NYC for Aria's 1st Birthday- July 2015

Aria is 1!

James and I went on a mom-son adventure into the city to go to Aria's 1st Birthday party. It's so fun that he's old enough to do this stuff now. I am not the kind of mom that likes lugging a diaper bag and stroller on trains and subways, but now he's an independent little walker. Still, we left at 11 am, and got there at 12:40 pm, so it was a long ride for the little guy. There were a lot of are-we-there-yets. The good part is that he's also funny now-- on purpose, like adults-- so he entertained both of us on the way there and cracked me up. I love him like crazy.

Excited about the LIRR; conductor punched a smiley face; Brooklyn subway love.

At last, we got to Washington Market Park, site of Aria's birthday party. First of all, this park is beautiful. The party's home base was the gazebo and Christina's pink-gold-and-white decorations were so pretty. They also had a ton of food and drinks with big and little eaters in mind. Yum.

Gazebo in the city.

Christina and her 1-year-old girl, Aria.

The park also had a very fun playground complete with a splash area. Could James have happily lived out the rest of his childhood there? Definitely would have prefered it.

James and Hudson queuing up for the slide.


Wee!

Splash!!

Stomping joy!

There were two types of cupcakes, and a baby cake smash. Your parents threw you the best birthday party, Aria. Learn to say, "thank you." Haha.

Cake time!

I wish for another party.

Gentle cake smash with grandma

Triple the cute. Aria scored some cupcake right after this.

James and Hudson are very pleased.

New York Transit Museum 2015

On Saturday we went to the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn because everyone says it's a kid-favorite. It was pretty reasonably priced, and it was very kid friendly in that there was a lot of space where kids could run around and there were multiple buses and subways to play on so that sharing was not a huge issue.

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

Now boarding!

Kevin teaching him to pump gas!

The concept is pretty cool: the entire museum is housed inside an old subway stop. Be warned though, there's no coat check so if show up with ten million layers you'll be stuck carrying them. You also don't want to deal with stroller on the subway steps.

So many model trains!

Wrong lesson here.

Outside an old subway train.

Inside an old-timey subway train.

Going for a pretend ride underground.