Rock Shic

#880 The Lion King 🦁

 

The Lion King

 

Minskoff Theatre

200 W. 45^th Street

New York, NY

I have long wanted to take my little buy to see the Lion King on Broadway.  As a matter fact, I’ve even wanted to see it myself when the show first came out! Can you believe that the Lion King has been playing on Broadway for twenty odd years!  It really is incredible.

When munchkin turned four, we treated him to a special show of Aladdin… he may have been a bit young at that stage (though he did sit through the whole thing), but he didn’t have a lot of feedback at the time for us.

What truly sealed the deal, for me at least, was when he performed “I just can’t wait to be King” for camp last summer.  What a delight!  We were so proud of him as he roared and soared on stage, and that was when I knew that it was not a question of “if” but “when” he was going to see the real thing on stage! 

We went with his fellow buddy/summer camper, and I loved every moment of it.  The classics were as familiar to me as they were to him (perhaps much more so to me, who am I kidding!) – though I did try to familiarize him to the songs and plot summary prior to the musical, with both books and film.  My favorite part was when they stitched together Mufasa’s image with stars – all done via seamless choreography (you have to see it to fully comprehend what I mean).  It was simply gorgeous! 

The Minskoff theater itself was breath-taking, with so many lovely details paying tribute to “the King.”  We also loved that there were live exhibits of the gorgeous, Tony-award winning costumes on display.  So much to take in!  Munchkin went home with a little snowglobe that played “the Circle of Life,” which was the best treat!

Related: 

A Neverland Puppet Show

The Hamptons Film Festival

The Lion King at Minskoff Theatre, Broadway

 

#858 Magic at the Movies – Wakanda Forever

Munchkins at the movies -- Wakanda Forever -- how sweet it is!

When was the last time YOU’ve been to the movies? 

These days, my movie interaction comprises of: (1) anything streamed (interrupted) and/or (2) anything I can watch on the plane before I inadvertently fall asleep… I suppose that’s also interrupted.  Date night at the Angelika are a thing of the past. 

Imagine my delight then, when… over a month ago I had the pleasure of going to see Black Panther with my oldest! We went with another mamma bird and her little one, and we had an absolute BLAST.  Note: not only was it “Wakanda Forever” but it was “Wakanda Forever” on IMAX!!!

Ever since the release of Black Panther, I had wanted to see it.  More importantly, I wanted to bring my son to see it.  I desperately wanted him to experience a world with diverse characters and action heroes.  For that reason alone, Black Panther was an absolute MUST.  It also had all of the elements of a great film – fantasy, heroism, travel, history, and DRAMA!!! The conclusion?  All in all it was an absolute delight… though I am fully aware that the experience was more for the mammas than for the munchkins.  An IMAX blow-out of the epic battle-scenes might have been a bit too much for four year olds – though my son’s female colleague took it in much better than my little guy.  Plus, I have it on excellent authority (from a prior Marvel representative), that the film was generally well-suited for kids.  Did my munchkin understand all aspects of the narrative?  Probably not, though he did remark that the “bad guy gets punished” in the end.  So all is right with the world after all.

I'm not gonna lie, it felt pretty awesome to be out and about at the movies, even if my date was a four-year old toddler rather than my charming husband.  For what it's worth, I’d absolutely kill for a night out at the movies with my partner, holding hands and sharing pop-corn, and perhaps even sneak in an impromptu make-out session before the featured presentation pops up.  Okay, possibly NOT the latter.  Gross.  Though the good news is, for those of us who can’t Uber our way to the theater (after painfully coordinating logistics with a date-night sitter), there is always whichmovienext.com to help you get to your next movie!!  Super-hero, dystopia, sci-fi, animated... it's all here!  Talk about super easy and right at your finger-tips!  So for sure, everything is coming together, and Mamma will make it past "hump-day!"

In the meantime -- it is "Wakanda Forever" tonight on our big screen at home!!  If only for twenty minutes before we inevitably get interrupted and/or fall asleep yet again. 

There's no love like your first love ;)

 

#854 A Neverland puppet show!!! 🧚🏻‍♀️💫

Mamma’s on a roll here! Really raising the bar for April here.  These pics were taken over the weekend, I had booked us tickets to the Peter Pan Marionette theater puppet show in Central Park.  Did you know there’s a literal Swedish Cottage inside with marionette puppets right in the high 70s/80s close by the Museum of Natural History?!! I didn’t either.  I happen to chance upon the discovery and loved the concept.  

The best part was, my little guy (who is definitely the more problematic one in this household) absolutely LOVED the show! He kept the entire time, eyes glued to the stage, I was truly impressed.  The production value was quite good as well! We will definitely be back. 

Now about that rather intense plot that is Peter Pan... I never quite appreciated how dark these children’s tales can be.  Jealousy? Running away from home? The lost boys? Tinker bell poisoned?!!! It was all **crazy** intense (though quite possibly the lack of sleep also kicked in for Mamma, which no doubt compounded the issue!!).   

Related:

Museum Exploration with the Littles 

 

#852 Roofdeck Bunnies — Lower East Side

The cutest little bunny on the roofdeck! #16months

Brothers on the roof... I love how well they get on together

Bunny and puppy, my boy's a dog lover!

It's an all boys-club on the roof! #boysquad

My heart is melting. No greater happiness than seeing your kids laugh together.

Well well how goes it Monday?  I cannot believe that May is just around the corner, and quicker than you can say “flash” – 2018 will be half-way over!!

Gasp.

Okay, perhaps yours truly is getting ahead of herself here.  That said, this weekend was literally the ONE nice weekend we had (and it was only Saturday that was gorgeous!).  Nevertheless, it was sheer perfection, and it was simply lovely to witness the city came alive!!!  Literally everybody was out and about, what a sight to behold.  It almost makes you wonder where these people have gone during the winter (really are there THAT many people living in Manhattan?!! Answer is yes).  

Sadly it seems like the rest of this week is not to be (in terms of nice weather), but a girl can dream!! After all, Spring has officially arrived, and Summer is practically just around the corner. 🌷🌼🌻

More of this please! I truly cannot wait. 

 

Related articles

#688 A few days in DC

#842 Drip painting at the Jackson Pollock House — East Hampton

Well hello hello!!! 

 

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is now less than two days away... where has the time gone?? 

 

Mamma’s been super busy, as always... and sadly under the weather! Though good news!! Literally a week and a half ago, we FINALLY received our notice to close!!!!! That is huge, as it spells an end to this nomadic lifestyle we’ve been leading for the past year, which I do NOT recommend to anyone. 

 

Barring all of this, I wanted to share some recent goodies that we’ve engaged in with the boys, particularly this gem of an experience at the Jackson Pollack house last weekend, organized by the Children’s Museum of the East End.

 

I don’t know who was more excited, myself or my little men (okay most definitely me).  We got to visit and tour the house shared by Pollock and his wife Lee Krasner, then go to the famous “barn” where Pollock used as his studio (original drip paint still on the floor!!!!), and lastly, the kiddos got to create their own Pollock art work, how cool was that! 

 

The tour and guide was given by fellow artist and children’s book author Joyce Raimondo, who was simply excellent and really knows her stuff.  The little ones loved the art and I was really impressed with how well behaved they all were during the sit down part where we even watched original videos of Pollock painting (in black and white of course).  

 

Even hubby was jealous! As he had to skip out on the barn experience as he had to take our little man for a walk (aka Nap). All in all, it was truly a unique and wonderful experience, and we cannot wait to go back! 

 

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center is located at 830 Springs Fireplace Road, East Hampton.

 

 

Related Features:

 

Jackson Pollock

Art Making in the Hamptons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#837 A is for Apple Picking 🍎

Hurrah for Friday and hurrah for Fall! Another week has gone by and I am none the wiser (except I’m secretly proud of myself for writing at least twice in one week, hah!).   When I launched this blog more than five years ago (yeep!), I used to write, at a minimum, one article per day. Whatever happened?

Two kids, that’s what.  

I digress, however.  The truth is, I couldn’t be happier with my munchkins and more pleased to be back in the Hamptons again relishing yet another magical weekend with my family of crazies.  This week has been intense, tough deadlines plus Mamma had to do her taxes (this year, for the first time ever, we elected to file for an extension, and I must say, it’s actually MORE stressful to do so as you almost get hit with thebnkgjtmare of the tax man not once but twice!!).  Log that away to the “once and done” category. 

Okay, digression yet again.  What I really meant to say was.... I love Fall and I can’t imaging living through all of the gorgeous moments of autumn without my family! These days, we have been all about apples in this family — where they come from, the types of apples, apple seeds, the list goes on and on. Part of this is due to my older munchkin’s school, and part of it was because we recently went apple picking! Which is so, so sweet and fun.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves but suffice to say, we are going to have plenty of apples for the days to come... maybe next time we’ll focus on strawberries 🍓 

Happy weekend you guys! I might log on again, but if I don’t — I hope you all have a great one!!! 

 

Xxx,

Rockshic 

 

 

#836 Hamptons International Film Festival with Munchkins 🎬🥂

Hanging with his best bud on the Red Carpet!

Tickets and shade! #SoExcited

Moments before the show starts... my little man was super well behaved #ProudMommy

Intro before the show begins #HIFF25

Post screening -- I get the feeling that they were stoked to be out and moving!

Just chilling pre-show

Well hello hello! Quicker than you can blink... the (long) weekend has passed yet again.  Thanks for your (failed) attempt at discovering the West Indies, Christopher Columbus!

As per our new norm — we were out in the Hamptons house, and this time Mamma even managed to dip into the local social scene with my munchkin! This weekend was the Hamptons international film festival, and there has been quite a few awesome movies on the roster (2018 Oscars contenders here we come!).  Sigh... life has been so crazy lately, but perhaps next year we can get around to hosting an Oscar Bash, à la 2013!

My Rockshicbaby, however, is not quite sophisticated enough to sit through flicks like “Spielberg” the documentary (although Mamma would like to!).  That said, there is something for everybody and wouldn’t you know it, they had a series of animated and documentary shorts called “Soar! Shorts for all Ages” that was absolutely perfect for the little ones.  So off we went, Rockshicbaby and school bud in tow, and it was definitely a fun and exciting experience to be had.  In truth, I probably enjoyed the short films screening much more than my munchkin did (I would have happily stuck around for Q and A post screening with the film makers but that was probably a bridge too far for them)... the way I did back in the day at the Angelika (see here).  That said, I was proud of the munchkins for sitting still for an hour plus! It’s the little things you know...

Alright, this Mamma is going to climb into bed and ignore everything — we’re talking one exhausted Mamma Bird! Goodnight all and wish you had a great Columbus Day weekend. 

P.S. Here is a list of all the shorts for those of you interested... my absolute favorite was "Coin Operated" by Nicholas Arioli, 5 minutes of absolute delight!

Soar! Shorts for All Ages -- Hamptons International Film Festival

1) Coin Operated

2) Dam! The Story of Kit the Beaver

3) Perched

4) Mr. & Mrs. Kim

5) Birdlime

6) JessZilla

7) Sabaku

 

Related:

Art making in the Hamptons

Rockshic's Guide to the ultimate Long Island getaway

 

Day before -- happy and pumped! My little Dark Knight

Even the rain couldn't dampen our spirits #HamptonFilmFestival

Become a member today!

Rushing to the finish line #MrEnergetic

Life is way more fun with Bestie by your side #boystogether #HIFF25

 

Related articles

#689 New Zealand on Saddleback

#690 The Ultimate Homecoming Fashion Guide

#688 A few days in DC

#833 Raging Bull, Wall Street Style 🐂🍎

Discovering the Bull of Wall Street #cityadventures

Making new friends on Wall Street #fearlessgirl

Me and my spirit animal

Happy Sunday! 

As I always say, weekends are perfect for family explorations.  They can be exhausting (particularly given some killer work weeks we have), but also tremendously rewarding.  Today I'm sharing some recent moments when I took my oldest munchie down to Wall Street to visit.  Hard to believe that this all took place over Labor Day weekend, and here we fast approaching end of September.  Sheesh! I tell ya, the days go by slowly but years soooooo fast!!! 

This was a bit of an impromptu visit, but I'm so glad that we got to take full advantage.  I love that my little man has such an indomitable spirit!  Perhaps when he's a bit older he can ride the bull himself!! I am also loving how sassy he is with said bull.  Now that is my little spirit animal.

Can we all say... adoraBULL 💕🐂 (sorry I just couldn't help myself there!).

 

Related:

Art making in the Hamptons

Little Chefs at the French Institute

 

 

Mr. Handsome #rockshicbaby #fouryearsold

Showing some sass #myboy

Mr. Seriousd #fearlessgirl

 

Related articles

#690 The Ultimate Homecoming Fashion Guide

#689 New Zealand on Saddleback

#688 A few days in DC

#818 Bonpoint Inspirations -- May 2017 🍒

Well hello hello!  As if May didn’t already pack a mean punch (Mother’s Day! End of the School year! Graduations, celebrations, Memorial Day!).  It’s also that time of the year… Sample Sale Galore!!!! 

… beginning with my favorite brand, Bonpoint.  You know that yours truly is a fanatic and you can see it from all my prior posts on Bonpoint.

So here are the details:

Bonpoint Spring/Summer Sale

Wednesday, May 17^h and Thursday, May 18^th

Location: Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC

123 West 18^th street (btw 6^th and 7^th avenue)

5^th floor

9am to 7pm on Wednesday, and 9am to 3pm on Thursday

Discounts are, as they say down in the Antipodes (“sweet as” – clearly my Kiwi hubs has had far too much impact on me over the 8+ years that we’ve been married)… with 60% off (!!!) and apply to every clothing collection (newborn, baby, girl, boy, teenager).

Only credit cards are accepted, and all sales are final.

Now… I really must show your how cute my munchkin #2 looks in his little Bonpoint outfit head to toe… it’s enough to make this mamma want to hop on a plane to go up to NYC just for the sale!  Sadly – I’ll be missing out as mamma's still living large in warm and beautiful Florida, but don’t worry as we just booked our return trip back to New York in June, woot!

Hope you get to make it next week, and please, please do drop me note and let me know what goodies you manage to find!! For some reason I could never leave this particular sale empty-handed.

 

Related:

A little midweek pick-me-up with Bonpoint

Say hello to Fall with my beloved Bonpoint

Bonpoint Head to Toe

Bonpoint Annual Summer Sample Sale

 

A beautiful #outfitlay for my munchkin #2... when mamma was about 34 weeks along!! I can't believe that was last year as we just approach the holidays season.  My my time sure does fly.

Et voilà! Here is munchkin rocking his new Bonpoint ensemble on the day he turned 17 weeks!!! (just a few days before he officially turned 4 months old!!!) #rockshicbaby #mylove

 

Related articles

#669 Twenty Best Mother's Day Restaurants in Downtown NYC

#671 New York City Downtown Preschool Panel - June 10, 2015

#664 Rockshic launches City Baby Dining

#673 Rockshic Summer Kickoffs and BBQs

#794 Sarabeth’s Tribeca – Our First Brunch as a Family of Four

Ready to rock on home with my two little men.  Mamma's wearing her fab new plaid gray shawl, you can find it here. 

Munchkins' ridiculously cute dinosaur hat is from KooKooShka Kids, which we bought during our recent excursion to the Holiday Train Show at Grand Central!

A toast with my brand new munchkin! Two weeks old at that stage (still looking pretty chunky if you ask me). #rockshicbaby2

Happy Monday! We’ve had a rough week last week, given that our little munchkin fell sick and pretty much turned everything topsy turvey for us.

Good news is that things are on the mend! It’s a brand new week (and almost a new month!!), and mamma’s feeling pretty good overall -- ready to turn my blogging game back up a notch!!!

This brings me back to some older post that I’ve been meaning to publish for some time now.  This one was taken just a few days after my Rockshic Baby #2 turned two weeks (so little!).  He’s eleven weeks now, crazy how time flies (see Baby Milestone here).  Hard to believe that February is almost over!  

We met up with some friends downtown (who brought their own fresh munchkin).  It marked our first brunch (or dining outing of any form) since we became a family of four, and it was actually much more relaxed than I had anticipated.  Granted, we kept it pretty short and sweet, chose Sarabeth's Tribeca as our destination -- pretty much the most family-friendly location I could think of (visit City Baby Dining for similar spots!), and mamma tasted her first cocktail in a long, long time!  Bubbly Bellini’s can fix anything, I tell ya.

Oh… and we were still in NYC at that stage, hence the layered garb that you see once we left the restaurant.  How cute is that gray plaid cashmere shawl btw?  I got it from this Tosave in Gray – you can find it here.  For the savvy fashionista in all of us!  Munchkin's adorable new dino hat is from KooKooShka Kids -- which we bought when we went to the Holiday Train Show in Grand Central!!!

Metro dining style with our first born!  We love Sarabeth's in Tribeca for its space and light -- plus it's super duper baby and family friendly!  For more family-friendly restaurants in NYC and beyond, you can visit City Baby Dining.  As you can see, we never travel without toys in hand for our oldest!  This is a set that daddy bought him from the Cyprus airports, which has really paid off in spades!

Excuse the blurry selfies! As you can imagine -- our first dining experience together with the whole fam was pretty crazy.

As you can clearly see... my hair is mostly a bird's nest most of the time... so really what I need to do is to look into some hair extensions, stat! #UpGradeYourHair 

 

Related articles

#664 Rockshic launches City Baby Dining

#640 Downtown NYC Baby Eats

#661 Explore like a Local

#676 Eight Tips for Dealing with Preschool Applications

#793 Holiday Train Show in Grand Central - NY Transit Museum

#669 Twenty Best Mother's Day Restaurants in Downtown NYC

#628 The Littlest Valentine

#688 A few days in DC

#689 New Zealand on Saddleback

#690 The Ultimate Homecoming Fashion Guide