I Love New York!

I do!  I really do!  I <3 NEW YORK!!

Granted, I am from the state of New York and I do love the beauty of New York State; however, last weekend I fell in love with New York City!  I think it happened somewhere around the corner of 46th and Broadway (really, I have no idea where I was at any point during my stay so I just threw out those streets because I know I saw them).  

Why did I go to NYC you ask?  Well, there are multiple reasons, but the main reasons were to meet some amazing teacher bloggers and to visit the Teachers Pay Teachers office.  Eeek!  I'm still a little giddy about it all!!  After my amazing trip to Las Vegas there was a group of people who decided that we NEEDED to go to NYC to see the TpT office and have another meet-up.  I was so excited to jump in.  So the wonderful Angela Watson organized the weekend for all of us.  Not an easy undertaking but she did an amazing job!!

The first night started with just a small group of us meeting.  I met my roomie CaseyJane Cooper from Wiggling Scholars and then we went out to meet Amanda Richardson from Mrs. Richardson's Class, her husband, and their suuuuuuuper adorable little boy.  We met up in Times Square and walked around a bit. We went into the M&M store and spent way too much time in there.  

I stepped into the "Discover your Color M&M" Machine to check my mood.  It was highly technical, but as you can see I was a red.  It says, "You have a fiery personality, but right now you're feeling a little nutty.  Do you crave roasted peanuts?"  Haha!  Too funny!  I guess I can be a little fiery and you'll see when you scroll down that I also got a little nutty.  Amazing how it could know all that! 

We later met up with some other FAB ladies: Tamara Russell from Mrs. Russell's Room, Leigh Langton from Applicious Teacher, and Tammy Wathen from The Resourceful Apple for dinner.  I loved these ladies and had so much fun hanging with them for the evening (oh and Amanda's hubby and son too).  =)

After dinner, CaseyJane and I headed off to a Broadway show because THAT is what you do in NYC, folks!  We went to see Kinky Boots and it was great!  The music was written by Cindy Lauper so you know it's good.  (*this is where the night got a little nutty like my M&M machine predicted).  Sorry for all the blurry pictures - darn iPhone!  

After the show we strolled around and found a cute Irish pub to hang at for a bit, but not before we took the opportunity to get a picture in a telephone booth.  Who knew these were still around?  I of course channeled my inner Superman and figured that is what you do in a telephone booth.  

Day 2 began with an amazing trip the Brain POP! office.  That's right - BRAIN POP!!!!  I mean, come on people, it just keeps getting better.  

We may have roamed around the office and taken a few pics.  Look at all the pictures of Moby on the wall that kids have sent into the offices.  How fun!  And speaking of Moby, he was not in the building while we were there so I found this little one on someone's desk and had to get a picture.  

Here is the whole group of us.  It was so great to meet all of them and get a private look into the future of Brain Pop.  Surely you use Brain Pop! in your classrooms, right?  If not, get moving!

After that we took a little walk around the city.  Actually it was a VERY looooooong walk around the city --- ALL around the city!  I loved it, but it was definitely exhausting.  

We made some typical tourist stops like Radio City, Rockefeller Plaza, Bryant Park, and of course Central Park. 

This group includes Angela Watson, James Whitaker, CaseyJane Cooper, Tammy from Juggling ELA, Christina from School Daisies, Anna from Simply Skilled in Second, Erica from Erica's Ed-Ventures, Maria from Everyone Deserves to Learn, and Kristen from Elementary Chatter.  

After a couple hours of walking around the city, one has to use the facilities - am I right?  So we thought we would find a coffee shop to sit down, grab a cup, and ahem - go potty.  I really wanted to go to Serendipity so we walked what seemed like 25 blocks to get there and it was packed (duh, of course it was!).  So instead of waiting, we went around the corner to a Starbucks, but I still had to get a picture because it's so darn cute.

And after our stroll around Central Park I saw a real life NYC rat.  Can you see him trying to get away from the Paparrazi (aka ME)?

We ended the day again with a fun dinner organized by the fabulous Brenda Tejeda.  Some more friends joined us but you can't really see them all.  The only new ones that you might be able to see are Reagan from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits and Sally from Elementary Matters, who were actually with us earlier in the day but just not for the full 100 mile walk.

The final day was our day to visit the Teachers Pay Teachers office.  This little message was scrolling across the TVs in the office.  How sweet!

And although I met many of these fabulous people in Las Vegas, I was just so happy to meet them all again and some others too.  I cannot say enough about how warm and welcoming they all were - including Adam, the CEO, who Skyped in to chat with all of us.  

Do you see the Post-It wall in the background above.  Well these are Post-Its from Las Vegas after the TpT Conference and LOOK . . . 

I found mine!!!  I think I must have been too excited to write neatly at the time, but who cares, I'm ON THE WALL!

And of course, one last group picture to end the trip!

 I really had the best conversations ALL weekend long and especially here at the TpT office.  Everyone was genuinely interested in our experience, our input, and just us!  What a great feeling!  I wish I could sit and chat with them every Monday morning over bagels and coffee.  =)

So thanks to everyone for an awesome weekend!  Let's do it again next year!!!