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Last weekend we celebrated my son’s First Holy Communion. It was a beautiful day …for the most part. The ceremony was great. Andrew was quite the handsome picture in his little pinstripe suit. At the start of the party though, my nearly 93 year old Grandmother fell and passed out. Thankfully, my FDNY first-responder husband was there to help her, as were other medical professionals in the family. It was chaotic but we tried to keep the kids busy so they wouldn’t see Nanny on the floor or the stretcher when it was wheeled in (two thoughts went through my mind after she fell: “Find phone. Call 911″. And “Oh my God, my Grandmother just died at my son’s Communion party!”) When she came to, she joked to my father “Tell Andrew that I thought his party needed a sideshow”. That’s how we knew she was going to be ok. ;)

Grandma spent 4 days in the hospital undergoing tests. She is ok for now, but continued prayers for some uncertain test results are always welcome if you feel inclined. She came home on Wednesday and the timing was perfect. It was right after our school bus pulled up yet not before I drove Emily to dance and Andrew to lacrosse practice. I said “Hop in the car! We’re going to see Nanny!” She was so excited to see the kids but I know they were even more excited to see her and to see with their own two eyes that she was doing well.

Of course, I took a few pictures. :)

And as for those Communion shots…

(Andrew with Nanny and with his Godparents after the ceremony)

Andrew, may God continue to watch over you and shower you with blessings today and every day for the rest of your life. Love, Mom

Have an awesome weekend!

We took the kids to the Bronx Zoo as a fun Spring Break treat. I haven’t been there since I was probably about Emily’s age. It was a lot of fun. We did miss the lions and gorillas but the monorail doesn’t open until May so it’s a ton of walking and we accomplished what we could in the four hours we were there. We saw dozens of animals and played a fun game on the way home: Cutest Animal, Scariest Animal, Weirdest Looking Animal, Most Interesting Animal, etc. Hm. I sense a scrapbook page in the making…

We are planning on either A- going back this Summer since we always add the zoo to our Summer Fun List or B- hitting the Central Park Zoo and finishing the day with a night time ride to the top of the Empire State Building. I have to say, the kids are really digging that idea.

I took lots of pictures but not of every animal. For example, I put Wild African Dog as a top contender for Scariest Animal and I do not have the picture to prove just how creepy these things are. Did you know a pack of them can eat an entire zebra in less than 15 minutes? We are a lot smaller than a zebra. I’m just sayin’…

Some of the animals we did see and have photographic evidence to back that claim up are:

We started our day in Asia and the first animal we saw was the Red Panda! Very cute and a striking shade of orangey red.

Polar Bear! This guy was eating breakfast laying down and then stared straight at Emily. She thought he was trying to send her a subliminal message like “Dry cereal not cutting it. Send fish. Cute shoes.”

Right above the Polar Bear were some Grizzlies. They are so big! Here’s one just sitting (he was actually scratching himself on the tree trunk).

When we walked by a little while later, one of the Grizzlies was taking a bath!

Right outside the giraffe area was a partial skeleton of a 35 year old elephant that was poached in 1989 for it’s ivory. Sad.

He’s not in this particular shot, but there was a 3 week old baby giraffe in the field and he was already 6′ tall!

These tigers jumped up after hearing a noise and took off. They were behind protective glass. So, so big and scary!

Zebra! Those stripes are awesome. Did you know that no two are alike? Their stripes are like our fingerprints.

A wallaby that looked like it was interested in making me lunch. See the baby in it’s pouch?

My son loves facts. He has a great memory for little tidbits of random information. I was calling him my little zoologist because he would rattle off the names of random animals for us (he knew what the Ibex was before any of us did). He’s the one who told us the female counterpart to the peacock is actually called a peahen. Anyway, these are some gorg peacock feathers!

Squirrel Monkey. How do I get myself one of these?!

Porcupine

Some of the very cutest animals were the Prairie Dogs! The set-up was cute for the kids too. Take a look at how perfectly placed this little Prairie Dog is.

The Millers say “Thanks for checking out our animal pictures and virtually coming to the Bronx Zoo with us” and “You’re welcome” for giving you nightmares about rabid, hungry Wild African Dogs.

This past weekend were dance pictures at my daughters’ studio. Even though I end up doing my own at home because I love using solid backdrops and choosing a complimenting color, I always buy a package at the studio too. They hang each child’s photo in the front window and the girls get a kick out of finding themselves. Plus, I needed a sister picture. Ever since I was a little girl (and danced at the very same studio), I always wished I had a sister to take a sibling photo with. Since this is Grace’s first year dancing, this was my very first chance. I can’t wait to see my girls in the window together in a few weeks!

Emily is in three classes (and she’s been on my case to let her take a 4th next year). This is her lyrical costume. She’s dancing to Blessings by Laura Story. This white outfit is going to look gorgeous on stage!

She is also a part of the ballet ensemble. This year they are doing Little Mermaid (and subsequently, my favorite Disney Princess!) Emily’s class is dancing to Under The Sea. Isn’t this costume great? I love how the arm pieces look like seaweed.

Jazz is fun and more importantly, the costume is age-appropriate. Her class is dancing to Queen Latifah’s Walk The Dinosaur. I remember skating around the roller rink in the 80′s to this song (not the Queen version though). It’s a fun dance.

And then there’s Grace. This is her very first year on the stage. <3 Her costume is beautiful! I told her she looks like a big puff of cotton candy. Because Emily’s lyrical number wasn’t enough of a tear jerker for us, Grace’s class is dancing to a slow, sappy ballet. I can’t tell you the name of it right now because I thought it was A Mother’s Prayer by Celine Dion but this past class they opened the door for the first time and that wasn’t it (Grace just says “Yes, that’s it!” so everything I put on YouTube). I’ll figure it out next class.

I prayed that I would have at least one daughter who followed in my footsteps and found a love in dance. Lucky for me, God gave me two.

Have a beautiful day!

Today is the 100th day of school for my two older kids. In honor of this exciting day in the life of a Miller child, I present to you 100 Legos in a glass jar (what Andrew brought in to share with his class).

I also have a Friday before & after to share!

Isn’t she cute?

Gearing up for three shoots in a 24 hour period over here. I am tired just thinking about it! In the middle of it all, I need to find time to finish my book!

Have a great weekend!

I Blogged when my daughter made her confession last year so it’s only fair that Andrew gets a post all of his own too. :)

His ceremony was on Saturday. It was a beautiful day outside and a beautiful ceremony as well. He was chosen as a reader. We found out when we went to practice on Thursday night. The woman in charge was waiting for Andrew because she came over to hand him an index card with his two lines on it, saying “Oh good. We were looking for you.” This leads me to believe that the readers weren’t chosen at random that night. I have no idea how they choose them actually. When I asked Andrew, he said “Maybe it’s the kids who talk a lot and are loud in class?” I would say this is a very good assumption, based on the number of times my son has to turn his card daily for talking in class. =P

Anyway, here is my cute little fuzzy-headed boy. We are looking forward to his First Holy Communion in May!

Love the scabbed-up knuckles from a playground scrape at recess. ; )

I totally rub that fuzzy little head daily and make wishes on it. <3

You may remember my post on Halloween BOOing last year. Of course, we continued with one of our very favorite non-spooky traditions. 5th year and counting… This is something we look forward to each October!

I picked up some orange and black gift bags from Target this year. In fact, all of our BOO supplies came from Target, aside from my digital kit. I was originally going to try something different and bake this year but baking for 6 recipients just wasn’t happening so it was purchase goodies or nothing. We opted for purchasing and getting our bags delivered the week before Halloween this year. If you want to get in on the action, there is still time! Once we had our supplies purchased, it took maybe 20 minutes to assemble our bags, and that included printing off poems and BOO signs. You can do this later today, tomorrow or even on Halloween!

Here’s what you need:

gift bags
goodies to fill your bags
my BOOing kit, of course!
printer with colored ink
cute kids to deliver the bags!

I let each kid pick two friends. Each bag contained Halloween-themed Fruit By The Foot, bags of chips / cookies, mini granola bars (all in the Halloween aisles of Target), a few pieces of candy, a squishy spider and a glow-in-the-dark bat. If there were 3 kids in the house, they got three bags of chips, three granola bars, etc. We included a BOO sign for the recipient to hang on their front window and stapled a cute poem to the front of each bag. Handy tip: I put a small initial on the back of each poem so we would know which bag went to what house as we were driving around.

Then it’s time to pile into the car and drive around for some fun! Time to teach your kids the fine art of ringing and running.  Every year we have a funny story about getting caught. This year, Emily and Andrew both got away with two successful drops each. Grace is at the age where we all need to get out of the car and help her to the house. We got caught but it made for a fun story (even if we did appear to be a bunch of creepers hiding in the neighbor’s bushes…)

I always love seeing the sheer determination on the kids’ faces as they drop a bag, knock on the door and BOLT back to the waiting car. Good times.

Want to play along?

I am giving away a small coupon in case you want to pick up my printable You’ve Been BOOed! kit. <–click for the shop!

Add the kit to your cart, make sure you are logged-in and enter the following code as a discount coupon:

halloweenfun

The code will take 25% off your order. Offer expires at 11:59pm EST on Halloween night.

Have a fun, festive weekend!

I had such a busy, filled day yesterday. It was pretty great. :)

My youngest had school because even though public schools were off Thursday and Friday for the Jewish holidays, our pre-school is Christian. My older kids were very excited to get to bring Grace to school which they sometimes do, but more so to pick her up. We decided not to tell her that the others had off because we didn’t want her to feel bad that she was leaving for a few hours. As soon as we got in the car she said “Andrew, you forgot your backpack!” Busted. We told her we were going to make a pit-stop back home for it. ;) Our day went like this:

9:00am. After drop-off, the older kids and I grabbed breakfast at Starbucks.

10:00am. Nearly two year old toddler boy shoot here at home. He was gorgeous. Mom was awesome. And she bought me a surprise coffee. I now have a new best friend. Anyone who brings me a Pumpkin Spice Latte upon meeting me for the first time gets to wear that title.

11:30am. Shoot wraps. I sweep hay. Lots and lots of hay from my pumpkin and apple set-ups.

11:45am. We pick-up Grace from school. She’s made a paper paint brush and since their new school skill is cutting, the ‘bristles’ are cut on the lines. She’s wearing an Ernie sticker and tells me that “I really wanted Abby but “You get what you get and you don’t get upset!”" Words to live by.

12:00pm. Home for a quick change. It’s photoshoot time for the Miller kids and I didn’t even have to bribe them with anything.

12:30pm. Decided to scope out a local park since I am shooting there this weekend.

12:30-2:00pm. My kids cooperated during a fun shoot on the water and then I let them play barefoot in the sand on the playground. Anything barefoot, especially involving slides and swings, equals fun to them.

2:30pm. We stop and grab Happy Meals on the way home. We laugh when Mommy has to do a semi-swerve away from a crazed driver and Emily drops her cheeseburger.

3:00pm. We stop at Grandma’s to play with chalk and take a few more photos, this time with my nephew in them.

5:00-6:15pm. My girls and I head over to pick up my 5K race packet for the Diva race this weekend. They are happy sampling the fare at the Expo such as assorted Luna bars, organic peanut butter with pretzels and so on. Meanwhile, Andrew is home getting ready for football.

6:30pm. Emily is picked up for a sleepover at her girlfriend’s house. She went out to dinner with the family too. Lucky. When I decided to make myself dinner in the form of a baked wrap in the toaster later in the evening so I could crumble it up on top of a salad, I set a small fire to my kitchen. =P

6:30pm. Grace is picked up by my husband and taken to the field so Mommy can run.

6:45-7:30pm. I run 3 1/2 miles through town, the last mile in the rain. Pace was a lot faster than usual because I just wanted to get home under a dry roof.

By 9pm I was feeling pretty exhausted but my creative brain got the best of me and I stayed up for two hours working some magic on this silly photo:

All it took was me perched atop a 6 foot ladder for the original shot, nearly 90 minutes of extracting bodies with the lasso tool in Photoshop, a cloud background and some clevery placed strings & balloons to end up with this. My Mom loves it! It’s not everyday you get a picture of your four grandbabies floating in the clouds.

Have a magical weekend!

This is Grace’s last week of being two. She’s so ready to be 3 on Friday! We have grand birthday plans too. Since her older brother & sister are in school all day, the two of us are planning to have a little fun. First she wants to bring munchkins to her friends at school. After, we are heading to Starbucks for lunch! Grace might be the only 3 year old to request a “chino coffee” (AKA frappucino) on her birthday. She always asks to eat in the actual store but I never do. So I promised her that we could have lunch and “chino coffees” inside of Starbucks. (Grace’s standing order: a tall iced vanilla cream with lots of whip!) Then we’ll head just a bit down the road to Target where I promised her she could pick out a baby doll to bring home. Vin wants to know why we need yet another baby doll. Silly man. He’s been the father to at least one daughter for the past 8 years and I am still having to drill girly facts into his head.

Girls. Like. Dolls. Thank you and good day.

Grace started two new things this week. She returned to school in the Nursery program last Friday. It was a one hour orientation. I sat her down and she said “Ok Mom. See you later!” She was a little upset to hear that I had to stay for that one hour. She was even more appalled that “They didn’t give us lunch!” LOL! She was happy when things returned to normal and she was given snack at school yesterday. :) I have 9 hours a week now that are totally kid-free. I have grand plans for myself during those 9 hours. Things such as tackling my entire chore list in one fell swoop or heading up to the track for an early morning run.

Yesterday I really went overboard: I took a nap.

Grace on Friday September 9th 2011 after her Nursery School Orientation

Today Grace started dance class! I have been waiting for this day for what seems like ages. I now have not one but two daughters in dancing school – the very same school I went to when I was 3 years old. It’s costing me a small fortune between lessons (4 classes between both girls), costumes, shoes, outfits, etc and I love every moment of it. :)

Before her very first tap/ballet combo class. Tuesday September 13th 2011.

Grace was at the side of my bed this morning squealing: “Mommy, is it time for ballet?” She was dressed and ready to go at least an hour before class. She carried her dance bag to the kids’ bus. I was going to take some pictures of her walking down Broadway on her way to the studio but as soon as we got out of the car, she reached for my hand. She seemed a tiny bit nervous. I told her that Mommy and Daddy were staying and waiting for her. I reminded her that we made this same dance class walk for Emily many times before. And then she was excited, telling me “Now it’s my turn!” Yes baby doll. It is!

Outside of our house last night for post-dinner ice cream and bike rides.

Even though it’s not technically Fall for another few weeks, my mind is just in Fall-mode once September hits. And then when school starts, there’s really no turning back. We had a wonderfully packed Summer but now I’m ready for my favorite Fall things.

… just to name a few. :)

My kids started school yesterday. I now have a 2nd grader (Andrew) and a 3rd grader (Emily). Not entirely sure when that happened since it really feels like yesterday that I was 9 months pregnant, tearfully waddling to the bus to put my then-Kindergartner (Emily) on it.

Unfortunately, we had a very rainy first day. Well, maybe unfortunate isn’t the correct term but to a photographer, it sort of is. ;) I did get some shots in the morning because despite being breezy and gray, the rain thankfully held up until a bit later. I relied on my iPhone for others.

top-left: As you can see, the boy was freshly mohawked for the big day. Second year in a row. He decided on a Wimpy Kid tee and some new Converse.  Emily wore a new birthday t-shirt and the denim skirt we picked up for both girls so they could match. This photo was taken when I showed up at school to watch the kids get off the bus. I have done this every year for the past 4 years and yet they are always surprised to see me standing there. I love how Grace tried to get into every shot with her brother and sister. She really loves school and can’t wait to start her own routine. In the meantime, we shopped, played games and baked to keep busy.

top-right: Andrew spots his little sister at school and blows her a kiss.

middle-left: New kicks for the 1st day!

middle-right: With two of the Miller kids off to school and Grace happily running errands with me, I made my first pit-stop: Starbucks. I promised myself a Pumpkin Spice Latte to kick-off my favorite season. I enjoyed every last foamy sip and then promptly came home to run 2.55 miles to alleviate some of the guilt. =P

bottom-left: A back-to-school-first-day-tradition: cookies! I made Chocolate Chocolate Chips with M&Ms. Yes. I did eat some batter. No, I don’t feel that guilty. Remember, I ran. I wonder how many snacks I can use that excuse on?

bottom-right: Some after school shots. Grace and I walked to the bus in a light drizzle and it ended up coming down in buckets as we stood there waiting.

highlights:

Both kids LOVED their teachers!

Both kids are with lots of friends plus each has a brand-new-to-the-district student in their class.

Andrew was excited that his table earned the most stars yesterday. If he’s excited about stars, I’m excited about stars.

He thought it was funny that his teacher didn’t recognize him with his new haircut until a bit later when she said “Oh! You’re Emily’s little brother!” (He has Emily’s teacher from last year).

Emily is in love with her new agenda planner the school gave the whole grade. A child after my own heart.

She thinks it’s the coolest that you don’t have to ask to use the bathroom. “You just sign yourself out and go!” Ah, 3rd grade. Offering a little more independence than 2nd.

Andrew’s teacher gave him a Lifesaver.

Emily’s teacher gave her an apple.

I have always been a fan of our school’s lunch menu but it’s been changed and it’s even better now! They are offering even more fruits and vegetable sides and dishes like Asian Vegetable Stir-fry, Honey Mustard Chicken Wraps and Greek Salad. I still love my inexpensive lunch containers that help me create cute, compartmentalized lunches but it’s nice to know the hot lunch option at school is healthy and a nice back-up in a pinch.

Make sure to pop back in towards the end of the week (I’m thinking Friday) because I am going to Blog about a new binder organizer I’ve been working on and I’ll show you how to get all the tools you need to create one for your family too!

Well, we are here, with power no less. We are feeling very, very lucky, especially since 90% of the houses on my block have no power and LIPA is estimating that most people will be back on …on Friday.

We got ready by purchasing tons of waters, dry snacks, fruit and rice milk that doesn’t need refrigeration. We made sure we had extra batteries and knew where all of the lanterns were. Cell phones were charged. Basement was cleaned of all dog hair (pesky dog hair…) in case we needed to wait out the storm down there. I even brewed some coffees and canned them just so I could have coffee, albeit iced, in the morning. Fridges were turned to their coldest temps and ACs were turned down to 66 so we would wake to a cold house, even after power went out, and shockingly, we got so lucky in that department. You can’t say we weren’t prepared!

Our prayers continue to go out to our friends without power and the rest of the East Coast who experiences significant damage due to Irene’s wrath.

Once the storm broke on Sunday, we could go out and survey some of the damage. The pizza place in town was even open so I ended up bringing home some pizza for the kids. My Starbucks run later that night did not prove as fruitful (yet Dunkin’ Donuts was open).

Here’s one large, uprooted tree we found in our town. Under the roots was actually a significantly sized hole in the ground. Scary.

Here’s the same tree from a pulled-back standpoint. It actually fell through parts of the house. Thankful to hear that nobody was injured.

There were many snapped telephone poles and hanging power lines.

This was a really large tree near our house that fell and closed off the entire block. When the kids saw this one, they said “So this is what a hurricane does…” Even though it just felt like a very windy and dark storm to them, I wanted them to understand that hurricanes can and do cause a lot of damage.

Right by that large tree was another uprooted one. This happened to fall through the woman’s garage.

I did a lot of scrapbooking until I needed to shut down the computer for fear of it frying. I collected screenshots from our local news website and then worked on this layout during the storm. The top-left picture of the patio furniture tied down is from my cell phone. We moved as much as we could inside or into the shed and whatever else was left (some of this furniture, a hammock frame and our grill) we tied down.

Again, prayers to our friends and family with no power and especially those in flooded areas. If you need anything, please let us know!

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