Nora's First Piano Recital!!!

Since Nora is our little music-lover, she has been taking piano lessons for about 3 months, and she has gotten pretty good!! While she is still learning her very basic skills, she is able to read music, she knows "which keys are which notes," and she has no trouble playing with both hands simultaneously even without looking. Yesterday was her first piano recital, and we were so extremely proud of our girl!

The performance was held at Grace Presbyterian Church in Douglasville which was a beautiful church:

Nora was pretty nervous, so Ella loved on her a bit (which was nice since they'd been fighting like cats and dogs all morning):

After going in the church, we were greeted with her fan-base. (And believe it or not, I did NOT say to make a goober-face, although 95% of the people pictured are doing so).

Here is Mrs. Sarah, Nora's piano teacher, welcoming everyone and introducing her students:

Nora was the very first "performer!!!"

She performed "Merrily We Roll Along" which was a simple song very similar to "Mary Had a Little Lamb." But she did PHENOMENAL!! Have a listen:

After the entire performance, Nora received lots of lovin' from her fans:

 Grandmommie and Paw-Paw brought Nora some beautiful flowers, so Ella "delivered" them:

And of course, we had to get some piano shots with the lovely flowers:

 We went to the reception to thank Mrs. Sarah. Nora REALLY loves her:

And we then went outside to get some shots of all Nora's fans :)

 Some of the piano music was so beautiful at the recital that it almost put both Paw-Paw and Claira to sleep. Check out her top chiclets!!

How do we celebrate everything?!?! WITH FOOD!!!!! So we headed over to Taco-Mac to have lunch and watch the Braves and NFL Draft:

I can't stress enough how proud we are of Nora. She is such a smart, sweet, and talented little creature. After watching her play the piano for the last couple of weeks, she actually inspired ME to want to play the piano. Here's Nora and I playing a Rhianna song entitled "Stay" during Spring Break two weeks ago (it really bites, but I wanted Nora to know that she truly inspired her mama to try something new.......but then again, my kids inspire me everyday!!) :)

I will end with this: The day before the recital (April 26th, 2013) marked the one-year anniversary of the day our precious "Mammie" went to be with the Lord. So, in honor and remembrance of her, my girls and I all wore pink, Mammie's favorite color!! I know she was smiling down BIG-TIME on Nora with great pride uttering her favorite phrase, "I'm not surprised!" :)

(Also, our beloved gerbil "Rosabelle" went to gerbil-Heaven on April 26th. While the girls were so very heartbroken, Ella said that "Mammie will take good care of Rosabelle.")

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and we are beyond proud of our Precious Piano Player!!

She's the next Alicia Keys!!! ;)

Fun at the Zoo!!

This past weekend, we ventured over to Zoo Atlanta to see some groovy animals. While the zoo is always fun, it was EXTRA-fun this time because it was absolutely FREE!! Just FYI - if you check-out the "Zoo Atlanta" DVD from your local library (which is soooooo intriguing....not), they will give you a voucher for 4 free tickets (2 adults and 2 children)! And since Claira is still free, HOT-DIGGITY!! We spent a total of $6.00 throughout the entire day! Like most people, we are always trying to find ways to "pinch a penny," so FREE is always GOOD!!

Each time we go to the zoo, we always like to jam-out to the people at the entrance playing their home-made instruments (it's usually paint barrels or trashcans, but let's face it, they're pretty talented!!) Here's the crew busting a move while entering.....I should have gotten this on video!

Once we entered, we were greeted with a plethora of hula-hoops and bubbles. Nora can hula-hoop like nobody's business!

Daddy tried to keep-up, but Nora put him to shame (Coach Hubbard has apparently been teaching her some mad hula skills!)

Then, we headed off to see some animals. We entered the bird house first. This was Claira's favorite!! It cracked her up to see the birds fly by! Plus, we got to feed the parakeets! 

We had to get a shot of our little birdles in the large nest before we left the bird house:

  We, then, traveled on to see the rest of the animals. We visited with the meerkats....

....the lazy lions....

.....and the zebras.....who really needed to bathe!!

Of course, I had to get a shot of my girls in their zebra-printed-initial-shirts in front of the zebra pen. (This was another penny-pincher....I made these for a grand total of $8.00 after a Hobby Lobby clearance. Just call me "Clark Howard.") :)

We also saw an assortment of monkeys and orangutans. These were our favorites!! Probably because our children act like monkeys most of the time!! :)

We also saw the nasty little "naked mole rats" and played for a bit at the "mole rat playground."

 While visiting with all of the other animals, we had to stop for a few photo-ops....Nora and Ella LOVE these things!!

 Before long, we had to take a break to have a snack. Nuttin' like popcorn and puffs!!

 After snacking, we visited the Reptile House:

 Clearly, we are not fond of the large serpents (or as Lea says, "the slithery lil' sneaky SNIIIIIIKES"....but there was nothing "lil" about these....they were HUGE!)

 Next up was the petting-zoo to pet some STANKIN' goats.....whew!!! But they were sweet critters!!

 While snapping this next picture, I basically dropped my camera and snatched Ella because I noticed that the goat next to her was projectile-pooping!! She almost got pinged in the head with goat-poop!! Literally!! 

After petting the animals and washing our hands THOROUGHLY, we decided to ride the train. We had to wait for a few minutes.....

....so Claira got bored and fell asleep.

 Here it comes....woohoo!!

While the big girls loved it (they LOVE train rides....just like their Grandmama!), Claira just slept throughout the entire ride:

Yet, Claira woke right up when it was time to ride the carousel!! This was her first carousel experience and she LOVED it!! :)

 Before leaving, we had to get a little play-time in at the large playground near the exit:

Once we left the zoo, we decided to have a picnic at Grant Park which is adjacent to the zoo. While Daddy set-up the picnic, I snapped a few pictures of our sweet three:

And of course, no event would be complete without a few cartwheels :)

 But finally, it was time to grub:

Claira enjoyed PLAYING with celery.....

....but she did not enjoy EATING the celery. :)

As we left, Claira gave us the sweetest little smile while strolling back to the van.....she really enjoyed her first zoo day!! :) :)

 Within 4 minutes of being in the van, all of the girls looked like this:

Josh and I were somewhat envious of all the sleep!! Very tiring day, but very fun!! It was definitely a zoo success!!

Cheers to stinky animals (and FREE STUFF!!) :)