Very cool discovery

Where do I start I am so behind it isn't funny. I guess the best thing is to start backward and keep going till I catch up. So here we go......

This last week I made a very cool discovery. Don't ask me why it took me so long to figure this out but it did. Since January MacKenzie has been taking ice skating lessons. She has taken four sessions the last that just ended this week. I was looking at the schedule to see when it would start up again and what time the classes would be. While on the website I went over to the coaches page to see what it said about the three coaches that MacKenzie had, when I got a very plesant suprise. Below is the blurb from the rinks site:

Tatyana Malinina U.S. Junior National Coach, 25 years skating experience, 2 time Olympic and 10 time world competitor. 3rd place in World Championship free skating.

Then I did a little more searching and found out even more on her. Tatyana is a very serious coach. Not mean but you can see that she is out there to teach the kids and wants to see them succeed. This makes so much more sense now. She is a really good coach and we liked her alot. After googleing her name I found some stuff on Youtube of her. It isn't the best quiality but it is from 1999. You can also see more about here and here.

tatiana malinina montage

And the coach that MacKenzie had the session before was her husband Roman Skorniakov. We really liked him too. Below is video of him at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake. He also skated in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. You can read more about him here and here. Here is the description the rinks site of Roman:Roman Skornyakov Figure Skating and Hockey Skating Coach. U.S. Junior National Coach, 2 time Olympic and 7 time World Competitor, numerous International competitions, Coaching degree in Physical Education in Figure Skating.

.

Roman Skorniakov 02 Olympics LP UZB

We have been very very happy with all of the coaches that MacKenzie has had at the rink and plan to keep her going there for as long as she is interested. This just makes us realized that we are definitely getting the best training around.

Jersey

Hello from New Jersey. I know that I haven't posted in a while but with everything happening in our house the blog got a little neglected. So I thought I would do a little bit while I was here in New Jersey. Last Saturday that kids and I hit the road for the drive to Jersey. I figured they could use a little time away from home and that they would enjoy a few fun adventures. So after a little bit of a late start and four hours we arrived in New Egypt. It really isn't that bad of a drive only about 4 hours. Kenzie usually reads or messes with her Ipod and Cameron will usually sleep for a couple of hours and then watches a movie on the portable DVD player. Once we got up here the only thing we had to do was run to PetsMart to get crickets for Fred. Yes I brought the frog with me. I figured that my neighbor already had her hands full with two cats and the fish so bringing Fred was the best choice. Things here have been good. We have been trying to fit in as much fun as we can. Each kid got to have their own day with something special for them. Kenzie even got two days because Poppie made arrangements for a very fun surprise just for her. I took Kenzie to Six Flags and Cameron to Elmo's House (aka Sesame Place). We got to go swimming in two big pools first with my sister Meg's best friend Kelly and then with my Aunt Kate. We were lucky because we also got to see Aunt Mary and Maryanne while at Aunt Kate's. Maryanne and I had our first "Great Cousin Cake Swap" and the kids swam thier little hearts out. There was also a trip to Columbus Farmers Market where we got some great candles (thanks for the tip Kelly) and had Pete's Pizza (the best Siciallian pizza you will ever have) And right before we went home I took the kids to one of my all time favorite places in New Jersey, the Jersey Shore. I have so many great memories there that it is great to be able to share them with the kids. To my suprise neither of the kids were afaraid of the the ocean and waves. I really should have taken another adult with me because both kids contiunally ran into the ocean in different directions. I finally had to just hold Cam so I could keep an eye on MacKenzie. I am glad that they enjoyed it as much as I do. I promise to post pictures later.

(I am home now and just forgot to add this post. I am trying to get stuff up here. Things are hectic and we are trying to find out grove minus one very important person. I promise to start getting things up here very soon. It is just that right now the computer is not where I am spending my time. I am trying to figure out how to post from my Blackberry since that is the main way I see the Internet these days. Hang in there and I will soon catch up. *~*~Julie*~*~)

Double Digits!!!

Today my first born baby girl turned 10!!!
Happy Birthday MacKenzie Dianne.  We all love you!

Sisters

Mini Vacation

We are currently on vacation in New Jersey for my mom's 60th birthday. We have been having tons of fun. Especially because my sister and niece flew in from Wyoming just for the party. It has been fun being Aunt JuJu for the first time. I have a million pictures to post and will do that after we head back to VA. Tonight it is packing and getting ready for the drive home tomorrow. I am posting one picture of me and my sisters. I love them and love the picture. More soon.

Cheap Date

Today I am flying solo with the kids like we usually do every once in a while. So after skating lessons this morning we headed home for a little lunch when I remembered that today there is a Kidgits activity at the mall. For those of you that don't know Kidgits is a kids club through our local mall. Actually they have it a bunch of malls own by the same group that owns our mall. I signed both kids up though MacKenzie rarely gets to reap the benefits. What I like about it is that the membership fee is $5 for a full year. When you sign up they give you a t-shirt and at every event there are premiums for members. Then once a month on the third Thursday at 10am they have some kind of activity. Usually it is a story time, but every once in a while it is something really fun like Gymboree. And then there are special activities like today that happen on the weekend. So I packed the kids up and headed to the mall. Once there we hit the sign in desk to collect our goodies. Today the premium was a canvas apron, lollipop, cellophane cone, and a cool little baking set. the first station that we hit was the lollipop bouquet table. This table had flowers that you could color then you poked your lollipop in the middle to make it a flower. Next we made candy bracelets out of shoestring licorice and fruit loops and then "trail mix" out of raisins, fruit loops, and Cheerios to put in our cellophane cone. Final stop on our activity list was the painting station. I was smart to keep that last because I didn't bring the stroller and I knew I would have to carry two aprons withe wet fabric paint so keeping that last was good. After we painted our aprons (I help Cam if you couldn't tell) we got our treat which was a sample of Rita's Italian water ice. Best part of that was they were giving out a coupon for buy one get one free, which we very quickly took advantage of. So all told we have a very nice outing that the kids enjoyed and in the end it only cost me a total of $2.64 (the price of the Rita's I had to buy to get one free). I get so jazzed when we can come up with something cheap and easy (no clean up on my part) for the kids to do. To add to our cheap date we will be heading off to one of Kenzie's friends softball game (also free).

Splish Splash

We don't have a flat back yard or much grass so last year I bought a small round hard plastic pool to put on the deck for Cameron to play in.  We do take the kids in the front every once in a while to play in the sprinkler but I wanted something he could play in while I was cooking dinner or sitting on the deck.  Well this year we upgraded to a bigger pool.  The little one was just fine for Cam but Kenzie expressed interest in playing in the pool and the little one just didn't fit both kids.  So Kenzie and I headed off to Kmart a few weeks ago and picked up a bigger pool.  That was fun fitting it in my car.  It barely made it.  Matter of fact Kenzie rode home with the pool over top her head.  Lucky for us Kmart is only a 10 minute trip from our house.  The kids love the pool.  Kenzie likes when Cameron takes his naps and she can take all the toys out and just float on the ring.  The love it.  I hate that it take up so much room on the deck but if it makes the kids happy and cool in the summer than I will deal with it.

This is my favorite picture so far. He had a blast torturing her.