Our update, and Iraq update..

Well, it's Sunday night and we just finished watching Sopranos and Entourage, both really good and now I'm blogging, then going to bed.

Unfortunately, I'm not feeling so great right now. A little sinus pain, etc. but hopefully I can shake it off quickly. We had some strange weather today, so that probably has something to do with it.

Anyway, to catch up where I left off ... well... Anna is officially registered for Kindergarten. It was a little traumatizing actually going there and doing it. But Will reminded me that it doesn't mean she starts tomorrow. She still has like 4 months before she goes.. so that's a lot of time to get used to it! :) I took a picture of her new school. It's been open only 2 years, so it's nice and new.. and we hear GREAT things about the principal. There is a Kindergarten "Round Up" on April 30th which is an orientation, and then on May 30th Anna will go for an assessment with all the Kindergarten teachers. I guess they like to find out what levels the children are at before the year begins.



There was a "parent's night out" schedule with my friends for Saturday night, and since Will was working TWO weddings, I asked Rachael to be my date. It was nice to get out on a Sat. night and just have some adult chit chat.


Our original plan today was to go to the Lake Eola Arts & Crafts festival.. but unfortunately we had some pretty severe storms this morning. So we waited it out until the storms passed, and finally around 2pm we made it out. We met up with my sis, Steve, Kayla and Brandon for a late lunch at RJ Gators. It was yummy, and then strolled the mall a bit together.

Here are the happy girls..


Here's my happy boy!


Here's Happy Brandon!


Me and Aiden


The family strolling through the mall (minus me)


Kayla, Anna and Aiden showing off their dollar store purchases...


We ended up strolling to get the kids some cookies to finish off the great afternoon we were having and the kids were hungry, so we ended up feeding them dinner. We caught this very sweet moment... isn't that sweet?


So, it ended up being a pretty good day, just with a stormy start. Will and I also talked with our friend Sam today who called on a Satellite phone from Iraq. He is doing okay.. but he said something that was pretty sad. He said that as we all go on with our daily activities which are always busy, new and exciting... for the Marines over there, it's like the movie "Groundhog Day". He said it's the same exact thing everyday. The good part about that statement is that at least he isn't in the front lines where it IS different every day... but I felt really bad for him when he said that. So Will and I think it's time to help make at least one of his days DIFFERENT from the rest. We want to get another box together of goodies and send it off. SO, if you are reading this and would like to contribute to a box that you KNOW will land in the hands of our friend Captain Evans and his unit... just let me know. It can be anything from food, to books, magazines, DVD's (they have them on their computers), CD's, personal hygiene products, etc. Our last box that we sent over was received well, as it was a CASE of girl scout cookies from us and the Joachims. Apparently the cookies were consumed in about 10 minutes!!!! The box also contained items donated by my mother's co-workers at ORHS (thank you all!!!). Our goal is to send the next box in TWO weeks. If you live far away and are reading this, and want to contribute, you can do so by contributing $$ and we can purchase items for you. Oh, and Sam and his unit were originally supposed to be over there for 7 or 8 months, and now it's going to be at least 13 months. :(

Sam, if you are reading this, please know that it's our goal to bring some joy to one of your days VERY soon!!!! No more Groundhog Day!!!

I think that's all for now. Tomorrow will be busy. Kindermusik, Anna in school, Anna's dance class, my chorus rehearsal. So, it's time for me to go to BED!

Until next time...
Love, Holly

Catching up from a busy week!

Hi! What to say... I'm busy as ever, but finally decided to STOP for a few minutes and post. We just started Summer registration for Kindermusik, and proudly I can say that we are already quickly filling up. It's a busy time for us since we are ending one session, beginning another, and doing lots of demos and vendor events. I'm VERY excited because our company Grow and Sing Studios is celebrating 2 years this June. So Rachael and I have decided to have a big party to celebrate. Everyone is going to be invited (past customers, present, and future?). We have a special guest coming to perform, and it's just going to be a blast... so we are already planning all of that out too. WOWIE! That's all I can say!! Lots going on!

I'm also SOO excited because tonight we booked our plane tickets to go up North for our summer vacation. This will happen at the end of July into early August for 10 days! YEY!!!! We are taking the kids and going to Philly, staying with my Aunt Rhea and Uncle Steve, meeting up with some Lesnicks, and then to the mountains at Bellasylva (a historic family place on Will's mom's side). After the mountains we go back to Philly for a family reunion on my mother's side. This side of the family has never done that, so this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I just found out my mom is going up too , as well as my sister and her family. It's all VERY exciting!!! We haven't really been on a vacation since our cruise when Aiden was 8 months old.. so I'm SOOO ready!

I had some great Kindermusik classes this week.. they were really special (they always are, but somehow this week really clicked for me). Tomorrow I am doing a birthday party. This one is unique because as it turns out, Will did the parent's wedding video!

This was the email I received, "I hope you don't mind me asking, are you related to Will Lesnick? Your last name, Lesnick, seemed familiar when you first returned my call (caller ID). Now in reading this e-mail, I see that our payment posts to In-Focus Media. I'll never forget the name of that business b/c Will video-taped my wedding. He did an AWESOME job!! Because of him, I will have memories of that magical day forever. Anyway, what a small world...now you (I'm not sure of your relation to Will) are going to make music w/ us for my daughter's 2nd birthday. You Lesnick's have a way of being there for memorable occasions :) How cool is that...LOL!!"

I thought that was really cool.

Today after Kindermusik and after the kids got home, we went over to celebrate a 2nd birthday for one of the playgroup kids. I captured some pics... Anna avoided the camera today because she was in the pool the whole time.

Here is Kali blowing out her candle



Enjoying her cupcake



Aiden enjoying his...



Kali, Nikki and Kendall


Okay, I'm spent.. time for bed...

Kindergarten registration coming soooon!

I'll post soon. :) Sam, if you are reading this from Iraq, call us! We miss you and wonder how you are doing.


Night all!


Holly

Week 6 weigh in

Well, I weighed in today, and once again... success! I lost 1.2 lbs this week for a total of 8.2 lbs in just 6 weeks! I'm so excited.. the program is really working for me this time around. I'm already feeling so much better... and am only 10 lbs away from my goal! (at least my first goal... I want to lose a bit more for some flexibility!). I am using weight watchers e-tools to track my progress, and for all kinds of other cool stuff, and was able to get this grid off of it, to visually see my progress. Pretty neat. The star represents 5 lbs loss. The brown line is my 10% goal (weight watchers wants you to focus on losing 10% of your starting weight first before going for the gusto of losing ALL of it). For me, my 10% goal is only 4 lbs difference from my entire goal. The purple line shows where my actual goal is... Not far now Toto! :)



Hope my girlfriends are ready to go shopping with me when I get to that purple line!!!!!!! :) Whew hew!!!

I'll be posting again.. maybe even later tonight.
Love, Hol

Our visit to Melbourne

Happy Weekend, Passover and Easter to all! :)

We started off the weekend this past Friday with Will taking a half day off. We took the kids to see Meet the Robinsons, which surprisingly, not only did the kids enjoy, but I did as well! It was really cute.

Today I taught a Kindermusik Family class which was wonderful. Today's theme was "An afternoon at the Aquarium" and everyone had so much fun. Then we offered a Free Play Musical Exploration to all families in our program, and surprisingly we had an AMAZING turnout. I actually was anticipating a low turnout today because there were so many Easter festivities going on around town, but nope, that didn't keep anyone away! We had an Egg Shaker (one of our Kindermusik instruments) hunt. When the kids turned in the egg shakers, they exchanged them for chocolate and lollipops. Not bad! :)

After that, we had lunch, went home, and quickly turned around and left for Melbourne. My friend Renee had her 4th child a week ago. A beautiful little girl named Elizabeth Rose. So we of course wanted to go meet her. What a beauty! We of course snapped some pictures.

Renee, Me and Elizabeth Rose


Renee and baby...


I got my mitts on her!


Aiden was very interested in her...and also VERY gentle.. it was so sweet.


Anna's checking out her little toes..


The proud Papa


Will rough housing with Madalynn


Aiden and David sharing a snack


Madalynn and Anna on the computer


Tomorrow we fully plan to stay home, go through the kid's closets, and chill. WE NEVER GET TO DO THAT!!!

We hope everyone celebrating Easter has a nice day! I'll be posting again soon.

Until next time...
Holly

Happy Passover!

Greetings on this fine Wednesday evening! Well, after a GREAT weigh in at Weight watchers yesterday, we went over to my mom's place to have Passover Seder. For a few years now, I have been the leader of our "child friendly" Seder. Which basically means "short and to the point"!

I led us through the basics, trying to explain a little bit a long the way. This year's Seder was enhanced by the reading of "Let my Babies Go!". A Rugrats rendition of the story of passover. :)

The kids were pretty interested in that, along with the singing of the four questions, and Dayenu! Everyone clapped along to Dayenu. It was pretty cool.

The kids loved the Yarmulkes, and all wanted to wear them... my mom told them they are called Kipahs in hebrew, and the kids thought it sounded like Peacocks. So, yes, in our family, these lovely beanies will be forever known as PEACOCKS.

Of course the highlight was the search for the Afikoman (a piece of matzoh, wrapped up and hidden). All the kids went on a search, with Grandma helping out with the "hot and cold" game.

Anna was the one that found it, but in this family EVERYONE is a winner! :)

It was a lovely evening with the Diamonds, Kamans, Joachims and Mom and Jerry. The matzoh ball soup wasn't so bad if I should say so myself!!!! heehee...

Sorry Will wasn't in any of the pics.. I guess he was the one taking them. And somehow Paul, Mom, Jerry, Aunt Bonnie, and Meagan all dodged their picture being taken also!! Oh well! It was a lovely evening....fun was had by all. :)

Today was a good day... Kindermusik, Kindermusik. I did go out with my friends tonight for dinner.

I better get to bed since I have to teach tomorrow.

Onward and out!

Love, Holly

Week 5 weigh in

I lost 2.2 lbs for a total of 7 pounds in 5 weeks! Yippieeeeee!!!!!! Moving on to reach that 10 lb mark, and then onward from there to GOAL!!!!!!!! I CAN DO IT!

Okay, off to Passover seder... I'll post pictures later from that. :)

Love, Holly

My butterfly wings...

We are back from a jam packed weekend! Parts of it challenging, but most of it great. :)

Friday we drove down to Plantation right before dinner at Buca Di Beppo. Buca happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. So, I was pretty nervous about going there, and sticking to Weight Watchers. Well, I ate very low point all day (so yes, I was STARVING!), and ate moderately at dinner, and did very well. The real proof will be tomorrow at my weigh in!

Here's a pic of Anna and I at dinner.

Saturday we went to Butterfly World and it was lovely. The weather was PERFECT, and that kids did great there! If you happen to ever be in that area, I highly recommended going! We took so many pictures there...but here are some to enjoy. :)



It was pretty cool. A butterfly landed right on my head! :)


Here is Anna checking out the rose garden.


Aiden stopping to smell the flowers...

We found a nice bench to chill out on for a few moments

First the bridge explanation...

Now the bridge...

Anna cuddling her Grandmolly

Aiden LOVED the parrots!

Aiden and I going through a misty tunnel

Some scenic shots...

and me....

and Aiden before we reached the parking lot!

Saturday night was spent at home. Thanks Molly for a yummy low point meal (I ate them out of vegetables!). Unfortunately, Saturday night wasn't great for us sleep wise. The previous night Aiden was keeping Anna up, so we had to bring Aiden into our room... where he slept fine. BUT... Saturday night, at about 4am, Aiden woke up, and was crying, and unhappy. He just couldn't get back to sleep no matter what we did.. so that night was pretty sleepless. Sunday we had a nice lunch and we were on our way back home...(with lots of strong Starbucks coffee!)

Today we had a great time at Kindermusik. The original plan was to mentor Elizabeth on Mondays until she was ready to be on her own. Well she has about reached that level...but AIDEN is in love with her, and just loves going to her class... so it looks like we are going to continue going each week to enjoy! :) Anna had dance class today. She is getting ready for that recital. Then I went to Chorus rehearsal. I'm a part of a choir through Timber Creek High School called the IG choir. IG stands for Inter generational. If I REALLY thought about that, I would get very upset. BUT... it's a great opportunity for me to do what I love to do.. down the street, and have some fun. It's also the program that provided the opportunity to sing at Disney this past Christmas, which was amazing...

After I got home this evening from chorus...I started cooking for my family's Passover Seder. We are doing our Seder Tuesday night because it worked better with every one's schedule.. I just whipped up a huge pot of Matzoh Ball soup, and some Vegetarian Chopped Liver (it's yummy, but no actual liver... good for putting on Matzoh).

Tomorrow Aiden and I have My Gym, then I go weigh in at WW, and then it's off to my mother's for Passover!! I'll try to take pictures of that. Should be lots of fun!

Nighty nite!

Love, Holly

TGIF!

Hello! :) Can you believe Friday is almost here? wow! I just finished a pilates workout, and thought I would post on my blog, while I still had some energy. I also have to get packing because we are taking a quick trip down to visit Will's parents this weekend. A pretty full weekend is planned. Dinner out tomorrow night (I'm a little anxious about that, since I want to stay within my weight watcher points).. and then Butterfly World on Saturday. Sunday we leave to come back home. I'm sure there will be some GREAT photo ops on Saturday with all the butterflies!

Anyway, my friend Kristin took some pictures last Saturday. The goal, to get new head shots for our Kindermusik website, and also a fun staff picture. I'm very happy with them!

Here's my new head shot

Here's the Grow and Sing Studios Staff! That Elizabeth (our new teacher), Me, and Rachael (my business partner).

Here we are being silly and jumping....

and... for those that gave opinions on Aiden's 2 year old pictures, thank you! This was the winner!!

There were many others we liked, but this was our favorite. We did get another one as well for our house...but this is the "official" 2 year old picture. :)

I'm tired from the week. Lots of Kindermusik classes (all wonderful!), and now packing and hitting the road tomorrow.

I hope you all have a perfect weekend, and I'll be back with Butterfly World pictures! :)

Love, Holly