Julia started "First Grade" August 18 at St. Raphael's Catholic School (SRCS). She has a wonderful set of teachers and lots of friends from KB (her Kindergarten class). There are 2 other families on our block (St. James Place) that are SRCS families as well. The carpool with 6 kids can get complex at times, but with the price of gas these days, any way that we can save gas on the 20 minute hike down Falls of Neuse Rd. helps :)
ent 5 hours in the American Girl store on 5th Avenue on Saturday. Julia had saved her own money to buy 2 new Bitty Baby twins. She also had her doll, La's hair done. The whole family enjoyed lunch at the American Girl cafe where each doll receives a seat at the table and their own place setting of tea. Very cute. We also saw one of the last performances of "Circle of Friends" in the American Girl theater. And as all trips should end, we spent some time with our personal shopper, Sharon who helped Julia scale all 3 floors finding items that she wanted from the American Girl store.
ent Sunday visiting a few of our favorite spots in Times Square: The Hershey store and the Toys R Us, where Dave, myself, Julia and Cousin Steve rode the Ferris Wheel in the middle of Toys R Us. We had lunch at the Broadway Lounge on the 8th floor of the Marriott Marquis overlooking Times Square. This is a very nice place to have lunch or dinner and enjoy the sites of Times Square.
We spent Sunday visiting the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, Sept 11 has really ruined this tourist attraction. We spent most of our time on security clearance lines, took a ferry ride crammed with people to get to Liberty Island, then more security clearance lines before you walked up the 156 steps to the top of Lady Liberty's pedestal. What a beautiful site it was once we arrived at the top, however, with alot of work to get there. My recommendation, take a schooner ride around NYC and view her from afar:). 
