Once upon a time a Yankee whisked me off to NYC. . .

I have always loved NYC, but the adventures I have had there since giving birth to offspring have taken on a lovely fabuliciousness of their own. To this mother of three, New York means escape, adventure and freedom. Therefore, when my husband and fellow escapee announced a surprise getaway to the Big Apple I was beside myself. He had arranged childcare for the weekend (thank you to girl-keepers, Granny and Papaw, and Robert-keeper, Joe and Brad!!!!) so that we could be footloose and fancy free in NYC. In typical Rob style, he had also mapped out culinary destinations to highlight our 36 precious hours in the city that never sleeps. But I digress.

Above: the spread at Champignon Madison- my breakfast destination around the block.
We stayed at an Episcopal retreat house which was converted from an Upper East Side mansion. None of the homes on 95th have courtyards, except House of the Redeemer. (see above)
JP and Megan came into town on Saturday. I spent a warm beautiful afternoon with them on 5th avenue.
Friday night Rob took me to a small hidden bar in the Flatiron district called the Raines Law Room. We sat outside and chatted. View from the garden there:


Inside.
Handsome guy I met inside.
Then we went to an Asian tapas restaurant called Zengo. Paul Edwards and Joe Alley joined us for dinner there. :)
Outside.
To crown our culinary weekend, Rob led me to dinner on Saturday at LE BERNARDIN!!! (Celebrity chef Eric Ripert's restaurant).
If you watch Top Chef, you have seen Le Bernardin featured in season 6 and you know Eric Ripert as a guest judge. It turns out that Le Bernardin is also the highest rated restaurant in the 2011 Zagat guide to New York City. How do I know? Because they gave us a copy on the way out!
Rob really knows how to spoil a girl. Our meal was spectacular with clean fresh seafood flavors at every turn. My favorite- Hawaiian escolar with carrot and ginger puree. And the desserts were plentiful and yummy. See below.
A very happy couple.
Then we met JP and Megan at London, one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant/bars.

On the way home we stopped for a photo shoot of 2 St. Thomas boys at their alma mater.
Thank you Rob for a spectacular celebration of 10 years with YOU!

As Mama's gumption rises, the kids' temperatures rise

The past few weeks have been full of ambition (mine) and contrition (that of my offspring).
Quick summary- a week ago CC was diagnosed pneumonia, Esther followed with a feverish cold and just as both girls seemed fully recovered Robert got a fever too.
Despite the health hardships of my family, I have been hard at work procuring a studio for myself. A studio? you might ask. Well, yes. You see, I love to do all sorts of creative things. But there's a problem. My kids get in the way. They touch my stuff and bug me when I am trying to do creative things.
So I cooked up a solution: I approached the church around the corner from me about renting an empty unused room in their educational space. They said yes and also said, Hey don't worry about paying for it. :)
So, in between taking temperatures, chest x-rays, endless doses of Tylenol and refilling the humidifier, I moved all the stuff that I could carry myself to my new studio. Done!
In the meantime I have sated my creative thirst with some collage projects-
I love the idea of this collage I found on Etsy, by Laura Prentice-


So, duly inspired by her work, I created one of my own:

Then, I took a good look at the logo from the kids' school:
And decided to recreate it, collage style. I think that if framed it would make a nice teacher gift. Any thoughts?
Also, one week ago Rob and I had a brief and fabulous trip to NYC to celebrate our anniversary (again!). Post coming soon. . .