Zoom Dance!

We discovered Zoom Dance over a year ago. It is a very interesting concept. Sarah (and the other teachers) lead an active class focused on a book. The children dance/act out the story. It's very creative and reasonably priced, too. We bought a five-pack of classes last summer/fall, but we haven't used them up yet. I love how they don't expire. Jeremy didn't take to it as well as I would have liked and then we had a busier than expected fall. I am looking forward to continuing this fall -- She plans to open Society Hill and South Philly locations. They currently have classes in Rittenhouse, Fairmount, and West Philly. The classes are geared for children 1.5 and up. She is having mini-camp sessions in August for three to four mornings each -- $90 for a three-day session ($110 for the four-day). The themes are James and the Giant Peach, The Wizard of Oz, and the Lorax. See the site for more info! They do neat birthday parties, too!

Jeremy Goes to the Movies!

We just took Jeremy to his first movie, Winnie the Pooh! This new version of Winnie the Pooh is old-fashioned animation (i.e. no Pixar, 3D, etc.) They combined several of the Winnie the Pooh stories into a quasi new one. It was funny, clever, and adorable and appealed to Jeremy and his parents! We went to Loews in Cherry Hill, where it turns out they have a stack of booster seats right outside the theater door.  Same at United Artists Riverview on Columbus Boulevard (although not my favorite theater.) It played at several times so we went at 4:50 after his nap.  Lots of children were attending their first movie! The movie was only 69 minutes and Jeremy sat very still -- he loved it and watched it very closely. During the previews he kept asking, "Is this the movie?" The next day he recapped the story for us and told us his favorite parts. After the movie we went to a very child-friendly diner, as many are! Right next to the theater is Silver City Diner. Upon entering, every child receives a colorful cardboard car (which we quickly learned how to reassemble). The menus (for children and adults) include many healthy and organic farm-to-table options. Jeremy's grilled cheese came with strawberries! The service was quick. We bought a song on the juke box for a quarter (Sesame Street) and we were in and out before it even came on! A very successful adventure and so exciting to watch Jeremy watch his first movie!

Professional Photos

We recently had our first professional family photography session...and the results are phenomonal! (Well, we had one little session at Babies R Us when Jeremy was nine months old and one at Sears when he was two years old, but this is a whole different ballgame.)This time we wanted to have outdoor, on location portraits. I found Tricia Ebarvia and boy were we lucky. She has three boys, the youngest one day older than Caleb, so she knows kids. Her business is relatively new, but she has been an amateur photographer for years. Her calendar is already nearly full for the summer --- word of Tricia must be spreading! She met us for an hour one morning in Washington Square Park and we had a field day. She works so well around naps and kid-related things, while still aiming for the best time of day photo-wise. She captured so many beautiful moments, expressions, and combinations of the four of us. We wound up purchasing the CD -- too hard to decide which prints to buy. I just ordered the professional quality prints on mpix.com. I can't wait until they arrive!