An unexpected treat!

Well, we were a little off because of the time change, and decided this morning that we would go out for lunch, then go do our weekly trip to Publix and get home just in time for Will to leave for his Sunday afternoon/evening job. We thought it would be nice to eat lunch on Park Ave. in Winter Park, so we headed out that way. First we had lunch.... but around 1:30 we noticed they were blocking off the street, and there were lots of people milling about (more than usual for a Sunday)... hmm...

We found out that at 2pm there was going to be a St. Patricks Day Parade. Apparantly next weekend is the annual Winter Park Art Festival, so they had to do it this weekend instead. What a fun treat! So we decided to postpone the Publix trip until tomorrow and stay for the festivities! It was LOTS of fun!

Aiden scored himself some green beads!

There's Anna begging for candy!


Aiden LOVED watching the horses


Bagpipers


An extra special parade participant


We had such a nice afternoon, and it was completely spontaneous. But... then we had to go home, and Will had to leave for work. The kids and I had a nice evening and I finally just finished cleaning up around here. I'm off to go watch L-word and wait for Will to get home. Tomorrow we are off to my sister's for a playdate with her kids and Rachael's. Should be nice and relaxed...

Nighty nite!

Hol

Strawberries anyone?

Spring Break is here!!! YES!!!

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my job as a Kindermusik business owner and teacher...but wow, I really needed this break! Each day I also make sure I spend quality time with my babies and Will, and cook good meals, and I love it all...but just knowing that for the next week, Anna doesn't have school or dance class... Aiden doesn't have My Gym, I don't have Kindermusik.... we are just FREE...well it feels grrrrreat! Friday was my first "official day off" and I started it off by going to brunch with my friends Rachael and Carol. Then I went and got my hair done all by myself... SO relaxing! Last night Will and I went on a date. We were joking that it was a Junior High date... we went to dinner, then played putt putt, then got coffee... :) it was very nice. We went to the newly renovated and expanded Bangkok Square. We always do take out there...so this was our first time dining in, and it was REALLY yummy!

Today was a very nice day. Will had to work, so I took the kids out to Sorrento, to a place called Oak Haven Farms. It was about a 1 hour drive for us, which was so nice... out in the country. Very scenic. The farm was so much fun - strawberry picking, playground, hayride, zip line (okay, I wimped out on that, but my 3 year old niece swung from it), hot dog roasting over a fire, strawberry shortcake (no I didn't eat any), and country store. It was well worth the drive, and it was great to spend the day with the Diamonds. We missed Will though!

Lots of photo opportunities! Here we go!

Let's see, first we played on the playground. Here are Anna and Kayla at the tire swing...


Then we went on the hayride through the pine tree farm. It smelled so good!!!


Then it was time to pick some strawberries. Aiden LOVED collecting the berries and putting them in the box. Anna was having fun too, but a little squeamish by the bumblebees lurking around...








Then it was time to buy our strawberries and eat lunch in the country store.


Here I am cuddling my adorable nephew Brandon


Me and my sis


and I couldn't resist posting my very brave niece Kayla on the Zip Line! I was VERY impressed!!!!


I'm still waiting for Will to return home from his gig. Tomorrow we (me and the kids) look forward to seeing him for a while before he has to go again for yet another gig Sunday afternoon/evening. Have a GREAT rest of the weekend everyone, and I'll be posting lots, with all the fun things we are doing all week!

Party on! LOL!

Love, Holly

Morning visitors....

Thanks for reading my blog! :) I hope this week is treating you well.

Let's see....

Yesterday I remembered to bring my camera to Anna's dance class. It was watching day, but unfortunately most of my pictures didn't come through very well. I had to take them through the slits in the blinds and against a glass window... but I did take a picture as the class was going in, and so here is Anna waiting for her dance class to begin.


This morning we had some visitors in our backyard. We had Mommy and Daddy cranes (we are not sure exactly what they are called), and their two newborns come up close to our fence. We hurried outside with some bread, and Will was able to get their attention for a few moments to show Aiden. It was very sweet...the Mommy crane took some bread and carried it over to her babies who never got too close.. oh, and the Daddy crane just kept on eating - typical man!! LOL, just kidding!

Here are the lovebirds (their babies are off to the right in the weeds, but hard to see...)


Here are Aiden and Will feeding bread to them (Anna was already at school)


Jerry came by today to do more work on the house, and created a very beautiful backsplash in our kitchen. My mom requested some pics, so here they are! THANKS JERRY!





And lastly...each Wednesday afternoon, Will brings the kids to one of my Kindermusik Family Time classes. It's an extra special treat because Anna and Aiden get to play with Amy (Rachael and Paul's daughter), and Cousin Kayla. At the end of class, the kids were just fooling around, and put themselves in this pose. Us adults had nothing to do with it! Now, if we would have TRIED to get them to sit like this, it would have NEVER happened! I ran like a speeding bullet across the room to grab my camera before they were "over it". Mission accomplished!!

So here are Aiden, Anna and Amy - AKA the "Three A's"


Tomorrow I teach 2 classes, and then I'm "off" as next week is Spring break. I plan to do so many fun things with the kids next week, since we are all free... so look for some fun pictures from: Strawberry Picking, Playdate at the Diamonds, Mommy, Me and Hue at Painted by Hue, Mr. Richard at Borders, and more! Wow, I'm tired just thinking about it all. Soooo much fun! :) Oh and of course, the dreaded week #2 weigh in at weight watchers. ;) heehee..

Okay all - nighty night...until next time.

Love, Holly

Week 1 weigh in results....

Well, not too shabby for the first week, I lost 2.6 lbs!! YEAH! It's a great motivator to keep going, and reach my goal. Onward to week 2!


Myspace Graphics

Great day!

What a fun day we had today! We took the kids to the Pet Fair at the Orlando Science Center, and it was really entertaining! Lots of doggies milling about, but they also had a "Super Dogs" agility course show, which was quite fun to watch, an Arabian Night's show with horses, a bounce house area, AND we were able to go into the Science center and check things out in there. Of course we took some pictures...

Aiden getting a kiss from a SeaWorld friend...


Anna petting a sloth!


Anna and me


Aiden & Anna on a little merry go round..


In a ball pit...


Tired from the day


Look at Anna go!!!!!


Pilots at work!


Anna digging for fossils!

I am proud of myself because even though we ate "fair" food today, I was able to stay within my weight watcher points... I even have a couple to spare. After the kids went to bed, I went right downstairs and did my Winsor Pilates :) Weigh in is this Tuesday... we'll see if there are good results from just over a week of being "on program" as they say.

Just finished watching the L Word, and now going to sleep! Tomorrow we are off to WHERE ELSE?? Kindermusik of course! :) It's "watching day" at Anna's dance class also, so I'll try to snap a picture through the glass window if I can. Have a GREAT week everyone, and I'll of course post the happenings around here.

Love, Holly

Gotta love the weekend...

Hello! I'm finally getting a chance to blog again after a few busy days... well, okay, when am I NOT busy?? Thursday's classes were great this week... and the Weight watchers continues to go well. I made a really yummy dinner on Thursday night and actually took a picture of it! I wanted to show how satisfying a meal can be, even on a budget of 21 food points a day! I made cilantro grilled chicken (yummm...) and also grilled up some onions and peppers... I measured out 1 oz of Stacey's pita chips (have you tried them yet?? if not, they are SOOO good,but SOOOO addictive!), and then I broiled some asparagus (one layer on a cookie sheet, spray with cooking spray, sprinkle with a little salt, and broil until crispy - so good!)... It was so yummy and only used up 6 points! For my weight watchers friends, you know that you can't beat that for a dinner!!!!

Here's the picture... but of course I'm not a photographer, so it really doesn't look as good as it did in person...but you get the gist!


Okay, so let's see what else.. oh! good news, I got my biopsy results back on my freckles and all is fine. (thank God).

On Friday, Anna had to bring in a show and tell representing the letter U. Not an easy one... but we came up with "unicorn". Will and Anna both told me that we didn't have any Unicorns, but I said, "AHA! Hold on"... and I came back with my childhood music box plush Unicorn. Anna took it to school and proudly told the teacher that it was her "mommy's when she was a little girl". How sweet is that???? Anna loves that it plays "Somewhere over the Rainbow", and I just love that Anna likes it so much.



Anna came home that same day with the cutest project. I guess they were celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss(?). Well Aiden LOVED it!


Today I worked another Kindermusik party... while Anna was at our friends Dave and Hope's daughter Samantha's b-day party. Well, apparently this party was a HIT. Anna had the BEST time... it was a princess party. Anna dressed up, got her nails done, decorated a tiara, got dancing lessons, learned to curtsy, and much more! Will was extra proud of Anna because she was very social and outgoing...which for Anna is a new thing. She has always been that cautious, tentative, shy little girl...but this year she has certainly blossomed. We are so proud of her. Here are some pictures that Will got from that event!

Anna all dressed up!


She was happy to pair off with someone and learn a new dance.


Anna curtsied in front of everyone when it was her turn.


Anna received her official princess certificate


Oh, and Aiden went along for the ride (but was apparently very intrigued by the events!


We had a mellow evening at home. Elizabeth and hubby Richard came over, so i could go over some KM stuff with her, and then we just had wine and chatted. Lovely relaxing time..

Tomorrow is going to be SO much fun... We are taking the kids to a Pet Fair at the Orlando Science Center. Will went last year, and said how much fun it was. I think the kids will love it! Should be a nice family day.

Hope everyone has a nice restful rest of the weekend...

Love, Holly

Blogging withdrawl!

wow, 4 whole days without blogging. I missed it!! Life has been so busy this week. All good, but wow! We started one more class of the Kindermusik session today, so lots of preparation for that. Everyone is doing good... I have to share this amusing thing. Anna's #1 requested song in the car right now is - yes, you guessed it JOHN MAYER. She loves "Heart of Life". Have you heard it? Beautiful song, and I have to say, my girl Anna has GREAT taste. Ok, so that's not all, then there's Aiden. If you listen, you'll hear Aiden singing right along to the lyrics. Especially to "Neon". It's pretty funny! Am I brainwashing them? Maybe, but hey, it's better than the Wiggles so who cares! LOL!!!

Let's see... to update the happenings around here... we took the kids to Chuck e cheese this past Sunday, to let them blow off some steam. ummm.. YES, we are crazy! Chuck e cheese on a weekend is like voluntarily torture! But they had fun, and we had a headache. haha.

First we ate lunch at Panera... here's Anna giving her little bro ZERBERTS. Anyone remember what those are??


Then a little stroll to Chuck e cheese...


Aiden trying to touch my hands...


awwww....


Monday... Anna went to school. Aiden and I went to watch Elizabeth teach Kindermusik. Then Anna had dance class. busy day!

Tuesday was torture day for me! Well, not all of it... while Anna was in school, I took Aiden to My Gym. He jumped on the trampoline for the first time. Meaning... both feet were actually off the surface at the same time. GO AIDEN!! He was very adventurous this week and climbed all over the place. I was really proud of him. After all that, I took myself for my bi-annual visit to the dermotologist. I decided about a year a half ago, after seeing a scary story on the Today Show... to get a full body mole/freckle check. To my surprise (NOT), I was told I'm in the top percent of most freckly people. Whoopie! So, every 6 months I go get biopsied just to be on the safe side. So far, all has been clear, but each time I leave with more boo-boos and a little worry. But I feel so good knowing that I am being PRO-active! So, lesson to you all out there... if you have any moles or freckles that you have been thinking "hmmm... where did that come from?" GO GET CHECKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then to torture myself some more, I finally took myself back to Weight Watchers, and stepped on that scale. I decided it was time to face the music. I'm ready to be thin Holly again! It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... but I have some lbs to lose, and now that I'm paying to step on that scale each week, I WILL do it! GO me! So say goodbye to that last bit of Aiden weight that is still left on me, cause it's unwelcome here!!!! ;)

My mom came by also that night to see the kids, and drop something off for Will, so I got a cute pic of her and Aiden:


Before the kids went up to bed, Anna and I had a little jam session at the piano... (with her ABC's book, she loves it!)


Today was very busy, lots of Kindermusik today... and I'm sleeeeeeepy!

Tomorrow I teach 2 classes, and then ... a break? NOT! Rachael and I are doing a KM birthday party on Saturday. Good times!!! Life is good.

Nighty nite!
Love, Holly

You can never have too much fondue!

For Carrie and Chris' last night, we ate at Colorado Fondue. Yes, we JUST ate there for Valentine's day, but hey, it's one of our favorite places, and we wanted to share it with our friends who are from New York (and you know those New Yorkers, they think you can't get ANY good food anywhere but in NEW YORK!). Well we proved them wrong, and had a yummy dinner last night. :) Of course we had to get a picture under the moosehead!


On the way home we stopped at a convenience store and I was alone in the car with the camera, and was bored, so I snapped these... heehee...





Carrie came back in the car, and she got in one too!


Today Rachael and I taught our Saturday class and then had our 2nd ever Music Exploration Free Play. It's a little perk we now offer to all our registered families. A little free time to just come and play and have fun. Well we had an AMAZING turnout. What a fun morning.. here's just one pic...

Tonight we have some friends coming over. Should be a nice mellow night of sushi, wine and games, and well, as you know me by now, I will of course take some pics!!! :)

Stay tuned....