The husband and I drove my mother in law home to NYC and decided to make a night of it at the Crosby Street Hotel in Soho.  I cannot tell you the love I feel for this hotel, where I first stayed with my 7-year-old daughter last year for a mother/daughter weekend to visit a dear friend and fancy interior designer, Amy Lau (amylaudesign.com), and to see Mary Poppins, which was magical.  Crosby street has 91 rooms, each decorated differently and the first time we were there they let my wide-eyed daughter pick the color of our room (purple with yellow flowers, what else?).  If you ever are lucky enough to get the chance, STAY there.

We wandered the streets and soaked in the multicultural beautiful people of downtown New York and stopped to buy a few treats for the girls (Pearl River, Canal Street treasures), whom we missed, but from whom we were happy to have a night off (hope this doesn’t sound terrible, other parents understand this I think).  Slept 10 hours and ate breakfast and read the entire paper without a single interruption, spill, or jelly disaster.  Heaven.