home sweet Homage

went to the Smith street festival this weekend. It looked way bigger than last year - lots more vendors. We saw a couple of our favorite vendors there, Brooklyn Revolution (Z got a Bob Marley and a Frida Kahlo shirt) and an artist that we all really like - sorry, don't know his name. But he makes paintings of little monsters in jars. Z has a small collection of his work.

One of our most favorite shops on Smith Street is Homage Skate Shop. This place is like home and the people that run it, treat you like family. Both my kids and BD got their skateboards there. The kids had theirs made specifically for them. The Homage shop sells all the gear you need for skate boarding, has a shop to assemble boards, and a juice bar to keep you hydrated and healthy. My kids took skate lessons there last summer. Homage continues to do awesome things in the community. If you are in NY I would highly recommend checking it out and meeting the family :) http://www.homagebrooklyn.com/

winners rule! losers...freeze to death.

Big Daddy's is having a special today and tomorrow - buy a breakfast get one free from 9-11a. AND they are showing the world cup! we showed up just in time for the breakfast schedule and watched the italy slovakia game in mixed company of both Slovakia and Italy fans. pretty intense :) It was so much fun watching the game with other people. The excitement was palpable (or maybe it was a chocolate high from that super yummy frozen hot chocolate concoction i drank?)I think we will head back tomorrow!

After the game we swung over to the American Museum of Natural History. We went into the Journey to the End of the Earth exhibit. We got to follow the Norwegian and British Polar teams as they raced to be the first to get to the south pole. the exhibit was well done and kept us in suspense as to which team reached the South Pole first. Personally, I really enjoyed the exhibit and it kind of reminded me of playing Oregon trail but with real people. Check it out -

ny transit authority

the kids and i ventured into downtown Brooklyn today. We stopped into the NY transit museum which is located right off of the Hoyt Schemerhorn stop on the G line. The Museum was small but so cute! i think it would work for a wide variety of ages. You entered the museum as though you were going down into the subway. The first level contains the tranist museum store, and a section i really enjoyed on the history of how the subway system was created. the lower level has the coolest display of antique subway cars. train cars from the early 1900's up through the 1960's were on display and open for exploring. the kids really had a great time going into the trains and checking out the differences between the years past.

the transit museum is a definite must visit when exploring brooklyn. check it out.