Recognition

Miss M was one of twelve students from her school honored last night for their musical interests and abilities. She and two of her cousins were chosen by their music teacher to be recognized at Powell Symphony Hall. The girls got all dressed up for an evening out, so their grandmas and I decided to take them out for a fancy dinner beforehand. I had a great time just watching them, whether they were ordering Chicken Cordon Bleu or tasting the fried spinach appetizer - and liking it. Such little ladies!! We had them pose at dinner for a pretty picture.

Powell Hall was as impressive as ever. The St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra gave a short but outstanding performance. I made sure the girls were aware that some of the members of that group were as young as twelve years old. That’s right around the corner for them (much to my dismay!) But I think they were too busy giggling at the crazy moves of the extremely animated conductor to think about that.

From where we were sitting the girls looked rather small walking across the stage to accept their awards. The certificates were very nice, and their music teacher looked with pride at her group. The grandmas and I were proud, too.

They didn’t allow pictures in the hall, so we waited until we were on our way out to make them pose yet again.

Congratulations, girls!

Picture Purge

My cell phone recently flashed “Low Memory” when it tried to open a video that my nephew accidentally sent me from my sister-in-law’s phone. So I decided to go through the pictures that have been stored on it since August. There were some I had forgotten about completely. Like the ones from the Botanical Gardens…

La Cabeza from the Niki Exhibit

Inside La Cabeza

The kids had fun playing in the Children's Garden

I also found some pictures from an October trip to the Zoo.

C.B. riding on an orange poison dart frog

Miss M with her little cousin on the slide in the Children’s Zoo

I had to laugh at the picture of Big D devouring his birthday dinner – the Riblet basket from Applebees.

Then there was Miss M’s DARE graduation.

She’s sitting next to her three cousins, who are all in her class this year.

I also found one picture from Banana’s Preschool Christmas party.

This was as close as she would get to Santa.

This was fun! Thanks for taking this quick stroll down memory lane with me. Maybe we'll do it again in another six months or so.

Accolades

I do not like to be the center of attention. I loathe public speaking. I’m not even comfortable receiving compliments. Which might explain why I have been putting off writing this post.

Kim from Parachuting Without A Net has bestowed upon me the Premio Dardos award. "This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It's away to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

It’s enough of a thrill to know that there are people out there who read my blog that are not related to me. To receive an award on top of that is just remarkable.

Like everything in life, there are rules. I am supposed to pass this award on to 15 other bloggers. Unfortunately I don’t even read 15 blogs. Call me selfish, but I think I’m going to keep this one all to myself. Please note that this intentional disregard for the rules in no way diminishes my appreciation for this honor. Thank you very much, Kim!

A Not-So-Extreme Kitchen Makeover

Project: Counters is now complete. Despite my initial anxiety, we are very happy with the way they look. They do seem a bit fancy in our fairly simple home, but we’re getting used to them. Here are some before and after shots.

In case anyone is interested, we chose the Santa Cecelia granite.

We also got a fabulous under-mount sink and new faucet.

Oh, yes. We are fancy.

M.I.A.

You’ve heard it before; but I swear it’s true. I have been busy. I'm just trying to keep up with all that's going on around here. It's a task that is getting more and more difficult to do.

This week is Project: Counters. We have decided to get our countertops replaced. We went and picked out slab of granite a couple of weeks ago. It was actually a fun date for my husband and me. I know...we don't get out much. Tomorrow that slab will be fitted on top of our cabinets for us to eat on, do homework on, and play "Go Fish" on. I can't wait to see how it will look.

Last night we had to empty all the cabinets and take out all the drawers so the old countertops could be removed. The drawers and the contents of those cabinets are currently piled into our "Thinking Room".

They came this morning and “broke” (as Banana puts it) our counters. It's hard to find a place to set anything down in our kitchen right now…

…but it’s been fun for the kids to play in.

I hope that rock looks as pretty in our kitchen as it did in the warehouse that day. My biggest fear is that it will look so good that everything else in our kitchen will look blah!

More to come as Project: Counters continues.