Part I- Madelines party at school

Here are some pictures from Madeline's B-day "party" at school.

As you can see, she has started doing her own hair in the morning- ponytail and all. I am glad for this AM initiative- but I never really know what to say on some mornings :)

Piano Recital

Madeline's Piano Recital was today. She did a great job, and looked so tiny playing on the big grand piano. We were proud of her- she was the youngest of the kids who played, but still managed to do very well on her six songs. She played the "Russian Lullaby," the "Sparrow," the "Chinese Song," "Etude in C major," and two studies (107&108). In some of the pictures you can see that see that she took a spill yesterday. She was running home with dad after a baptism and she did a face-plant on the cement. It was sad. She had scratches all over her face, and hands and skinned up her knee pretty well. We go through tights like crazy around here. She was pretty proud of her bloody tights with ripped out knees.

Countdown to Recital

We added a link to Madeline Playing the Piano. She is getting ready for her recital that will be next Sunday......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV3lGtGFz6M

New Years Day

So to celebrate the New Year we decided to get up early and head into the city to ride the Staten Island Ferry, and get a look at Lady Liberty. We were joined by some friends of ours (JT and Lizzie Davis) and we had a good time. Eva was very excited to be able to ride in a "big boat" for the first time. It was kind of spooky walking around Manhattan in the early hours of the morning following the big Times Square party. NYC was the most barren it has ever been. The girls had a good time being the "only ones on the tram." It was a pretty foggy and rainy day but still fun. After the boat ride we had a yummy brunch at the Davis' apartment down in the Financial District. It was a fun morning.

New Years Eve

To celebrate New Years Eve, and Dad's day off work we headed over to Chelsea Market- an indoor market filled with all sorts of wonders enclosed in the former Nabisco Cookie Factory famous for creating the Oreo Cookie. It is places like this market that make you love living in NYC. Some highlights were the italian specialty grocery store (where you can buy Nutella Jars the size of your head), the Fat Witch Bakery (that makes world famous brownies), the arches lit with Christmas Lights, seeing the Food Network Studios (which house the production studios for their TV shows), and seeing the world famous cake and cookie bakeries with wonderful window displays. As we were trying to narrow down our choices for a mid-trip snack we realized that we had left our wallet at home :(. Hard on our stomachs, but easy on the checkbook.....So we will have to try these delicacies another day.

Owen's First Big Boo-Boo

Okay, so last night Owen decided to ring in the New Year by doing a "face-plant" into the closet door and getting his first big major bump. It was an impressive one- at first we were quite concerned- but it was back to all smiles in less than a minute so we knew he would be okay- he would just look like Quasimodo for a few days.

Owen's First Word

Owen says Mamma, Mamma when he is sad or hungry and sometimes mutters Da Da da da when he is excited but still nothing we could count as officially person/object specific until the last few weeks. Once he spots anything spherical it is "Ball...Ball....Ball" here is a video to display his new found talent.....