Ashley's First Dance Recital

June is always a super busy month for us, lots of birthdays and celebrations, not to mention our wedding anniversary, this year we had one other event on our calendar - Ashley’s first dance recital. She has been taking ballet and tap classes at NJ Dance Center since September, but nobody except Natalia, Joan and I have seen her dance. The recital was held at the Brookdale Performing Arts Center, which seats several hundred people, so this was a big day for Ashley. She got to wear make up for the first time and all of us, including Mike and my mom came to watch. Ashley was very proud of herself, especially of the fact that she wasn’t scared to dance on big stage. Here are links to her ballet and tap dances (Ashley is the third in from the right, taller one in the bunch)

Washington DC Trip

Last weekend we went down to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms. It was the first time that we took both kids with us for an overnight trip. Natalia and Indira came along as well. We had a great time!

Playa Mujeres, Mexico Vacation

Last week Mike and I got to get away for vacation to Mexico, our first in two years! We’ve been to Cancun area twice before but not to Playa Mujeres. We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres, an adults only resort, and I have to say it was the best all-inclusive trip that we’ve ever been to. The resort was very new and very well kept, beach was very clean and not crowded, service was great, food awesome, and pools were heated! We spent most of the time relaxing by the pool, walking on the beach, sipping margaritas and taking cat naps. They had eight restaurants to try including Mexican, Mediterranean, Italian, Spanish, Asian, Indian, Lobster House and Steak House. The food was really good! Not to mention the options they had for breakfast and lunch.

We ventured off the resort only once to go on a tour of Coba Archaeological Park. It’s an ancient Mayan site located in the middle of the jungle about 2.5 hours from Playa Mujeres. It is one of the biggest Mayan cities in Cancun area. Coba has several large temple pyramids; the main pyramid, Nohoch Mul meaning large hill is 138 feet tall and is the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula. It has 120 steps and I’m proud to say that Mike and I made it to the top and back down in one piece! The wind was gusting at times that it was a bit hard to not get blown off of there but we made it! It’s the last tall pyramid in Cancun area that you can still climb; other sites no longer allow visitors to climb so this was special.

Coba site is also where the original Mayan stone stele is located, which is the origin of the prophecies about 2012. After a bit of searching for it, since nothing at this site was labeled, we found the original in a hut, surrounded with metal wire mesh. The replica of it was also on display on the ball court where original used to be. Mayans don’t see 2012 as the end of the world but rather as a beginning of a new era.

Our Coba tour included some outdoor adventure activities, including rappelling, zip lining, kayaking, hiking and swimming in a cenote (a sinkhole) and lunch served by Mayan’s at their village. Once we got to Coba, we learned that the main temple is about 2 miles from the park entrance, so we rented bikes and rode them into the park to save time getting from one site to another. It was a long day, but well worth it.

Overall it was a great trip, very relaxing. We’ll definitely be coming back again, perhaps next time with kids, and stay next door at the family resort which is just as nice. Here are pictures from our trip:

Ashley, The Ice Skater!

In January we took the whole family to see Disney On Ice show. Both Ashley and Katelyn thoroughly enjoyed seeing Tinker Bell, Mickey and Minnie, Ariel and other Disney characters dancing and singing on ice. The whole show they couldn't take their eyes off the ice, and just kept saying, "Wow!". I can't wait to take them to another show!






Before the show, Natalia had an au pair meeting at the Red Bank Ice Rink, so Ashley and I came along to skate. It was hard for Ashley, since the figure skates that we rented were hurting her feet and we had to get her the hockey skates. Nevertheless, after getting over her bad mood over not being able to skate, she vowed to not give up and keep practicing! We had a great time.




After this one run, I bought Ashley her own skates, which are more modern - no laces, plush on the inside, with velcro buckles like on roller blades. She practiced walking on them around the house and yesterday we went to the rink for the second time with her. She did amazing! She figured out how to balance herself, and at the end got pretty comfortable with skating holding on to me with one hand! Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so we were only able to get one video of Ashley when she was still feeling out the ice. Perhaps we've uncovered another talent of Ashley's other then swimming and art!

Kid's Swim Lessons

Ashley has been going to swimming for seven months now, and has made a tremendous progress since last summer. She can now swim on her belly and on her back the whole length of the pool! Swimming is her favorite sport.

Here are a couple videos from last week's class:




Katelyn has also started swim classes as of last month. So far, the one thing that she's been able to master is floating on her back by herself. Ashley makes it look so easy, and I guess Katelyn thought it was going to be a piece of cake to learn to swim, but she has ways to go before she catches up to Ashley. Here's a picture of my little KK in the pool :)

Ashley's Birthday Party

After much deliberations Ashley settled on a Sleeping Beauty theme party at Aerial's Gymnastics. This is the gym where she and Katelyn take classes. It turned out to be a great idea. For two hours the kids had the whole gym to themselves. The kids got to go on the trampolines, zip line, go on bars, and the beam. We got pizza to eat and I made strawberry and vanilla cupcakes for desert (per Ashley's request)

After the gym party was over, we went back to the house for a small family party. It was quieter then our usual parties and very enjoyable since we got to spend some quality time with everyone that came :)

Here are some pictures from the day:

Ashley is 5 years old!

On January 7th, our big girl Ashley turned five!

We started the morning by opening some presents. She got a Leap Pad tablet from us, a toy hair set (including a hair dryer and curling iron) and a few small gifts. Natalia got her a tinker bell bathing suit, flip flops, cover up, towel and a beach bag. She loved all of her presents!

After the presents were opened, we all sat down to a princess breakfast of Ashley's choice. She decided to go for waffles with jam, some fresh apples and orange juice.

To keep with tradition on the day of Ashley's birthday, Mike and I took Ashley to pick out her own birthday present at The Hobbymasters in Red Bank.

We weren't sure what she'd be interested it, and were quite surprised with her selection. To cut to the chase, out of all of the toys they had there, she picked out this:

We were speechless.. we tried to convince her that perhaps there's something else she was interested in, dolls, furniture for her doll house, a kite, trains, beads, dress up, but she insisted on dragging this humongous giraffe through the store, knocking over everything on the bottom shelves.

So, home we went with a giant giraffe, that now lives in Ashley's room.

She was so excited to have him, that we couldn't say no. I don't think she'll ever forget this birthday!

We brought home some cupcakes that Ashley picked out at a cupcake shop in Red Bank, and in the evening had a mini celebration for Ashley's birthday.

Ashley was so happy. It was a great day for all :)

Ashley's Dance School Christmas Show

Ashley's Dance School hosted a Christmas Show to show off what the girls have learned.

I can't say that dancing comes easy for Ashley, and being a lefty certainly doesn't help. Every move starts off on her right, and she wants to start off with her left. Plus, since Ashley broke her ankle at the end of September she missed a whole month of classes and had to catch up. Nevertheless, Ashley had improved quite a bit and she likes going to dance because Nana comes to watch her every week and drives her home.

Katelyn loves to dance more than anyone, so I can't wait to sign her up for class next September. I know she's going to love it!

Yet another cake..

My co-worker’s wife is expecting a baby in a month, so today we had a baby shower for them at work. I couldn’t miss this opportunity to make another cake, so I went all out – I made a two tier cake and decorated it with fondant using my newly acquired skills from October’s cake decorating class. The bottom tier was a 12” square yellow cake with Bavarian custard and fresh strawberries. The top 8” round cake was chocolate cake with raspberry mouse filling. I frosted the whole thing in Italian meringue buttercream and covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant. It took more time to make than I’m willing to admit but it was all worth it. Here are a couple of pictures:


Big thanks go to Natalia and Theresa for helping me make this happen, and to Mike for keeping the kids occupied while this was being put together.

Here are some more pictures:

Powder room and family room remodel

While Ellie was visiting us from Germany this summer her and I (with some help from Uncle Dan) remodeled/redecorated our powder room and family room and I just now got around to taking a few pictures (presently with Halloween decorations). It’s been on our to do list for several years and the time has finally come! I repainted our red powder room into more neutral beige with metallic stripes, we updated the vanity, mirror, light fixture and all of the accessories. This project also lead to me painting the front foyer and hallway, and replacing all of the wall plates with oiled bronze ones. I don’t have a before picture, but here’s how it turned out:



For the family room, we repainted beige walls, and replaced burgundy couch and golden oak entertainment center that housed our giant 63” rear projection TV for a more up to date look. I painted the family room and kitchen with Benjamin Moore Rhine River color, and we got everything new from carpet to flat panel TV. I’m super happy with the way it turned out. We now have a lot more seating room, and plenty of storage for kid’s stuff.