Time square, Central park, and childhood friends

After our travel fiasco yesterday (wedns) we were still sleepy but anxious to get out of the house. Where should I take the boys as a welcome to NYC? Duh, the center of everything Times Square. So off we went.  We left Flatbush, Brooklyn on the Q train headed toward Manhattan. The boys were in awe. I bought them their first NY hotdogs and we walked down to Toys'R Us. The Toys'R Us in Times Square is what childhood dreams are made of. There is a huge ferris wheel inside that totally blew Zane's mind. The buys ran to the Ninjago section (these are Lego ninjas) and knew they were in heaven. There was also a life-like dinosaur roaring and snorting on the second floor. Dude keep one skeptical eye I that dinosaur and every ten minutes or so Zane asked,"Is that dinosaur real?". I'd prepped the boys that I would not buy them anything in the toy store, they understood but still left a little sad.
We left Times Square and headed uptown to Central Park North. The boys played in playgrounds that reminded me of the same playgrounds I played on growing up in The Bronx. We walked around the park's mini lake and did all we could to cool off in the blasting heat.
By 4:45 it was time to head back to Brooklyn to meet up with one of my childhood friends and her two daughters. I let her know that we were in a super tight budget (the euro kicked our butt!) and that seeing them and catching up was the most important thing to us. Zane complained about not wanting to meet and hang out with a girl and that he much preferred to play with a boy. After all his complaining as soon as he met my friend's oldest daughter they hit it off immediately like they'd been friends forever. We then headed to a nearby playground and let the kids run wild. It was so nice being able to sit and catch up with an old friend and even better, that our kids were off on their own having a good time. After a while we went to their house and ate pizza. Once we got back to my sister-in-law house we were all ready to sleep. We were exhausted but at least we were going to bed at a US bedtime. Zzzzzzz....