Feliz Cumpleanos, Faith!

Since my sister's family had just moved here by Faith's birthday, we got to host Faith's birthday party at our house. Unfortunately, since they didn't know anyone in the area, only our kids were there. But we still had a really good time!Cyndy is so creative with party ideas. The goodie bags were decorated to look like Dora's backpack. In case you can't tell, the party theme was Dora the Explorer.Faith loved the bean bag toss, which was a good thing, since she didn't like the sprinklers at all.Kairi and Nicky loved them though!And even Juli got her toes wet! Don't worry about the birthday girl though. She got tons of presents (most Dora themed).
She had first crack at the pinata candy.
And a few good cracks at the pinata itself.
She got to make her cousins and parents and aunt and uncle wear silly hats.
And she had a tasty Mexican feast with a cake fit for a fiesta. Not bad for a three year old!

I (Heart) New York!

The drama club's annual trip to New York went off, well, with a lot of hitches, but since it turned out fine, we just won't worry about that. We usually go at night, so it was nice to see the skyline by daylight.
We had a little extra time in New York (see glitches...) and so we wandered around Times Square a little bit.
We saw the musical Mary Poppins, which was simply fabulous. The sets and effects were amazing, and the musical numbers highly entertaining. I'm hoping to go back with Mom, because she missed the trip after planning to go (more glitches...)

With all of the craziness going on in May, it was nice to finish the trip and know that most of my extracurricular obligations were done!

Music In The Parks

Kairi had been looking forward to the Music in the Parks competition for weeks. The band did a great job when we watched them in the morning, but let's face it...
They were really excited about getting to wander Hershey Park all day! Winning prizes for playing their instruments was just a bonus.
We took Faith with us to the day's activities because since she was just shy of 3, she got free admission. She had a great time, although the costumed characters made her a bit nervous.
No nerves for real Hershey kisses, though!
She also had no qualms about going on any rides. In addition to the tame merry go round, she rode rollercoasters and dark rides and anything her height would let her get on.
Nicky, of course, was not so daring, but got to ride a few things nevertheless. And we got him on a rollercoaster, although he did NOT like it, so we won't try that again.

Best of all, at the end of the day, Saucon's bands and chorus groups took high honors. The concert band took second place with an excellent rating. The jazz band took first place, and Saucon won a special award for one of our singers. We're very proud of all of the Saucon kids!

Violence In School

Of course, this violence is on purpose. The actors of Roundtable Productions made a special trip out to perform for my seventh graders when our Medieval Faire was rained out. They put on a fabulous show, as always. I got some great pictures capturing the action this year.

Recital Weekend

Kairi did a great job at recital, as always. What we didn't expect was her cousin's reaction to her.
She loved all of Kai's costumes, and loved watching her dance. Especially the dance with the Disney princesses.
But most of all, she loved Kairi's ballet costume. She was afraid to even touch her, but once Kai said it was okay, she seemed to think of Kai as a giant ballerina doll, just for her.
In fact, everyone liked that outfit so much, I completely forgot to take any pictures at all of Kai in her competition jazz outfit! Oh well!

On Display

Looks like all that hard work on school projects does have some rewards. We went into Kairi's school to talk to the principal about a medical excuse from gym after Kai tore ligaments in her finger during gym class. Boy, were we surprised to look into the 6th grade display case and see three of Kai's projects featured! We're always proud of her, but it's nice to see her teachers are proud of her, too!

WOOOOHOOOOO!

What's so exciting about this picture, you ask??? It's taken in my hometown. It's my niece. And the reason she's here is: she moved here!!!!!! YAY!! Cyndy, Barry, Faith and Juli moved down to Pennsylvania. Hannah will join them for various school vacations. I'm sad that they will see Hannah less, but so very glad they'll be close to us. We're going to have so much fun having close relatives so close!

So I repeat: WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!