Snowshoes - Sushi Boats - Happy New Year Beach Balls

Last night we went to dinner with our friends the Dunbar's and they had bought the kids snowshoes. We tried them out this afternoon....
For New Years Eve we headed downtown to both of the Twin Cities with our friends; Sharon/Miles/Mia & Galen. We went to dinner in Minneapolis at a Sushi restaurant which had boats that delivered the "All you can eat Sushi!". The kids really liked the boats and we really liked the Sushi.
Later we headed to St. Paul to the Minnesota Children's Museum for their New Year's Eve party. It was a ton of fun!! We made hats and they had a live band. We celebrated Rio De Janeiro's New Year at 8PM with a count down and a Beach Ball Drop....check out the video for that! Here are some more pictures and videos from the day.

Back to Michigan

So, we took a road trip back to Michigan for the holidays. On the way we stopped in Chicago and visited the Museum of Science & Industry. The highlight was definitely the coal mine! We left Chicago around 5PM and got to Lita's just before Midnight.

Once we arrived in Michigan it was back-to-back visits with Family and Friends:

• Tuesday Morning - The girls met up with Giupi, Michaela & Giovanni


• Tuesday Night - We headed to Anita/Rob/AnnaBeth/Jacob's house and met Gus/Tony/Christine and Cayden.


• Wednesday - We met Tiffany/Carrington/Joseph in Ann Arbor for a magic show


• Thursday - We met Noah for his 6th Birthday at Jungle Java


• Friday - Natania & Lulu came over to make cupcakes with the kids and celebrate Xmas eve/open presents. We also went to lunch at Apovini!


• Saturday - Celebrated Xmas with Lita


• Sunday - We headed to Tony's and met Darrin/Jill/Gus/Tony/Christine/Cayden


• Monday - We all went to pick out Olivia's dress for Natania's wedding, Isaac went to Noah's to go sledding, Olivia went with Lita/Natania to the mall, and Miriam and I went to get massages! Then we all went out to see "Tangled".

Tuesday we woke up early and headed back to MN with a stop at GWL (Great Wolf Lodge) in Wisconsin. Wednesday we played in the water park and then arrived back home just in time for bed!

A VERY BUSY (we drove over 2000 miles!!) but a VERY FUN and EXCITING vacation!

Quite a few pictures and a video to see here....

Holidazzle

Went to Holidazzle tonight. Lot's of fun and the kids really liked it....but cold! too cold for pictures...actually we just forgot the camera...

Isaac Gets His Yellow Belt!

Tonight Isaac earned his Yellow Belt!

Congratulations Isaac!

See a few more pictures from his test here.

The rest of Hannukkah and then the Snow!

Well the rest of Hanukkah went by pretty fast. We had a few nights were we celebrated just the four of us, a few nights where we had friends over and a few nights were we Skyped with Grandma/pa and the Wallachs. Then the snow came. Honestly, we did not think it was really a big deal, kind of exactly what we expected when we decided to move to Minneapolis (22" inches of snow and 1 degree)...but apparently it was a big deal even here! They closed the mall - of all places, they stopped the mail and the Metrodome collapsed(check out this video)!

Miriam and I tried to go out on Saturday night and the only place open was Target. We went there to get something to eat (which is odd enough in and of itself) and of course did not leave without spending over $250! ....ahh Target, where you can go in wanting a tube of toothpaste and walk out with 5 tubes of toothpaste, pajamas, Windex, some oranges a 52" flat screen and a mop! I need to invest in Target!

See some more pictures and the video here.

First Night of Hanukkah - Wooohoo Scooters!!!

Tonight was the first night of Hanukkah...which we actually found out at about 2PM today, from Olivia! We thought it was tomorrow, but thanks to her new school we were set straight.
When I got home from work, we lit candles, and then it was time to open presents.

Grandma and Grandpa sent the kids scooters. Luckily (actually it was planned), we cleaned out the basement this weekend so the kids would have some place to do "outdoor" activities throughout the winter. So we went downstairs to test them out.

After playing downstairs we headed up for night-night snack and played some Hanukkah songs. Of course; the Adam Sandler Hanukkah song and we found a new classic "Judah Macabee" sung to the tune of the Beatles' "Let it Be".

Check out a few pictures and a video from the night.

Thanksgiving 2010

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving weekend. We did not take too many, but we had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma!

Over the weekend, we went to the Minnesota Children's Museum, Mickey's Diner, and aside from the amazing Turkey dinner, the highlight of the weekend was The Wienery!!! Words coud not do this place justice you really have to be there to experience it. :) All jokes aside, Isaac had the "Mexican Hot Dog" which was a hot dog wrapped in bacon and was a big hit!

Also, see Grandma Hillary's pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner preparations.

Stacey, Josh and Gabriel could not make it and we all missed them but we look forward to seeing them in Albany in soon!

Our First Snow in Minnesota.....Finally!

After all the talk about Minnesota and THE SNOW, this has been a very nice warm fall. Well today it finally snowed. Almost 6 inches!As soon as we woke up we got ready and put on all of our new snow clothes and got ready to go out and play in the snow. The snow was nice and sticky so we thought it would be a good idea to build a snowman!

Later Ben and Julia came over and the kids played even more....see some more pictures and short video of the us building the snowman (and Olivia singing!).

A few more Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the kids watching TV, playing in the play room, and playing on our bed.

See more...

Halloween 2010

This year the kids both decided to dress up as Penguins...maybe since we moved to a colder climate! Ironically, it was a pretty warm Halloween. Of course, they were not just penguins....Isaac was a Kung Fu Penguin and Olivia was a Princess Penguin!



In the morning we went to MyGYM, where the kids were able to run around and play in their costumes.
Later in the evening we went to the Dunbar's to kick off a great night of trick-or-treating. The kids (and adults) had a great time and ate a lot of candy!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


Of course, there are more pictures and a video.

Pumpkin Carving - 2010 - Skull 2

Finally, after much procrastination, on my part we made it to Pumpkin Carving Night. Isaac's friend, Grant, came over to help. This year the kids did almost all of it by themselves.


After carving the pumpkin Miriam and I played Cranium against the boys while Olivia and Lita hung out. The boys beat us!
Click here for some more pictures and a short video.

FLASHBACK to prior year pumpkin carvings.

Flying a Kite and Olivia's Photography Debut

Olivia took the camera around the house and took some pictures...

Later in the day after Isaac's Kung Fu class, we headed to the park to fly a kite. It was a perfect day, nice and warm and windy!!

Check out a few more of Olivia's fall photos and a video of Isaac flying the kite.

A great Fall Day!

Wow, what a day! It was a nice fall afternoon in Minnesota, your typical October day, 85 degrees and sunny!

We took a scenic drive to the town of Stillwater, MN, which is about 45 minutes away just past St. Paul. Along the way we saw some great fall foliage and crossed the Mississippi River.

Our first stop was Aamodt's Apple Farm. Here we stopped and had some Pumpkin Muffins and fresh apple cider. Then we took some hot air balloon rides and the kids rode the tractor-train.

After that we headed downtown. We stumbled upon, the ever allusive "Teddy bear Park"...Isaac and Olivia have heard about this several times from their friends and we could not find it, until today.

We had lunch at Nacho Mama's. We sat outside and relaxed for a bit before walking the streets of downtown. Then we took a walk down to the river where we saw the Stillwater Lift Bridge, which was pretty amazing!!

Click on this link for quite a few pictures of the day (and some of yesterday in the back yard)and a short video.

Catching Up for September

It has been a month since I have had a chance to post some pictures, so I am going to summarize things quite a bit....

• 9/11 - We took the kids to Minehaha Falls; hiked a bit, rode a four wheel bike around the park and over a bridge which crossed the Mississippi and played in the stream. We also took some picture of Olivia at MyGym. See the pictures....



• 9/13 - Olivia's First day of Spanish Immersion Pre-School in MN - see a few pictures.

• 9/19 - David's Birthday - I was sick so we kept things pretty tame, the kids made cinnamon rolls!....see the short video

• 9/30 - Make sure to check out the pictures Grandma Hillary took while we were in St. Louis for Gabriel's 2nd Birthday!!

Isaac's 1st day of Kindergarten!!!

Well today was the day! Isaac's 1st day of Kindergarten. Over the weekend Isaac surprised us by setting up his own desk in the basement, near mine. He put a jar of pencils, a ruler, some paper, some books, his Spanish Dictionary! and a few decorations on his red table. Everything was all lined up and organized it was hilarious!!

So he was clearly ready for the big day.

We all woke up early, got dressed, had breakfast, packed his backpack and took some pictures.

Then we headed to the bus stop. On the way, we saw all of the neighborhood kids heading out to their stops....it was unbelievable how many kids came popping out of their houses. We saw Kenny(who is going to Cedar Ridge) heading out so we walked over and said hi to him and his parents. Then we headed back to Isaac's stop where we saw his friend Julia who is in 1st Grade in Isaac's school(Spanish Immersion). As we were waiting Kenny's bus drove by and he waved from the window with a big smile on his face!

Finally, Isaac's bus came and he ran right up to it and got on. He sat next to his friend Julia and had a nice "relaxing" ride to school. After school, he was very excited and said he really liked Kindergarten!

See some more picture from the morning and a video here.

Back to the Zoo

We went to the Minnesota Zoo today and rode the monorail, walked around and saw lots of animals. The highlights were definitely the grizzly bear and the dolphin show!

The bear came right up to the glass and appeared to give Isaac a high-5! The dolphins had a baby that was about 3 months old and the grandfather was doing tricks!


See some more pictures.

Oh, and their was boiling mud...which the kids really liked.

Last Hockey Class of the Summer

Isaac and Olivia had their last hockey class of the summer. Olivia skated with and without the bucket on the biog ice! Isaac was practicing his puck handling and falling and getting back up as he skates.

Looks like they had a lot of fun! See the video and pictures.

Twins/Tigers Game

After Isaac's Open House we headed down town to the Twins Game. They were playing the Detroit Tigers.

See some more pictures and a short video here. Isaac was taking video and narrating for a few minutes and I did not even know.....he was pretty funny.