tales from a far-land

This past Monday, BASIS Phoenix Central hosted their Spring Musical Concert at the Bullpit Auditorium at Phoenix College.  All of the Kindergarten classes performed.  Madi did a good job. No stage fright!  And she mostly knew all the words and choreography.  It was another proud parent moment.  Enjoy the performance; we did! Madi all ready to perform Miss Mary Mack The Lion Sleeps Tonight Plant Some Seeds in Mandarin

Every year, I like to take the kids to at least one spring training game.  The game that we attended this year was during Madilyn's spring break when Aunt Kathleen was visiting while on her spring break as well. Kathleen loves the Dodgers, so we all headed out to Camelback Ranch to watch some baseball. The kids seemed to have a good time.  Before the game started, the kids got their programs signed by a couple of the ball players. Then, Aiden really wanted a baseball from one of the players, so he went right down to the dugout and stuck his hand out and waited for someone to give him a ball.  He waited and waited very patiently, but no baseball was given.  One of the spectators in the first row watching this whole event transpire reached into his bag and handed Aiden a baseball.  Aiden was so excited!  He told the man thank you and ran right back to us to show us the ball.  He held on to that ball for the entire game.  When we were starting to leave, Aiden ran right back to the m

Last month, our family and our friends, the Bukatas, participated a fun run sponsored by Cigna Healthcare that featured RunDisney.  The one mile run was located at the Phoenix Zoo.  Aiden was pretty excited to run the course while Madilyn was less than enthusiastic.  At one point, she may have actually told Josh, "This is not a *fun* run!"  Aiden pretty much ran the entire event until the last quarter mile.  At that point, he turned to me and said he was done and didn't want to run any more.  I quickly pointed to the gigantic balloon that signified the end of the race and told him that we just had a little more to run.  What did Aiden do?  He quickly detoured off the concrete path and headed straight towards the balloon through the desert.  His little legs didn't stop running until he made to the balloon and across the finish line.  I am not sure if I have a cheater or a genius on my hands. After the run, we were all invited to the zoo's Stone House Pavilion for

A couple of weekends ago, we finally had the opportunity to get over to Laguna Woods, California, to visit with GG and GP.  We headed over on Wednesday night after the kids finished school since Madilyn had Thursday off for Cesar Chavez Day.  And although she was supposed to go back to school on Friday, we decided to call her in absent instead. Thursday was spent visiting with GG and GP all day.  Our day was filled with all of the traditional activities they enjoy to do with us.  This included shopping at the 99 Cent Store so the kids could pick out five toys, eating lunch out for pizza, salad and wings, and also a visit The Children's Place to purchase some new summer outfits for the kids.   On Friday, we drove up altogether to Calabasas to visit the Reismans and the Vorobiofs (Selma's daughter's and grandaughter's family) for Shabbat.  We had not seen them in a couple of years, so it was wonderful to spend some quality time with them.  The kids real

Easter this year was a little bit different.  The Easter Bunny decided to hide all of the eggs in the house as the backyard is currently under a major renovation.  But it didn't seem to matter to the kids. They loved running around the downstairs searching for hidden eggs. Traditionally, we host an Easter brunch on our patio, but as previously mentioned, our patio is not brunch ready.  So, instead, we moved our "family" brunch to Moon Valley Country Club.  The country club always does a fabulous brunch for the holidays.  Plus, they have tons of crafts and activities to keep the kids entertained.  It was a beautiful Easter morning full of amazing food, our loving "family" and great memories. .The kids on Easter morning Madi and her Easter basket Aiden and his Easter basket My little bucketheads Easter Egg Hunt in the House Easter Photos Brunch at Moon Valley Country Club Brandon, Christy and Michelle Sill