Me and My Hula Girl

Since September, Paige and I have been taking a Hula/Tahitian dance class at The Spark of Creation Dance Studio. I signed Paige up for a 5-week session this past summer to see if she would like it. She had been taking ballet at the community center, but seemed to be getting bored. She ended up loving the hula class! I had been planning on signing her up for a dance school, which runs weekly classes for the duration of a school year and has performances. When it came time for enrollment, I noticed they had beginning adult Hula/Tahitian and thought, hhhhhmmmm...that is something I have always wanted to do!

Here is Paige on her first day of class.

So here we are, 4 months in and we are both loving it. We recently had our first recital on December 10th. We had so much fun. It was Paige's first time on a stage ever and my first time on stage since High School. Paige was in a terrible mood all day and then she melted down in the dressing area because she didn't like the tube top she had to wear. I was convinced she was going to get on stage and stand there. But she didn't! She danced the whole dance the best she could and she did such a great job. I was able to watch her from back stage and I was just beaming with pride! It was awesome!

Paige is on the far right.

My group went on two groups after Paige's. I was so nervous. I was part excited, part nervous and part teary-eyed from watching Paige. At the beginning, I was shaking so much from nerves, my arms didn't feel very graceful. About a few lines in, I started to relax and have fun. It was a great experience and I am very much looking forward to our year end recital in June.

I am so glad to have gotten into this. My plan is is to stick with it for some time and see how far I get through the classes. As for Paige, I hope she sticks with it too. Right now she loves it, but we will see what the next year brings! Aloha!

 

Thanksgiving Islamorada Trip

Thanksgiving this year was absolutely amazing. We had the wonderful opportunity to spend 8 days with Doug's family in Islamorada, which is located in the Florida Keys. His cousin Michael has lived there for many many years and when we had the opportunity to see him on our New Jersey trip in August, he mentioned the possibility of hosting Thanksgiving for the family at his soon-to-open new restaurant. I was doubtful it was actually going to happen, but alas, it did. And anyone who knows me, knows I never pass up a tropical vacation!

We flew into Fort Lauderdale on a red eye. The kids did great, they slept the whole flight. I, however was a walking zombie for 24 hours. We picked up our car, stopped for breakfast and some playtime at the park before picking up Doug's parents and driving the 2 hours down to The Keys.

The drive down was long, but when we arrived at our condo, I was in awe. I thought I died and went to some version of heaven. The whole family was able to rent condos in the same complex that cousin Michael lived in. We had a 5th floor unit with panoramic views of the ocean!

The view from our living room and balcony.

Even though there were a few windy days, the temperature was about 83 degrees with the water temp at about 73. The kids got to swim every single day in the complex pool, which was located right on the beach.

View from the pool.

Paige had the opportunity to go out on a boat for the day with daddy and most of the family. She had a great time getting sprayed in the face and swimming in the ocean.

Thanksgiving Day was amazing! Of course we spent the morning swimming with the kids and hanging out. Then in the afternoon we headed over to Michael's restaurant. He had two long tables nicely set for dinner and a huge buffet table set up. We had appetizers out on the deck of crab cakes, baked brie and chips & dip. The whole family was there. I think there was about 25 of us. It was amazing to spend time with everyone and share this holiday and time together. Dinner was out of this world! Aside from turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the fixings you can dream of, we also had stuffed lobster tails! Dessert consisted of authentic key lime pie, pumpkin and apple pie with ice cream! My stomach feels full just thinking of all the food I ate!

My kids are in love with Cousin Michael!

The munchkins on Thanksgiving.

The whole family at Michael's new restaurant.

The trip was extremely relaxing. We spent the rest of the time doing nothing but hanging at the pool and spending time with everyone. One of the days, we spent the entire day at Founder's Beach Park. This beautiful beach with a playground and bbq area. Most of the family came out to spend the day and enjoy the sun. We had an awesome bbq lunch and the kids had a blast playing in the sand, the playground and swimming in the water. The water was so shallow, that the kids were able to explore the water and play. Even Alyssa, she could walk pretty far out and it only reached her chest. They found other kids to play with and build a water fall on the sand hill. They borrowed a kid kayak and their cousin Christian pulled them around in it. From 9:30 am to about 3pm we soaked it all in!

Playing in the water with Cousin Michael.

The Keys are stunningly beautiful. The crystal blue all around you.

Building the waterfall.

Doug relaxing with his aunt.

Being pulled around in the kayak with cousin Christian.

This was a common site for most of the trip. Not a bad place to be in the middle of November!

On one of our days there, Doug's parents took the kids for the day and we drove the extra 2 hours down to Key West. The drive was beautiful and Key West is very nice. It was a little too touristy for our taste, but it was very quaint and pretty to see. We actually liked Islamorada a lot better. The coolest thing we did was take a 28 mile wave runner tour around the island of Key West. We saw bottle nosed dolphin frolicking among the waves within 2 feet of us. We went from the Gulf to the Atlantic around the southern most tip of the Continental U.S. and back to the Gulf. Doug threw us both off the wave runner at 30 mph because he banked a turn too sharply! It was amazing and beautiful and by far the coolest thing we did down there!

This was truly an amazing trip! To be able to spend that kind of time with family and in such a beautiful place, it really was priceless. The Keys are a beautiful place and we hope to be spending a lot more time with Cousin Michael in Islamorada in the years to come! Our utmost thanks go out to him for being the wonderful, warm and gracious person that he is. That being said, I will leave you with a few more fun photos to enjoy!

The sunrises there were breathtaking!

 

Jimmy's Quote of the Day

Jimmy: "Mom, can we go to the place with the yucky food (aka: McDonald's) and play?"
Me: "No, not today honey."
Jimmy: "No mom, we won't eat anything there, we just want to play in the play structure."
Me: "I know, just we can't go there today."
Jimmy: "Well mom, maybe we can go there for dinner and you can eat there but we will just play."


Got to love the reasoning!

Halloween 2011

Halloween this year was a blast! We had a small party to go to on Saturday afternoon and it was really fun. Our main focus this year was Monday! First we started off with the Halloween party and parade at school. It is so cute to see all the kids dressed up in their costumes and my kids just love that I can be a part of it. Even my mom comes to join the festivities and they get even more excited to have Grandma be a part of things! All the kids parade around the school, into the district office and then around the block. Some of the neighbors were even dressed up and ready with treats to hand out to the kids. We headed back to school to get the kids ready for a group photo, then out of costumes and ready for lunch.

This was the best picture I could get from them.

After lunch, we headed home to wind down and get ready for the big night. During Alyssa's nap, Paige, Jimmy and I carved our pumpkins.

Paige working on her jack-o-lantern.

Jimmy working on his jack-o-lantern.

Cleaning out the pumpkins. Both were very eager to get their hands dirty this year!

Paige showing off her final product.

My only complaint this year was that I did not get very good pictures. I was having a too much of a good time, that in most cases I didn't whip out the camera. Like, I didn't get all 3 kids with their Jack-o-lanterns because Jimmy lost interest about halfway through the project and Alyssa was sleeping. By the time she woke up, it was time to get ready for the big evening and I completely forgot to take the picture.

For the big night this year, we hosted a get together with our friends. Even my brother and his wife came to enjoy the festivities. We had a pot luck dinner and we all got into costume to trick or treat. I managed a few group shots but didn't get enough of all the kids. Fortunately my sister-in-law took over my camera during trick or treating, so there were a few good shots there.

David, Dana & Izzi

Tom & Melissa

Lorraine, Seamus & Shayla

Rapunzel, Mother Gothel, Wolverine, Spider Man and a wee little Pumpkin.

My brother came over dressed as a zombie and Paige was deathly afraid of him. She would not come out of my bedroom and she was screaming and crying hysterically. We got her out to the living room and Uncle Tom was not allowed to look at her let alone even be in the same room as her. Nothing we could do would calm her down. She knew it was him, but was really afraid of his make-up. So we squeezed in all our photos and he washed off all his make-up. Then Paige was fine.

Making amends.

Uncle Tom was her best friend for the rest of the night. He even had to rescue poor Rapunzel from a few of the scary houses.

The kids had an absolute blast trick or treating. They were so gung ho this year. Especially Jimmy, who was always a house ahead of the pack. We kept having to tell him to slow down and wait for the rest of the group. We went around our block and hit both sides of the street. By the time we got back around to our house, Jimmy looked at me and said, "I am done. I want to go home now." It was so cute how matter-of-fact he said it. The surprise this year, was Alyssa. That little pumpkin hit three-quarters of the house before she tired out. Once she figured out that people would put candy into her little pumpkin bucket, she was charging the doors with the rest of the gang. Of course she doesn't talk, so she would just look up, with her little pacifier in her mouth and hold out her bucket. It was priceless.

It was an awesome night spent with our wonderful friends and family. Until next year...