Piano Dudettes

So Mabel Jane took the stage this year for her first piano concert. Needless to say, we weren't real confident going in she was going to be able to muster the courage to get up on that stage... she does, after all, still cling to mom and dad's leg every day at preschool when they drop her off.

But lo and behold, she took the stage and danced on those keys with those fingers.  Enjoy.

And then, in case you were wondering, I did my thing. Unfortunately the video was too big for this blog so you'll have to CLICK HERE to see the first song and CLICK HERE to see the second.

Outside of that, we posed with my BFF Nadia and our teacher Miss Victoria, and Pax got up on stage afterwards and did his thing.

And apparently I thought something was really really funny here.

Thanksgiving, 2014

So we made the annual trek to Kansas City to Aunt Erica’s for Thanksgiving and boy was it worth it.

EVERYONE came this year – Ayla, Alyssa, Jered and Aunt Jan from New Mexico; Nonie, Deb and Uncle Jim from New Hampshire; Grandma and Grandpa from Nebraska and all five of us from Chicago.  Tons of fun, lots took place:

I got pampered bigtime and we did the hair train with our cousin Alyssa.

We played with Ayla for an entire day in Kameron’s closet with all her old dolls and toys.

We hung with Mom a lot; it was her birthday after all.

I took up the saxophone… and then later we played dress up rock band.

Mae did her thing in the kitchen (she is TOTALLY the Sous Chef of the family). She made a turkey apple with Aunt Jan...

And here you can see her with Aunt Debbie preparing the fruit turkey.

What’s a fruit turkey?  Well, you start with a piece of fruit…

 And then about 30 minutes later you have a fruit turkey.

And we interrupt this program to give a nod to the trio of head chefs - Nonie (Claus), Grandma and Aunt Debbie!

Pax spent a lot of quality time with Grandma, played peek-a-boo at breakfast...

 And hung out in an empty box a lot (I know, right? Like, what?)...

And owned it at shuffleboard

And our most favoritest thing we did was spend time with Aunt Erica’s dogs. We took them for walks, gave them treats, let them out and back in and did a whole bunch of snuggling with them.

Mae always gets lots of kisses from those doggies.

And then, on the way home, Mae found her shadow, which she lost about 3 months ago. Thank goodness we found it, somewhere near St. Louis.

Find Out What It Means to Me

So at school today there was a big assembly and at the end they handed out the semester awards. In each grade one person was given the award for "Trustworthiness" and one person for "Respect." The recipients of each embodied those words to not just their friends but everyone they come across at school. Well, unbeknownst to me, but apparently to mom and dad, who showed up to the ceremony with Mae, when they announced the winner for first grade my name was called.

I wasn't sure why mom and dad made such a big deal about it tip they explained it to me and now I'm pretty glad that I got the award and I treat people with respect.

500th Post

We've reached a milestone. I've been writing this blog for more than 6.5 years and with this post we will have penned 500 blog posts about my life, and then mine and Mae's life and then mine and Mae's and Pax's life, also intertwining those two pretty important folks who made this happen.

So I was thinking of all these special things we could do for this post and I landed on this one:

500 posts - VICTORY!!

You're a Mean One... Mr. Grinch

So it was date night for Mabel and me with Mom and Dad. We got all dressed up and headed out to My favorite restaurant in Chicago - Rosebud. Now, there are three of them, but not really... really there is only one of them and that's the original one down on Taylor St. in Little Italy.

When we go there we chow on so much bread, oil and cheese... and then we finish it off with some traditional spaghetti and meatballs. A-Ma(e)-Zing! (side not: not as good as Nonie's meatballs; but those are the perks when your Nonie's name is Mafalda Anita Bocelli).

After that we headed over to State St. to the Chicago Theater to see the musical for The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Singing, dancing, Cindy Lou Who... the whole bit.

DOWN IN FRONT!!

A little pre-show shot with Daddio.

Mae and I before the lights went down.

And the whole crew post-show. We covered all our bases.

And that's a wrap!

When I Grow Up / Field Trip!

So ever since I was little (I know, but even littler) I've wanted to be a veterinarian. So about a year ago I was talking to my Nana about it and since she's had so many animals she's been a frequent visitor of her local Vet, so she said she would take me.

Well, she did, and it was amazing. I slept overnight and the next morning she and I went on our own little field trip (even skipped school for the morning).

Saw the computers, operating tables, looked into the microscope, the whole bit.

This cat was in because it wasn't feeling well so we worked on it together (well, I didn't really work on it but you know what I mean).

Saw this cat skeleton and told the previous cat he doesn't want to end up like this any time soon.

Learned about doggy heart worm and what you can do to make sure it doesn't happen to your dog. Then after that, we looked at the dog heart and learned about it as well.

Lastly, I took a seat in the Big Dog's chair in the Big Dog's office.

And even got to don the uni... hopefully some day I'll be wearing one that fits me perfectly.

And to put a ribbon on the morning Nana and I stopped and had a little pizza party.