Showtime!

 Breanna had a spring concert for her school last week.  Her class sang at least a dozen songs from My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean to Erie Canal.  All classic stuff.  But the most impressive moment of the night was listening to the 4th graders recite by memory the poem, Paul Revere's Ride.  The length of the poem in itself is unbelievable. And to hear all 26 of them stay perfectly in unison as they recited it (without any notes whatsoever) was just plain inconceivable!   They did not miss a beat.

 Then my friend, Denise, invited Jake and Bree to play in her piano recital (thanks Denise!).  It was such a good experience for them to play in front of an audience.  Breanna played "Snowfall" and "Colors of the Wind".  We gave them trophies at the end for working so hard all year.  Bree was awarded the trophy for Dazzling Dedication. She gets up before school and practices and really focuses on technique and dynamics and tries so hard to perfect her pieces.  And when she gets frustrated because she can't quite get a passage, she pounds the keys in agony.  I think it's quite cute and maybe that's because it just might remind me of myself when I was her age. I just love her.

 Jake played "Music Box Dancer" and "Humoresque". He got the trophy for "Exceptional Entertainer" (which quite frankly he told me he loathed.  Who knew the word, 'exceptional' could be so offensive? - but I digress...)  He too gets up every morning to practice and although he doesn't love piano and he would tell you that flat out (might even use the word hate), he does a good job and sticks with it. And once he gets the hang of a piece, he LOVES to play it as fast as he can and those fingers go flying up and down the keys like no other. He is quite entertaining to watch and to listen to and I love him!! And can I just say that I am so proud of him for doing something that is hard.  It's easy to do something you love, but quite another story to do something you have to work at and I love that he just keeps plugging away.

I'm so grateful that my parents made me stick with piano. I just might have a lot more in common with my Jakester than he knows.  I spent a lot of time begging them to let me quit.  But they didn't. And maybe that's why I won't let Jake quit. Because now I love it. And even though our lessons might be the farthest thing from Switzerland I really do love that I get to teach them.

Mother's Day 2011

 The spontaneous smooch from Jake, might have been the highlight of Mother's Day. Love him!

These guys spoiled me with jewels, cinnamon bears, a few gifts certs to some
of my favorite places and my favorite foods all day long. It was my kinda day.

Then we found a sweet spot at the park which made for the perfect kite flying, tag playing, sand burying, treat eating, football catching evening.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

It's toasty out there....

so at preschool pick-up we decided we'd hit the pool.  Couldn't have been a better plan!

 Ashton's disappearing glasses, Kerry's kid magnetism, and Katie's shark impersonation all made for a very entertaining day at the pool.  These ladies are dynamite moms & I'm so glad we were able to do preschool this year together because they are all extremely creative, talented ladies!!

And as sad as it is for preschool to end, today made me so excited for summer!!

Mother's Day Tea

 The Activity Day girls (and their Awesome Leaders) put on a sweet Mother's Day tea today. Here are a few of the other moms and daughters that were at our table:

Loved spending some time with this girl (when she wasn't high-tailing it upstairs to play with her friends:).

After we ate, we took a quiz that asked questions about each other, then we sat down together to correct it.  I got 4/12 right about Bree (coulda sworn yesterday she said she hated history, but today it's her favorite, who knew?) and she maybe got 6/12 right about me (it's hard to get a right answer when one has soooo many favorites:)!

I'm thinking we will be spending some quality 'getting to know you' time together this weekend:)

Loved this kick off to Mother's Day!

And love being a Mom to my Breezy girl!

The Royal Wedding

We girls got together and had us some front row seats for the big event!

And there were some definite princesses in our midst.

 But some of the princesses didn't act very lady-like...

 Come on Nik, show off those yoga moves!

I will not say who won this highly entertaining take-down. 

We'll let the pic speak for itself.

Here's a quick wedding re-cap:

We all loved her dress, we were split on the hats, and were the best Royal lip readers ever.

So glad Jamie could come and get educated on the history of the Royal family.

So glad Amber was here to educate her... 

That girl came and brought the answers to all of our burning Royal questions.

And Maryann, please work on your accent so when Harry gets married we can all speak English:)

And Harry could you hurry, cuz we're ALL gonna wear our gowns next time.

Easter 2011

 Doing a little Easter jig.

 Honestly?

 The Goods...

 The Guests...

 The Games...

 The Giving...

 The Guys...

 The Giggling...

 The Guarding...

 The Gourmet chefs...

 The Gliding...

The Going....(all afternoon long)

Fabulous food. Superb weather. Exquiste Company.

A Dreamy Easter!

Easter Week Day 4

Well, despite our best intentions, doing an Easter themed activity every day was trickier than we thought it would be. We did sneak in a good Easter story read on Day 3 and we colored eggs, but the rest of the week slipped through our little fingers and before we knew it, Easter was here. But even though we didn't hit it every day this week, we did way better than last year and next year, we'll do even better.

Now about the coloring of the eggs, the kids took on this project all on their own. Luke was fascinated by it this year.  Jake and Bree showed him the ropes.

And I loved it!