Video of Scott and Chance at the Piano

This is a video of Scott playing the piano and Chance singing along. They are performing the ABC song from the TV show Super Why on PBS. Notice Chance's bow at the end.

Our New Piano

piano still in the store

A few weeks ago I told you we would be getting a new piano, well yesterday it finally arrived.

Delivery trailer
Though it was supposed to be delivered on the 19th the movie it was in went over pushing the delivery back to the 22nd which was ok by me as Scott didn't get home till the 20th this way we would all be here for the delivery. They pulled up in front of the house just before 5pm, Chance and I went out to watch.

The guys from LaFargue working hard.
It was hard work to get the piano up the few stairs into the house but these guys know what they are doing so it was in the house in no time. We had already prepped the house for the arrival of the piano so they could easily move it into place.

Chance being first to play the new piano.
After the piano was in it's new home and set up, Chance was the first person to "play" it. He is very excited as we all are to have a big piano in the house. We have set up a few rules but since he is used to being around instruments he is doing a wonderful job with the new piano. We pulled out some of our song books and Scott started to play while Chance and I sang along. Then Chance reminded us that we should take turns so we each got an opportunity to play. After that Chance went over to his little piano and started to play along, for a little while it was like dueling pianos, but it was all in good fun.

I want to send a big thank you to Nana and Grandpa Von for providing the funds to get this piano. Without you this above picture would not be possible. Just after the piano arrived when Scott sat down and started to play, Chance asked him to teach him how to play so Scott picked him up and they sat together playing the piano for quite a while. Thank you both.

Facetime

Now that Scott and I both have iPhone 4Gs we can do a little thing called facetime. Which is basically video phone. Instead of just talking on the phone we can also see each other, it's pretty cool especially for Chance. Now we can call Daddy to tell him goodnight and actually see him. The other day Scott took a screen shot of what we look like when we are facetimeing him. It's pretty cute, this is what he sees when we are all on the phone talking together.

Concert in the Quarter

Yesterday we went with a friend from the playgroup to a kids concert in the Quarter. It was held at the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park which is the only national park dedicated to an art form and within walking distance to the house. When we first arrived two of the park rangers were on stage finishing their set. We only caught the last two songs but learned later that they had played songs tracing the history of jazz which I have to say sounds like the best park ranger job in the world.
Soon Johnette Downing came on which is who we were there to see. She played lots of great kids music and both Chance and Lilly had a wonderful time singing along, dancing and playing drums. In the first picture they are looking at the book "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly" while we all sang along. In the second picture they are getting ready to jump along to the song every time we said the word 'jump'. They are having this concert series in December and then all next year too so I think we will be going back.

I to I

Sorry I haven't been keeping up to date very well, things are crazy around here and I haven't been in the writing mood but I will try to do better. These are a couple pictures I took at I to I last Thursday. Chance has fun there but the general structure of I to I doesn't fit his personality very well so each day we visit is a bit of a trial but you can see it's not all bad he loves playing outside with his friends.
Just look at that smile in the first picture, priceless.

Black and Gold

In case you don't know last Sunday the Saints won their game and whenever that happens some special birds show up in City Park. The day after each winning game a flock of black and gold flamingos land somewhere in the park. Last Monday I saw a picture posted on City Park's facebook page and since we had nothing else to do and I was sure I recognized the location of the birds we decided to get in the car and head out to find them. Sure enough there they were stuck in the grass right by the playground. We had a good time petting them and running around in between them. Let's hope for another Saints win this week so we can check out these special birds one more time.

Piano

Look what's coming home with us on the 19th:


Thanks to Nana and Grandpa Von we will have a piano in the house very soon. We spotted it last time we were out looking at the piano store and knew if would be perfect for us, it plays well, is in good shape and was the right price. So after a little money shuffling (thank you again Nana and Grandpa Von) we went back a couple days later and purchased it. Though it belongs to us we won't be able to get it till the 19th because it is going to be in a movie. The Lucky One is being shot just outside New Orleans this month. I am very excited to be getting a piano because it is an instrument we can all play Scott and I both play and so can both be part of teaching Chance. We've already cleared out a spot for the piano to go now we just wait...sometimes waiting is hard:)

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday we went trick or treating with our playgroup friends. We were to meet them uptown (the same place we went last year) at 5:30 but with the Saints game (Who Dat!!) we wanted to make sure we were able to get through the Dome traffic and to our destination on time meaning we were ready to go a bit early. This first picture is Chance sitting on the couch in costume being bored waiting till it was time to leave the house.

We arrived a little early at State Street so we decided to hit a few houses before everyone else joined us. This picture is Chance and I returning from the "big house on the corner" our first trick-or-treating house of the evening.
Chance did an excellent job this year, he remembered exactly what to do and was very excited to get tons of candy. Either Scott or I walked up to a few houses with him but he did most of them all on his own, well actually with his little friends. They went up as a team each saying trick-or-treat and thank you.

Last year Chance was a little worried when we got to the houses that were really decorated for the holiday but this year he was very brave taking on the scary houses with little hesitation. Candy is a wonderful motivator. This picture is Chance, Octavian and Ximena in front of some awesome decorations.

Chance had a great time and didn't really want to leave but we had walked all up and down the portion of State Street that is closed to cars so it was time to leave. After we got home we turned on the game and dumped out the candy. Chance got a serious haul of candy between trick-or-treating, the parade Saturday and the playdate on Friday.
We've decided to let him eat as much as he wanted then taper him off on Monday after all it is Halloween.

This is just a photo of some of the decorations at the first house we went to. Where we went most of the houses go all out for Halloween.

P.S. there may be actual piano purchasing today, I'm so excited, Thank you Nana and Grandpa Von!!