Our Thanksgiving Week Adventures!

Well, we've had a super-busy week, and I haven't had much time for blogging! Monday was my birthday, and we left the older 4 boys with a babysitter and a friend and went out to dinner. We were going to go to a show as well, but most of the Broadway shows don't run on Mondays, and the others we looked into wouldn't let us bring Josiah. So Jeremy decided to take me shopping, instead! :) He gave me a birthday budget, and we went to Macy's and I, being the super-frugal girl I am, even with a birthday budget, shopped the 75% off racks. I bought a pair of jeans and a long cardigan, and didn't even come close to spending my budget...but alas, the store was closing, so we had to move on! We stopped outside for a bit and watched people rehearsing for the Thanksgiving Day parade, then headed towards home.

Tuesday morning, we took all the boys to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which ended up being a really fun show. The boys all LOVED it. I had been hoping we could go ever since I first started seeing ads for it months ago, but it was a bit pricey. About a month ago, we took the kids to McDonald's, and they had a promotion going on with a coupon code for 50% off up to 8 tickets if you went to a non-peak show time. I was very excited to take advantage of that offer!! It still ended up being a bit of a splurge, but at half-price it wasn't too bad. We took some pictures afterwards...I'll try to get those posted over the weekend. Afterwards, we headed back to Macy's (hey, we were pretty close!) so I could spend the rest of my birthday money. They must really be hurting right now, because even a lot of fall and winter clothing was 65% and 75% off already. Now I don't shop often, but it seems early to me for fall/winter to be marked down that low. We were blessed with (almost) free $$ as well...Jeremy was going down one of the ancient wooden escalators (they have modern ones in parts of the store, and these really OLD looking wooden ones in other parts) and it caught the bottom of his shoe and tore a chunk out of it. An employee saw him getting off the escalator and Jeremy just laughed it off, saying it was no big deal, he was just glad it didn't get his toes. But he was given a $50 gift certificate anyway! The funniest thing about it is that he was wearing his old sneakers that he bought at Walmart about a year ago for $25. Nothing like turning a 100% profit on year-old Walmart shoes! :)

Wednesday we stayed home. Josiah had a bit of a tummy bug and threw up all day, which was extremely worrisome to me, and of course created lots of dirty laundry. He, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered by it at all. He was a little more tired than usual, but still ready and willing to flash his trademark dimpled smile to anyone and everyone. Jeremy took the 4 older boys to see the parade floats being inflated, but the lines were atrocious so they looked from across the street a ways away for a few minutes then headed back home.

Thursday morning we woke up at 5:30 to get everyone ready for the parade. We ended up leaving the apartment at about 6:45 and getting to the subway station a few minutes later, and were surprised that the subway was already as crowded as it was. We ended up getting to the corner of 71st and Central Park West by about 7:15, and had a decently close-to-the-street spot.
We were next to a family from Long Island who had two girls about Josh and Jon's ages, and they struck up a friendship right away. We had taken Jeremy's computer along and bought Wall-E for the occasion, so the boys and their new friends watched the movie while we waited for the parade to start at 9:00.

Here's Joey checking out the crowd...


Watching Wall-E with their new friends...


Poor Josiah was about buried in the stroller...we were so afraid he wouldn't be warm enough. He ended up sleeping until the parade started, and then stayed content during the parade, which was convenient!


Well, we HAD a good spot, but what we didn't anticipate was that the second the parade started, people came out of the woodwork and pushed and shoved around us to get to the front. It was insane! Jeremy had run into a nearby Starbucks since Jordan was about to wet his pants, so I had to defend our turf on my own, which is definitely not my forte. I was very relieved when Jeremy came back a few minutes later! I joked with him after the parade that next year, we shouldn't go 2 hours early--we should just show up 5 minutes before it starts then get ready to shove past everyone else!! Of course I wouldn't really do that, but I was certainly irritated by all the people who did!!

I ended up holding Joey up, kind of hugging his legs so that he was practically sitting on my shoulder so he could see. Jeremy held Jordan, and the older boys stood on some step stools that the family we met from Long Island had brought (they had extras) so the children did get to see fairly well. I didn't take pictures at the beginning of the parade, since it took me a while to figure out how to balance Joey and keep from being trampled at the same time. One of the first floats was Bolt the dog from the movie by the same name, and Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) was on that float. Now we let the boys watch a little bit of Disney Channel occasionally, so they've seen the show, but I had no idea they were fans. Jon was practically jumping up and down on his stool, waving and shouting "You rock, Miley, you rock!" over and over again. She waved at him (and, of course, the million or so people standing around us, lol) and he spent practically the rest of the day telling anyone who would listen that Miley Cyrus waved at HIM! It was funny. I wish I had taken a picture, but like I said, I hadn't figured out how to be that coordinated yet! I did finally get some though, so here they are...

A fish balloon...


Dora!

The Energizer Bunny...

The boys aren't big Sesame Street fans, but I enjoyed this float. What was most amazing to me was that the people on the float (and no, I'm not referring to the muppet characters) were the same people who were on Sesame Street when I was a little girl. Does time stand still on Sesame Street or something? I mean, they didn't look THAT old!

A castle float with little girls dressed up as princesses at the bottom and a Disney girl band at the top. I don't remember who they are, but the boys could tell you. They and the little girls standing with us knew exactly who they were. Maybe I should be restricting their TV viewing more...

Even Joey recognized this guy!

Again, no clue who these people are but I thought the float was cool.

Pikachu! Apparently I do successfully censor our TV at least to some extent, because none of my children had a single clue who this was.

Here comes Buzz Lightyear! He, of course, is a favorite in our family...especially among the younger set!

To infinity...and beyond!!

Spongebob...

Kermit the frog...

I passed the camera back to Jeremy, who, by virtue of being at the back of our group was able to get some photos that actually have some of us in them!

Jordan...

Mommy and Joseph, with Jon off to the side. My arms were turning to rubber by this point, so I was having a hard time holding Joey up!

The old holding-the-camera-away-from-your-face-and-snapping-a-picture trick. Jeremy and Jordan...

Joshua...

Joey and I again...

Jonathan, with Shrek coming up in the background...

Horton from Horton Hears a Who!, who is apparently Macy's mascot this Christmas...

Jonathan about to get kicked in the head by Horton...don't worry, it was a near-miss, lol! :)

Joey again...

Joey, Joshua, and I...

Finally, the Big Guy in Red himself!!

Santa Claus has come to town!!

The parade ended up being enjoyable after all, in spite of it's rocky beginning for us! While I'd be perfectly content to let it be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Jeremy and the boys are already making plans for next year. We took one look at the entrance to the subway at 72nd and Broadway, which was absolutely packed and had a long line trailing out to the street, and decided we'd just walk back home. Nothing like some good exercise before a big Thanksgiving feast, lol! We walked about 50 blocks, or 2 1/2 miles. We had a delicious, but late, Thanksgiving dinner, since I couldn't get started until we got back from the parade. But I'll have to save that, and the accompanying pictures (of course!) for tomorrow...it's late, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed!