For about two months now, Miss Sassypants has been earning marbles to fill a jar as a way to earn this "super secret surprise." For every ten minutes she reads, she earns one marble; plus we throw in a few extras here and there for things like a great soccer game or above-and-beyond good behavior. Well, Thursday night, just in the nick of time, she finally filled the jar! I'll tell ya... this kid was as happy as a pig in poop!
And just what *is* the super-secret surprise, you ask?
Well...
It's...
A trip to New York City!
WHAAAAAAAT???
Yes, my eight-year-old daughter and two if her best friends, along with one other girl (and their respective parents, of course) all hit the road at 8:30 this morning for the 5-hour drive to the Big Apple! The occasion: two of the girls are celebrating their birthdays! I don't know about anyone else, but when I turned eight I got a family party at my grandparents' house and birthday cards with two bucks inside... not weekend trips to New York City! What we don't do...
The hard part was that none of the girls knew where we were going, or how long we'd be gone. That made for an interesting time packing! Plus I had to sneak Helen, Sassy's American Girl doll, out of the house without her noticing.
With all of the covert packing and implementation a success, we loaded into the car, said Goodbye to Daddy and off we went... to pick up the next members of our party. Then to the third stop, we here we loaded all of our gear into my friend C's brand new minivan and off we went (again) to drive 45 minutes to pick up our final passenger. Finally our Minivan Convoy was ready to hit the open road!
We had Sass and E in our vehicle, and they kept trying to guess where we were going. We told them Alabama, Kentucky, the City Dump (to shoot rats, naturally), Canada, Montana... At one point they were talking amongst themselves and TOTALLY GUESSED IT, but we all just pretended we didn't hear them.
We rolled into our hotel in Secaucus, New Jersey in the early afternoon, and left all of the kids in the vehicles with the dads while the moms ran up to one of the rooms and quickly decorated it as an American Girl birthday surprise, complete with Helen and E's doll Olivia, plus invitations for each girl *and* their doll! Then we let the girls into the room and they discovered the surprise - that we were going to NYC and the AG store! we thought there would be screaming and shrieking, but nooooo... I think they were baffled! lol
Nonetheless, once it sunk in they were quite excited and then we were off!
We took a bus into the city that put us at the Port Authority Terminal, and from there we hoofed it. We walked through Times Square (referenced by Sassy as "the place the queen came to in 'Enchanted'") and passed by the Today Show studio on our way to AG. Sass thought that was *so cool* since we watch about ten minutes of "Today" every morning before school.
Then, we arrived...
American Girl Place!
Let me tell you, that place is a dang gold mine! There had to be literally thousands of girls there, parents in tow, squeezing past each other for a chance to buy something! And buy, we did! Sassy had money left on her AG gift card that she earned from selling a bazillion Girl Scout Cookies in the spring, so she finished that off and then some. Plus, since we were celebrating her friend C's birthday, we bought her something as well. Oh, and Helen just *had* to get her ears pierced! Let me just say, though... It was a great experience. I would definitely go back there. As soon as I find a buyer for one of my kidneys.
By the time we were done there, everyone was pretty hungry for dinner, so we went to the Hard Rock Café on Broadway. Yum!! They even did a birthday deal for C and I and gave them ice cream sundaes. Plus we got to see the Beatles' original gray suits, so I was pleased as punch!
On our way back through, we had to stop at M&M World. Holy Tourist Trap, Batman! It was so incredibly crowded in there! Sassy managed a pair of earrings.
On our way back through Times Square we saw... The Naked Cowboy! Yes!!!! I'd been hearing about him, and there he was, in all his tighty-whitey glory!
We made our bus back to Jersey with seconds to spare and finally got settled into our rooms, got the girls showered and settled in. Tomorrow we tackle Ellis Island, Central Park and whatever else comes our way. But for now, I think we all deserve a good night's sleep!
No comments:
Post a Comment