Tickling the Ivories

Brynne has been enjoying her piano lessons, which she started taking this fall. For the first time in her young career, she stepped in front of a crowd of around 60 people at a piano recital tonight. Her ivory tickling wowed the audience with "Jolly Old St. Nick" and "Aloutte." See for yourself in the link below:
Brynne's first recital (2:17, 35Mb)

Brynne especially loved her flowers from Mommy and Daddy. We can't wait for her next big performance!

Vacation Time!

Happy Summer!!!! We just got back from a great (but short) trip to Hershey Park and the Crayola Factory. Be sure to check out the photos I posted on Facebook that really highlight the trip.

We woke up bright and early to head out Monday morning. We arrived shortly after the park opened and quickly made our way onto the rides. At Hershey, the girls rode their first wooden real wooden roller coaster (I think it was also mommy's LAST wooden roller coaster ride....it really rattles my head in a bad way) as well as their first loop-da-loop coaster ride (the Sooper Dooper Looper). I believe the log flume reigned supreme as Catrina's favorite ride while Brynne preferred the stomach dropping sensation of the "Falcon" (a ride where you ride in a cage and it spins fast and takes you up). Both girls fell in love with the pirate ship ride.... we had the pleasure of riding this one just after eating. Yay.

Tuesday morning we got up and hit the Chocolate Factory where we were able to make our own chocolate bars! This was so much fun. Now, I know you're thinking it... what did we do with our chocolate bars at the theme park? Luckily, Hershey provides a bag holding service! Once we finished there we decided to hit the water park first to try to avoid the long lines from the day before. We went on various water slides and enjoyed the cool interactive water area where they frequently dump a HUGE bucket of water all over the awaiting masses. I stood out of harm's reach with the camera :)

On Wednesday we headed to Easton, Pa to see the Crayola Factory where the girls had some hands on creative fun.

All in all it was a great way to celebrate the half way point of summer. Coming up the girls will be going to Phillies Bridge Farm Camp as well as the Ulster County Fair. So much summer still to come!

Off to the Races!

Holy Cow, is it July already??? Luckily, we've had a pretty quiet summer thus far so I don't think I've been too neglectful in updating the blog.

Recently, Andy decided to train for a 5k. We have many friends who are runners so they've been spurring him on with their tales of training and racing. He finally ran his first 5k on Thursday and did very well (hey, he finished! I ran a mile on Saturday for the first time and KNOW I couldn't make it another 2 and survive). Our best friends, Ed and Kelly, ran with him. The girls and I were their loudest cheerleaders. The girls then participated in their own children's races and were rewarded with popsicles and t-shirts! In truth though, the girls were happiest just checking out the cool snapping turtles in the pond.

Recital Cuties!

So our dance school year came to a glorious end with our recital on June 13th. The girls were HOT HOT HOT (you needed sunglasses to be in the room with them) while I even got in on the act as I performed my very first tap recital.

Brynne broke her arm just before Memorial Day Weekend so she was forced to perform in her cast. It has since come off an she's making a great recovery.

One of the best parts of the weekend was celebrating with the family. We had a great representation from both the Currier and O'Neill sides in attendance! Thanks everyone!

The Graduate

No, we're not talking about Dustin Hoffman. On June 3rd, Catrina passed a milestone in her young life - her graduation from Playschool!

Click below for footage of our princess at the big event:

Catrina's Playschool Graduation

(Note: the file is very large (200+ Mb) and takes about 15 minutes to watch. The Currier family is also not responsible for any motion sickness caused by Daddy's lack of video skills.)

A Whole Hand!

Yes, that's right, Catrina is FIVE!!!! One whole hand.... one half decade!!!!

The buildup actually started weeks back when we had the "how many days until my birthday countdown began". This came to a climax yesterday when Catrina announced she was 4 and "five quarters"... yes Catrina.... let's make working on those math skills a priority in 2010.

The birthday extravaganza began on Mother's Day with a small celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Currier.



Next up, we had a visit from the Hough children. This was cool because it was the first time Lindsey and Catrina had been reunited since they had moved to Texas when both girls were babies. Lindsey is 3 days older than Catrina so we were able to celebrate both girls.



Then it was THE BIG DAY. Brynne, being an awesome big sister, came bounding into our room to announce that as a b-day gift to Catrina... she had cleaned her room (and she HAD!).



Every big day has to get off to the right start so Catrina decided that bacon and apple juice is what every growing girl needs (she might also consider a defibrillator) and a rapid gift opening before jetting off to school.



We then had the playschool kids over for some pizza and partying. The weather was COLD but we made them all play in the yard and they just enjoyed climbing and swinging and sliding for a few hours.

You'd think that would be enough for one day... but oh no... there was more. Dinner! Every 5 year old's favorite... steak and corn on the cob (ok the corn was a concession for Brynne who is going in to get her pre-braces tomorrow and probably won't be able to eat corn for a while). Catrina DESTROYED her corn and even ate some steak (I had to tell her that steak would make her stronger since she was going to the POOL). Daddy, Brynne, and Catrina went swimming and then to ice cream.

Ahhhh what a great birthday!!!! And she still hasn't seen Marnie and Paw-Paw so there's more action to come!

An Update from Daddy

Warning: This is a post from Daddy, pictures courtesy of his (precious) iPhone.

Daddy set a target of the end of April to get the garden ready for planting, and thankfully this great weather we've had has cooperated. The family garden was expanded at the end of last year (thanks Grandpa!) and thanks to Daddy's new tiller, getting it ready for this season was a piece of cake. Here's the finished product, ready to be planted, before the fence went up:

Catrina and Brynne both helped by removing many rocks and by generally playing nicely while Daddy tilled and dug. Catrina befriended a worm she found and even called him Wormy. I'm not sure if he thinks she is a friend considering her manhandling and putting him in a bucket then dousing it with water. The girls are excited to expand the crops this year to include (Brynne's favorite?) brussels sprouts. Stay tuned.

Today, we took out the fishing poles, picked up some night crawlers, and headed to the SUNY New Paltz campus where the girsl did some fishing. First they practiced their casting in the yard and I'm still not sure how they both ended up with their eyes intact. Here is Brynne sporting her first catch of the season using her new Hannah Montana fishing pole (because who doesn't think of Miley Cyrus when they think of bait and tackle?)

Brynne got off to a furious start in 2010, picking up where she left off in 2009, by catching a dozen fish in less than a half hour. I told her we needed to find her a new challenge since it was a matter of seconds that the worm hit the water until I was yanking the hook out of the fish's mouth. Fish of Cayuga Lake, beware!!!

Catrina got into the act as well, catching several fish herself and even getting the worms out for Daddy to bait. Here she is proudly with her first catch this year:
Brynne is also attending Art Class this spring and brought home her first masterpiece this week, a pencil drawing of a persian kitty:

Please, no reproductions. I have a feeling this one may fetch quite a bit at Christie's.

So... What's New and Exciting?

... well nothing much! But we haven't been great about updating so I'll just mash up a bunch of our recent activities.

The girls had their spring break and you wouldn't know it was spring by the weather! The first 2 days of the vacation saw torrential rains so we found a great INDOOR aquarium in Norwalk, Ct and spent a few hours checking out the fish, seals, otters (Catrina's favorites) and frogs (you-know-who's-favorites)

We traveled to Webster for Easter this year and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was just a tease of what the late spring and summer will be bringing us. For the first time ever, the girls were able to do their Easter Egg Hunt without winter coats!!!

Since then we've been outside soaking in as much as the nice weather as we can!

March Madness

Well, March Madness these days refers to Andy's attitude towards his beloved Syracuse who had an earlier than anticipated exit in the NCAA tournament. But, on the bright side, the end of March signals the upcoming baseball season which is when I get really excited.

On Friday, Catrina had her school's Easter Egg Hunt which is always fun. It was bittersweet (as all playschool moments are these days) since this is the last year that we will have kids in that school and we've been so happy there.

On Friday night we got a little silly around here when the girls decided they wanted to sleep together in a tent. This brought back memories of the awesome tents my brothers and I would build in their room and we'd be allowed to sleep in it. Now, in those days, the laws governing tent dwellings weren't very strict but I made sure that Brynne and Catrina had a nice, semi-safe little tent. Here's a few photos I snapped of them sound asleep. So adorable:

We Bleed Orange and Blue

When Andy bought 10 tickets to the Syracuse/Villanova game back in early December, he knew it would be a good game but he didn't know it would be one for the ages. The build up was going strong for weeks before the game. Both teams were moving quickly up the rankings. At game time, Nova was ranked 7th and Cuse was 4th.

It was touch and go just getting to the game. With 20 inches of snow in New Paltz and Webster, getting there was in question but Andy was not going to be denied just because of a little snow! We actually got an early start on our trip to Webster since the girls' schools were closed on Friday for the 3rd straight day.

Saturday morning dawned with even MORE snow in Webster so Grandma, Grandpa, Brynne, and Catrina decided to go out and build a huge snowman.



Then it was off to Syracuse. We got in game-mode by hanging out and watching #1 ranked Kansas lose. The atmosphere was electric at Faegans as the chant of "We're #1" echoed. We then made the trek up to the dome to hang out with 34,616 fans... an on campus record. The game was fantastic... the energy was enough to blow the roof off the dome and I believe Andy may have shed tears of joy.... Cuse emerged victorious!



We left the Dome as snowballs rained down from ecstatic fans who all knew that come Monday, Syracuse would be the #1 ranked team in the country.