April 11, 2010
New York City Day 2 -- Top of the Rock
[Original event took place in December. Yeah, yeah, I’ve been busy.]
Day 2 found us at the Top of the Rock. Not quite as high as the Empire State Building’s Observatory, but it has gotten much better reviews and is a better price. It didn’t disappoint – the views are phenomenal, including the Hudson River, Empire State Building, and even as far as the Statue of Liberty. Definitely worth the time and money.
Posted by eburke at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)
New York City Day 1 – Museum of Natural History
[Original event took place in December. Yeah, yeah, I’ve been busy.]
Day 1 in New York City found us at the Museum of Natural History. The museum covers about four square blocks, and is four stories high. It’s incredible – they have an amazing array of exhibits, covering water, land, space, dinosaurs, butterflies, cavemen. They have a planetarium and other “special” exhibits that run for a while and then get swapped out for other ones. We arrived just after it opened and stayed until they were about to lock us in for the night. It’s easily a two-day visit to cover everything.
Here are some of the better photos from the day.
Posted by eburke at 10:53 PM | Comments (0)
Hop Hop Hop!
On the heels of her last performance, Alexis won a part in the spring run of “Peter Cottontail”. She plays Petal, one of Peter’s 6 sisters. She has a bunch of lines and songs in this one and is really starting to shine as a little actress!
Sadly, no video to post because they don’t allow us to film it. But trust me when I say she’s really having a blast with it. So much so, that her current plan is to major in theater in college and live in New York City. Ambition!
Posted by eburke at 9:39 PM | Comments (0)
PBFs
Alexis has been doing a “drama” unit at school. Drawing on her newfound theater skeelz, she and her friends put together this skit for the performance day. Well done!
Posted by eburke at 9:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2009
Curtain is up!
As you may know, Alexis tried out for and got a role in a production of Pinocchio. Well, after a solid 1.5 months of rehearsals 4-5 times per week, many running until 9pm, the curtain went up today! Alexis plays one of the schoolkids, who also double as toys during one part. She sang, she danced, she ran through the aisles with donkey ears on [you have to see it] – and she had a blast!
One of the cutest moments was when the donkeys (kids turn into donkeys on Adventure Island, you know) ran through the audience, hee-hawing. Alexis didn’t know where we were sitting, but when she saw us, she gave us a quick smile and wave, all while hee-hawing. Multitasking!
We were not allowed to take any photos/video inside the theater, but we got a few shots. We are so proud of our little actress! Here’s hoping for big things in the future!!
Posted by eburke at 10:10 PM | Comments (4)
September 24, 2009
And the Tony Award goes to…
In our city, we have a little theater downtown where they show kids’ plays at various times during the year. When we moved here, Alexis was only 2, but you have to be 3 to get in to the plays, so she was thrilled back in 2004 when she turned 3 and was able to attend her first play. She loved it. Ever since the first time she saw a play, Alexis has been dreaming of actually being in one, but you have to be 8. This was her year to try out.
She auditioned for a Halloween play but didn’t get a role because there is only one cast, and they had over 50 hopefuls for 16 spots. She followed that up with an audition for Pinnochio. As we left, they told everyone, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Three or four days passed with no call. One afternoon, Alexis said to Dad, “I guess I didn’t get a part in the play. Oh, well, I’ll keep trying!” Literally 2 minutes later, Mom (who didn’t hear the conversation) saw the answering machine blinking and played the message. To our surprise, one of the messages was from the theater, offering Alexis the role of “a toy” in Pinnochio!
We are all very proud of our little actress. Break a leg!
Posted by eburke at 10:49 PM | Comments (4)
July 21, 2009
Vomit Bean
At the birthday party, we got this game called Bean Boozled. Each box of Jelly Bellys comes with 10 colors and 20 flavors. In each color there’s a good flavor and bad flavor. Based on our viewing of YouTube videos, the worst flavor seemed to be “vomit”. Based on our experiment at the party, that’s true. ;)
Here’s the video of Alexis and her Vomit Bean.
Posted by eburke at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)
July 19, 2009
She’s 8 Already!
Well, almost. Today was the party, tomorrow’s the day. Can you believe it?
We did the (quasi-)usual swimming party, with a Harry Potter theme. (Alexis is currently reading Book 7 of the series.) This year, we were worried about the weather, so we scheduled a backup plan just in case. Going into the day, there was a 30% chance of rain starting at 1pm, so we were not sure if it was going to be a swim day or not. As time grew nearer, we made the call to swim and make the best of it. Grandpa Tom heated the pool to 87 and off we went.
We got there to set up around 11:00 for the 12:00 pm start time. Chairs out. Snacks ready. Decorations up. Pizza waiting to be picked up. Weatherman pushed the rain back until 6 PM. All is ready except the guests.
Phone rings. It’s one of the moms with a question. Before she hangs up, she asks if the party is still at 2. Huh? It’s at 12. No, the invite says 2, she says.
Uh-oh. Oh well, guess it’s better than the reverse where we thought it was at 2 and it was really at 12!! As it turned out, the weather was awesome and the swim day worked out perfectly. The party ended at 5:30, and the rain started at 5:35. Seriously.
Here are some pics of the day and a slideshow of her 8 birthdays!
Posted by eburke at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2009
Grand Haven 2009
Yep, you guessed it, we went for year #5 at the Grand Haven cottage. We almost didn’t go this year, but we decided to do it and we were glad we did! This year, we had some friends come up for a few days to hang out with us, which was a blast. Kids and adults alike had a ton of fun. The weather was beautiful – mostly mid-70’s and sunny. The only rain we had were two separate overnight storms –- can’t ask for much more than that!
We did the usual stuff – beach, trolley, beach, mini-golf, beach, biking, beach, toy store, beach. Oh yeah, and we went to the beach.
Enjoy the slideshow. Tons of great photos.
Posted by eburke at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 2, 2009
Fun in the Sun
We headed down to Sanibel Island again this year. We did the same thing as last year where we waited until the last minute to make sure the weather was going to be stellar, then we talked the condo owner down from the normally exorbitant rate to a more reasonable rate. In the end, we had a great time and spent a ton of time in the sun! Mom and Alexis even said it was TOO MUCH sun, but Dad disagrees. ;)
Posted by eburke at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)