her first piano recital

After playing "twinkle, twinkle little star" by ear at a very young age on her six key xylophone, we kind of knew oldest had an ear for music. When we lived in Baltimore, our music teaching neighbor recommended oldest take piano lessons after watching her hand positions and the ability to play songs without reading music.

So we enrolled her in lessons last year and she is enjoying it tremendously. A few weeks ago she participated in her first recital. She played two songs solo and then a third with a friend. It was really great to see her perform and hear how much she has learned in a year. One of these days I'll get the video I have of the recital on here:)

With her piano teacher Mrs. Reynolds.

Practicing her duet.

Two ninjas and a dragon

The kids enjoyed trick or treating this year. We went two full blocks more than we have ventured before.

They came home with a lot of candy and after they picked a few to eat (and mom and dad picked a few to eat!), they donated the rest to  our service men and women overseas.

Back to our regularly (altered) schedule

Oh look! It's November and there hasn't been a new post since July.
Learning to navigate the waters of working full time outside the home while trying to keep life "normal" as we have always known it, has been challenging, interesting, hair pulling and a bit exhausting. With some tweaks in expectations, throwing more independence at the kids and Stephen partnering with me on this new journey we have a new normal and it seems to be working.

I'll try to recap a few of our highlights from the past several months in future posts. Piano recitals, pumpkin picking, running races, Brownies, it's been fun and busy!

As Stephen makes his annual visit to Miami this weekend to watch the last Nascar race, we decided to take the underwater camera the oldest received for her birthday last February - out of the box (insert blush that we are just getting around to using it!) - and head over to the community center for some fun.