Class of 2021!

This is the youngest Prince with his teacher and they are showing off his certificate of completion of the Pre-K program at the school in the dale. We went to see him perform in his end of the year program this past evening. He did a great job of singing and performing.

For those of you who know the Prince, you will find what his teacher told the Queen after the program very interesting. She said that if she had a class full of kids like the Prince that it would be a boring class ... WHAT?! ... She explained that it's not that he's boring it's just that he is so well behaved, that he never gave her any trouble, whatever she asked him to do, he did ... WHAT?!!!!! ... I would like to live in that peaceful world for one minute! He sure keeps us on our toe here at home, so I do have to say that I am proud of him, and I guess I'm grateful that he saved all of his button pushing for home.

The Queen said that he came home from school today with as sticker on his shirt that read "Class of 2021." Talk about a mind blower! I'll be 57 when he graduates which means I will be marking the the 40th year of my graduation from High School ... Wow!

Here are some pictures from our evening.

It's a Small World!

This little girl has been "in love" with the Prince all year long ... Hopefully we wont have to worry about them getting hitched until 2025.

Here he is with the Teachers assistant. She was very nice and the Prince really liked her.

And, with the Principal.

Way to go Buddy! I love you!

We've Got Annie!

Last night the 5Th graders at the school in the dale performed scenes and songs form the musicals Annie and Newsies. Our Princess was selected to play Annie and I'm sure its because she was so familiar with the songs, thanks to her Aunt Gigi letting her watch it a million times at her place, and the fact that she has a nice singing voice. We were so proud of her and all of the 5Th graders for doing such an excellent job. The school in the dale is a performing and fine arts school and this program was to be a culmination of all the things they have learned through their years of being there. Here are some pictures and video clips from the show. And, remember the sound in the clips is never as good as the live performance.


Here is the princess a Orphan Annie. That's Grace to her left and the staff at the mansion behind her.

Here's a video clip of It's a Hard Knock Life performance.


Her teacher added this solo performance of Tomorrow a couple of weeks ago.

Another video of I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here.

And now for the last performance, Annie and Daddy Warbucks will sing I Don't Need Anything But You.

We were glad that Aunt Gigi, Uncle Harry and Cousin Shelby came to see the performance.

They gave the Princess some flowers!

The Cast!

Daddy Warbucks, Annie, Molly, Grace and Miss Hannigan.

P2 and P1 the tried on the Annie wig after the show and cracked us up. I don't think they would make very good Annies even though they know most of the songs.

It was a great evening of great talent. We have two more events to attend at the school next week ... P2's graduation from Pre-K and the Princess' bridging to middle school ceremony ... which means there will be at least two blog entries from me next week!

Happy Anniversary, Darlin'

Happy Anniversary, Darlin'!

Thank you for the best 12 years of my life!!

I love you, I love you

M. P.

Fill in the Blank

The youngest prince's filled in the blanks on this page from a book his Pre-K class made for their mothers. The Queen wasn't too discouraged by the third answer when she saw that another student had answered 93 for her mother!

Music Man

The 3rd and 4Th graders of the school in the dale did their performance of scenes and musical numbers from Music Man. Prince 1 had a small part (Winthrop), and as always, did a great job. I'm always amazed when I watch him perform because he's never nervous. Here are a few pictures and videos from the performance.

This picture and the next were taken during the "76 Trombones" number.

He was playing air trumpet during "76 Trombones." You know, I don't remember seeing one trombone, real or fake.

Receiving their well deserved applause!

P2 in the yellow shirt running to give his brother a hug after the performance.

Next is a video clip of the song "The Wells Fargo Wagon." P1 is standing at the right of the stage with a straw hat on.

Sorry, I messed up again and turned the camera sideways, so you can either turn your head or close your eye and listen to part of "76 Trombones." P1 comes in at the end playing the trumpet.


This is a clip of the finale. It begins with P1 in the straw hat holding the trumpet.

The End!

The Mother of My Children - All Hail The Queen

This is the Queen. You can see why I married her ... She's Hot! But, better than that, she's smart and she's the world's greatest Mom! Now you may want to disagree with me, but don't, on this point I cannot be swayed.

Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? (can't you just her Stevie Wonder singing?)

Here she is with her Mother ... Happy Mothers Day my dear Mother In-Law ... Thank you for your Daughter!

Here she is with the kids that gave her the right to be called a Mother ... and an Aunt! That's one of her favorite nieces at the right in the picture.

Now, what follows is proof that she is possibly one of the most fun Moms in the world! I loved that she did this and so did her kids.

I love you, I love you ... Thank you for being such a wonderful Mother to our children ... What is good in them is because of you.

SB & MP FOREVER!

Happy Mothers Day Mom/Grandmother

My beautiful Mother ... I thought I would show what you looked like before your children got a hold of you and put some gray in your beautiful black hair.

Still beautiful!

That's right ... Take a load off, It's your day!

We will always remember Darth Grandmother (good way to cover those grays without all the chemicals)

We love you ... As always.

Goodbye Eddy

As you may know Eddy Arnold died yesterday. What you probably don't know is the Queen really liked Eddy Arnold and his music. I read her an article that had been written about him and his passing ... in the article there was a list of his hit songs ... as I read a song title she was able to break out into that song. I was amazed because I had never heard of most of them. I asked her how she knew all of those songs and she said that her dad had an 8 track tape of his greatest hits when she was young and that they listened to it all the time. In all of our hundreds of CD's we do not have one of Eddy Arnold ... guess what one of her gifts for Mothers Day will be?

What I remember about Eddy Arnold is that he did the Farmbest Ice Cream commercial and sang, "You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream ..." I can sing that!

Goodbye Eddy, you will be missed at our house!

My Eyes of Georgia

When I was a kid I used to like to sing along to this song. I sang "My eyes of Georgia, though I never laid a hand on you, my eyes of Georgia ..." Makes some sense, not complete sense, but some. It was not until I was an adult that I learned that the words were really "My Eyes Adored You." I've made mistakes with lyrics many times in my life ... this is my first confession.

Now for your listening pleasure, 2 songs for the click of one, "My Eyes of Georgia" or "My Eyes Adored You." You decide which is better!

Been There, Done That ... Part 1 X3

Have you ever been to Mount Rushmore? I've been there 3 times. I went on whim with my friend Ann and her sister back in the early nineties. The Queen and I went on our Honeymoon in 1996, and this past summer we loaded up the kids plus our niece and headed out on a 2 week vacation to the western frontier and made Mount Rushmore our first major stop.

Mount Rushmore is great, but it isn't the only thing to do and see in the Black Hills area of South Dakota.

Just 20 minutes away from Mt. Rushmore is Jewel Cave National Monument. It was really interesting and the kid were able to earn there Junior Ranger badges there.

Next we drove 20 minutes south to Wind Cave Nat'l Park. The kids said they liked this cave better than Jewel Cave, and I would have to agree with them.

When we left Wind Cave NP we drove south to the town of Hot Springs to get gas, and on our way we saw some bison and a coyote along the side of the road. As you can well imagine the kids thought that was too cool.

After getting gas we drove back north about 30 minutes to Crazy Horse Memorial. The Queen and I found it odd that the kids said this was their favorite place that we went to in SD. The memorial isn't even finished, but they do have a great museum and we did get to see a laser show (I slept through it) on the side of the mountain where the carving is going on.

All of the pictures and snippets above represents one day of fun in the black hills.

On our way into the Rapid city area the day before we drove through Badlands Nat'l Park. It was so hot ... 107 degrees ... but it was beautiful.

We also stopped at the famous Wall Drug Store. All the way across I-90 going west there are signs every few miles advertising Wall Drug Store and offering free ice water for thirsty travelers. When the Queen and I went there on our honeymoon we saw a sign that offered a free doughnut to traveling newlyweds, so we asked for our and got them . The kids had a big time there. Besides there being a million souvenirs to spend there money on, they had all kinds of cheesy props in which to take their pictures on and with. They were also able to cool off from the 100+ temperature by playing in the water spouts that came out of the ground.

On our way out of the Blackhills/Rapid City we drove through Custer State Park. We also stopped in a little town and ate at a cafe where the Princess, Prince 1 and I added to our wild west experience and ordered buffalo burgers.

So, if you're looking for a great "Been There Done That" place to go ... I suggest you go to the Blackhills/Rapid City area of South Dakota. As you can see from our pictures that there is quite a bit to do ... We could have stayed another two days and still not have seen everything there is to see.