National Cherry Festival Princess

When I get a phone call from Old Mission School, it is usually about Amelia wanting to come home because she feels "sick." But, when I got the phone call today from Marilyn, the secretary, she was so excited she could hardly get the words out. "Heather! I am just calling to tell you that Amelia has been chosen to be the Cherry Festival Princess for this year!!!" Wow!!! She went on to tell me about ALL of the responsiblities that go with this. That being said, we are sooooo happy for her!!!! What an experience! The schedule of things she gets to do that week are things I wish I could do. :) More to come...

Alyssa Czisny

One of the highlights of the weekend was that the girls had the opportunity to meet Alyssa Czisny, 2009 figure skating National Champion and member of the Detroit Skate Club. She is such a sweet girl and so patient with all the little ones waiting outside her locker room for her to come out and sign anything and everything, and I MEAN it. Her locker room was next to ours and so the girls would keep going back and have her sign something else. Even their skates. I guess we will not be selling this pair. Amelia's coach, Stephanie, made Alyssa's outfit (check it out) and did all the hand beading. She makes many of the skaters dresses, including several of the ones worn in the Olympics this year. Stephanie introduced Amelia to Alyssa and now Amelia tells everyone that they are friends. Hahaha. These kids have no idea how lucky they are to have had this experience! We are so thankful!

Ice Show

Wow...what a great weekend! This was the annual ice show Under the Sea at our TC figure skating club and we are SOOOOOO proud of the girls. They rehearsed almost every night for the last 3 weeks and practiced with their coaches in between. There is so much anticipation and hard work that leads up to this show and the entire event went over very well. We also had a special guest skater (next blog) perform in all of the shows. That is an amazing experience in itself! When we began figure skating 2 years ago, I really did not think we would end up as involved as we are. The girls BEG to skate every day of the week and they want to do every competition they can! Their coaches, Heidi, Stephanie, Ann and Laurent are the best! They are so wonderful to the girls and Isabelle and Amelia look forward to every second with them. Thank you to all of our family and friends who came to watch and encourage them: Nona and Kev, Mimi and Papu, Deb and Mimi, Aunt Kate and Ben, Aunt Sarah, Grandpa Bill and Marcie, Isabelle's teacher, Mrs. Ballmer, Susan and Ella, Miss Sarah, Amelia Marie and Ava, and The Cueters. It meant more than you know!! We are looking forward to next year! (Yes, I really did just say that :))

Feeding Eli

Just a funny picture I took a few weeks ago of Matthew and Scott trying to feed Elijah. It was pretty comical to watch two men try to feed a baby without a high chair and Eli trying to grab every spoonful they attempted to give him! Poor baby...

School

The week before Isabelle turned 8, her teacher had a celebration for her. The tradition at Montessori is that we bring in a healthy snack and a timeline of the last 7 years. Isabelle then stands in the center of all her classmates, holds the globe and walks around the circle 7 times. Each circle is one year of her life. The teacher also lights a candle in the center that Isabelle blows out at the end. It is a really neat way for her classmates to get to know more about her. Isabelle chose frog cupcakes out of her Princess Tiana cookbook and we spend quite a while making them! She said some of them were frogs and some were tree frogs, since we ran out of green eyes!

Birthday Girl

I am still in shock that our oldest child is EIGHT!!!! As she reminds me, she is now a "Tween." Yikes. I am amazed at how far she has come this year at her new school (Montessori) and how maturely she thinks about the world around her. WHen we began planning her party, she came up with the idea that instead of her friends bringing gifts to her party , she would have a donation box for Haiti. She put a note in each invitation that she wanted donations for Haiti instead of a gift. I was in tears when she did this!! We are so proud that she has this attitude and empathy toward others. Much of this I think is the Montessori philosophy that has been instilled which is based on respect, courtesy, helping the environment, among MANY other things. Her friends from figure skating, Old Mission and Montessori all came and enjoyed paiting pottery, manicures and pedicures and a dance party lead by Scott! I am sure you can all imagine that!! The night before her actual birthday, Grandma and Grandpa J came up and surprised her when she woke up the next day. Grandma walked into the laundry room and the look on Belle's face was priceless, total shock for about 20 seconds and then the biggest smile and excitement ever! I wish I had a video camera on her. :( They went to lunch with her that day and watched her skate that night. Her birthday dinner was Saturday night at Golden Chopsticks. She chose to go because she loves to eat Sushi at the Sushi bar. You can see in the pic below!!