NYC Birthday Trip with My Preteen

One of the awesome things about Jack’s birthday each year, is that it’s typically followed by a three-day weekend off work and school for President’s Day. Who doesn’t want a long birthday weekend?! This year, I asked him if he wanted to go anywhere fun and he immediately said he wanted to go back to New York City. We visited NYC for Jack’s first time in November 2022 and he really, really, really wanted to go back. Even though I warned him that February in New York is cold. So, to NYC we went…

We decided to do it as a mom and kiddo weekend (since my husband isn’t a big fan of the city) and it worked out great that Jack still qualifies for half-price Amtrak train tickets. I decided to switch it up a bit by staying in Chelsea, so here is where we stayed, what we did and what we ate:

Where We Stayed: Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea

It was our first time staying at the Motto in Chelsea and I would absolutely stay there again. The check-in was easy, the rooms were very clean and well designed, and the price was good by NYC standards. We took the train to Penn Station and then walked the few blocks over to the hotel (about a 10-minute walk).

Check-in was at 3pm and we arrived right around then and were checked right into our room. We did the king bed studio room and it was plenty of room for the two of us. A nice perk: We received 2 bottles of water a day and a daily $10 food and beverage credit for the downstairs coffee bar and restaurant.

Day 1: Chelsea Market, Crumbl Cookies, Lulla

After we settled into our hotel room, we bundled up and walked over to Chelsea Market. We ended up having a late lunch/early dinner by enjoying food from all the different food stands. Our favorites were tacos and horchata from Los Lacos No. 1 and the banana and Nutella crepes from Bar Suzette.

On our walk back, we stopped by Crumbl cookies and picked up a 4-pack to nibble on in our room while watching tv/playing video games/reading a book/watching the amazing sunset. And yes, we totally got crumbs in the bed.

A bit later, we got hungry again, so we went downstairs to Lulla and ordered an Aperitivo Bites box for two… which honestly wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be.

The sunset was magical though:

Day 2: The Chelsea Flea, The Lego Store, The Harry Potter Store, The Nintendo Store, Eataly

We had a slow and lazy start to Saturday morning and basically hung out in the room relaxing until almost check-out time (noon). We repacked our backpacks and checked them at the front desk, before heading on our way for the day’s adventures.

After hitting up a nearby Starbucks for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, we did a bunch of walking around and exploring. The main spots were The Chelsea Flea (meh), The Lego Store (huge win for Jack!), the Harry Potter Store (super awesome and we loved the butterbeer bar) and the Nintendo Store (way more crowded than we’ve ever seen it!).

We had lunch at Eataly which was absolutely delicious – we both highly recommend the pizza, gnocchi and dark chocolate chip cannoli! It’s almost worth the train ride just for the homemade gnocchi… yum.

After all our exploring, we were cold and in need of some downtime, so decided to return to the hotel and hang out in the secluded second-floor lobby. Jack started building his super awesome Lego project and I got in a little reading. After a bit of a rest, we grabbed a Uber to the train station and thankfully our train was on time to head home! (I’ve had bad luck before with leaving NYC and getting delayed!)

It was a super fun overnight trip and a really great birthday for my newly 12-year old preteen!

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Warby Parker: 2024 Try-On

It seems like I just published a post about buying new glasses with Warby Parker, but time flies… because that was 2 years ago! You can find my original Warby Parker: Deciding on New Glasses post here. Well, two years later and my vision got a bit blurry again, so it’s time to order a new pair of specs!

Last time I did a try-on, I had a runner up favorite. So, this time I was kinda thinking I’d just order them and be done with it. However, when I went to click on the frame style – called the Madeleine – I saw that they are now also available in a new purply color called Orchard. And I wasn’t sure if I should stick with the original Cherry Blossom Fade pink version that I previously liked, or try the purple pair. So, it seemed like the perfect excuse to do another Try-On box!

Try-On Box Instructions:

It’s super easy, you just go to the Warby Parker website and click on “Home Try-On.” Then, pick out 5 pairs of glasses you’d like to try. They send them to you with clear lenses and you have 5 days to try them and send them back with a provided label.

The 5 frames I tried this time are: Madeleine in Cherry Blossom Fade, Madeleine in Orchard, Weathers in Periwinkle Crystal, Shea in Rose Guava and Hartman in Striped Cypress. I was thinking I wanted to do a pink or purple frame, but that green one was so pretty I threw it in too. I actually didn’t realize that I tried the Weathers on last time too… just in green.

Here they all are:

I posted the photos on socials over the weekend to get feedback and of course it’s all over the place:

  • Instagram: out of 22 votes, the top two winners were Shea in Rose Guava (13) and Madeleine in Cherry Blossom Fade (9).
  • Threads: out of 46 votes, the top winners were Hartman in Striped Cypress (12), Madeleine in Cherry Blossom Fade (11) and Shea in Rose Guava (10).
  • Family: I texted the photos to my mom and sisters, and of course I asked Travis and Jack for their favorites too. The top winners were Cherry Blossom Fade (3) and Shea in Rose Guava (3).

Which just goes to show you that EVERYONE has their own opinion!

While I do really like the Hartman in Striped Cypress, my last pair of glasses were black and green, so I figured I’d go for something different this time. So, with everyone’s help I narrowed it down to these two favorites:

I really like them both, so I’m thinking I’ll order the Madeleine Cherry Blossom frames for my ‘regular glasses’ (for wearing in the evenings, lazy weekend mornings and if my contact lenses are being mean). AND I’ll order the Shea Rose Guava for my reader’s prescription, so basically for book reading (worn in addition to my contact lenses).

I’m going to sit with that decision a day or two and then send back the Try-On Box and make my order. (I’ll update this post with my final cost once I place my order). What do you think — did I make the right choice?

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My Style: February 2024

This has been quite the month – I had the flu for 2+ weeks (and still have a gross cough almost 4 weeks later), took Jack to NYC for his birthday, and also went into the office a bunch. My ‘in office’ days have increased to two days each week, so I’ll have more work style photos to share with you all.

Work Style

Lots of darker colors and dressing for warmth this month with fleece-lined tights and boots. I’ve been working my way through my winter clothes over the past couple months (and will continue to do so in March), so that I can further purge down to just the items that I love.

With that being said, nothing from my February outfits is on the chopping block – everything has been mixed and matched a bunch of times and will continue to be mixed and matched in the future. I think the newest item from this group is the black 1950’s linen skirt (bottom left) from notPERFECT LINEN, and I purchased that over a year ago.

NYC Style

For our overnight trip to NYC, Jack and I each took a backpack for our stuff and that was it. So, my outfits consisted of lots of layers that I could add to or take away from throughout the trip as needed. I wore the same boots, scarf, gloves, jacket and that blue tulle skirt (left) both days. And then for the second day, I added that gold polka dot tulle skirt as a topper for a different look that didn’t take up much room in my bag.

New vs. Secondhand Talley

This month, I count 7 items that I purchased retail and 15 items that I purchased secondhand!

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