Cousins Camp 2012

Once again Mimi and Big Daddy outdid themselves and put on an amazing "Cousins Camp" for the girls! This year's theme was "Art". As always they had everything meticulously planned and organized and the girls had an amazing two days. These pictures are from the first day when we dropped them off bright and early - 8:30 am. I'll add Mimi's pictures of their time together in the next few posts. Thank you so much Mimi and Big Daddy, your efforts are very much appreciated. 

Tubing with the Sharons

Michael, Amy and the boys rented a house on Lake Tarpon while they were here and invited us to join them for a day of fun out in the boat. They had the biggest tube I have ever seen!! We had such a nice day boating, tubing, kayaking, swimming and hanging out with friends. Thank you so much Sharon family.

Carter and Meggie

Ellie caught a baby lizard. I am going to have to check her luggage when we return to NZ to make sure she hasn't tucked in any lizards - she's quite fascinated by them.

Boat time!!

Their first go - happy but a little nervous.

Harris and Carter watching the girls who had a really long run. They were very patient waiting for their turn.

The girls got the hang of it quickly.

Now it's the boys' turn. 

While the girls had a second go on the tube Harris had fun playing in the water on the side of the boat.

And Carter hung on the rope.

But during the boys' second turn, the girls just sunbathed.

Thanks for pulling us all Michael.

Carter and Katie try out the kayak.

It was very pretty down the canal beside the house, I love the trees!

New York - Part 2

The fun continued in New York . . . 

Battery Park to look at the Statue of Liberty. 

Watching street performers in the park.

And tipping them of course.

Dinner at Max Brenner's - what a great experience!!

The ambience is great - pipes filled with chocolate, or so they say, run throughout the restaurant.

Chocolate pizza with various toppings.

Girls with their dinner - peanut butter and banana sandwich with chocolate dipping sauce and gummy bears for decoration.

They also made great cocktails - me and Ali with our Mojitos.

The whole table - girls just received their dessert.

They did split it. 

Ali and I split s'mores - brazier on right was to cook our marshmallows over.

Pretty cool!

After dinner we popped into the shoe store next door. I told Anna and Ellie I would buy them both a treat if Anna taught Ellie how to tie her shoes. 

Breakfast at Pick-A-Bagel, a New York tradition.

Central Park.

The Boathouse at Central Park right before we got kicked out for bringing our outside food in - Ali asked the waiter who asked us to leave to take our picture first :).

The hustle and bustle of 5th Avenue. Took the girls there to go to FAO Schwarz and to look at all the amazing window displays in the stores.

New York Pretzels - yum!

FAO Schwarz - best toy store ever.

Lego Statue of Liberty.

I was SO excited to read the night before that Ellie's favorite artist had an exhibition in NYC as well as teaming up with Louis Vuitton to design some of their items. We had been to one of her exhibitions in Wellington and Ellie has talked about it ever since wondering when we could see more. How perfect that Yayoi Kusama had been to NYC!!

We also went to the Whitney and saw her installations there - most were different from what we had seen in Wellington so it was a real treat for Ellie.

Times Square

Dinner before seeing Wicked.

When I came here with Josie she got up and sang an entire song with the waiter, but Ellie would have preferred the singers not come to our table at all!

After dinner we had time to pop down to the Times Square Toys R Us, which has to be my least favorite toy store ever, but Ellie really wanted to see the giant Barbie house.

I wanted the Prince William and Kate barbie dolls but wasn't sure how I would get them home.

Wicked!!!

Mama and Papa's awesome new apartment.

Closet was so big you could use it as a bedroom!

We had an amazing trip, can't wait to go back again, thank you so much Mama, Papa, Ali and Anna!!!!