Piano Recital

Erin had a piano recital last night.  She asked her teacher if she could play Mario's favorite Christmas carol, Carol of the Bells.  Mrs. Black said that the only copy she had was a duet.  So Erin suggested that Eric play it with her.  The teacher was thrilled when Eric agreed to the duet since Erin is her most advanced piano student.  Now she would have two advanced students in her recital.   Eric has never been a fan of recitals so he was hesitant to play when he's not even a piano student.  But Mario said it could be his Christmas present and Eric quickly agreed.  I think it is the best Christmas present ever from both Eric and Erin.  We love when they play the piano together.  Erin played Santa Clause is Coming to Town also.

Owl Art

Nathan and Zach drew and painted these in their art class.  I thought they were beautiful.

Nathan's Owl

Zach's Owl

Christmas Picture Outtakes

I have been trying to get our Christmas letter written and a family picture taken to include with our card.  I finally gave up on the family picture and decided to just put a picture of the kids from first day of school and then a small picture of Mario and I in the corner.  No one liked the double picture on the 4x6 print, so here's the outtakes from our photo session with Erin today.  I'm still growing out my hair, its been about 13 months now and I have thought about chopping it all off about a million times.  I'll be happy when it's long enough to put in a ponytail.

Nathan and Zach's 9th Birthday

We celebrated the boys' birthdays on Saturday.  I allowed them to each invite two friends and we had a little party.  I decided that since there was only 1 girl coming, I probably should have some organized games so she didn't feel overwhelmed with the video games.  Erin and I came up with about 11 or 12 Minute to Win It games and the party turned out to be a huge success and the games actually made the hours go by very quickly.  We finished the day with hot dogs roasted over a fire and of course, Nathan's favorite, Macaroni and Cheese.   They loved their new Robot.  In fact, the big kids love it too. Good thing, since they have to help program it once it's built.  It was a great day and I still can't believe it was 9 years ago that I gave birth to a huge set of twins.  No one believes me when I tell them that they were both over 7 lbs.

Making donuts for breakfast

Their big present was the Lego Mindstorms Robot

The first and easiest robot to build

Zach, Anthony, Nathan, and Olivia

Minute to Win it games

Tossing mini marshmallows