Last night the family gathered to hear Katherine and Joe play in their very first sibling recital, showing off their impressive talents in violin and piano, respectively.  The evening was spent pleasantly listening to the music of Bach, Chopin and Brahms.

Yesterday, much of the family headed down to Red Hook to see Lindsay in her first art show.  She was participating in BWAC’s Nailed Exhibit, where she had five paintings on display (and for sale, I might add)!  After spending some time at the gallery, we braved the insane wind and all went out for a lobster feast!

Check back soon for an update to the photo gallery!

It snowed here again yesterday and is still going strong, on and off, today.  Right now it’s actually sunny, cloudy and snowing all at the same time.  It’s very bizarre.  I’ll have to try and get some pictures of it.  We have been blessed with another snow day, which has been productive in that I have shoveled the entire front walk and gotten in some extra exercise.

This is the view from the kitchen windows today:

For the second time in a year, school has been cancelled today, which means no work for me, and no school for Jack.  Willa told me last night that he declared he is coming to my house – he thinks of this as his new snow day ritual.  So I’m looking forward to having lunch and hot cocoa with Jack and Willa later, probably after we have shoveled our respective front walks.  The snow is still coming down, however, so I’m trying to delay a bit so the job doesn’t need to be done twice!

I realize that I should also probably address the lack of posts except for the recent one for Katherine’s birthday.  Life has taken a busy turn around here, with a lot of Sundays busy apartment hunting or spending time at shows or with friends.  It has left little time to post a new picture of the week, and the weekdays have proved to be even busier than the weekends.  I hope to resume pictures of the week as soon as possible, but it may have to wait until after the school play.  Costuming is in full swing, and the show is in just five weeks!  Rest assured that I will post enough photos of the week to make up for the missing weeks!

Stay tuned – there will likely be some pictures coming later of our fun-filled snow day!

Last Sunday (when I neglected to post the picture of the week), mom, Lindsay, Pam, Katherine, Ami and I all headed to friend Donna’s house for our bi-annual Ladies’ Tea, along with other friends Paula and Elaine.  This time around, the tea theme was music.  Each person had to put together a basket of items that represented lyrics in a favorite song.  The songs were very varied, save for Lindsay and Katherine who managed to choose the exact same song (much to Lindsay’s horror!).

As usual, there was an abundance of wonderful food, all made and contributed by everyone.  Lindsay put together a mini version of shepard’s pie, Pam made her famous radish sandwiches, and I made fairy cakes from the Nigella Lawson cookbook and topped them with blackberries.  Of course, there was lots of tea to go around – some favorites being the lemon-ginger and the vanilla chai (I also liked the raspberry honey, but I don’t know who else tried it)!

Here are some pictures from our event:

This weekend was pretty busy, as the entire family gathered for a big graduation party in honor of Lori, Jordan, Kara and Emily, who all graduated from a school program.  All of our family and all of Lori’s family, along with some family friends, all got together at Kevin & Lori’s house for food and fun!

Before that, I also spent some time with Carol, James, the boys, the dog Holli and the new cat Zoe!  I haven’t seem them in a while so it was nice to spend time with them!  We played video games and chased the cat, and made some mean ice cream sundaes!

Since neither trip has enough pictures to warrant an entire album in the photo gallery, here are some highlights of the trip:

Zoe attempts to get into my bag of yarn… within five minutes of my arrival!

Zoe and Nick check each other out.

Daniel and Zoe.

Lori and the three-foot sandwich!

Early this month, Jordan graduated from the New York Film Academy (in Los Angeles, interestingly enough).  I believe he is now winding his way over from California – he and Colette are driving – and will stop off with Grandma and Popops sometime this week before arriving home in time for the big graduation bash next weekend.

The above picture is a teaser – Emily tells me they don’t have a lot of pictures from the event, but there are some.  There’s a little bit of a sending issue so as soon as I get more they will be posted.  But for now, enjoy the above!

Well, I am sheepish to admit that I didn’t do a post on Jack’s actual birthday – which was A WEEK AGO!  (Many apologies!)

However, Jack’s birthday party was yesterday evening, to great success.  He had all his friends over, from school and from his baseball team and they all ran around, playing in the pool, and then playing baseball – it was very Little Rascals-esque!

At the end of the night, one of Jack’s friends entertained us all by getting back into the pool – fully clothed – and dunked himself to get completely soaked.  Jack followed suit (though not as effectively as he had never changed out of his bathing suit!) and the two of them took turns doing their own versions of the Belly Flop!

Some pictures:

Mom participated in the next level of the MetroStar Talent Competition on Monday and was moved on to the next round!  She will participate in the next let of the competition on Monday, August 10!  Stay tuned!

Las night mom competed in the “MetroStar Talent Challenge,” an eight-week, jury and audience-voted elimination-round competition.  She found out last night that she made the quarter finals, which take place next Monday, August 3, 2009.  Anyone out there interested in going should show their support – part of the decision process is how many people root for the competitors!

The info:

Monday, August 3, 2009

7:00-9:00 p.m.

The Metropolitan Room

34 West 22nd Street, Betw. 5th & 6th Aves., New York, NY