Cadence's Christmas Recital 2019

This year at Cadence's Christmas recital, she got to play Jingle Bells on the piano.  She did such a great job and I can't believe how much she's learned in the year and a half she's been playing.  I'm looking forward to hearing what she plays for us at the spring recital!

The Lex Center posted some "behind the scenes" pictures.  Here's Cadence waiting her turn to perform.

I'm always impressed how she's able to get up on stage and play for a large crowd made up of mostly adults!

Perfect backdrop for a family photo

The deer is back!

Awwwwwwwwww

Grandma and Poppa came to support the Peanut!

Curtain Call

The kids had fun with the "photo booth"

Pure Randomness

Again, another blog post without a "theme" per se - but includes things that are still worth sharing!

One day over the weekend, Danny told me I had to take a picture of the trees in the backyard because there were so many colors.  Look how pretty!

The day after Thanksgiving, Danny and I met up with our college roommates for dinner and drinks downtown.  They usually come to Columbus for a Buckeye football game once a year and it's always a good time when we get together.  It's nice to catch up and also reminisce on the days of '01-'05.  

At school, Cadence had to create a living thing out of a pumpkin.  She chose to make a platypus.  This is the finished product (after it had been transported to and from school) - she was so proud of it.

Colin's teacher posted this picture from school.  I think he was pretty pumped about the Lego tower he built.  

Look below to see how goofy my kids are - all 3 of them!

Colin popped a ball that he was playing with in the basement - he decided to put said popped ball on top of his head like a hat!

After Cadence's dentist appointment we had to check her in at school office - the principal let her know that her class was awarded the Hallway Heroes for their behavior the previous week.  She got to bring the sign (the line leader gets to carry it for the class through the hallways as a way to show off) and surprise her class.  She was in a silly mood that morning.

Oh, and Scarlet...love that pooch!

Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Prep

Danny and my dad had the day before Thanksgiving off from work, so along with the kids, they headed to the Columbus Culinary Institute to help Fry Out Cancer (Fry Out Cancer).  The guy who started the whole event used to work with Danny, so that's how they all got involved.  He started frying turkeys in his back yard to raise money for cancer-related charities.  The event has grown so big that they had to look at a different location for 2018.  There were culinary students there this year, so they had a lot of help.

Danny, my dad, and the kids helped wrap the turkeys after they were fried and had a chance to cool down.  It was pretty chilly outside - Danny snapped a picture of the kids while they were taking a break.  I think their "break" was longer than anyone else's, but who's counting?

That evening they helped cut the bread so it could become stale for the stuffing!  They're becoming good little helpers in the kitchen.  

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at our house and Mom and Dad came over for dinner.  Mike and his girlfriend were in Dayton to celebrate with her family.  We had a lot of leftovers for the week!

Decorating for Christmas in the Schuerman household usually starts the day after Thanksgiving.  Since Danny and I get the day after Thanksgiving off from work, we usually spread the decorating out over the entire weekend (you have to fit the Ohio State/*ichigan game in there too!)  On Friday we put out some decorations and put up the little tree that is reserved for the mini-Hallmark ornaments that were handed down to us from Danny's grandparents.  The kids love this tree (and we do too).  It serves a dual purpose in that it is like a nightlight in the hallway near the kids' bedrooms.

I think the kids also helped me put the big artificial tree up - it's quite a process because each branch is an individual piece and it takes a lot of fluffing each branch after being packed away all year!  I spent some time after the football game putting the lights on so that we could begin putting the ornaments on the tree on Sunday!

After I snapped some pictures of the kids decorating skills in action, Colin confiscated the camera...

The finished product - I love our tree

I had to get a picture of the house with the lights on the bushes after the first snowfall

So pretty!

The kids' school has a morning for Pastries with Parents - poor Cadence came down with strep throat, so Danny stayed home with her while I took Colin.  They had quite the impressive spread for us!  Bagels and cream cheese, muffins, doughnuts, coffee cake, danishes...mmmmmmmm  

We were in continental breakfast (carb overload) heaven.

Snapchat fun!

The next day, Cadence had to stay home from school again, but she was able to go to her piano rehearsal to prep for the Christmas recital.  Everything was decorated for Christmas at the church, so we had to stop for a photo op.  She was a fan of the deer.

We had to squeeze in a trip to see Santa!  This year we took advantage of the 'Fast Pass' - it was $10 well spent to not have to stand in line for forever!  Colin acted like he had seen a celebrity - he thought the whole thing was so fun!  Cadence was an awesome big sis and helped keep the spirit alive.

Girls Only!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Mom and I took Cadence to the uPaint Pottery Studio for some "Girls Only" time.  We had talked about an outing like this for some time, and we finally had the opportunity to do it!  It was a quiet afternoon where we got to chill out and spend some time together.  Cadence picked out a fox to paint, while Mom picked out a snowman, and I picked out a Christmas tree.  All of our pieces turned out really nicely and we had a good time making our pieces pretty!

Taekwondo!

Shortly after Halloween, the kids attended their first taekwondo class.  Baseball was over for Colin, and Cadence was attending one piano lesson each week.  I contacted the owner of the local company and found out that the kids could start in November since a new testing cycle had started - essentially everyone was starting with new material.  We were looking for something for the kids to try before basketball and cheer started up after Christmas and thought, "let's try taekwondo."  There's a location 5 minutes from home and a Westerville location that has classes on Saturday as well.  They offered a free class to make sure the kids liked it.  The instructors do a good job to make sure the kids have fun and enjoy it - they are a business after all.  It's awesome that the kids want to continuously do better and earn the next stripe on their belt.  Since starting in November, the kids earned all of the stripes for their white belt and then earned their yellow belts before Christmas.  Cadence has set a personal goal of earning her green belt by Halloween.  I think she can do it as long as she sticks with it.  The kids also want one of these to display their belts:

I'm happy that both kids have found something that they enjoy and take pride in.  I'm also happy that the schedule is flexible and we can attend as many classes in a week that we would like.  With the kids' ages and skill level, they can attend the same class.  The instructors and senior students do a great job and I hope the kids want to continue with lessons.  I'm looking forward to the days when they can break a board of wood!

During the class, they split the kids up to provide more one-on-one attention and to also keep things interesting

Cadence proudly displaying her latest achievement

The awards ceremony where the kids received their yellow belts

They're such awesome kids and I'm proud to be their mom!