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all-district chorus
Last night both my big boys performed in the All-District Chorus and they were great! We were so proud of them for making All- District and doing such a great job at the concert. The middle school and high school also sang and were all wonderful. There are some seriously talented kids out there.
The elementary school was so good that the middle school kids sitting in front of us were overheard saying “They’re better than us!”
The boys incredible and sweet music teacher.
And here’s a story Patrick wrote- shared with permission (if you are a blog follower, you’ll remember the hard few weeks Patrick was having in January and February). It’s awesome and I’m so proud!
It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up”- Vince Lombardi
I’m a twin. Being a twin is hard. We’re often compared to each other in numerous subjects. But in January 2010, it got serious. It all started on a normal Tuesday. I packed up my rough, royal blue backpack. My class hurried down the stairs and rocketed out to the laden schoolyard. My mother picked me up and drove me home. I was happy as usual until I heard the news. My twin brother Jack had made the National Anthem tryouts and I had not. I was devastated, but carried on with my average life. Later the next week, I had taken the Spelling Bee tryout test. I was sweating heavily and dragged my pencil across the blank paper. I wondered if I made the finals. When we came back from gym, I saw the sign. It said “congratulations to our Spelling Finalists: SB, MH, and RM. S told me “you didn’t make it”. Those words echoded through me in such a fashion that rambled and messed up my head. I was on the dge of depression. Just when I started dealing with it, I heard that my brother made it. I was on the edge of tears. One rushed down my red cheek and plopped onto the hard tile floor. I accepted my fate as a sorrowful person. There was no optimistic side of this. But a spark of an idea made it’s way through my body. My head jerked up. Tomorrow, the All-District Chorus sign was coming up. I saw it and my name was on it.
My name.
I said “Look out world I’m comin to town”. Believe me, don’t give up faith!!!
And that, my blog readers, is my incredible son Patrick and his fantastic personality and excellent writing!
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Jedi Training Academy (aka 28 pounds of unbridled fury)
A few days after the Pirates League at Disney, we hit the Jedi Training Academy over at Disney Hollywood Studios. After doing my research I found out that now they don’t pick kids out of the crowd like they used to, but now you have to be the first 15 kids on line to get on stage for the next training session. We got to the park at opening (that was a feat in itself) and while John ran over to get FastPasses for Toy Story Mania, the boys and I ran over to the Star Wars area and got on line. It was quite a wait (about 45 minutes) but they were all good and patient. And the big boys played the part of the excellent big brothers once again and participated with Timmy (who was over the moon excited about the whole thing.
Timmy is on the small side (like 15th %tile for height and weight) and he was a total crack up on the stage. The Jedi Master said he was “28 pounds of unbridled fury” when he went to fight Darth Vader. Love the size difference between him and Darth.
Timmy had a GREAT time, and Jack & Patrick tolerated the whole thing (again) for Timmy. I love the look on the big boys faces watching Timmy fight DV in the video. Too funny.
And here’s the video, with included Star Wars music.
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6 for Sunday, on Monday
1. Timmy got new “glasses”. He’s making everyone call him Albert Einstein when he wears them.
2. The storm here on Saturday night was crazy. Luckily, we didn’t sustain any damage other than a broken patio umbrella, but this town is a wreck. So many trees down (on peoples houses, across streets, leaning on power lines) and power lines down. A few friends have no power even still. We lost power for a little bit Sunday but I think it was because they turned it off to fix other things on our grid. The wind was whipping (like 70 mph they said) and the rain was heavy, and there was even thunder & lightening. What is with the weather lately?? I hope it’s getting it all out of it’s system now, so we have a nice, sunny photoshoot spring and summer (and fall, too).
3. Lady Gaga- still not getting it. The only song I like is Paparazzi and that’s cause of my camera and paparazzi tendencies. She’s very interesting but I can’t get past just that.
4. Just booked a trip (no, not to Florida) to Washington DC for a weekend in March. Going to see my friend from U of Miami, Nate, and his family. Of course, lots of sightseeing too. Hoping that we’ll be in time for the cherry blossoms. And my parents are coming along so that should be extra fun (but NO trips to 5 guys, okay Hakka?)
5. I know there has been a real lack of blog material lately, but that is just about to change. I have 3 shoots this week (one this morning in Queens, one Friday and a party Saturday night) plus the St Patricks parade on Saturday, and then in two weeks the calendar starts getting very busy again. Almost communion season and you know how busy that is!
6. Been watching Dreamgirls on tv the last two days. Wow, that Jennifer Hudson can sing, and Beyonce is beautiful and so talented. Wish I had seen the Broadway show. Thinking about getting tickets to see West Side Story though. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to a show.
Almost all the pictures in this post really had just about nothing to do with the 6 things I wrote about. A full recap post from Disney coming up along with 2 more videos from the trip. Later this week, I think.
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yo ho, yo ho…a pirates life for me
On our February Disney trip, we tried something new and took the boys to the Pirate’s League for a day of Piratey stuff. They have costumes, make up, accessories, you get a pirate name, and theres even a secret room.
Timmy was SO excited about the Pirates League, and Jack & Patrick being the awesome big brothers they are, decided to go along and get piratey too. Patrick ended up being pretty psyched about the whole thing, but Jack was definitely the reluctant pirate. You can tell from his expressions in all the pictures.
I tried my first video with the Flip camera and did some editing, throwing in some pictures and music. Don’t worry, I’m totally sticking with photography (and leaving the videos to Jerry for the client shoots) but it was definitely fun to do some video too. I’m planning on posting 2 more (at least) videos from Disney too, so be on the lookout for those. If this one isn’t too terrible to watch.
There are about a thousand pictures of the boys all pirated up, but I couldn’t narrow them down for the blog, so on this rainy day you get lots to look at and a video too.
Tell me he’s not the cutest pirate you ever saw. In your whole life even.
A happy to participate and be funny and silly at Disney pirate (and you can see what he’s going to look like as an adult a little here).
And the reluctant pirate.
Yo ho, and all that!
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the sarn family
Got an email from this great little family (who lives in the same ‘adult dorm’ as my parents) for a mini session for their baby girl. Luckily, I was/am offering a few mini sessions as a special with a portion of each shoot going toward TWLOHA (you can see details about that here: TWLOHA mini sessions ) So, it worked out great for all of us.
She was a smiley little thing, but mostly for Daddy and his antics. Dad is the one who lent Patrick the hotdog Hebrew National metal vendors tin for Halloween. Thanks again for that!
And the dog was great and a real member of the family.
So cute. Mom looks kinda like Liv Tyler, no?
Thanks again to all of you for a great shoot and for helping me donate to a great cause!