I'm back!

Hi!! It's been such a long time. Life has been busy. I just taught 5 Kindermusik classes and can't keep my eyes open.. so a longer post will have to follow this weekend, but just wanted to check in. Will and I had a GREAT vacation in Las Vegas. Lots of pictures to come. We will be headed to Philly, PA next week for Lesnick wedding and we look forward to a quick visit with lots of family! Stay tuned. I'll be back with pictures and updates on the last month. Until then, here's one to tease you with. :)

Off she goes.....

My little girl just left for First Grade!!! I have been pretty calm about it until about right now! After she walked out the door, I definitely became emotional. It's really baffling to me that I just sent my confident daughter out the door. My daughter who is missing a tooth, has another loose one, is reading chapter books by hearself and was wearing a Hannah Montana backpack -- the one she HAD to have! Pacifiers to Hannah Montana... it only goes downhill from here... JUST KIDDING! I'm just SOOO proud of her.


























Have a perfect day all!
Holly

All I want for 1st grade is my two front teeth!!!!

Our little girl lost her first tooth today!!!!!!

Will and I actually got VERY emotional when it happened. We can't believe she is starting first grade this Monday, and just before that, the tooth fell out! Here's a picture....





















We took Anna to her "Meet The Teacher", and we met her new teacher Miss Coleman. Here's a pic!

















Is Anna REALLY turning 7 in October? OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!

Nick Hotel

We had a GREAT time at the Nick Hotel this past weekend. It was a great way to end the summer and gear up for school. Here are some videos to enjoy! Aiden loved the toddler slide and Anna has become an AMAZING swimmer this summer!!





Here are some pics!

WE WON!!!!!

My program, Grow and Sing Studios is the winner of Nickelodeon's 2008 ParentsConnect. com Parents' Picks Award for "Best Artsy Class for Little Kids in Orlando, FL"! Parents from all over the city picked us as the best.
Check out our listing on ParentsConnect. com/ParentsPicks !

Lot's of happenings!

An entire MONTH has gone by without a post. Honestly, I have no excuse but that I've been doing "other things", and haven't taken the time to spend on this. But, I'm BACK and ready to blog some more, and keep all my loyal readers updated on the happenings around here. :)

Actually, I guess now that I think about it, and look back at my last couple blog posts, it's been since school ended and the kids have been around a lot. Also, my huge summer Kindermusik program is in full swing! There are 150 children in the program this summer.. so needless to say, it's been GREAT but busy busy busy!


Okay, so I want to reverse a bit and continue where I left off. The last I posted, we had gone to Anna's Kindergarten picnic, and then that awesome dog park. Well, Miss Browne (Anna's teacher) invited me to join the class for a bit on the last day of school. I got a huge reception when I walked in the door, and immediately felt sad! I realized how much I was going to miss going to that class each month and doing music with them. They asked me to sit in the reading chair, and presented me with a gift. A frame of pictures with me and the kids. The children signed it as well, and made "fingerprint" musical notes. This gift meant so much to me, and is currently hanging in my foyer.

















I stayed for a while that day, and helped out with their ice cream party and just breathed it in while I could. Being there that day and receiving that gift meant much more to me than most would realize. After my father died, I was raised by a single mom who did the most she could while keeping our little family afloat. I always promised myself that if I could, since my mother couldn't, I would be a strong presense in my children's classrooms and various activities. It all sort of came together for me that day that I accomplished that.

So, we've been keeping busy with lots of activities lately, both child centered and NOT child centered. heehee...

Let's see.. first we went to a Luau party some friends threw. It was lots of fun. Without posting any "inappropriate pictures", here's a bit of that party. We also just went out and celebrate my friend Beth's birthday.. but we'll leave those pictures out of the blog --- for now. :)

Rachael and Me

















Kathy, Kristin, Me and Beth
















We took the kids to a place called Monkey Joes. It's bascially a huge warehouse full of bounce houses. I have to admit, Will and I had just as good a time as the kids! I LOVED going down the huge slide. Anna and I did races down that thing. Good times!





















We went down South to visit Will's parents over the Father's Day weekend. We all went to a really great aquatic facility so there a pic from that, and also a family of ducks paid us a visit as we were leaving to go back to Orlando.
















Will's cousin Bill Schmitthenner was in the Orlando area and came by to see us. We hadn't seen him in years so it was great to visit.
















We took the kids to Epcot recently and had a great day.



















The kids have been doing swim lessons, and actually are getting much better. Anna has turned into a little fish. Aiden, well.. he not too keen on the swim lessons, but he can now swim to the side and pull up -- so we know he could save himself which was the goal this year.





















We have officially had Sagan (our black lab) for a year now. Rachael's brother came into town last week, and of course had to visit him. We got this cute picture despite the fact that Sagan is AFRAID of cameras!!
















and finally... 4th of July! We had a GREAT time at Kathy's house this year. Great food, fun and fireworks!

So that is a month in a post! Wowie! I hope to get better again with the blogging since when I'm doing it, I actually love it. I'm going into week 4 of my 5 week Kindermusik session, and then I'm OFF from teaching for an entire month!! While I'll be busy gearing up for Fall session, I look forward to the time off.

I hope anyone reading this is doing well, and please comment or touch base and say hello!

Love, Holly

Another exciting announcement!!

I just received the following email from the CEO of Kindermusik International:

Dear Holly:

On behalf of everyone here at Kindermusik International, I want to CONGRATULATE you for being named as a 2008/2009 Mezzanine Level Maestro. As you know, being named a Maestro Producer, Mezzanine Level, means that you are in the top FIVE PERCENT of all Kindermusik Educators. And, in that we have over 5,000 educators across the globe, this is an accomplishment for which you can be extremely proud. Thank you for doing what it takes to ensure the success of your program, as you continue to introduce incredible numbers of families to the Kindermusik experience. Thank you for your vision, for your dedication, and for your goal of reaching every child with the gift of Kindermusik.

I hope to see you in Raleigh for the Kindermusik Educator Convention (November 5-8, 2008). This annual event will provide you with even more tools and valuable information to help you to continue building your program (not to mention meeting up with old friends and making new ones while there!). Personally, I can’t wait, and look forward to seeing you there.

Congratulations again on achieving Maestro status. I honor and thank you for all that you do each and every day. Keep in touch!

Best always,

Michael D

This award is something that I have personally be striving for, but wasn't expecting so soon! YEY!!!!

Love, Holly

School's out for the Summer!

It is really hard to believe that today is Anna's last day of Kindergarten. The year went by so FAST!!! Anna has really blossomed this year. She is now reading chapter books (her favorites are June B. Jones and American Girl) all by herself. We find her reading when she wakes up in the morning, and when she goes to bed at night.

Aiden has a couple more days of his class, but he is going to go there for camp.. so not a big change there! He did have his "water day" at school yesterday to celebrate the end of year. He loved it.

So anyway, I wanted to do a 1st day of school, last day of school side by side comparison of Anna. She has really matured this year, but she's still our little Anna! :)


















Here's some other pictures to enjoy!

Aiden's water day, and then Aiden with all the GIRLS! He loves the Ladies! Haha!!















The kids were cuddling with Lucy the other day... so here's a picture of that cuddlefest!














We all attended Anna's "Kindergarten Picnic" yesterday, and the entire Kindergarten performed two songs. Yes, I cried! ugh! I can't get through anything without the sobfest. :) Anyway, look how beautiful Anna looked!



















Have a perfect day everyone!

Love, Holly

PLEASE VOTE!!!!!!

Hi Everyone!


I'm SO excited! My Kindermusik program was nominated for an award from Nickelodeon/GoCityKids! It's a part of Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect's First Annual Parents' Picks Awards. Nickelodeon's ParentsConnect (http://www.parentsconnect.com), the online resource for parenting advice and community, is allowing parents to pick the best of their local communities with the Parents' Picks Awards.

The ParentsConnect's First Annual Parents' Picks Awards will identify winners in 52 major U.S. cities. Categories include: best kids' museum; best toy store; best playground/park; best green space; and many more. Users can vote for nominees online at http://www.parentsconnect.com/parentspicks until June 30 to help determine which nominees are "top picks" in their city. We are in Orlando, FL, and up for the "Best Artsy Class" award! On July 15, the ParentsConnect.com site will publish the Parents' Picks winners and the winning venues' information will remain featured on the site for a year. All Parents' Picks businesses are nominated based on recommendations from ParentsConnect.com local city editors that live and work in the cities they cover, in conjunction with ParentsConnect users' feedback. Users' votes and rankings ultimately determine which venues are selected as winners in their respective categories.

YEY!!! So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote!!!

:) Love, Holly

Dog Park fun!

Today we took the dogs and kids to a new dog park. Well, it's was new to us anyway..

It was SO much fun! There was a huge amount of space for the dogs to run free, and a lake/beach where the dogs and kids could play and swim. We actually didn't plan to swim, so we were dressed a little oddly for that.. but we made do.

Here's Sagan wading in the water...













Beach fun!



























































What a fun day!!!!

Love, Holly

Professional pics to share!

I've been meaning to scan the following pictures in for the longest time and FINALLY did it! Enjoy!!!

Here's Aiden's 3 year portrait:

















Here's the hotel picture from our trip to the Nick Hotel















Here's the picture from our Day our with Thomas!

















The next two pictures of Aiden and I were taken by my friend Kristin Mizo in our Kindermusik class. Kristin takes pictures of all my studio classes each session. Isn't her work beautiful? I just loved these...






























This last one is Anna's Kindermusik for the Young Child: First Year picture. Anna learned how to play the Glockenspiel this year!


















Until next time....
Love, Hol

Our dancing girl!

Today was Anna's dance recital. She did an AMAZING job!!!!! I have a video from our camera and repeatedly tried to upload it to this blog, but it didn't work.. so Will is going to have fix it first. In the meantime, here are some pictures. Anna's Kindergarten teacher Miss Browne came to see Anna, which was just so sweet. We also had Grandma, Dori and Kayla watching too. After the recital, we all went to too-jays for lunch. We are so proud of our girl.

Here is Anna's official recital picture:

















Grandma brought some recital gifts..

















Here's Anna and Miss Browne!

















Here we all are at Too-jays. Miss Browne's boyfriend "Mr. Bob" joined us too!













Anna is already signed up for dance next year. She'll be taking tap and jazz along with most of her class from this year.

Another post coming after this one, with some long awaited pictures I've been meaning to share!

Love, Holly