At the Movies

Here's what Nicholas wanted to watch


Another option


Getting settled with popcorn and drinks

to watch...The Princess and the Frog

Merry Christmas

Waiting for the Christmas Eve service to begin. Clara and Monica along with one of Monica's students contributed some music.


Dinner is ready...greek bread, feta and olives, salad, ham, corn, sweet potato souffle, and green bean casserole. Yum!

John read the Christmas story and we sang a few songs.

Then it was present time...

What's a Christmas without socks and underwear?!?

Clara opening her BIG gift...Can you guess what it is?

A doll with her own violin.

Studying all the wonderful gifts after everything was opened...

Thank you one and all for the cards and gifts you sent our way. We are greatful to have you in our lives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Advent Calendar Completed

Thank you Thomas and Gina.

Happy St. Nikolaus Day

How exciting...Nikolaus brought all the good boys and girls special treats today.

Circus Recital

Here are Clara's three performances from Sunday afternoon. The recital turned out to be a big success. We had a full house, great performances and a fun reception.

A Circus Comes to Town

Clowns on Unicycle

Circus Day

Yummy, yummy in my tummy....

You just have to LOVE Aldi. Look what I found today...

Trick or Treat

The kids looked soooo cute in their costumes. The weather was great and we had fun seeing all our friends and neighbors. We just love the people on our street.

Happy Birthday Nicky!

A special birthday treat...carving a pumpkin with Pappy.

Opening presents

Nicholas was so happy with all the birthday gifts he received. He's been playing with all his new toys from the time he gets up until he goes to bed. For a while it was difficult to get him to stop and eat =) THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Nicholas really wanted a monster truck party

Birthday interview

Pianorama 2009

The concert was a smashing success and the kids did great.

Here are Clara and Sarah practicing their songs at the dress rehearsal. They are sitting at the piano behind and between the black grand piano and the upright piano on the left.

Late Birthday Surprise

Some of you may know of Clara's deep love of horses and how much she enjoys reading the Pony Pals books. So, we planned to surprise Clara with a chance to go horseback riding for her birthday. The weather hasn't been very cooperative lately, but today was the day. A friend from church owns horses and kindly invited us to come over. Clara was very excited once she saw the barn and horses. Here are some pictures...

Mr. Pleasure


Nicholas loves animals. Here he is making friends with Abby and the barncats.

Feeding treats

Clara mounting Robin

Clara riding Robin, a former Belmont racehorse

Nicholas trying out horseback riding for the first time. He did great and loved it!

Nicholas riding solo

Proud Mom Moment

Clara passed her first audition! Clara and her partner Sarah will be playing their duets with a bunch of other kids at the Pianorama concert in October. Imagine...16 pianos on a stage, 2 kids at each piano, all playing the same songs together following a conductor! We are soooo proud of her. By the way, all of my other students passed their auditions as well. Yeah!

English Tea Party

Our English Tea menu consisted of chocolate and white cupcakes, lemon bars, cucumber sandwiches, and chocolates.

Flowers, according to my research a MUST at English teas.

Clara with her friends

Our real live butler

Yummy...red rasberry tea

Fun birthday games

The tray game...the girls were divided into two teams. We brought out a tray with miscellaneous items on it and the girls had 30 seconds to study the items before the tray was removed. Then we took several items off of the tray and brought it back. The girls then had to recognize which items were missing. We did this several times. The game was a BIG hit.

Every English lady needs a hat to wear to a tea party, so here we are a craftin'

Aren't they beautiful!?!

Present time

Clara received many thoughtful gifts. The party was loads of fun. Thanks for your helping hands Daniel and Elizabeth!