The Birthday Party

That pink furry thing on Jordan's head is a tiara with a big flashing 6 on it. Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of it. I was more focused on getting a pic of the Birthday Princess!!
The paper plates...
The cupcakes...
The song and the blowing out of the the candles... (Ameera and Harriet are looking on in the background)...
Oh, she had to blow a little harder to get the last couple of candles...
Ameera is pushing Ananya. They both ride the bus with Jordan and live close by. There's Princess Grumpy on the other swing :)
Harriet was in Jordan's dance class. Her family is from London. We like to listen to them talk!!
There's the life of the party...Vivian! No party is complete without her!! She and her family are moving to Connecticut on Wednesday :(
Annie (striped shirt) was in Jordan's class. That is her little sister tagging along. They both look exactly like their mother!
Well, we can't forget the other life of the party!!! Jaron was the only boy at the park and he sure did make his presence known among the girls.
After the party, we went to Shanghi Park, a Chinese restaurant that Vivian's parents recommended to us. I guess since we were eating Chinese food, Jaron thought it was time to meditate like Po in Kung Fu Panda!!

And the Winner is...

Papa! I knew he would answer my trivia questions correctly. Watch for your CD in the mail, Papa. Meanwhile, everyone enjoy these pics of the kids on the subway a couple of weeks ago. They INSIST on standing and holding onto the pole :)

"Summertime and the livin' is easy..."

Who can name the opera that is from? First person gets a picture of the kids.
Who can tell me the composer? First person gets two pictures of the kids.
Which character in the opera sang this song? First person gets a CD of pictures of the kids :)

Anyway, just a little "summertime" fun! We have completed our second day of summer vacation and the kids already think they can do anything they want to do. I can't even recall how many time-outs they have had in the last two days. Jaron is in the really bad habit of saying sorry when he is in trouble, but he says it like a thousand times in a row really fast. It's a little like this, "Sowwy, mom. Sowwy, sowwy, sowwy, sowwy, sowwy, sowwy........." you get the idea. He has discovered he is irresistibly cute and he tries to use it to his advantage. Well, I am about to go Carol Burnett on him!!!!!!

I also think it was a bit of a mistake to take them to see "Kung Fu Panda" because Jordan is karate chopping everything in sight. She does seem to save most of her karate chops for Jaron. Boy, if Jaron can handle her nagging and bossing, he will be able to marry anyone and be happy!!!

So we don't have alot of news around here. Most of Jordan's friends are leaving town for vacation, and since 95% of them have family in other countries, they are going to be gone for most of the summer. But, that's OK. We will still have fun with the few people that are around, not to mention each other!!! I am thoroughly enjoying not having any sort of schedule to keep. I still try to get the kids in bed around the same time, but other than that, we have no plans so far and it is great. Actually we are planning to go into the city on Thursday to watch Daddy play softball. He is on the Phantom softball team and they play other Broadway teams in Central Park!!!!! FFFFFFUUUUUNNNNNN!!! A couple of weeks ago, they couldn't play their scheduled game because the team they were supposed to play had to rehearse for the Tony awards. Come on people, what about priorities?!?!?!?

If you are looking for some summer reading, I have read two Max Lucado books recently that I have really enjoyed. "It's Not About Me" and "Traveling Light" are an easy, but encouraging read. I am about to start "The Cure for the Common Life". I will let you know what I think!!! And if you have kiddos, check out the books and TV show "Charlie and Lola". It comes on Playhouse Disney at various times, but it is the cutest show I have ever seen!! I love to watch it with the kids. Lola is a hoot!! I know you will enjoy it too! Talk to everyone real soon!

School's Out for the Summer...Finally!

I never thought the last day of school would EVER get here! I am so ready to take the kids to the pool whenever I want to!!!!!! Anyway, this week has been a whirlwind of excitement (see next post)! I couldn't sleep tonight until I share some info with you!!

Jordan finished kindergarten today. I can't believe it...I absolutely can't believe it. And I am so proud of how she handled the transition from Lubbock, Texas to Princeton Junction, New Jersey. From Haynes Elementary to Maurice Hawk School. She is a trooper, and our big God loves our little girl!!


First day of school, Haynes Elementary School--Lubbock, Texas
First day of school, Maurice Hawk School--Princeton Junction, New Jersey
Last day of school in Jersey...this is the bus stop gang!!!
Our almost-first grader! Isn't she grown-up?
Lunch with David (and his parents). His mother, Patricia, is in Phantom with Chris. They live down the street from us and David goes to Maurice Hawk also.
The Pool Party!!!!!!!! This is the pool gang!


And here's the biggest news of all...Chris was offered a PERMANENT CONTRACT with Phantom!!!!!! He got the call last night at 10:42 :) We had to do everything humanly possible to NOT wake up the kids because we were so excited!!!! What is so exciting is that Chris's first contract ended this past Monday, so we have been in a bit of limbo! But we have been praying about everything and encouraging each other and depending on all of your prayers, so we felt OK about Chris being out of work temporarily. Little did we know that he would only be off for 3 days! What an amazing God we serve. He always takes care of us. He always answers prayer. He always makes undesirable situations better. He replaces sadness with joy. He replaces hurt with healing. He replaces fear with love. He replaces everything that we feel like we loose in this life with even more satisfying blessings. He is so good, and we are so grateful to Him for taking care of this situation! Can I get a witness out there?!

Birthday Baby

Jordan's birthday was Tuesday, the 17th. Her party with all of her friends is this Sunday morning. She is very excited!!! So on her actual birthday we wanted to do something special for her. From the time she got up until she went to bed, we tried to do many things to make her day special. Here are some of the things we did to celebrate the big S-I-X!!!

#1 When she woke up, she got to pick what to watch on TV.

#2 She ate a chocolate covered donut with heart candies for breakfast. We also put a candle in it and sang "Happy Birthday"!

#3 She ate half a ham and swiss sandwich for lunch...with a candle and another rendition of "Happy Birthday"!


#4 She got to choose what new birthday clothes she wanted to wear. She chose this adorable outfit courtesy of Grandad and Dee Dee. I told her she looked like a cupcake and I just wanted to eat her up!!
#5 We all picked Jordan up from school and headed straight for the mall where she got her ears pierced. She had been telling us for quite a while that she wanted them done. She was EXTREMELY brave and cried just a little bit when it was done.
#6 Daddy took this picture right after they were done.
#7 And here she is showing off her new look! She chose pink earrings (imagine that!)
#8 Then we headed to the toy store to spend the $15 that was burning a hole in her pocket from Grandad and Dee Dee and Grandpat. We took a little detour by Bath and Body Works. Last week when we were there she spotted some pink lip gloss. I told her it would be a good birthday present. She obviously remembered that because we had to use $5 to buy it!! She immediately put it on, and just continued to sparkle in her new clothes and earrings. Then we finally made it to the Build-a-Bear Workshop. She has been wanting to go since we moved here, so we decided her birthday was worthy of a trip!! She chose the pink leopard, and this is a picture of her helping the lady stuff it.
Here's the heart for her special new friend!
And in it goes...
Air-bath time!!!!!!!
Getting dressed!
And the finished product. Jordan chose Hello Kitty jammies and slippers because she loves her own jammies and she has matching slippers that Nana and Papa bought for her in New York City.

#9 And this isn't out of the ordinary for our family, but she got lots and lots of hugs and kisses all day long!!!!!!!! She will always deserve those hugs and kisses whether it is her birthday or not! She is our Birthday Baby...she always will be!

Dance to the Music

THE DRESS REHERSAL!!!!

Casey and Kelly with Jordan. Kelly and Jordan are in the same class at school. Casey is her sister. They all like to play together.
Jordan, Lucy, Ashley and Sophie. Jordan is a year older than all of the girls in her class except one. You can tell by the height difference, huh?!
Jordan and Morgan. Jaron just had to sneak into this picture. He and Morgan's brother were having a good time pestering the girls.
Harriet, Morgan and Jordan became pretty good friends during the course of the semester. Harriet is the only other gal that is Jordan's age, and she also goes to Jordan's school. Harriet and her family are from London. They are alot of fun to be with.



THE PERFORMANCE!!!!

Jordan didn't want the hot rollers to touch her neck, so I had to be creative. This actually worked really well. All I had to do was take the rollers out and spray them really good. I didn't have to try to put her hair in a pony tail after the curls were already in.
Waiting for the show. Jordan LOVED to pose in her adorable costume!
She's trying to think of another pose...................
.....................still thinking............................
There!! Perfect pose for the perfect tap dancer!
Show time!









Since January, Jordan has been going to her pre-ballet/tap class on Friday mornings at 9:30. She has enjoyed every minute of it!! It has given her a chance to make some new friends and use some of the talent God has given her. The girls were always so funny during weekly practice. When it came time to rehearse this song for the recital, they were all over the place. Some of them were sitting down, some were primping in the mirror, some were talking to friends. So the other parents and I were a little apprehensive about how this routine would turn out. Last Friday we went to the West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North for the dress rehearsal. Talk about a mad house!!!!! There were kids and moms EVERYWHERE! But it was alot of fun. And the best part was watching Jordan have fun. Then Saturday morning at 11:30 they got to perform in their recital. Their song was "Dance to the Music", and all of the girls in Jordan's class did such a good job. Jordan was wonderful!! She knew all of the choreography, and had very accurate timing. Chris and I were so proud! Jaron was even excited for her--he couldn't wait for her to come out on stage! All of the money and time we invested into her dance class was totally worth it to see her perform well and feel good about herself. She is our precious little grown-up princess!!!!!



Just a little tidbit of the fun!!!