Apologies for the lack of posts ... but we've been pretty busy. The kids had a piano recital and their school talent show both on the same night. Basically, they played their pieces at their piano recital and then we shuffled off to the middle school where the school talent show was held. It was a busy, but fun night! Enjoy the performances.
Anita and her piano recital performances.
Minnie and his piano recital performances.
Anita and her talent show performances. (Apologies for the blurriness and initial confusion ... I thought she was going to be on the stage, too!)
Today was the talent dress rehearsal for all of the kids participating. We missed the second rehearsal due to the cruise. Oh well. There were some really great performances which included our kids (of course).
Minnie's seventh birthday was this past Monday. It has always been a dream of his to "see the ocean and find shells." Well, MJM and I did just that and took the kids to the Bahamas! We flew in to Orlando and was whisked away to Port Canveral where we boarded the Carnival Sensation. As we headed out into the open sea, we saw two dolphins swimming by the ship as well as a sea turtle.
We went to a Junkanoo beach party in Freeport. The kids found five conch shells on the beach, and we brought the best ones home as souvenirs.
In Nassau, we took a small boat to a private island where we swam alongside stingrays and fed them during the day. They were in an enclosed pen off the beach. On another part of the beach, a wild stingray swam up to Minnie and everyone crowded around. We went walking around the town in the afternoon after the stingray adventure.
Of course, we partook in the various activities on board the ship: swimming, animal towel making class, bingo, and of course, live entertainment which included several performances by the kids. Below is a video of the kids singing and playing the piano shortly after we boarded the ship. MJM encouraged them to ask the pianist if they could try to play the piano with fairly good results!
EDIT on 05.13.2008: I'm putting the photos from my little Kodak on Facebook. Here's a link to the Kodak photos.
EDIT on 05.14.2008: Now, a link to the Nikon photos!
Minnie's had a loose tooth for a while that has simply not wanted to come out. This has been going on for almost three months now. Finally, Minnie decided to use a pair of tweezers and "operate" on himself to pull the stubborn tooth out. I finally interjected and said that I would pull the tooth out for him. With a little twist, the stubborn tooth came out with minimal pain. Yippee! Minnie's first tooth!
Apologies for the delay in posting... We've been really busy with EO (end of) year activities for the kids and enjoying the weather and our backyard!
I wanted to post a few pictures of Minnie's birthday that we had at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City and time up at the cabin on Lake Leelanau. We tricked the kids in thinking that they were going to school when we actually drove directly up North to hang out at the cabin. LOL - it was awesome!
The night before we left, we stuffed both the Cruiser and Roger's truck to the brim.
On our way to get breakfast, MJM told the kids the truth.
Minnie is the center of attention as he listens to dad tell him about the rocket. We're at the Great Wolf Lodge in this picture.
It's been several years since we've had really cold weather as well as accumulation. The kids and dad went outside to build a little ice pond in the back. They managed to shovel the snow to form a pond. However, it was so cold that the water would not flow out of the outside spigot. Urgh. Well, Minnie kept going and shovelling snow around lasting 30 minutes before I called him inside.
