NYC Part II:

The rest of our NYC trip this past weekend was a blast!

Friday, we walked towards 5th Avenue shopping with a little detour through the Diamond District to drool all over the pretty shiny baubles.

One of our favorite stops of the morning was at Henri Bendel's where we were repeatedly accosted by makeup sales people who pampered us! It was a lot of fun to try so many different kinds of makeup. Just as we were about to leave, though, I was putting on some lip gloss and this guy says, "Oh no, girl, you did not just put that drugstore lip gloss on in front of me! Get over here!"

He proceeded to help Erin and I pick out some really cute lip glosses at the Trish McEvoy counter and gave Erin the most fabulous makeover! Our friend, Raymond, was so funny and honest about the makeup. It was a lot of fun to step out of our "Mommy" mode and just play with makeup! I highly suggest you moms try it often!

After drooling all over the makeup, Erin headed back to the hotel and I cabbed it to SoHo where I had an appointment for a haircut.

When I lived in NYC 8 years ago, I used to go to a great place for haircuts called Arrojo Cutler. Fast forward to about 4 years later and imagine my surprise when I see the owner of Arrojo Cutler, who used to check my haircuts, as the hairstylist on What Not To Wear!

So while in NYC, this visit, I made an appointment at the Arrojo Salon Studio, but not with Nick Arrojo since a cut from Nick costs $500. Instead, I went with one of their stylists who did a GREAT job fixing a less-than-fabulous haircut I received about 2 months ago from a stylist here in Chicago. What was cool was that Nick was at the salon that day and wandering the floor saying hi to people. It was fun and a great way to feel pampered on a girl's weekend!

I met up with Erin after my haircut and we went to Serendipity's for dinner. Serendipity's if famous for their frozen hot chocolate dessert which is so yummy!

We couldn't even finish our dessert because it was so yummy and we were full!

After Serendipity, we started to walk about 8 blocks north to a great chocolate pastry shop my Aunt Sheryl introduced me to back when I lived in NYC. About 4 blocks into our walk, Erin and I realized that our feet were sore from all of the walking we'd been doing. Lo and behold, we stopped right in front of a nail salon and we were saved! We treated ourselves to a lovely pedicure that stopped our poor dogs from barking! It was a lovely way to relax!

When we arrived back at our hotel later that night, we were SO tired and took no time at all to fall asleep. Erin didn't sleep so well...apparently I snore!

Saturday was our day for Broadway (and shopping)!

Friday morning, we'd bought our tickets to see the musical, Gypsy, starring Patti Lupone. While in line to buy tickets, a girl in front of us was telling the guy next to her that she wanted to buy tickets for the show before Sunday since Patti Lupone was expected to win a Tony for her performance and then tickets would be really hard to buy!

A couple at the hotel suggested Gypsy, so we bought our tickets on Friday and were very excited to see the matinee on Saturday.

Saturday morning, Erin and I headed down to SoHo for lots of fun shopping. We both bought some fabulous new purses and a few things for our husbands and kids. Saturday afternoon, we went to Gypsy and REALLY enjoyed ourselves. It is a great musical and we'd highly suggest going to see if it you ever have the chance! Patti Lupone was terrific and yes, she did win a Tony on Sunday night for her performance.

Someone else at our hotel gave us a GREAT tip on getting tickets to see the musical Hairspray on Broadway. Apparently, a couple of hours before the show, you can go to the theater and put your name into a lottery. The tickets are only $25 and they are in the very front row! After seeing Gypsy, Erin and I had about 45 minutes before the lottery drawing. Unfortunately for us, there was a BIG storm raging when we stepped out of the theater and we still had to run the 10 blocks to the Hairspray theater to put our names in for the lottery!

Erin and I sucked it up and RAN!

We made it in time to put our names into the lottery and my name was called second! Erin's name was called last but I was able to buy two tickets so she passed her chance onto someone else. Being DRENCHED was totally worth seeing Hairspray on the front row for only $25 each! Lucky for us, the lottery was two hours before the actual show time so we were able to run back to the hotel and clean ourselves up! Plus, Norm from CHEERS (George Wendt) was Tracy's mom, which was HILARIOUS! It was a great adventure! We were so close to the stage, we could have reached up and shook hands with everyone!

By Sunday, we'd really enjoyed ourselves but ready to get back home to our husbands and kids, especially on Father's Day! Erin actually hosted Father's Day dinner on Sunday for about 25 people! Thank goodness everyone pitched in to help. it was a great way to end a fabulous weekend with my friend!