Congratulations Kylie!!

The girls did amazing today! They have improved so much over last months competition. They both have been practicing really hard and it showed. I think the biggest hurdle they overcame this time was looking out into the audience the whole time and maintaining a smile! They were pretty well in sync as well.

In the end they end up with a Gold achievement as well as 1st place in the Mini Duo/Trio division. This gave the girls their first 2 trophies and a ribbon. As you can see in the pics below Kylie has started her "competition" bear to tie her ribbons too. We have one more competition at the end of April for this year and then onto recital. I can't believe how much she has matured over the last 5 years of dancing. So proud of our special princess.

Thank You

Just a quick thank you to everyone that supported Kylie in her Jump for Heart drive. They were having the actual event at school today in her gym class and she was really excited about it. If you didn't have a chance and are still interested in making a pledge the site is below. Have a healthy day!

http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/JumpforHeart/JRFH-FDA?px=2036596&pg=personal&fr_id=1280

First Rollerskate Adventure

Kylie had a birthday party to go to today. It was her first rollerskating party. We've been talking about going for months now that the kids are getting bigger so this was kind of a funny coincidence. Jason wasn't having any part of it so it was just me and the kids. I figured Kylie would be off having fun with her friends in between spills on the floor so it would be me and my little man. Unfortunately I have no pics to share because juggling the 2 of them was more than a full time job, but it was so much fun. They both couldn't stop giggling for the first 20 mins. They would no sooner get up on their feet and they would be right back down on their bums. The wall was their friend for the first 1/2 of the party. Noah seemed to catch on a little quicker than Kylie, probably because he is relatively fearless. By the end he had perfected his little old man shuffle (bent elbows, bent knees shuffling the skates) and didn't need the wall too much. Kylie got over her fear of falling after a bit too and was braving the center of the rink. Both wanted their independence after awhile which was so funny and cute to experience. I'm also happy to report that I managed to last the full 2.5 hrs without a single fall even with both of them hanging on an arm at times...haha. Each have already asked when we can go again and I don't think Daddy will get out of it! Good night!

A Special Note from Kylie

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm joining millions of other kids to help save lives with the American Heart Association's Jump Rope For Heart Program! Will you help me?

I'm doing Jump Rope For Heart at my school and learning about kids with special hearts. I'm also learning about my own heart, and how to take care of it. And I'm getting active and jumping rope!

Some kids have special hearts and need our help! I'm raising money to help kids like them. The money I raise will help pay for education and for new medicines and treatments to be discovered. It could help cure heart disease for everybody!

You can help too! Will you make a donation? It's fast and easy to do on my personal Web page! Just use the link below. Or you can mail your donation to me my address is below.

Thank you for helping me save lives and be a Heart Hero!

To make a donation online, visit my personal page:

http://honor.americanheart.org/site/TR/JumpforHeart/JRFH-FDA?px=2036596&pg=personal&fr_id=1280

While there you can also meet some of the kids we can help!

Sincerely,
Kylie

Special Notes :
*All donations are tax deductible.
*You can learn more about Jump Rope For Heart, kids and cardiovascular disease and kids' health by visiting americanheart.org/jump.

Hooray for Noah!!!

We just got home from karate where Noah had his first belt test. He was put on the spot to see how much he has learned so far and he did great!! He had to do his punches, kicks, blocks, star block set, form 1 and then had to spar each kid in class. He was the only one testing for a promotion today. Master D was very happy with how well Noah did and he received the below certificate:
Then Master D presented him with his new belt. He is now an Orange Gup White Belt!!!

We are so proud of our little man!!

Happy Valentine's Day

So we woke up this morning and had a yummy french toast breakfast. Then we decided to go bowling for our last outing before heading back to CT tonight. I won the first game and Uncle Dave took the second game. Everyone had fun :o)

We came back for some lunch and then it was out for some fun in the piles of snow they have out here. It was actually a beautiful day to be out. We worked on a snowwoman and then a little dog for her. The snow was great for packing...and I think they came out pretty cute. Enjoy the masterpieces below:

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Saturday Adventures in NJ

Another fun filled - jam packed day on our mini vacation. Today we decided to head to Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ. We were determined to make this an education filled break from school apparently :o) There were 4 floors of so many different things to explore. We didn't get to see everything even though we were there for more than 5 hrs, but what we did do was great. Below is a picture of Jason helping the kids work the crane in the skyscraper room. Anything hands on is really interesting to the kids.
Before we left this room Aunt Dawn and Uncle Dave decided to experience to the curtain wall. This was an enclosed room where they talked about the feel of hurricane force winds and rain..watching a short video and then a real life demo. It was absolutely hysterical to watch. The winds in the chamber got up to 100 mph and then they got pelted with the rain too...hahahaha.

We went through a few other rooms with hands on experiments for the kids to try. I think my favorite thing by far was the real life "surgery" that Noah volunteered to help with. When he was called up to be one of the doctors he was so cute. He was the anesteiologist - Dr. Noah. The patient Ana (Banana) was having some discomfort in her abdomin. So Noah had to bring over the pole with the medicine to put her to sleep...he put the needle into the banana which had a face with googly eyes on it. After "5 min" of receiving her meds Ana was asleep and the "nurse" pulled the googly eyes off to reveal closed eyes...it was soooo cute. They went on to remove a staple from the banana and then seal her up...then Dr Noah removed the needle and Ana woke up (retached the googly eyes). He had a lot of fun and was excited that he got to keep his gloves..haha. Below is a picture from the middle of surgery:

We saw a 3D dinosaur movie along with so many other things. We were all tired and decided to call it a day around 3:30. We drove through Liberty State Park so that we could get a picture of the kids with the Statue of Liberty in the harbor in the background:

Lastly we thought since it was only 4 miles away we were stop at the famous Carlos Bakery in Hoboken, NJ (Cake Boss TV show). The line was around the corner and it was cold, but Dawn & I were determined to wait (since we thought it would be an hour or less). The boys went to get pizza, then parked and waited for us. It was a cool experience and we did get to see a few different people from the show, but it took wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long. Next time we would have to go during the week when its a lot more managable. The red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting was super yummy though!!

Now that we have thawed out and are exhausted its time for bed. Need to get some rest for our last day :( We'll probably have a more local adventure tomorrow. There is never a dull moment on our vacations and the memories we make are amazing!!