Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from NYC!

What did you all do for Halloween? As you can see, I dressed up as a sailor, braved the snowstorm with my good friend, Meagan, and joined in some fun Halloween Festivities!

A picture perfect weekend with my Dad

This weekend my Dad came to visit me! Let me just tell you that we had quite the adventure this weekend. On Friday night, we went to the International Center for Photography. ICP is a school, however, there were 3 exhibits on display. It was a free event and it was amazing- the photography was unreal. After we took a walk around Bryant Park, the NY Public Library and Times Square. We then went back up to Harlem to have dinner at Sylvia's. And yes, we had fried chicken! It was delicious and this restaurant was featured on the food network! If you're ever in Harlem for any particular reason, be sure to try some down home soul cookin' and stop in at Sylvia's!

Times Square

Sylvia's

On Saturday, my Dad and I went to the newly opened 9/11 Memorial. Words cannot even express how beautiful it was, so I'll let the pictures move you. It rendered me speechless and really touched me... truly a wonderful way to pay tribute to those we lost and the twin towers. I took some pictures and decided to post a few so you could see this beautiful memorial.

After the Memorial, my Dad and I literally trekked all over... literally. Our adventure took us downtown to the Financial District to first check out the Occupy Wall Street crowd; it's really beginning to smell down there. Anyway, we strolled downtown, checked out the Seaport by the Brooklyn Bridge and then walked over the bridge! It was a gorgeous day for it, and we had a ton of fun taking pictures!

Manhattan Seaport

Manhattan Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Skipping Rocks

The Bridge from the park

This is one of the horses from the brand new carousel that opened this September. It is right on the water overlooking both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The carousel was refurbished and then opened in Brooklyn!



I was really excited to take a ride on the Carousel! Felt nice to be a little kid again!

We got pizza at Grimaldi's!!! So yummy!

view from the Manhattan Bridge

Chinatown

Taking a ride over the Manhattan Bridge



Graffiti from the Manhattan Bridge


After walking over the Manhattan Bridge, we ended up in Chinatown.  We took a stroll through Chinatown and Little Italy.  There was lots going on down there; we got to witness Chinese Opera, intense games of chinese war and plenty of people out and about shopping.  We did not buy any knockoff handbags, although we must have been asked about a hundred times... gucci, gucci, louis, chanel?

Intense game of Chinese War

sharing the love in Greenwich Village... we walked up through Washington Square, through Greenwich Village and Soho, up past Union Square and ended up at the Flatiron Building.

Painted Cup Display in the Flatiron Building

We had such a long and eventful day- these pictures honestly don't even cover the half of it! After walking around all day, we came home, made pork chops and were in bed by 10pm!! We were pretty exhausted.

On Sunday, we woke up early and went to go pay a visit to Lady Liberty!

They looked like faces!

Lady Liberty!

a little lady liberty...

on the ferry ride over to Liberty Island!

Dad with Lady Liberty (he even matched)

Lady Liberty & Myself!

We had an absolutely amazing weekend- full of pictures, fun, and great memories! NYC and I can't wait until Dad comes back!

Boo!

So to be honest, I really love the month of October.  Not just for the yummy fall food or the changing leaves, but for Halloween!  And not the gory, really scary,  bloody, gross Halloween, but the cute, 5th grade, Hocus Pocus, jack-o-lantern smiling, Halloween.

So I'm bringing you back to my world of the innocent Halloween, yup, that's right, all the way back.  Back to singing 5 little pumpkins with my mom, back to homemade Halloween costumes, and back to making Ghost Tootsie Pops!

My mom and I used to make these pops for my elementary school classes, and now, since I work in an office full of girls who love cute things just as much as I do, I decided to make them- I'll be bringing them into the office!

Thanks Mom, for teaching me your Halloween secrets, and Happy Halloween!! Don't let my little ghosts scare you!

the seasons are changing....

The end of summer always, always brings fall... leaves change, pumpkins become the new "it" vegetable to bake with, cook with, and have fun with, apples and cider are a plenty, and the weather gets that perfect chill to it.  I wanted to recap my start of fall with you.. a lot has happened, and because I've been so busy with my new job and training, I apologize for not keeping you more up to date...

So let's start at the beginning...

Back at the end of summer, Arielle and I got tickets to go see Jimmy Fallon live in Rockefeller Center!  It was amazing- we were literally in the front row and got to see Al Roker, and Lenny Kravitz.  I even shook his hand at the end of the show when he came around to say thank you to everyone!! He is absolutely hysterical, and now I even watch his show!

I went to Fashion's Night Out again this year with a bunch of friends.  This is a picture of my friend Kevin and I drinking champagne in the Michael Kor's store on 5th Ave.  Fashion's Night Out is a great time to just go out and experience things you wouldn't necessarily experience in New York City.  I saw Kate Walsh, spotted Khris Humpries that same day, and got lots of free champagne and treats from the various stores we visited!

Arielle, her family, and I took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and at the end we had Sicilian Pizza at Ignazio's.  It was definitely not as good as Grimaldi's, but it was pretty delicious.  And I love the Brooklyn Bridge, so I definitely can't complain!

We had Ice Cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.  It's located directly under the Brooklyn Bridge and it is so yummy!

Coca-Cola Bottles!

The Bridge from the Brooklyn side

View of the Manhattan Bridge from downtown Brooklyn Heights/Dumbo.

Arielle and I on the bridge!

the walkway on the bridge

Brooklyn Bridge!

A few weeks later I got to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge again!  This time I did so with my good friends Kate & Michaela and their family!  We did a 3 mile walk for the National Eating Disorder Association to raise awareness for these terrible diseases.

Team Michaela's Sidekicks!

Leave it to us to start a kick-line at the end of the walk... Sinatra's New York song came on, so we kick-lined it in front of the entire crowd- Let's go Michaela's Sidekicks!

last glimpse of summer colors before the fall sets in...

The Memorial getting there!! This was taken just a couple of weeks ago and it looks amazing! I'm going to the Memorial this Saturday with my Dad so I'l be sure to post pictures from the inside!

Occupy Wall Street is in full swing as you can see... don't get me started on it....

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society hosted it's Light the Night Walk just a couple of weeks ago.  I worked the registration table checking people in, but it was a beautiful experience.  Our special events committee puts three walks on and this one is the biggest of the three. The red balloons are for those who are supporting the cause, gold is for those in honor of someone who has passed from blood cancer, and white is for those who are currently undergoing treatment or for our survivors!  The walk brought in 6,000 walkers and raised over $1.7 million!  It was an amazing night for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and our mission!

We had a yard sale at my house last weekend to raise money for my Miami Marathon!  Proud to say we raised over $600- all going to blood cancer research!  I took some pictures around the house with my new camera lens that I got from my birthday.  This is the sun on the side of our house- no it was not for sale.

Records- and The Boss!

mickey mouse tie

Mom, Dad and I went to the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular last weekend at the Roger Williams Park Zoo.  The pumpkin carvings were amazing! I loved the faces!  There were over 5,000 faces.. my only suggestion- go later when all the screaming children have gone to bed and people get less pushy!  

pumpkins- we made sure it was a very pumpkin filled weekend... pumpkin cream cheese on bagels, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkins for carving, pumpkins for seeing, pumpkins for collecting, pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins....

On Monday, Mom Dad and I stopped in at the Scituate Art Festival.  These glass blown pumpkins caught my eye...

And so did the waves...

View of the church in town from the graveyard behind it... Very old historic graveyard, very beautiful tombstones.

I was, in fact, so inspired by the Spectacular that I wanted to carve my own pumpkins.  So this weekend went like this for me- Friday I watched Hocus Pocus.  Saturday I got up and ran 6 miles with the Miami Team and then went out to brunch!  Saturday afternoon I went to the Union Square Farmer's Market where I bought my pumpkins, apples, apple cider, fresh broccoli and heirloom tomatoes.  I came home, made Broccoli Cheddar soup and had a caprese salad with my tomatoes!  Sunday morning I got up and went for a run, bought some new running sneakers (highly suggest the Nike Lunarglides), and came home to watch the Pats and carved my pumpkins.  Some weekends are just the absolute best when you have them all to yourself!

Needless to say, fall has been busy, busy already!  I'm in full swing with my new job- I'm coordinating the Manhattan Half Marathon for the winter season and running the Miami Marathon.  I'm getting to meet everyone and my co workers are just amazing people!  I absolutely have never been happier- I wake up and am so excited to get to the office, it truly doesn't even feel like work.  And I am loving training for the marathon- can't wait to run those 26.2 miles again!

In other news, this week is all training and then Dad comes to visit on Friday!  Can't wait!! I'll keep you up to date with all the fun things I have planned for the rest of October!! Enjoy the pictures!