letters to and from santa

Just wanted to record the letters between Santa and the girls. 12-01-2009
click on images to see them larger.
Enjoy!

My Special Vieves!

Tonight I was treated to a very special treat by Genevieve.

Let me start by saying that a few months ago, we were finally able to move Genevieve to a preschool closer to home, and one that is really known for it academic curriculum. Tonight was our first little treat as to just how special this great school is.

In Vivi's class, there is a student that has a hearing impairment. To help all the kids to communicate with each other better, all the kids in her pre-school have begun to learn some basic sign language. The other night at the dinner table, Vivi surprised us with a special song. She started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but was doing some hand gestures. Immediately, we realized that this was some of the sign language Vivi was learning. We were pretty impressed, and just continued to encourage her to do it again. Her shyness was so charming and endearing, we just wanted to see the realness of it over again.

Well, tonight after we had dinner and walked over to Ben and Jerry's to treat the girls to a little ice cream, we bumped into a fun group of people. I guess this group of people studying sign language and others who actually have hearing challenges, meet at this ice cream parlor for a fun gathering every Tues. night. One of the Girls came over and began conversing with Vivi in sign language and she kinda understood what this girl was saying. We then asked her to try out her song, and after a little encouragement (some of the strongest from her big sister Bella) she began to perform the song. It was so cute and the girl got a big kick out of it. THEN... Vivi stepped it up...

She got up the courage enough to go with her Mom in front of this big group of people there for this weekly gathering and perform it for them.

It was very cute and very special. She still had a little bit of that shyness which really added to the charm of the performance.

Congrats Vivi- that was a great job.

I am very proud of my girls for so many reasons, and this one fits in to some of the top examples. Thanks for making me a happy Dad.

Turkey Day's a coming-

The Girls are awesome troopers helping out with making the place setting markers AND helping cook up the brine.
YOU'RE THE BEST IN THE WORLD, GIRLS!

You make you Papa proud!

christmas stuff ALREADY!

1 1/2 weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff is already going up around the house.

Bella and Vivi got these at Michaels this weekend, so we thought, what the heck, let's put them up already.

I ALSO went outside and put up some hanging ornaments from the front tree- took too long, but that's why I started it already- have too much to do before Thanksgiving, and would really like to start off the day after Thanksgiving enjoying the Christmas season right away.

I'll load up more photos once I take them.

Some Halloween pics and Bellas KARATE TEST

Sorry- gonna keep this shorter than I'd like to- but at least it's something :0

Halloween was Fun... Awesome... Spoooooteeeee!

I wish I had taken night time pics of the house- hope to next year. Girls look cute though.

Vivi and Bella Strikin' a pose

Declan, Aubrey, Gemma, Bella

Josie and Vivi

Spooooteeee, Spooooteee

Josie, Vivi, Erin, Declan, Gemma, Bella, Cooper, and Ryan

Karate- Bella tested for her Purple belt tonight and passed with flying colors(no pun intended)
'CONGRATS BELLA'

Lolo was there to offer his never ending support for Bella.

"Strike!-Strike!-Strike!"

Bowing and getting their Belts with PRIDE.

Proud Bella with Sensei Marcello.

YAY! Vivi and Bella with their proud Lolo.

Rent

After a long wait we finally took Bella to see her first REAL musical... RENT.

Although we knew it would be too adult in it's subject matter for her, I think she really enjoyed hearing some of her favorite tunes LIVE!

Here's a pic

Oh yeah- and here's a quick pic of the backyard set up for halloween- Hopefully Lynn will blog about that a little more in the next few days.

Alphabet Adventure

This past weekend, while Lynn was swamped with work, I tried a fun adventure with the girls that required a check list of the alphabet, our cameras and some imagination. Our goal was to go for a long walk through our neighborhood and see if we could spot the letters of the alphabet in ordinary things we pass everyday. Although we began to find some pretty easy cheats here and there, we really tried to challenge ourselves (ok... after about 1/2 an hour... MYSELF) to look for clever ways to find these letters. Our goal was to make them pretty obvious to the viewer, and we even hope to make a fun little book for Bella and Vivi's cousin Koa when we're all done. Well, we still have a few letters left to find, but I had so much fun I felt I had to share the first results.

Enjoy 'em:)