Anna's Dance Recital 2014

Anna has been taking ballet, jazz, and tap this year.  On her recital, she'll be performing a ballet dance and a tap dance.  Her costumes are so cute!  I've never seen her so excited as she was today to put on her costumes, a little makeup, and take pictures.

Snow Days 2014

So far the kids have missed 6 days due to snow this year.  This is the worst winter I've ever experienced in Georgia.  I lived in Utah for 2 years and in Ukraine for a year and a half and I know that in those places, the snow is beautiful and it doesn't slow anyone down.  Here, we had a layer of ice covered by several inches of snow...very dangerous, but very fun if you're a kid getting out of school!

Alex's 10th Birthday

Alex decided to have a pajama party for his 10th birthday.  His friends came over dressed in their PJs, played with lots of balloons, ate cake, and watched "Finding Nemo."  They even made up and performed a play.  A time traveller was travelling around to different times and different countries.  They are so creative!

It's been a year and a half since I last blogged which can tell you just about how that last year and a half have gone.  I almost lost my mind last year teaching, then spent a blissful summer recovering, then quit my teaching job thinking that would make things more manageable, then Alex was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  I'm finally breathing again...it's February 2014!

Now I teach 16 piano students each week, do 2-3 Reminiscents gigs a month, and play Princess occassionally.  I'm Room Mom for Anna's class and the School Nurse is now my best friend.  I feel like I live at the Elementary School which is opposite of Mali's Middle School, where I feel like I never know what's going on there.  Franco and I are still honeymooning after 15 years (which grosses Mali out) and I really love my family.

Anna's Dance Recital

 Anna started taking ballet and tap this year.  The recital was really precious!  She couldn't have been more excited to dress up and wear the crown.  Look how sweet she is!  She never got stage fright like some of the other little girls, but she kept running over to me to ask if she was doing it right.  :)  She would run over, climb in my lap, whisper in my ear, and then run back and jump back into the dance.  Of course, this was to be expected in a group of 3-year-olds so no one thought anything about it, but I thought it was so cute.

She was always very serious about her hair for the classes.  Each Thursday she made sure she had all her things together to take to school and would have me pull her hair into a bun, which required many bobby pins, rubber bands, hair nets, hairspray, and gel.  Normally, Anna doesn't allow me to even brush her hair, but for this, she endured a lot of tugging and pulling on her hair.  If you look closely, you can see the sparkly pink bobby pins that she found at the store and the beautiful ribbons around the bun.


She will definitely continue with dance classes next year so look forward to more recital pictures to come.  I really like the way this company does things.  They come to the school for a one hour class each week and then for the recital, the children weren't required to pay high fees to be in the recital or to buy an expensive costume that they will never wear again.  The company owns all the matching little costumes which they loaned us for the 30 minutes and made each little girl a crown out of silver pipe cleaners which she got to keep.  So precious!  I know I keep saying that, but what else can I say!

Christmas Eve at Nanni's house

The most fun part of going to Nanni's house is getting to ride on the golf cart.

Look at my cutie pies!

Anna spent the whole day sneaking cookies!

I got to see my niece and nephew!

I gave all the men back scratchers and it became the joke of the day!

Unfortunately, Daddy and Nanna were unable to join us because Daddy's Uncle Gabriel passed away and they flew down to Puerto Rico for the funeral. Daddy made it back just in time for Santa Claus.

Mali won her class Spelling Bee and so competed in the School Spelling Bee as one of only 22 4th and 5th graders. We are tremendously proud of her! She didn't win, but she held her own for several rounds.