Once Upon A Dream

This is Gabby's tap performance to Raise the Curtain

Gabby's ballet performance - The Tarantella

Gillian at the finale - Gabby was buried back in the crowd

Gillian's Picnic in the Park performance....(check back later)....

Here are some still shots from the day of the dance recital. Gillian's picnic song will not post...but here are some shots of her class in action...

If you haven't seen Pixar's "UP" yet....you should go...now.

Gabby got her ears pierced a few weeks ago. She was thinking of doing it for quite awhile. We always said that we would let her decide when she wanted to do it....if ever....So here is the video of the big day. She was very brave...and she is loving her new earings.

Dave helped out in Gabby's class last week during center time. She loved having him in her class.

I realize that this entry is a little out of order. Here are the girls receiving their dance ribbons and dancing at one of the dress rehearsals.

Now that the school year is coming to a close and all our activities are almost over, we have been enjoying a lot of time at the playground and taking family walks after dinner. It is nice just to relax and have fun.

We had the end of the year program for our Wednesday night program at church. Here are a couple pictures of Gabby with her two wonderful and talented teachers....Ms. Karen and Ms. Vanessa.

Gabby went on a field trip yesterday with her kindergarten class to her teacher's farm. It is pretty convenient to have a kindergarten teacher who loves animals and lives on a farm. The kittens were probably the most adorable. Gillian really loved the little Persian Himalayans. The ducks and the sheep....the dogs... and the chickens....E-I-E-I-O! The students were shown the wool that was sheered from the sheep. They were given a chunk that they had to take home and wash. It was a cool and fun experience.

The girls have been introduced....to Star Wars. They are addicted.

Gabby took her drums in for show and tell and played a small solo that she made up. The kids had a fun time trying out the drum set. Gabby was a cute little teacher.

Gabby lost another tooth on June 5. The tooth fairy brought some 3D color wonder art supplies.

Gabby had a carnival at her school the other night. There were tons of fun activities. We all love her school! Gillian can't wait to go, too!

Happy Birthday to Gianna! We hope you love being 5 years old!

We took the girls for their first Broadway show over the weekend. It was all Grammy's idea! They had so much fun. Gillian is already begging to go back. We arrived a little early, so we walked into Time Square and up to the M&M Store. It was totally cool....and Gabby and Gillian's favorite candy. The amount of M&M's was unbelievable. They had every color, and they had combo colors....Mets, Yankees, Giants....etc. We grabbed some M&M's to take with us to the show.

We saw The Little Mermaid. The girls have loved Ariel for a long time so it was the perfect show for them....the adults all loved it also! There were lots of extra songs and plot twists in the actual play. All the characters were so lovable... even Ursula! The girls got some special items...including giant dinglehoppers! How funny is that? Gillian has been brushing her hair with it ever since. The actors who played the parts were outstanding...and so friendly. Prince Eric told Gabby that she was so cute....and Gabby thought that she would marry him. The little boy who played Flounder thought that Gillian was adorable....and she got a kick out of that....but didn't want to marry a fish.

Flounder, Sebastian, and The Chef

Prince Eric and Ariel

We went to Historic Richmondtown on Sunday while we were in Staten Island. We saw a Revolutionary War Reenactment and explored the villiage. It was interesting and fun for the girls to see the soldiers.

Here is Amanda, Steve, Dave and the girls standing in front of the court house.

The soldiers firing their guns, the back of the court house, and the soldiers charging with bayonets.

Uncle Steve checking out the weapons, The girls with the infantry, and learning to use cattails to cushion the backless chairs.

Posing with the lion (once again), and listening during the reading of the Declaration of Independence in the tavern.

Signing "loyalty to King George" or "Death to the King" using a quill, and posing with the cannon.

We have been doing a lot of painting around here lately ....the easel is getting a lot of use this past month....it's a good thing....

Gabby had a kindergarten graduation program last Thursday. We got to hear her class sing a bunch of songs. Gabby got the opportunity to welcome the parents and read a poem. Mrs. Bacchia made a great slide show with pictures of all the kids throughout the year. There was a big party afterwards, and the class gave Mrs. Bacchia her present that they made - a quilt with their handprints....(kites). Now, we are off to first grade! Kindergarten was so awesome that we don't know how school could get any better.

Aunt Mandy likes to take these pictures with the girls. They are pretty funny!

We had a big end of the school year playdate/graduation party for the kids in Gabby's class. It turned out to be a great day despite the forecast of rain. We played tons of games outside ...and had a lot of snacks.

Face paint and Musical Squares

Water balloon on a spoon relay

Ladder version of duck duck goose

Water balloon toss and Bonzai slide/bouncy house

Gillian has been carrying around her little Star Wars figurines for the last few weeks. She is deeply immersed in all things "Jedi". Luke's little helmet kept falling off, so Gillian found a perfect place to keep it. It was really cute.

I think that we have two monkeys in our family, and I don't mean Dave or me. Take a look at some of their latest antics.....

We started celebrating father's day on Saturday. We let Dave sleep in and cooked him a big huge breakfast. The girls gave him gifts, and Gabby painted a picture of a Robin for Dave. He requested to go out to eat at Red Robin, and we went on Saturday to avoid any crowds. It was all fun and games until someone had to take a trip to the ER! (More on that in the next entry)

We were in a mall yesterday and saw a large area filled with bouncy play areas for kids. We paid for a half hour of playtime and ran in ready to have fun. About 20 minutes later we left with one lame child and one emotional scarred child. Gillian twisted her leg while jumping, and she couldn't walk. She tried a couple steps, but she kept collapsing. We drove to the ER to have everything checked out. They looked her over, gave her motrin, and took some xrays. When everything was done...they gave her a clean bill of health...told her to take it easy and let her muscles heal. Gillian and Gabby were both very happy.

Gillian played games on the computer while Gabby helped to paint a birdhouse that she picked out for Dave on Father's day. Gillian's leg is completely back to normal.

We spent some time at a few more playgrounds this week. We have been having lots of fun with friends.

We took a trip to our favorite orchard today....Bowman's. We met a bunch of friends there. The kids all picked a ton of strawberries. It was super hot...it is a good thing that we went very early. We had enough strawberries for pie....and more.

We went to the Howe Caverns today. It was a great little day trip. The caverns are only about 40 minutes from our house...and very close to the baseball hall of fame. The tour was so cool. The caves were about 52 degrees...and very beautiful. The girls had an adventure learning about stalagmites and stalagtites....limestone and geodes. At the end of the tour, we had a little lunch in the Cavern Cafe. The view was gorgeous...rolling green hils...etc. We chose a geode, and the nice girls working at the caverns introduced us to the diamond saw. It sliced our geode in half...and the middle was mostly white/clear quartz. Then we got to sift through dirt to find gems....and we found a ton. The workers at the cavern gave us identification cards to determine what we found. It was a great trip...we can't wait to go again someday.

Lunch

The Geode

Finding/sifting for gems