Ice Cream, Not Diamonds, and Fireflies oh my!

 I think I forgot to mention previously our trip to the Museum of Ice Cream in Manhattan, so I'm adding it here! 

Eat as much ice cream at you want

The famed sprinkle pool

banana banana, pink banana

Every room had a delightful treat in the form of something interesting, and in many rooms, limitless ice cream. The first room meet us with coconut chocolate twist; other rooms had a variety of flavors. Teacup's favorite flavor was the bagel with strawberry ice cream (strawberry and cream cheese twist if you wanted that instead, but she wanted pure strawberry), covered in everything bagel spice. Actually pretty good, but my favorite was probably the first, because I actually really like coconut. 

But more recently we have been on other adventures of note.

The Bronx Zoo was great fun! Also we had to go 3 times because it's huge and we didn't see the all of it the first two times. Though we did see the red panda 3 times as the Monorail was a hit, and spent a lot of time in the tree trek, both going through the obstacle course and playing with sticks in the play zone at the end.

red panda!

Bronx zoo has many types of deer

Building tents

Teacup became quite the tent expert.

Fourth of July was a blast (pun intended). Though it was almost a washout due to high heat that day and powerful storms the previous day, things cooled off just in time, and we were able to go to a nearby town to catch the fireworks for Teacup's probably last 4th for a few years in the USA. 

Since we had gotten a membership to Bronx Zoo, we figured we would also visit Central Park Zoo. So we did that on a day we went into the city for a round of the Escape Game. Teacup was more impressed with our close up with a bear than with the gorillas at Bronx Zoo. For the Escape Game, Teacup was a great help solving puzzles as we traveled through time to save the future!

Finally, the recent highlight was a wild firefly adventure to upstate NY: camping and mining at Herkimer Diamond mines. (For those new to the stone, it is not a diamond but instead a type of quartz crystal found in Herkimer county, NY.)

a handful of small Herkimer diamonds

Hammering open rocks

campfire! s'mores soon followed

KOA is a camping resort, so the campsite has access to a lot of nice features like a playground and a pool and a stream, and cabins and glamping pockets for those not into tents. But as it was Teacup's first real camping adventure, tent was the way we went. At night we found a magical wonderland of twinkling fireflies, the forest trees looking like Christmas. We checked out the mines during the day, and while we didn't find a lot of the double-terminated quartz crystals, we had a great time beating up rocks with hammers. After working hard in the mines, we cooled off with a dip in that (icy!) pool. Then more s'mores, more fireflies, and amazing stars. So all in all, a perfect first camping trip. 

Ice cream at Bellvale Creamery on the way home

Now it's back to packing and paperwork, and Teacup is in camps for a few weeks. 

Poked, Prodded, and Lego'd

 Since the end of the school year (and kindergarten graduation) and the beginning of Camp Mom, most of my time has gone to the efforts of moving and parenting (camp is forthcoming). This has included things like an all-the-tests visa health checkup (blood draw, x-ray, booster vaccine, and general checkup) and lots of calling up various contractors for scheduling moving tasks. I've got a hilariously crowded calendar these days, to the point that looking at it gives me calendar claustrophobia.

That's not to say there has been no time for frivolous things. I made time to take a short day in the city for tea. 

Tea at Cha &

Flight of tea from Cha &

Harney & Sons Soho 

Tie Gyuan Yin ice cream from Ten Ren NYC store

We also went to Ohio for a long weekend to visit one of my best friends (friends since the second grade!), and have some tasty toasted marshmallows over a backyard fire pit with the kids, chasing fireflies, and playing at the local playgrounds. 

A pretty mid flight sunset on the way home

Back in NJ we also ran off to NY to visit Legoland and its many wonders.

And on the way back, a visit to Bellvale Farms ice cream, because if you've had it, you know why we had to stop on the way home. We first heard about it visiting Maskers Orchards (most apples per cost of all the farms we've tried, and some of the best variety), so if you're out this fall looking for apple picking anyway, and don't mind a line for your ice cream, that's a trip worth making.

So all this is to say, we're still making time for fun, between the chores.