Taughannock Falls, Ithaca

Paul has been taking most of the Fridays off during August and we've been trying to do something fun each week. This week, we decided to head down to Ithaca and go to Taughannock Falls. We hadn't been there in at least 4 years - since before Joey was born.

We love walking along the creek down to the waterfall. This year, we started with a picnic lunch at the observation point of the falls.

And, here are some goofy pictures we took :)

After hiking to the falls and back, we went to this huge playground across the street. The kids had so much fun - there were a lot of rides and things that we hadn't seen before - like some spinning ones that Emily loved.

On the way back home, we stopped at one of the wineries along the lake - the Thirsty Owl and did a wine tasting. I was shocked when Paul came up with the idea since he's not a big wine drinker. We actually found two different white wines we both liked, so we bought some to take home.

And we ended our day with dinner at Friendlys.

Art Camp for Alli

Alli had so much fun at Art Camp last summer that she wanted to do it again this year. She went every afternoon for a week and her buddy Elizabeth went too. They got to play with all different kinds of art mediums, paints, clay, etc., but I think her favorite part was the face/body painting they got to do everyday. She loved showing them off to us when we picked her up.

101 Dalmations & Our Star Emily

Last year during the holidays, the girls and I went to see a performance of Madeline's Christmas at Stages at the Auditorium Theater. After the performance, the kids answered questions from the audience and Emily learned that a lot of them had started acting at a young age. The director mentioned that they had summer programs and Emily wanted so badly to be a part of it. We looked up the website on the internet and she saved it as a favorite to keep checking back on the summer programs. Finally, we saw that they were going to have a two week summer camp of 101 Dalmations. We got her signed up right away.

The camp was every morning for two weeks. The first day, the kids got a book with the parts and lines and learned a song and some dance steps. Emily practiced all afternoon and her hard work paid off. The next day was auditions and she got the part of Anita. She was so excited.

Every day, she worked hard and loved it. She knew all the songs and even a lot of the lines for other characters. They were going to have two performances - one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning.

The day of the first performance, I think I was more nervous than Emily (but, of course, I didn't want to say anything and cause her any anxiety). I don't know why I was so nervous - she did fabulously!!!! She was a natural on that stage. She remembered all of her lines and spoke nice and loud and clear. Paul and I were SO proud of her!!