journeys in parenting, crafting, and keeping up with the laundry...

Big 8 Year Old

McKaylah turned 8 on Friday.  I can't believe she's 8.  I sit and watch her sometimes and I can't believe that it was 8 years ago I held her so small in my arms. 

We went to Beachcombers for the day. Dave took off work and came along with us and we brought along McKaylah's friends Caroline and Thea.  It was so hot and humid that it was nice to swim and lounge in the water. 

Dad and daughter

David took Ava off the diving board since she was afraid to do it alone.  Nice daddy!

 

McKaylah's twisting dive

we made a cake and had a sleepover with 4 of McKaylah's friends.  Then Saturday we had her big birthday party with the Philadelphia Zoo. The Philadelphia Zoo came and brought 4 animals to do a show with, did face painting, a game and acraft. The two presenters did a nice job and the kids thought it was fun. 

McKaylah and BF Caroline, matching snake tats, tough!

McKaylah's other BF Hazel, pretty little butterfly

Mom with big butterfly

Benji

Ruby's lizard face!

The owl was so SO cute!  This is burrowing owl, they make homes in the ground instead of trees.  

Here's the bearded lizard. 

McKaylah had a staring match with the rainbow snake, she lost after a good try though.  The snake doesn't have eyelids, so he was sort of cheating.

Here's Gigett the Hedgehog.  She's an albino hedgehog and was so adorable!

After the animal show we did lunch, presents and slip-n-slide since it was crazy hot! 

 This is a big Fairy Treehouse pop-up book McKaylah got from Gryphon and Ruby.  She loves it had hasn't stopped looking at the tiny details all day today.

McKaylah got this from Benji, a Fashion Design kit (she was thrilled!)

cupcakes from the Velvet Sky Bakery

slip-n-slide

and of course all good parties end with hoola hooping! Here's HoopSoup's Sarah getting hoopy with it... 

Hot Hoopin'

I took a hoola hoop dancing class yesterday. What a fun time and great form of exercise.  You wouldn't think it to be so, but I am really sore this morning.  You have to isolate your core and keep your arms up a lot and even move around while hooping. I still have a long way to go before I'm as good as SaFire on You Tube or the instructor Marlenah.  She works at the herb store Apothecary Garden in Chestnut Hill, and Maia, the owner, set up the class.  I did however learn to chest and shoulder hoop and do the butt bump (sounds a bit risque, I know...) My friend Sarah turned me onto hoola dancing and she's really good and looks really fluid to me. I still need to work on my upper body, and Sarah can leg hoop, which seems really difficult, and painful. My friend Annette had never really hooped before and she is a natural, she really did well.  Ana and Krystal joined us and they were awesome, too.  Krystal is 15 weeks pregnant and looked so cool hooping with a little bump. And then Beth, with her pixie tails and tats, she looks like she's meant to hoop dance! It was a beautiful, hot day in Pastorius Park in Chestnut Hill (a neighborhood in Philadelphia) and I hope the instructor does these classes regularly.  I ended up buying a hoop since adults need obviously a wider, larger hoop.  I'm going to try and practice a few times a week, hopefully one day I can run away to the circus!  

me

Annette

Beth

Sarah

Krystal

Ana

chest hooping, Sarah's really good! She's just opened an Etsy shop called "Hoop Soup, a recipe for fun and fitness" and she and her hubby are making the hoops to sell.  She'll offer custom sizes and colored tapes. She's also starting a website, so if you're interested in getting a hoop, contact her by clicking on the blue link above.  

the class, see Ana in the back doing chest hooping--talented!

the instructor Marlenah, she was so beautiful when hooping, fluid, languid, smooth

Ta dahhhh!

Hoola-ta-fun!

I'm taking a hoola (hooping) dancing class this Saturday!  Back in the day I was pretty good, you know (I won two contests as a kid, ah huh!) and watching this chick makes me excited to practice! Before you hit play, hit pause on the playlist on the side so you can hear the video.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6PEsM3rQpI

Thrift

My "Thrift" LO for our fun day of thrift store shenanigans...

Introducing our new MANNY!!!

You've obviously heard of a Nanny, well, we here have decided to take in a Manny.  A man-Nanny.  Please give a big hello to our Manny, he'd love to hear from you (leave a comment he means.)

Happy Fourth of July!

Fun in the sun, and moon bounce, too!

Here's my latest LOs.  From Sistv, the Beach Bum Collection,  "Liquid Sunshine" for our trip to Oregon a few weeks ago.  Rainy yes, but still beautiful!

I cut out the orange/white felt into clouds and raindrops. Love, Elsie letter stickers, Sasafrass Lass paper. The kit also came with a small bag of seashells, I slathered on glue for those babies...

Of course I made 3 of these LO's...

  Then my "Sally Jean" LO.  I loved that class.  I'm waiting for my soldering kit.  She had to order me another soldering tool.  Tick, tick, tick...I can't wait! Birthdays, Xmas, everyone gets soldered gifts!

We had a really nice week with a couple days spent at the lovely Beachcombers Swim Club.  Like I mentioned in a previous post we joined there because of the 3 pools, but also the relaxing, enclosed atmosphere.  The grassy area with the large trees is perfect for reading a book and snacking on our sugar snap peas. They have mini golf, a tennis court, basketball court, community garden and a playground.  Plus everyday has a few different classes like nature crafts, Playhouse (drama for kids), Yoga for Kids (and for moms), tennis lessons, etc.  I think my kids will have such fond memories of there.

 

 my sweet little pixie storing up on her energy with some delish nosh! Like all the bug bites/scabs?...niiiiiiiiiiiice...

Ava, McKaylah and her best chum/next door neighbor Caroline enjoying ice cream

Ava taking a swim lesson

at the playground

McKaylah and Caroline in the kiddie pool

The girls went swimming over at good pals Benji and Frida's house on Friday-goof balls!

 

Love this handmade number little baby Frida is wearing?  Ana (her mom) made it.  Isn't it groovy?

Friday night the girls and I had a lovely nightime tea party out on the front porch.  It was right after a nice rain and the fireflies were out like crazy.  We got dressed up. We had yummy tea and snacks and talked.  It was so sweet and I love those gals so much.  I'm so blessed!  It was all McKaylah's doing, invites and all.  She's such a good social planner.  Whenever she can (which is often; benefits of homeschooling and a flexible schedule) she plans improptu dance parties, talent shows, picnics, tea parties, etc.  She usually does invites or puts up flyers around the house. Gush, gush, gush, I know...

Then Saturday night, I joined Ana, Joe, Krystal, Danny, Sarah and Chris at a benefit Urban Outfitters/  Free People was putting on for the City of Philadelphia Parks.  There was a huge skateboard ramp/thingy going on, a moon bounce (SOOOOO FUN!!!), drinks and no kids....unusal for me...fabulous!  (Dave was out of town at a jujitsu tournament...although Dave would have been so fun to bounce with!!!) Anyhoo, here's some pictures of the gala.

moon bouncin'

 

ana and moi

 

one cute couple, (notice BTK standing behind them)

and another

Sarah, Ana and I danced for like 3 hours straight, so fun!  

me, Krystal and Sarah

I wanted to raid the Free People offices where Ana and Krystal work/design.  But that thing called a security system was supposably on...sounds suspicious to me... 

I listed my onesies on etsy, so take a peepsy-pooh. I'm going to make a few new ones next week, some with trucks, matroishka dolls, stars and maybe a couple others. I'm hoping to get my soldering this week and make some charms to put on etsy, too. 

Here's a couple last pictures of the girls. As some of you know, McKaylah did a summer correspondence school course last year with Hogwarts.  This year is each week a couple workbook pages of math, a reading list and then 4 elective classes assignments; Study of Animals in the Wild (with Hagrid as the teacher), Study of Fairy Folk (Hagrid as well), Aromatherapy for Beginners (Professor Sprout) and Kooking the Kitchen Witch Way (Dolby the Elf).  She has to leave her completed assignments out on the front porch for OWL Post every Sunday night.  Ava was also accepted into the "Under-Under Age Muggles Program" and has her general requirements such as Alphabet and Numbers (preschool workbooks) and the elective classes Fairy Club, Drawing of Magical Creatures and Kooking the Kitchen Witch Way.  She's loving the assignments!    

McKaylah's assigment was to make an animal she's studied outside and create it out of mexican clay.  She studied a squirrel. Her Aromatherapy assignment was to smell rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree and peppermint essential oils.  She had to read about each of them and discuss what each is used for, what emotional aspects they can be used for, etc.  She wanted me to tell you her new formula, called "sweet-smelling scents"-1 drop tea tree, 3 drops peppermint, 2 drops lavender, 1 drop eucalyptus, 3 drops rosemary. She recommends you try it...

Ava doing her workbooks. She's always in a bathing suit-like mother like daughter (not me now, when I was small I mean, Oh God, not NOW!)

Ava's practice wand from Diagon Alley, delivered by OWL Post last week.  It's been demagicnitized for safety. 

Ciao for now!

Farm Day

We joined a co-op farm called Pennypack Farm not too far from our house.  It's a wonderful little set-up where you go once a week to pick up organic fruits and veggies (some of which you get to pick.) Each week the crops are different depending of course what Mother Nature has in store for us at that particular time.  It's fun and educational for the girls to see a large garden/ farm working with complete strangers to provide a large amount of yummy green goods.  We will need to do 6 hours this summer to satisfy our co-op community hours. 

Today we picked sugar snap peas and raspberries.  They both are so sweet right off the vine.  The girls loved it.  There's a cat called Sampson that lives on the farm that no joke, followed Ava around the whole 2.5 hours we were out in the gardens.  So funny. Unfamiliar animals do seem to love her though (I wouldn't say our resident cats feel so cozy with her, but foreign animals totally gravitate to her.) 

I also got a beautiful, HUGE head of lettuce, swiss chard, and a 1/2 pound of bok choy, radishes, squash, zucchini and baby broccoli,  the raspberries, sugar snap peas and a huge bouquet of fresh mint, chives and basil.  The farm also sells free-range chicken eggs and honey! Next week I'm going to pick some up!

The gardens were so well-maintained and they had medicinal herb gardens marked (immunity, respiratory, urinary, etc.) and sent me back to days spent in my herbal apprenticeships in California.

Can't wait for next week!

Ava, the gardener, animal woe-er

these did not make it into our quart carton...yum!

respiratory herb garden,

reproductive herb garden,

three stages on development on one stem,

"C'mon, Bub!  Let us out!" The little chickie's are kept in this large hen house while picking hours are on.

solar panels are everywhere

Ya all come back and see us 'gain, yer hear?

Okay, this is gonna be a long one...

Hi ya all!  I'm back from a relaxing vacation, where the temperatures were pleasant and temperate, unlike the god-awful humid Philadelphia now.  Gross!

But our vacation was splendid.  The girls and I enjoyed ourselves visiting with family and friends for almost 3 weeks.  Dave joined us in Oregon for a week in the middle which was nice for him because although he didn't put down his blackberry very much from emailing work back here (they did klnow he was on vacation, but you know...) he got to decompress a bit I think.

The girls and I first went to my parents who live in between Lake Tahoe and Reno.  Their house is always comforting and my mom is the best!

 relaxing lunches out on the patio

McKaylah and my mom played endless games of Uno and blackjack. Ava helped my dad garden and catch squirrels to release back down by the river (the other side) so they'll stop eating his garden.  Both the girls thought it was great fun! What a chillaxing stay...

The river that's behind my parents house. I loved to lay in bed and listen to the river run through the Sierra Mountains.  The smell of pine trees is so calming and clean.

Grandma and her girl...

My best friend Lainie came up from San Diego.  We hung out, went thrifting together with the girls...

groovy, man!

G-L-A-M-O-R-I-O-U-S!

here's moi in a new fabulous coat I quickly grabbed up in my hot little hands! I think I wore this in 4th grade. The petticoat is just gonna be for fun...doesn't every girl need at least one?

okay, doesn't Ava look like a little Elton John?!  I almost peed my pants! After she fell in love with the petticoat we decided it was a must in our repertoire! 

Isn't she...

G-

L-

A-

M-

O-

R-

I-

O-U-S?

Lainie as a Russian dancer

Future Rock Star?

 

we had dinner party with all the moms and kids which was so fun!

new mom Tara and her sweet little baby, ahhhh..havin' a glass of vino

Michelle and Lainie 

So nice to see old friends! 

the group of girls

Stefy-pooh and me

Colleen and me-I told you I snatched up that fab jacket!

 

here's our dog Bodi who now lives with my parents.  We asked my parents to dog-sit while we were moving for a couple months and then my dad and he bonded so much we didn't have the heart to take him back. My dad is retired and they go on rides together, play fetch for hours a day, they're BFFs!

here's me doing one of my Mom's morning rituals, a wine glass of iced EmergenC in her jetted bath, ahhhhhhhhh....

me in the redwood sauna-my mom does this a couple times a week.  Talk about wonderful!  I haven't taken a steam in so long I forgot about it! She's newly retired, too, so she's all about long mornings of pampering... We also got pedicures and manicures while I was there-ahhhhhhh....

Ava walking on the rocks, my lil' faerie girl...

then we flew to Portland to see Dave and his parents.  This was at the Rose Festival.  We took the girls to a carnival, a dinosaur exhibit and to see a ship used to film the Pirates of the Caribbean that was docked for the day.  Pretty cool.  The weather was typical Portland weather (soggy), but it's so beautiful there! 

Pirates of the Caribbean boat.  We took a tour, it's really small, much smaller than the movie made it look anyway.  The magic of Hollywood...

Then we went up to Newport Beach for 3 days.  It's so beautiful and wild up there-we kept the doors to the balcony of our room open at night to listen to the waves crashing onto the beach.  Awesome!

McKaylah down in the COOOOOOOLD water!

Dad and his girls

the view from our room's balcony

We went to the Newport Beach Aquarium one day. Here's McKaylah as herself...(the crab I mean, she's a Cancer, ha! ha!  Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night...)

McKaylah and Ava with Grandpa and Grandma (Dave's parents)

here's the fish from Deuce Bigelow Male Gigolo

Ava and Dave at Starfish tank

fast little sharks,

every time I saw sea lions on this trip I'd laugh and start singing Feist's "Sea lion" and do a little jig.  My in-laws didn't think it was as funny...

Another day on the coast we went on a wonderful whale watching tour.  The girls and I loved the big ocean swells, my in-laws, ummm... not so much...

The big swells!

Ava with her Granpappy and Granmammy, reassuring them they will get their sea-legs about them soon!

A beautiful lighthouse off the coastline

"Yarrrrr Matey!  Thar she blows, Captain!"

Little gnomy had a hard time finding his sea-legs!

 

Magnificent!  Amazing isn't she???

Well, I just downloaded it since we didn't see any whales that day on our three hour tour, a three hour tour...(the theme from Gillian's Island.)  I still enjoyed the boat ride though.

More Oregon coast sights...

(insert Feist's voice here...)

snooty McSnootty here

McKaylah getting her fortune told by the Amazing ZOLTAAAAAAR!

Small little fishing town...

 

 

I'm the Queen of the world!

Then we returned back to our hotel room to see the most gorgeous sunset!  My little camera couldn't do it justice! 

Then on our last day in Portland I was so lucky to be able to take a "Soldering for Virgins" class with the incredible Sally Jean!!!! What a great class and a fabulous lady!  She was so nice and accommodating.  If you ever have a chance to meet her or take a class you should! (gushing will now cease.)

My first project

The crazy crafter, don't know what was up with my hair and that crazy smile...

Sally has this sweet little blue bird that comes and eats peanuts out of the windowsill.  I couldn't take many pictures of the studio because soon Somerset crafting magazine is doing a special story on her studio.  But it so adorable with a delicate whimsicalness that I wish to one day have in my craft room/house.  As far as the eye could see, she had jars of course glitter, buttons,notions and miniature German dolls, stacks of antique books she uses to make her charms, lovely art pieces from fellow crafters and herself, you could have just sat there all day in it's awesomeness, absorbing it.

The amazing lady herself!

I ended up buying all the supplies needed from her to start my own little soldering empire (maniacal laugh here...) I can only hope to one day be even half as good as her, but I'll give it my best shot... Hopefully soon I'll get all the items and maybe start selling them on Etsy. I STILL need to put my onesies on there (note to self-once you've unpacked the 3 suitcases, done the 18 loads of laundry piled up in the laundry room, gone through 3 weeks of mail, recovered from Philly heatstroke, put onesies on Etsy...)

The master...

Then we headed down to the bay area for 2 days to see my sister-in-law bask in the sunshine of motherhood. This is her first baby and we had a great time at her baby shower.  She looks fabulous and rightly HUGE (she's had 2 weeks left at this photo) and ready to go.  Wish her luck for a healthy and speedy delivery (she hasn't had the little bambino yet!) 

What a great trip!  I'm happy to be back home though, in my own bed.  In this wonderful heat...

My good eggs

Finally getting my Easter LO done (times 3, of course...)

McKaylah has been taking sewing lessons for a few months now and loves it.  However, my stinkin' machine was acting up last week so she hand sewed this fashion ensemble for her AG doll. She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up like our good friends Ana and Krystal who design for Free People. Maybe she can summer intern???

all finished...even little sis was getting crafty making a stuffie man...

Well, we're off to the west coast for 3 weeks-don't know if I'll be able to write, so if not, tootles all, and have a lovely time!

a friend's visit

We were so happy to have our best friends Stef and her son Avin visit us last week.  We went to a new place each day to show them around.  One day we went to to South Street and toured the Mosaic Art  Garden.  What a cool place with fun art using glass bottles, plates, metal structures, wooden statues and many other objects making the museum a fantastical display of creativity.  It reminded me of the pre-kid days at Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert.

The next day I took them to Delaware's Winterthur Gardens. The lush, green landscape was a treat for their eyes.  The Enchanted Woods was where we had Ava's 4th bday party last year and Avin loved it as much as the girls do, too.  What a magical place.

in the huge bird's nest

running the labyrinth

waiting for tea with the fairies...

sitting in the fairy ring

moi...

MAC garden make-up

fiddlehead fern land

peonies always remind me of my sweet ol' Gran....

The next day we went to the Museum of Natural Sciences since Avin had never seen a museum with dinosaur bones and animal dioramas, butterfly gardens, etc.  He loved it, and again, even though the girls had seen it all many times before, they enjoyed themeselves as well.  McKaylah and I had remembered to bring along her Flat Stanley guy to take pictures with. She is doing a Flat Stanley project with another child who lives in Texas.  They each have Flat Stanley laminated cut-outs, and make journals, swap the cut-outs, take pictures, take notes, etc. and then return the projects to each other.  Then you trade with another Flat Stanley person somewhere else.  It's just a fun way to learn about geography.  Anyhoo, here they are digging for dinosaur bones.

I swear she's happy folks...

Miss Sassypants...

here we went out to eat Friday night at the West Avenue Grill not far from us.  Obama actually had lunch there and shot a commercial a couple months ago.  You can see the framed pictures behind him of when he was shooting the commercial and with his staff. McKaylah is with her exchange Flat Stanley.

It was great having Stef and Avin here.  We'll miss them!  Luckily in 2 weeks we are heading back out west for family R and R.

Here's the skirt McKaylah finished last week in sewing class. She worked on it for 4 classes.  Pretty good, huh?  She's talented!

Our House LO

I did this LO last night...

Our House

our house, is a very, very, very fine house, with 2 cats in the yard; who wouldn't cooperate for this photo----drats!

Have a nice day!

little shotglass of sugar

Just a little tip out there for the moms who have to give really raunchy tasting antibiotics to their little ones.  Put it in a shotglass with Hershey Syrup. It really helps mask the taste! Mary Poppins was right, a shotglassful, er, I mean, a spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down!

 

and last week

I finished the mini book I made in Sarah Bowen's SisTV class.  We used Sassafras Lass papers which are officially my new favorite (until the new Elsie line surfaces...) The borders are scalloped and vividly colorful, like candy, ooooooooh sweet! I haven't yet filled the book with journaling or mementos, and I was hoping to get to it this weekend since it's Nat'l Scrapbooking weekend, but instead got these LO's Sunday night. I was hoping to scrap with my friend Sarah Saturday and get a lot done, but as usual the bay breezes had other plans for us....here techno-savvy hubby had downloaded some funny Mystery Science Theater dialog and the kids were all busy playing...we sipped our bay breezes, laughed and did not get crafty, o'well.

My mini books project from SisTV

We used a thicker chipboard to fashion a cover (which I covered with Love, Elsie fabric paper) and the inside pages are Sassafras. I made a couple extra books with the left over paper. 

Dance Show

NYC Play Day

Last week we also went to this really cute little place over in University City. It's an old part of Philadelphia and these brownstones are well known for their charm. This restaurant is called the White Dog Cafe and the owner is Judy Wicks, a remarkable lady who has used her restaurant to hold monthly gatherings and meetings to aid social awareness and activism. The food was delicious and the atmosphere cheerful.  Her menu is almost completely supplied by local, organic, humane-raised, range free, small (you get the idea)farmers. She also has helped develop what once was deserted, garbage-filled lots into community-ran gardens.  She also has an annual Dance of the Ripe Tomatoes festival in honor of the summer bounties.  We can't wait to go.  If you haven't had a chance to go (you Philadelphians) you should.  It's located at 3420 Sansom Street.

For those who don't know my man, he loves to socialize and often becomes instant pals with whomever we are sitting by.  Take this nice guy for instance, he's a professor at Drexel U who teaches economics. He's originally from the Palm Springs area and likes to bike and occasionally hit the casinos.  He knows our whole past as well... 

an overexposed me with my two sweethearts

Then Sunday afternoon we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit.  Dave walked through the rest of the museum with the girls while Sarah and I saw Frida.  What an amazing exhibit. I've seen a couple of her art pieces before, but this many all together in the same space is amazing. Most of her work, even more so some of the more graphic pieces was moving. Those who don't know her physical and emotional past which was riddled with pain, can see it in her paintings. Her emotional angst coupled with numerous surgeries and lifelong physical conditions are so irreverently depicted in her paintings that even if her style isn't your thing, you can appreciate it. She really is an icon to be admired. Cameras were not allowed in the exhibit, but many of her most famous works were there.

outside of the museum

The steps down to Ben Franklin Parkway and downtown views of the city.  These are the steps Rocky ran up and jumped up and down on.  It's so funny to see all these people running up the stairs and when they get to the top raise their arms over their heads and bounce around like Rocky did in the movie.  Everyone laughs like they're so original and the first to ever do it.  We did it, too, when we first moved to Philly.

After the museum we headed over to East Passyunk for Mexican food in honor of Frida and  Cinco de Mayo Eve (is there such a thing? Well, we did.)

Tonight for Cinco de Mayo I made some chicken tacos with homemade salsa, we listened to the Gypsy Kings and ate picnic style talking the latest gossip (of which we really know none, but we like to pretend we are in the know...)

 

Recipe for Chunky Salsa 1 jalapeno chile, deseeded and chopped fine 1 medium sized red onion chopped 1/8 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped ¼ teaspoon cumin powder ¼ teaspoon chilly powder ½ teaspoon oregano, crushed by hand 1 can tomato sauce ¼ teaspoon garlic powder 2 tablespoons red wine vienegar 2 fresh squeezed limes Toss all the ingredients together and let it blend overnight. The Salsa is ready the next day to be served with crisp tortilla chips or with other dishes. This Salsa can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It keeps fresh for about two weeks.  Yummy with chopped up avacado, too! Muy Bien!

McKaylah's 7th bday party

I HEART musik!

 

I love music, who doesn't I guess. This weekend was a fun-filled weekend of music (so cheesy sounding, fun-filled...let me try again,) this weekend was super cool (equally cheesy sounding, o'well!) with Saturday night of American Idol games at our house.  Since we are are not very technologically savvy, our pals Sarah and Chris brought it over.  They also brought Rock Band and I think other games, but after dinner and talking, we just played American Idol into the early hours. I thought I had a pretty decent voice, I know I won't be winning any Tony's or anything, but c'mon!  Randy and Paula were somewhat harsh, but that Simon, what a freakin' meanie! His comments afterwards were harsh and cutting to the bone...anyhoo, I survived.  My friend Sarah does have a lovely voice and even she was criticized!

Then last night Dave and I went to see Feist!  I love her!  All of her songs are awesome and she's just an awesome singer. Her voice is sooooo prismatic and reminds me of a siren singing by the sea. Her sound is so original and makes me smile. Her theatrical twist was her silhouette and live light projector show, it was so fun to watch.  I've liked her for a few years now, and seeing her in concert last night was fab-u-lous! The girls had a sleepover at my friend Julie's house so sleeping in for once and enjoying a date night with my hubby was fantasmic!

outside the Academy of MUSIK!

Me trying to belt the tunes, not doing so hot...

Dave dressed in suit and tie was really hitting all the notes (giggle)

Ana singing Copocabana, rockin' the house!

Sarah, she really does have a great voice

Crystal, Danny and baby Adel bid us adieu!

Joe, always a ball of fun (don't laugh at him cuz he wears a lampshade for a hat, it's his style)

Oh, speaking of musik, I just picked up this CD from some local gals who I can't wait to see live.  Sisters 3 is the name of their band, they really are sisters and their folky-rock style is super cool.  My friend Julie actually told me about them ages ago, but I just found them on a website with a list of their upcoming performances.  You should take a listen to them.