Eliza's Surprise Solo

The night of the Winter Concert was just like any other night. We were getting ready to head up to the school and I was doing my best to get everyone fed. When I asked Eliza if she'd like something to eat, she said she was too nervous to eat. I was confused by this because usually she's fine in the choir so I said, "Why are you so nervous? It's not like you have a solo. You're with the whole group." She replied in her usual way with, "Maybe I do have a solo or maybe not." I said, "You don't have a solo," thinking that she would have mentioned it sooner and it seemed out of character for her to put herself out there and try out. Time ended our conversation as she was out the door. At the Winter Concert, which was standing room only, we sit through 3 orchestras and 3 choirs. Finally it's Eliza's choir's turn. The PowerPoint slide comes onscreen to tell us what they're singing and lo and behold the little stinker has a solo! Of course we're now frantically figuring out a way to record the aforementioned stinker since without the heads up we didn't bother to bring the camera. Steven pulls out his phone, the song starts, Eliza steps up to the mic, he pushes record, she starts to sing and...the phone shuts off by itself. She did amazing and it was so cool to see her step out of her comfort zone. We of course punished her for not telling us sooner. The punishment was tasking her with the challenge of finding a recording of her performance. She succeeded! So below is the video of the debut of Eliza's solo career. Enjoy!

Video courtesy of Cat Hansel's family

Snow Day #5 for the 2016/2017 school year

These are some shots I took when Eliza and I took a midnight stroll on 1/11/2017. It was also still snowing!

See See's 11th birthday party

The theme this year was The Dark Side. See See dressed up as Darth Vader, but her name was Darth Marse. 

We had 5 of her friends attend and as they came in they were registered for Storm Trooper Boot Camp. They received their Star Wars name and ID badge and headed off to consume some snacks before their rigorous training. 

To test their hand/eye coordination, they painted on tiles. They then each took a turn on the obstacle course under the direction of the storm trooper trainer, Darth Marse. First they had to throw 3 mini Death Stars into the planet toss. Then they had to successfully navigate through the dark tunnel. Next was hitting all the Jedi while missing the tie fighter. Then hitting a balloon with a light saber 10 times. Last, but not least, was traversing the lasers to steal the droid with the rebel base plans.

We had cake, a photo shoot, and instead of presents all for her, See See wanted a Galaxy gift exchange. After all of the scheduled activities, a rousing game of balloon volleyball entertained everyone until it was time to go home. Everyone had a great time!

Whole30 Experience

Our first Whole30 experience is behind us. We're in the reintroduction phase now, but Steve, Eliza and I finished our 30 day experiment strong. We all saw great results. Better sleep, less anxiety, clearer skin, more energy, the list goes on and on. Plus as an added benefit we all lost some weight and inches. Eliza and I had to buy new pants as our old ones were too big! We plan on continuing to eat this way most of the time. It's just so tasty! 

Here are the before and after pics. 

Eliza lost 16lbs and 11 inches in 30 days

Steve lost 10lbs and 14.25 inches in 30 days

I lost 20.2lbs and 11 inches in 30 days

We'll update again in another 30 days! :)