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!!

Friday Adventures in PA

Ok so Friday started out with quite an adventure. Our plan was to go to the Philadelphia Zoo which although the weather was a little cold, the sun was out and it was actually a nice day. Unfortunately we drove all the way to Philly and found out the zoo was closed to the public because of all the snow. So onto plan B...the Please Touch Museum. So we look up the name in the GPS and it sends us to the old site...no good. We call Uncle Dave to get the new address and enter that which brings us all the way back over by the zoo. We try to follow the directions from the GPS, but a number of road were closed/unplowed with many detour signs. Long story short...we do eventually make it and it was a lot of fun. Check out the pics below?

This is us in the Space Room all doing our part to get our flying boat spinning:
This was the cool castle that the kids built with these magnetic shapes. We have come to see that Noah loves to build things ... possible architect on our hands :o)

There were so many different rooms and things to explore here...but I just attached a few things. The kids when "shopping" in the Shop Rite they had setup and then proceeded to be the checkout clerks. We then went over to McDonalds where they were able to put together the burgers and serve us. There was also a museum wide scavenger hunt for an old fashioned Fisher Price record player. Kylie was the first to find it!!! Next it was onto an Alice in Wonderland room with the maze of mirrors and then the grass garden to paint the roses with the cards. Below you will see our King.....

And Queen....

Then it was back upstairs where they were able to play in a tree house, dance on a big piano, and play in the big water table room. Aunt Dawn also treated them to a ride on the carosel..

It ended up being a great day. We were able to get home early and Aunt Dawn had some quality time with the kids while Jason & I grabbed some dinner at the shack (Joe's Crab Shack...which Jason has been trying to get to for the last 2 or 3 times we've visited). He was in heaven!

Her First Competition

We survived their first dance competition!! Luckily we got there earlier than we were supposed to because they were actually running significantly ahead of schedule. After the morning awards the girls were the 4th act to go on. There were definitely a lot of nerves - debatable on whether the girls or the moms had more :o) Other than one spot where they got really ahead of themselves and then stood for a couple seconds to wait for the music to catch up they really did a good job! The most important part is they both had fun and can't wait to do another one!!!We took a break to go out to Bugaboo Creek for an early dinner with Maya's family. Food was good and everyone had a good time....then it was back to the competition to wait for the awards ceremony.

After a few hours of watching other routines it was finally time. The girls all went out on stage and they rapidly called out all the awards. The girls were announced as receiving a Gold achievement. They each received a medal & ribbon for their work (although the ribbon says high gold...so we were a little confused...haha). It was a long day and everyone was tired. Next month the competition is right in Bristol so it will be so much closer. Hopefully with a little more practice beforehand and a few less nerves the girls will knock it out of the park!! We are soooo proud of them!!