Pictures say it all!

Hello! So much has been going on! I suspect it will be like that until after New Years!!!

Anyway....Since Anna didn't have school on October 26th, and just happened to be her birthday... we took her to Libby Lu for a "girl" day. Anna chose from a variety of hairstyles. You will see what she picked in the pictures below. She also had her nails painted, a touch of makeup (oy!), and made spa products. Dori brought Kayla also, so the girls had a great time. My mom came as well to enjoy watching the girls and to help Anna celebrate her official birthday! The boys just chilled and watched the fun. Afterwards we ate lunch, the kids played and then they had a birthday cookie party! It was such a fun day!





















































































On Saturday, I took Anna (and Aiden) to a birthday party of one of Anna's friends. This is Jenna and Anna at the party....



















On Sunday, Rachael and I participated in a Trunk or Treat at one of the churches we rent space from. Everyone decorated their cars and passed out candy. We set up our Kindermusik tent, and set up an "Instrument Exploration Station" and the kids had a blast.














Halloween was a lot of fun. Both kids really got into trick or treating this year. Anna dressed as Ariel, and Aiden was a pirate. Aiden loved knocking in the doors and charming all the neighbors! They walked hand in hand to each house. So cute! Notice Anna's hair. Yes, I sprayed it RED for the occasion!!















Anna's birthday party was this past Saturday. We had a Dora the Explorer party and it was a lot of fun. Anna got a new bike from Grandma and was SO excited. Anna's Kindergarten teacher, Miss Browne came, a bunch of her school friends, and of course friends and family as well. We had a bounce house, pinata, and painted maracas. Even the mommies decided to paint too!!























On Sunday, we took Molly and Alan to Winter Park / Park Ave. to stroll around and have lunch. We went to the fountain and took some pictures.




















This week flew by. I was fighting a cold, so I tried to take it easy.. but with my schedule that is hard to do. I am busy trying plan my Spring Kindermusik semester so that is a bit stressful, though I enjoy it. :) I have had the biggest session yet with 127 spots filled! wowie!

Anna has been enjoying her bike....














I just got back from a dinner out with my girlfriends. My friend Carol is moving south, so we took her out as a "goodbye".










This weekend we are "camping out" at a park nearby with some friends. We are pitching a tent, making smores, the whole thing! We are excited!!

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend, and I'll be back soon.

Love, Holly

How could this be???

My little girl is turning SIX YEARS OLD TOMORROW!!!!!!! Yes, 6 years ago tomorrow (actually today, since it's 12:08am) that beautiful miracle came into our lives. She has been such a joy, and we couldn't feel more blessed. We are taking Anna to Libby Lu tomorrow to get her hair done. Cousin Kayla is joining us too! Of course we will post pictures!! In the meantime. Here are some to enjoy. The first is Anna leaving for school. It was "silly hat day".


















Here we are making cupcakes for Anna's Kindergarten class to celebrate her birthday!













The kids were dancing around with tambourines. I had to snap a picture!!


















BYE! :)
Holly

Check out my OTHER blog!

Hi everyone!

Well, if I wasn't busy enough... now I am! :) I have just created another blog for my Kindermusik business. This one will have posts by my whole team. Whenever they have a magical moment in class, or something to share. So, check out it from time to time! Here's the link!
http://www.growandsing.vox.com/

Love, Holly

Safe and sound...

I've returned from the Windy City. It was a GREAT convention. I'm still on information overload!! We heard an amazing speaker, Dr. Becky Bailey, who talked to us about Conscious Discipline. The skills I learned from her I can apply to my teaching and also to my own parenting. Check out her website! What was really neat as I started listening to her lecture was that I realized Anna's Kindergarten teacher is using Becky Bailey's techniques. Anna knows all the rituals, and so -- now we can do them together! This really gave me a whole new perspective on adult and child behavior, along with discipline.



















We also heard Daniel Levitin speak on his book "This is your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession". Very interesting scientific look into music and the brain. Each educator received a free copy that day, so I look forward to reading it!

We also enjoyed an AMAZING concert with the Grammy winning group "Sweet Honey in the Rock". These powerful women have been singing their hearts out in this group for 34 years!!

We barely saw the light of day because we were so busy with speakers and breakout sessions but we did manage to go into the city for one evening. Rachael, Elizabeth and I decided to have an adventure. So we hopped on the train in Schaumberg, and went into the city. We had a very nice train conductor who told us to walk out to the street, make a left and keep going. So... that is what we did. We walked and walked in the chill and wind......passed a bunch of interesting looking places, and came upon an Indian Restaurant that had a line. We figured, if all those people were waiting to eat there, it must be good! So we went in, ordered martinis at the bar, and waited for our table. It turned out to be a WONDERFUL choice. It was a place called India House. The food was SOOO good, and the atmosphere was so cozy. After dinner, we just walked slowly back to the train. We found ourselves in the theatre district at the exact time that all the shows were letting out. The town was hopping!! We had a great time looking around. We went back to the train and realized we were riding with an entire car filled with SMASHED people who just left a hockey game. Oh my, it was definitely interesting!














































Kindermusik held a banquet on the last night, so we all got dressed up.



















Will and the kids did great in my absence. I'm not at all surprised. :)

Well, after a couple days of settling back in... I'm back to teaching tomorrow. I look forward to putting all I learned into action!!

Until next time....

See ya!
Holly

Chicago bound....

Happy Sunday all!

First of all, the weather! Finally we are feeling the weather changing a little bit. The breeze is so nice, and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to wear jeans during the day without sweating bullets! I love it when the temperature drops a bit. It energizes me! I love this time of year. So much fun.

Last week I had a great time volunteering in Anna's Kindergarten class again. This time though, I didn't do music. Anna's teacher put me on an art project with the kids which was a lot of fun. I was there WAY longer than I had planned on. The kids begged for me to sing some songs with my guitar, so I did that before I left. I will be going back there after I return from the Kindermusik convention.

KM classes were good last week as well. Very busy!! I also took Aiden to his preschool to see a fire engine. He loved it!


















My friend Kristin takes pictures each session of all the classes as a service to our customers. She just sent me over links to some of the pictures.. here's a few. Sorry for the logos on them, I haven't purchased them yet! :)






















































I took Anna to see "The Emperors New Clothes" at the Orlando Rep on Friday night. It was VERY cute. We had a great time.

I worked 2 Kindermusik parties this past Saturday. One was for a 2 year old, and the other was actually a corporate luau party. We were hired to keep the kids entertained. It was a lot of fun. While I was doing that, Will took the kids to a birthday party. It was at a bounce house place. Anna went down the HUGE slide for the very first time!!!


















Today I did a bit of shopping. I'm trying to get all I need for my Chicago trip on Wednesday. Finally the Kindermusik convention is here! Yey!!!! I"ll be leaving bright and early Wednesday morning with Rachael and Elizabeth and we'll return on Sunday late afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it.

Have a GREAT week everyone!

Love, Holly

Sesame Street Live

We had a fun day taking the kids to see Sesame Street Live. Thought I would post a few pictures!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Love, Hol

I went to Kindergarten!

Hi everyone! Happy Friday. What a truly BUSY but great week! I can't even remember where I left off... So... let's just start with....

Last Saturday night I had a lovely date with my daughter. I took her to play at the Orlando Repertory Theatre to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We both enjoyed it. I decided to buy us season tickets again this year, since last year was so much fun. The next show we are going to is "The Emperor's New Clothes". Should be fun as well.


















Rachael, Elizabeth and I (the Grow and Sing Studios crew) did our last event for the month over at the Nick Hotel. That was quite the commitment...getting up at 6:30am every Sunday in September. BUT... we each earned a 2 night weekend stay in a family suite, so now we are all VERY happy! Yey!! We have to figure out when to cash in and take the kids. I know it's going to be a fun little "in town" getaway for us. We took some pictures in Studio Nick where we did our events.




























This past week flew by. I did a Kindermusik demo class (which my sister helped arrange through one of her playgroups) on Tuesday morning which was quite a success, and then went over to Anna's Kindergarten class to Volunteer my musical services! Anna's teacher arranged for me to have an entire hour with Anna's class. I had them playing rhythm sticks, dancing, playing with scarves, exploring instruments, playing my big 4ft round drum, and singing their little hearts out. They had SO much fun and so did I. Apparently Anna walked around all morning before I got there with a HUGE smile on her face because I was coming. The kids asked if I could come back the next day. HA! I told them I would do my music again soon, but not everyday. So cute!! It was SO amazing to be able to volunteer in her class. I already planned with her teacher to volunteer this coming Tuesday, but this time, I'm just assisting with reading groups, etc. I know the kids are going to expect some music, so I might bring my guitar and do a little sing a long if there is time. :) That was most definitely the highlight of my week!

Wednesday I took Aiden to Kindermusik (Rachael's class). I love bringing him as a "mommy" to class. He just LOVES it! Then I taught my Toddler Art class. I just love teaching that class. Anna had dance class Wed. afternoon, and it was WATCHING DAY! The parents are invited into the dance room to watch the class. So of course I took some pictures! Anna did great and I was really impressed by how much she is learning.


















Thursday was a very busy day because I started another Art Class, so many new faces to greet. Lots trying out the class for the first time, who by the way signed up on the spot! :) I also did my toddler music class. So much fun! Boy, Kindermusik is BOOMING right now.

Today I took Aiden to My Gym. I just love spending time with him. He is the sweetest little boy. I feel so blessed to be able to take him to Kindermusik and My Gym and just devote my entire attention to him. We have such a good time together.

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Sesame Street Live: Elmo Makes Music. The show is coming to the new UCF arena so it's literally 3 minutes from our house. Both kids are very excited. The only other thing on the agenda this weekend is buying the kids their Halloween costumes. I purposefully kept this weekend open because the rest of October is NUTS!

I'm getting really excited about the Kindermusik Convention in Chicago! Less than 2 weeks!!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this latest entry. See ya next time!

Love, Holly