New York is My Kinda Town - Part 1

Our first big family roadtrip almost started on time: we were on the road at 10:50 Friday morning, only 50 minutes behind schedule! So far, so good. We didn't take any pictures on the way down because we were concentrated on a) getting there and b) getting there without creating a screaming banshee baby in the backseat. Turns out that she didn't scream at all actually, that girl is a born traveller. I took this of her helping me make oatmeal raisin cookies for the road on Thursday afternoon:


We made our first stop in Plattsburg (just over the border) to pick up a new carseat at Wal-Mart. I discovered on Thursday that Liliane was officially 3 inches too long for her infant car seat and the other one that we have is still too big. Anyway, our quick stop at Wal-Mart turned into a 2.5 hour layover since by the time we got the carseat plus a box of diapers and some formula and an Exer-saucer (only $58 USD!) it was time to feed the baby and eat lunch, etc. Then it took another 45 minutes to figure out the new carseat and get it installed. And it was snowing. A lot.

Long story short, we got back on the road at around 2:30 and gunned it down the 87 stopping two more times (coffee/bottle and diaper change respectively) and pulled up in front of Matthew and Bari's place in Brooklyn at about 9:15 PM. As I said, Liliane was a trooper and hardly fussed at all. Matthew made us a scrumptious roast beef dinner and we spent the rest of the evening hanging out.

The next morning my anti-sugary cereal cover was blown when Matthew brought out some Captain Crunch for breakfast - a box he bought especially for the occasion! Stéphane was surprised that I even LIKED Captain Crunch (forbidden in our house) but there you go. I ate two bowls:




Liliane didn't sleep so well (new noises, new portable bed, new everything, so exciting) so we didn't sleep well either, but it was a gorgeous day and Matthew made coffee so we got it together and all headed out for brunch. We put Liliane in the stroller for the first time sitting up and looking forward like this:

Here are our charming hosts:




Stéphane had a full-blown cold by Saturday so after our yummy breakfast he and Liliane went back to the apartment while Bari and I headed off to get pedicures. Saturday was Bari's birthday and a bunch of people were coming over on Saturday night to celebrate. Once our tootsies were all TLC'ed, Matthew and Bari had party chores to do so we three went for a walk around their charming Park Slope neighbourhood. We did some window shopping, stocked up on cold medecine and Nyquil at the drugstore, got more coffee, bought some funky baby clothes and arrived back at the apartment to Bari's birthday party in full swing.





Matthew's yummy veggie tray with the dip in the pepper! I am so totally going to steal that idea.





Friends Adam and Christine who are expecting a baby in June. So cute!








Matthew's amazing lasagna. This picture is making my mouth water.






We Piercys have a habit of pulling our heads back into our neck when posing for photos making for multiple chins. Here is the before picture:








Here is Matthew being coached on how to avoid the multiple chin pose. Not so natural looking...






The party was called "Clash of the Cupcakes" - a full-on competition between four NYC bakeries to decide who in fact makes the best cupcakes. As a cupcake lover, I was in heaven. Here is some cupcake porn:










Red velvet with cream cheese icing = cupcake heaven

"If someone would just hand me a cupcake, I would eat it like THIS!"

Matthew and I were in charge of organizing the tasting plates - one sample from each bakery so that the guests could vote. The categories were vanilla with vanilla icing or chocolate with chocolate icing. There was no clear winner in either category I don't think, but my personal favourites were from Billy's Bakery. Right Matthew??




The party really got going when they started playing Rock Band. All I can say is that playing Rock Band is my new favourite pastime. IT IS SO MUCH FUN. I have some pictures of that somewhere but I'll put them in my next post.