part of the museum since we had already walked a lot, but we managed to see most of what we wanted to see inside.  There were definitely lots of incredible pieces from all over the world and it was fascinating.  Toward the end of the tour, Gloria’ s feet were killing her, so after Dora and I checked out one last exhibit on our own, we called a Lyft to return to the hotel for our nap break.

     In the evening, Gloria decided to stay in so Dora and I headed out and walked toward the famous Serendipity restaurant.  We had a sushi dinner first then we had the delicious frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.  Since it was the final night, so we took a bit longer walk to the 5th Ave before heading back toward the hotel.  On the way, we had a chance to check out the Rockefeller Center and shopped for some more souvenir as well.  This was another 28k step day and it was again too late to talk with the boys on Skype.

     Dora had planned to run 16 miles on Saturday as it was on her training schedule, and she had mapped out her route to circle Central Park.  Dora had already been to the World Trade Memorial, so Gloria and I decided to visit there in the morning on our own.  We rode the subway and walked part of the way to our destination.  The memorial with the pools were made beautifully and seeing everything was quite touching.  We decided against going into the museum, and we just bought a souvenir.  Later we took a walk to the nearby Chinatown and had a dim sum lunch.  When Gloria and I returned to the hotel, Dora was rested, so she and I headed back out.  We walked to check out the Chrysler Building and Grand Central station which was beautiful inside.

    After a nap break again, for the evening we had purchased tickets to see Wicked.  We headed back out to Times Square, and it was even more crowded on this Saturday night.  We failed to find a place to eat without a long wait time, so we just grabbed some pizza to eat up on the outdoor bleachers.  It was a hot day but had finally cool down enough to be quite comfortable sitting there.  It was always interesting watching the crowd in this big city.  Finally it was time for the show.  We had nosebleed seats but we could see fine and were more freed sitting in the back. The show was funny and the singing was incredible.  The 2 and 1/2 hour entertainment went by quickly and we all loved it.  It was a late night and by the time we walked back to the hotel, we were exhausted with 28k steps.  I did not get to talk with the boys or Stuart before we went to bed.

     We awoke early and went out to have a great tasting bagel breakfast, then we figured out our way via the subway to head to Battery Park.  It was still early and foggy to see the Statue of liberty, so we decided to walk around first.  We ended up taking the free ferry over to Staten Island just for the ride; on the return trip, we had a nice view of the Statue of Liberty.  Afterward, the fog had burnt off; we purchased tickets and hopped on the cruise to go the Liberty Island.  It was amazing seeing Lady Liberty up close and hearing the touching history surrounding her.  After lots of pictures and finishing up the audio tour, we were tired and headed back to the hotel for a break.
After a nice nap, we trekked our way to Times Square.  It was fascinating to finally see this place in person, and it was crazy how many people were out there. We did some shopping and had a delicious Italian meal for dinner.  The area was full of energy but at certain point, we were tired and had to make our walk back to the hotel.
     Back at the hotel, I had a chance to get on Skype with Stuart.  The boys talked with me for a bit and said hello to the aunties.  They also showed us how they were playing with the hand spinners.  This was the first day with more than 20,000 steps and all 3 of us had a much needed good night sleep.