Family visit
Uncle M and Aunt L were in town last week. I personally hadn't seen them in about 3 years and since I haven't been to NY in over 6, it's been way too long. Anyway, they came into town last week and we had a big family get together. We went to Mom and Dad's house. All the kids and grandkids were there. They were very impressed by the big girls and of course, got some good cuddles from the little ones.
Aunt L was also thrilled (or faked it anyway) to see the DVD of C's dress rehearsal for her dance recital which I recorded earlier in the day. L danced on Broadway (which is how she met Unc) and their two daughters are professional dancers now. It certainly runs in the family along that line anyway. L was very impressed with C and her ballet moves and admits to remembering her time as a ballet mom. C's not going to challenge R in the Philadelphia ballet any time soon, but I'm glad C was able to show off a little.
Uncle M with H
Aunt L with M
C and E strike a pose
The girls - well, 3 out of 4 of them
And the whole mishpucha. We don't get everyone together too often.
Birthdays
It's been a birthday week. C celebrated her bday at school and M&H are now 4 months old.
I brought a cupcake cake to celebrate. Nothing like cupcakes at 9AM. Then the class went on a field trip. A few months ago, one of the kids suggested for a tzedakah project that they save money and they voted as a class to take the money that they raised and buy toys at Toys R Us to give to kids in the hospital. So they painted their piggy banks and Project Piggy Bank was born. So after cupcakes, we all drove to Toys R Us to buy their toys. Hop the kids up on sugar and then set them free in a toy store. It doesn't get better than that. But the kids did great. No tears, no wanting to buy a toy for themselves. They all went in knowing that they were buying for a child who didn't have what they have.
The birthday girl
Outside Toys R Us showing off their bags of money that they all saved.
With the bags of goodies they bought.
All the toys spread out on the table in class.
Class photo with the toys.
And now here are M&H at 4 months. They're smiley happy girls. And yes, only a lot cute if you ask us.
H & M
Miss M
Miss H
It's done!
It's officially done and outta here. Well, a few days ago anyway. I finally finished the HW yearbook. I think it looks good. I hope people are pleased with it. There are things I didn't like about the program and how slow it ran but I found out that part of it had to do with the size of the pictures I uploaded. Note to self for next year to reduce the size of the pictures and it'll go faster.
Anyway sent it off and then got a phone call on Tuesday that there were some copywritten images that have to be replaced. I couldn't for the life of me think of what she was talking about because all the pictures were taken by parents. What's copywritten? Then she mentioned the Lakers and Tiger Woods and I realized "oh shit, the 5th grade pages". We had the graduating class to half page collages to tell us a little about themselves and 3 of them used logos like Lakers, Dodgers, and UCLA Bruins. Who knew? So I contacted the three kids and told them they had to re-do their pages. They were very cool and two of the boys whipped them out. The other has been sick but I was able to photoshop and fix his. So I got the revised pages this morning, incorporated them into the yearbook and sent it out to the publisher again. I'll know next week but we expected everything to be good to go. Now, I just sit and wait for them to come back in June.
C turns 6
It's amazing that C is now 6 years old. What happened? Where did the time go? She looks so big compared to M&H and she's almost in 1st grade. Wow. We've had a bit of a rough few weeks leading up to the big bday. Some people have theorized that they know that a big change is coming so all sorts of things go wacky. Based on past years, and especially this year, I would say that's the truth. The few weeks leading up have been hellish with lots of whinging, needless meltdowns, and general unpleasantness. Some of it is certainly a reaction to the babies but the rest is just being a pain. And since she turned 6, C has been much more pleasant. Go figure.
We had a really nice day on C's actual day of birth on the 14th. It started off with C sleeping until 10:20A. Good for her. She had gotten 4 phone calls before she even woke up. We originally planned to go see the "Hannah Montana" movie but that morning she said she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear. There are about 7,431 stuffed animals floating around our house but it is her birthday so off we went. Thankfully Aviva was working during the day to watch the babies so that C and I could have some Mommy/C time. I think she's really feeling that. Anyway, she picked a really cute bear and got a few outfits. It was her birthday after all...
Trying to decide which bear to do. These are the tough ones in life...
Giving her bear a bath
C and her new bear Sarah
We met our friends for Yozen Frogurt (the name of the store) before ballet. And then when G was done with work, we had a birthday dinner at CPK. C said it was her best birthday ever so I guess I did well to entertain her. We have her birthday party tomorrow at Color Me Mine so there'll be more to report after that.
Another thing that's new this week, we started playing soccer. Now, C is not the most athletic child in the world nor do we expect to see the birth of the next Mia Hamm but we need to be a little more active and just be outside. Thus, after a few other dramas, we signed her up for soccer through one of the local YMCA's. We had our first practice on Wednesday and she was fully and totally shy and wouldn't participate. Tears in the eyes, the whole nine yards and she did know one boy on the team. They're in the same class and we signed up together. Anyway, it was a little loose with who would be coaching our team but we started practicing with another team. The Coach/Dad couldn't have been nicer to encourage C since it was her very first time playing but still she wasn't interested. After about 45 minutes of watching, she finally got up enough nerve to want to try. So he was really nice and had C stand with him at the goal and she kicked the ball. The next thing we knew, she was getting into it. Then when it was our teams real time to practice, she was all over it for the hour. What a turnaround and for C, a very fast one. She's such a shy wallflower until she's used to a situation and honestly, I would've expected the shy behavior to last for weeks. She did great. The next day, she proclaimed "I love soccer!" Who would've thunk that? G took her to buy soccer shoes, socks and shin guards and she was so excited.
Today was our first official game. No, she doesn't really understand the rules or strategy but we have a coach who's a nice man and it's all very low-key and encouraging. They didn't have their official uniforms yet, thus the striped shirt and leggings. But her team, I think they're calling themselves the Rattlers, won and C scored a goal! Everyone on their team scored so it was a really good day. She was excited to play and hopefully that'll continue. Yay for activity.
She shoots, she scores!!
One other shot. This is from the last Kings game of the season last week. Grandpa arranged to have the birthday message put up on the scoreboard. Very cool and YAY for Grandpa!
More to come. Just hoping my sore throat goes away sometime this century. It's on fire at the moment. Ugh.
