a night with my oldest

As part of her birthday celebrating Julianna requested an overnight date with me.

I was happy to oblige!  Friday rush hour we headed deep into downtown on the subway.  I later told her that I wasn't sure there was a busier time to travel - the subway was jammed, the stations were packed, the crowds incredible.  She handled it like a champ.  We are most definitely raising a big city girl :)

We stopped at an upscale shopping area with tons of nice restaurants.  She picked an Italian place - yum!

After dinner we decided to do a little people watching and big city living.  She loved the panda-scaling-the-building! 

When I lived here 15 years ago this area of town was just starting to develop. Pretty incredible to spend an evening there with my almost-10-year old daughter!  It was chilly walking so we stopped for warm nai cha (a sweet treat!) - warmed us up nicely!

We even found some nutcrackers in a shop window.

and then finally our hotel (thanks to some credit card points from Daddy!)

It's a pretty neat view from the 18th floor and I have to pinch myself to think that this is the place my children call home!

I loved the whole date - and so did she!  We returned home a bit before lunch on Saturday, just in time to decorate for her afternoon birthday party.  quite the weekend, huh?