Paul Mitchell Hair Academy

Tony's father is a hairdresser - an excellent one at that! Before he retired two years ago, he was a partner in a group of beauty schools. After he retired, he was contacted by some executives who wanted to start another beauty school, and they wanted him to run it. He was reluctant, but they convinced him to return to work for another five years.

Well, this past Monday was the official opening of the school.

John Paul is the owner of the Paul Mitchell Beauty Industry. You may recognize the name of the Paul Mitchell hair products line. I didn't meet him(John Paul), but he was there that night.

The New York Philharmonic

We are fortunate enough to live close to one of the world's greatest symphonic orchestras! We have a subscription to the Young People's concert series, which includes four Saturday matinee concerts. This is the first timewe have done this, and we had a blast! We drove into New York City yesterday and parked in one of the parking garages. Before we walked across the street to Lincoln Center, though,

we stopped in to the Manhattan Temple to visit some of the cleanest restrooms in the city.

There was a farmer's market in Lincoln Square Park, where we had lunch - soft pretzels, hot apple cider, and lemonade(and water).

Then we went to Lincoln Center to Avery Fisher Hall, where the concert was going to be held.
Before the concert began, there was Kidzone Live set up in all levels of the lobbies outside of the concert hall. If you're not sure what I mean, check it out for yourself at http://www.nyphilkids.org/ . It's really neat!

The boys tried out different instruments,

saw New York Philharmonic Musicians performing,

and participated in a quiz show.

They won some neat prizes, too!

Block Party

We celebrated a block party yesterday. I'll post pictures tomorrow. We have a really long street(a mile all the way around, surrounding other streets with state names), but we limited our invitations to about 15 houses. There were people on the rest of our street coming to us and asking us to include them the next time we have a block party, because they live on the(as they put it)boring side of the street!

We had Karaoke in our front yard, Guitar Hero, a firepit in the street, lots of snacks, a BBQ, and lots of music. The children rode their bikes, scooters, played basketball, and stickball. It was interesting to notice that most of the families in our neighborhood have mostly boys.