ABT Day Eight

Amanda has been learning a lot in her classes here! Yesterday she had her normal classes, plus character. She had a good day and was grateful that the weather was a little cooler. Not all of the studios at ABT are air conditioned, so it was good to have more temperate weather.

While Amanda was at class, I decided to do a little investigating and went to find the office building that my mom had worked in about 55 years ago when she had worked for Best Foods. The building was located at East 43rd and 5th Avenue, so I hopped on the subway and made my way to the intersection.

I took many pictures while I was there and called my mom to make sure I had the right corner at the intersection. Although the same building was still standing, the Lefcourt National Building, it not too surprisingly had changed a lot in 55 years. There is now an Equinox gym on the bottom floor, but I think my mother could figure out what floor she worked on, so it was nice to go down memory lane a little and think about my mother working there so long ago, before I was on the scene, haha. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

After Amanda was finished with her classes, we went to Cosi for dinner and had a nice evening of enjoying watching the Gilmore Girls DVD set that we brought with us.

Hope you had a nice day--

Beth and Amanda

ABT Day Seven

After enjoying a nice weekend, Amanda is back at her classes. Yesterday Amanda had her classes which she is enjoying. She has about four one-and-a-half hour ballet classes a day. Usually she had technique and pointe in the mornings and her choreography and rep classes in the afternoon. Amanda has met a lot of nice girls--in fact she is going out with one of the girls after classes today.

This morning after I went to the grocery store, I decided to walk the fourteen blocks to Macy's to do a little shopping. Along the way I noticed a lot of iPad billboards--of course something that we didn't see last year for obvious reasons. I had to include a picture here for my dad, because he just bought an iPad. Hi Dad!

I also noticed a store with the name "Tomato." As Amanda has a great disdain for tomatoes, I decided to include the picture here also because I knew she would love it, haha.

I had fun shopping in Macy's--I actually made it all the way up to the 8th floor where the bathing suits are. I tried on a couple of bathing suits--which was quite depressing. I thought that I would take the subway back to the apartment, but after trying on the bathing suits, decided that walking back was definitely the better choice.

Have a nice day!

Beth and Amanda

Amanda's 17th Birthday!

Today is Amanda's 17th birthday! We woke up this morning excited to wish Amanda a happy birthday and to dine at Cafe Boulud where we had an 11:30 brunch reservation. Before we got ready to go, Amanda opened her birthday presents from us, including a pair of Coach sneakers which she had been asking for.

Then it was time to get ready to go to Cafe Boulud, which is was on the Upper East Side on 76th Street. A few weeks ago, I was searching online for somewhere that might be nice to have brunch for Amanda's birthday since Bruce had to return in the afternoon to go back to DC.

I found the restaurant on a site that listed the 100 best restaurants in NYC. The restaurant is owned by Daniel Boulud who is a well known chef who has many restaurants and has won many awards. Before we made the reservation, we looked at the website http://www.danielnyc.com/cafebouludNY.html#cbny_menu (in case you are interested). The pictures on the website are just spectacular, so we decided to try their prix fixe brunch.

The restaurant was beautiful and located in a part of the city with a lot of trees and chirping birds, ha. We had a very nice table and throughly enjoyed everything they served us. In addition to the items we ordered on the brunch menu, they also brought us some special items to try which were all delectable and in the "I've never tasted anything this wonderful" category. I had reserved the table through Open Table online and in the comments section I mentioned that it was Amanda's birthday.

After our meal, we decided to order dessert, and were served dishes that we thought were almost too pretty to eat. But, the big surprise was when they brought Amanda an additional chocolate dessert, which was beautiful and the words Happy Birthday were written in chocolate. Also, somehow they managed to put one candle on the plate which was lighted and standing up somehow magically--I'm sure some candlewax was holding it up, ha!

I did take a quick picture of Amanda's special dessert, although we thought that it would not be appropriate to take pictures inside the restaurant and ruin the ambiance for the other diners and irritate the other patrons.

We had such a delicious and special meal--if you are ever in NYC I would highly recommend Cafe Boulud. We all thought it was one of the best meals we have ever had in our lives!

After that we returned home and relaxed a little until it was time for Bruce to meet his bus. It has been so hot here--all the walking around can be draining in the heat! But, I'm sure you can see that from the picture of Bruce fanning Amanda while we were waiting to go into Cafe Boulud!

Take care,

Beth and Amanda

Saturday!

Bruce arrived on the Vamoose bus last night, with only a little delay due to traffic--he found the bus a great way to travel from Arlington to NYC. Today was the first part of our birthday celebration for Amanda, even though her birthday won't be until tomorrow, because Bruce will have to go back to DC tomorrow. We were very excited about going to see Promises, Promises. We were able to take the subway and find the theatre without any trouble, so that was definitely a positive event!

As we approached the theatre, we noticed there was a Crumbs bakery right next door. We had been to Magnolia Bakery last year and enjoyed their yummy cupcakes, but Lauren told us that the Crumbs cupcakes were even better. So, we went inside and Amanda selected their chocolate cookie dough cupcake, which was complete with a little chocolate chip cookie on top. It was quite delicious and quite sugary, at least I thought so, but Amanda and I both enjoyed our cupcakes.

Soon it was time to go to Promises, Promises and we had the most fantastic time seeing the show! The show far exceeded our expectations, which were very high and we enjoyed every moment.

Sean Hayes was just excellent--he is so funny and has displays perfect comic timing throughout the show. I was surprised that he also has a nice singing voice and he was marvelous--it was easy to see why he was nominated for a Tony for his role. Kristin Chenoweth was simply awe- inspiring--her voice is absolutely the most beautiful I have ever heard in person. It was incredible to witness such a gifted singer--she is simply amazing. We loved the music--a lot of Burt Bachrach/Hal David music from the late 60's and early 70's. We also loved Katie Finneran, who was incredibly funny--she just won a Tony for her role and she obviously deserved it.


Although Katie Finneran was a supporting cast member, she was a real crowd pleaser and was fabulous! I guess being in a Broadway show is not as glamorous as one might think. We read in the Playbill that Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth hardly go out at all when they are not performing for fear they might get sick and not be able to perform. It is obviously a lot of hard work being in a Broadway show, especially on the days when they present a matinee and an evening performance.

After that it was time to make our way to the apartment to take Muff for a walk and then go to Pete's Tavern for our 6 pm reservation. As many of you know who read our blog last year, we really like Pete's Tavern and sat in a special booth last year for Amanda's birthday. In this booth, O. Henry wrote the classic short story, "Gift of the Magi" in 1905. They have left the booth the way it was that year and there are pictures of O. Henry in the booth and a lot of newspaper clippings about him. The restaurant is very historic and has been in existence since the Civil War--it is such a neat place!

Anyway, I went on Friday and requested the O. Henry booth for Saturday night for a special reason.

My mother and father had so thoughtfully prepared a special gift for her to open in the O. Henry booth. Amanda's grandparents had purchased a very special copy of Gift of the Magi with beautiful illustrations to give her as a keepsake and it was only fitting that she open this keepsake gift in the seat where O. Henry had penned his classic.

Inside the front cover, Amanda's grandparent had put pictures of the inside of the booth from last year, including a picture of Amanda sitting in the booth last year when we were in NYC.

When Amanda opened the gift and card, you could tell she was thrilled to received such a special and thoughty gift--one which I know she will treasure forever. It was a very special evening and we enjoyed spending time together and it was the perfect ending to our wonderful afternoon at the theatre. Bruce, Amanda, and I enjoyed such a fantastic day together!

Thanks for checking in,

Beth and Amanda

ABT Days Two and Three

The last few days have been great! Before Bruce went back home on Tuesday, we ate breakfast outdoors at a nice restaurant called Le Pain Quotidien. We had dined there last year also--it is very nice and we had a wonderful time.

Amanda is enjoying her classes very much! She has been working very hard and discovered that for the final performance she will be performing part of the ballet La Bayadere and a modern ballet to the 50's classic, Rock Around the Clock. She is looking forward to that and thinks it will be a lot of fun.

We went to the restaurant, Cosi last night which is near our apartment. We both had some nice salads and enjoyed the time to chat. We have finally organized our apartment and purchased the food we will be needing for the week, so that is a good feeling.

Muff seems to be adjusting well to the big city and it provides us with such a feeling of security to know that he is watching out over us at night (ha,ha). We are looking forward to Bruce coming up on Friday and having a nice relaxing birthday weekend for Amanda.

Amanda and I have been exploring the streets near our apartment--we feel a little more comfortable this year as we know where more of the landmarks are.

We hope you are all well--

Beth and Amanda

ABT Day One

We have been quite busy today! We arrived at the apartment Sunday night about 11 pm, so it wasn't as late as last year and we quickly went to bed to get ready for the next day! Amanda had a busy day on Monday--she had orientation, a nutrition seminar, a physical therapy seminar, and her placement audition. At the end of the day, we decided to go to Pete's Tavern, one of our favorite restaurants here for dinner. It was nice that Bruce was here to be able to experience it with us! We had a wonderful meal and a nice walk back to our apartment.

Bruce and I spent the morning going to various grocery stores trying to procure all the items we will need at least for the first few days. Then we took a trip to Macy's near Herald Square and went up to the 8th floor to lunch at Au Bon Pain.

Then we went home to check on Muffin, who doesn't quite know what is going on. First he was at our house in Vienna, then we moved him into our apartment at Fairfax Corner, and now New York City. He doesn't know what is going on! We took him with us when we picked Amanda up and he ended up standing on top of a grate that is above a subway platform and when a train went by he seemed quite unnerved. I'm sure he will get used to it and enjoy his time here, but right now I think he is a little confused. Of course by the time that he has acclimated to NYC, it will be time to transplant him to yet another place, our new house, so I guess he is learning to adjust to all sorts of living environments.

Tomorrow is the first official day of ABT classes, so I'm sure we'll have more information about all the classes then.

Thanks for checking the blog.

Beth and Amanda

New York City--3 Days Away

We are busy packing, preparing to leave for NYC. Of course all this is interspersed with dress rehearsals and trying to complete all the details of our settlement and move that need to be accomplished before we go to NYC.

We purchased tickets to see Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises on June 26th, the weekend of Amanda's 17th birthday. We also have tickets to see American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House the weekend of July 3. They will be performing a mixed bill including Fancy Free which involves some fun music, some of it from the 40's and the Andrews Sisters. We are very much looking forward to that. We will also be visiting Pete's Tavern again, one of our favorite places in NYC.

This is a picture of Amanda from last year, standing in the street in front of our apartment. We are staying at the same apartment this year--it is actually in Gramercy Park and very conveniently located only 400 feet from the ABT studios, so we feel blessed to have found such a wonderful place!

We hope that all of you have plans for a wonderful summer! Thanks for checking the blog!

Beth and Amanda

New York City Summer 2010

Amanda will be returning to the ABT Summer Intensive program in NYC again this year, so I guess it is time to reblog, ha. We are busy getting ready to go and will leave for New York City on June 20th. We were able to rent the same apartment, so we are excited to go and recreate some memories of our stay last year and hopefully create some new ones.

Thanks for following us and we will try not to make the blog too boring--Beth and Amanda