Piano Recital

A few weeks ago (yikes, I can't believe how far behind I am) Rachel had her end of the year recital.  She did great!  She LOVED her year of piano and we LOVED her piano teacher.  We're both sick that she is moving, and I don't like the process of finding a new one.  Her teacher is irreplaceable...seriously, the best!  Her recital proved it too.  All her students did such an amazing job.

Her cute little group class

Rachel's piece was entitled "Pony Song"

Cape May

 Also while my mom was in town we took a weekend trip to beautiful Cape May.  We really lucked out with weather...a little chilly the first day and a thunderstorm that night, but otherwise great!  Cape May is a quaint little town with cute Victorian houses and they have a cute "mall" car-free street with lots of fun shops and restaurants.  And of course there's the beautiful beach!

A little hesitant at first about sitting in the sand.  This girl quickly learned to LOVE the beach!

The pool was freezing

Movie night

We all enjoyed our balcony overlooking the ocean

Trip to the lighthouse

From the top

Did you know??  You have to pay to get on the Jersey Shore beaches!!!  Insane right?

Can I get a smile?

I should have known and brought some of her chapter books

First time!

A quick rest

Bubbles!

So still, yet still no nap

Mmm...lemonade

Bike ride through town

The colors are so fun!

Wouldn't it be great if we could all transport this way?

Either it was too cold or she was feeling a little under the weather, but she wasn't too happy with the beach at first.  I was so glad she eventually got to enjoy it.

There's that smile!

Tommy wanted to move into our beach house and live there forever.  Not a bad idea...except the 2 hour commute.

Goodbye beach for now, we'll come visit again soon!

At the Farm

Tommy has become a real fan of play dates recently.  He loves having friends over, going to friend's houses...he asks me if we can do a play date every day.  Sadly it doesn't happen nearly as often as he'd like.  There aren't any kids his age in our neighborhood so it's good for him.  A few weeks ago we met one of his karate friends at the farm to pick some strawberries.

I have been so anxious for strawberry picking.  Not just for the incredibly delicious strawberries but also because it means the beginning of all the summer fruits.  By the end of winter I get kind of tired of apples, bananas, and oranges.  This summer I'm doing a farm share thing.  I pick up a box packed full of fresh fruits and vegetables every Saturday and I'm loving it!  We've been able to try things we don't typically eat like leeks and radishes, and I have more lettuce than I know what to do with.

Tommy was real serious about his picking and busy with his friend so I mostly got pictures of Kate

I'm happy to report we didn't lose any

 

Katelyn laughed when she saw this strawberry

 When Rachel learned we went strawberry picking while she was at school she was very upset.  So we went again on a day she had off of school.

We went again today because it was the beginning of cherry picking.  When we got there we saw a sign that read, "cherry picking season over."  I thought I must have read something wrong, but we learned that cherry picking season didn't last more than a day...the sour cherries didn't even last an hour.

Memorial Day Getaway

With Grandma, our best (and free) babysitter in town we had to take advantage.  Jake and I did an overnight day trip to...we'll just say northern New Jersey, because I'm really not sure where we were.  I must say we are pretty bad at planning ahead.  We had the hardest time deciding where to go.  Granted, we were also waiting to see what this crazy spring weather had in store for us.  But, sometimes the last minutes spontaneousness are the best trips. 

We stayed at a fun bed and breakfast, drank soda and watched tv (things we almost never do) and then woke up the next morning an hour before breakfast to fit in a run.  Then we get lost, REALLY lost.  What was supposed to be a 2 mile run ended up being about 8.  I don't think I've ever run that far and I'm not used to running hills.  I probably would have stopped and walked, I was so exhausted, but I didn't want to miss breakfast!  They still cooked for us...late and very sweaty.

Afterwards we went horseback riding, inspired by a recent trip to a local farm.  Great fun!

 Lunch at the Chatterbox diner.  Great place...terrible food.

 From a brochure at the bed and breakfast I read about High Point State Park, which is the highest point in New Jersey.  From the top of the memorial tower up there you can see the 3 states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylania.  We hiked the Appalachian trail to get there.  Hiking in New Jersey?!  Who knew, right?!  Once again we were on a time crunch to get to the memorial before it closed.  My legs have not been that tired in a long time.  On our way back we weren't seeing anything familiar, luckily we ran into someone.  He was headed to Maine!  He helped point us back in the right direction, thank goodness!

 Memorial Day was also a big day for us because of the opening of our community pool.  We've never had access to a pool so close to us.  We've been a couple times and I'm sure we will utilize it A LOT this summer.

 Grandma was so good to us!!!

 We did another date night, which was a repeat of our Valentine's date, because we liked it so much...and because we had a 2 time pass.  We learned how to climb and belay and trust each other :)  Seriously so fun!!!

 A finish at our favorite Thai restaurant...can you tell?  Jake would have licked the plates...but I wouldn't let him :)

Newsies

A couple weeks ago my mom came into town and I have a slew of posts coming up from all of our fun adventures.  First thing we did was go into the city to see Newsies on Broadway.  It was FABULOUS and I loved every second of it!!!  I almost cried with nostalgia of my childhood as they began their opening number.  Rachel really enjoyed it and followed it really well.  She thought the spitting hand shakes was pretty funny.

I had read on the website that we could meet and get autographs from the cast members after the show.  Can you do this with all Broadways?  I have no idea.  But I thought it would be fun.  
"Jack" did an amazing job!

 "Les" He's 10 years old and super cute don't you think?

 "Crutchie" or Crunchie as Rachel calls him, was easily her favorite character.

 Evan from SYTYCD

It's been two weeks and the songs are still stuck in my head.  I love it!