The Big Apple with Little People

As we were sitting on our roof deck last night eating dinner and Kevin and I were sharing a bottle of wine, recapping our amazing weekend with the kids, we tried to impress upon them just how incredibly fortunate they are.

We told them that most kids in the world never step foot into a world class museum, let alone two and especially not in the same day as we did yesterday.

 Our first stop was the Guggenheim Museum after reading this week:

...about a girl who accidentally lets go of her little brother's stroller at the top of the "spiral" museum.  As his stroller careens down through the museum, he passes many of the museum's permanent collection pieces which the kids were thrilled to see in person.  Ella actually got teary when one of their Lichtenstein's was in storage.  An employee gave me an email address to find out when it will be back on display.

One of my favorite paintings that I copied in high school in pastels.  This is my third time seeing this Picasso at the Guggenheim.

 On our way home from lunch in the Upper East Side after the Guggenheim, Ella insisted we pop into the Met quickly so we could take the above photo for Cousin Bonnie who sent us the book From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler that the kids and Kevin just finished reading, which takes place in the Met.

Look familiar?

Ella was actually overheard pleading, "Can't we just quickly go through the Renaissance room??" to much chuckling by nearby eavesdroppers.

And we explained that most kids in the world never get to see how beautiful Central Park is, let alone spend an entire day wandering aimlessly through it for hours as we did on Saturday.

Picnic by the lake

I know they're too young still to have enough perspective to know what we're telling them is the truth. They still have years ahead of them before they'll be able to appreciate what we have now.

But at forty-one I have that perspective.  And I know with every fiber of my being that we are about the luckiest family in the entire world.