Erika’s school did christmas cards this year where they used their own artowrk for the card and had them printed to give out. Here is her creation. Looks pretty good.

Erika and Justin did a roadtrip this weekend to see their cool cousins in Waterloo. It was Keegans birthday so aside from the pizza and cake there was the usual… dress up, video gaming, magnet dropping, piano playing, puzzle doing, yelling, screaming, laughing and of course the slot-machine on full tilt in the basement !! Best part… we all slept over. Justin loved hang’in in the bunk beds.

Keegan has been playing piano now for 4 years and he gave us a little show with some great tunes of course with his sister Taryn on vocals…. you can see little Aislin in this video too… she is anxious to get on the keys too. Erika has only been in her piano lessons now for about 5 weeks or so and was a little shy after hearing Keegan bounce out his “Beaver Town Boogie” - we’ll keep practicing and get her up here soon playing for Christmas maybe. Speaking of holidays… we will all be together again as the Martin family comes to visit Erika and Justin.

Joel Plaskett live in Rochester, New York on November 2, 2007 opening for the Tragically Hip at the Auditorium Theater… comes out afterwards to say “hello” to Erika and Justin… see below ! While working the Tragically Hip concert in Rochester I got to meet Joel Plaskett after his opening set. He came out to sign some of his CD’s for fans… so I grabbed one and asked for an autograph for Erika and Justin after explaining how we all enjoy his music..with our favourite tune off the new CD being “snowed in/Cruisin’” the song above.I followed that up by asking him to say “hello” to both Justin and Erika on camera. Check Joel out…

So after months of training along with a few aches and pains Justin and Erika got to see their Maman set an awesome example for us all in a few areas. Signing up for a Half-Marathon with very little running experience is putting yourself out there. Following that up with actually training with running, weights and yoga is dedication. Showing up to the race and finishing is commitment.

With a solid first time too of 2:30:18… we are proud and inspired! Check out the final moments below…white shirt-red hat.

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David Martin Finishes Scotia Marathon 2007

Erika and Justin’s Uncle Dave has been running for a few years now and ran the full Marathon today. Although he didn’t beat his personal best of 3 Hours and 21 minutes he did stop to stay with a fellow runner as she collapsed until paramedics arrived to help her. Way to go Dave. Boston 2009 ? Check Dave out below in the red shirt finishing his 42.195 kilometres in downtown Toronto. You even hear his name announced!

We played music for Erika during the pregnancy. Then she started “mommy & me ” music class at 88 Keys when she was 6 months old. As for bedtime music we used her CD player in her room every night for the last 5+ years. Children’s music, sometimes French music and alot of airplay to David Gray, James Blunt, Serena Ryder and I may have snuck in some Tragically Hip too. It has been awesome watching her discover music. Next Step…. Piano Lessons of course. We decided to stay with 88 Keys and they offer a non traditional method of piano lessons called The SUZUKI Method.

A little about the suzuki method From Wikipedia
“In the beginning, learning music by ear is emphasized over reading musical notation. This parallels language acquisition, where a child learns to speak before learning to read. Related to this, memorization of all solo repertoire is expected, even after a student begins to use sheet music as a tool to learn new pieces.”

So the way it works is that the parent actually takes 4 lessons before the child even touches the piano. This is to get me up to speed so that I am in a position to guide Erika as we practice each day. I will learn along side her. The lessons are 30 minutes one on one…. and then you actually stay and observe another Suzuki student learning for 30 minutes also. Once a month we go into a group setting where we play and interact with other students.

So I have 3 lessons under my belt and can play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Guess I have to master that before I can bang out any Elton John or Jackson Brown. This is the beginning of something… and I don’t care what it is… I just know it’s the right direction.

First Lesson… Erika sat in the back and snapped a picture.

Long weekend and we headed down to Beachfest put on by the MIX 99.9. It was at Sunnyside Beach in Toronto and there were alot of people along the waterfront because of a excellent Air show that was on for a good part of the afternoon. The main reason we went down was to see Serena Ryder. She is a soulful Canadian artist who Erika has been listening to for almost a year now I guess. Chantal Kreviazuk came on once we got into position. She sounded excellent on piano and received a nice response from her hometown crowd. Then Kalan Porter came on and sang a few of his own then butchered U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name.

So many of the teenagers bolted to get an autograph after Kalan’s show and that allowed for Erika and I to get right up to the front for Serena Ryder. Erika couldn’t believe how close we were and watched the entire show from my shoulders. Chantal and Justin came up to join us too after awhile. Erika snapped photos with here own camera and I grabbed a bunch myself. The show was great and after we headed to the side to get Serena’s autograph…. definitely worth the trip down to Lake Ontario.

I rounded the kids together after the art work session and we did the Happy Birthday video for mommmy

Imagine… 13th Row we sat and witnessed Erika take in first Big Indoor concert at the age of 4 1/2. She had been listening to James Blunt for months every night as she goes to bed so she really got it. She looked up and saw, heard and felt the music that plays on her CD Player. It was amazing to see her experience this. She took some great pictures and although a little tired at the end she sang along to many of her favourite songs including the cover-song they performed by Supertramp!

It doesn’t get any better than this…

Erika and I went to the Toronto Music Expo. There were exhibits from CD Framing to Guitars and Pianos. Erika’s favourite was the 100 set Drum Area where you could try all sorts of quite rubber drums with headphones. At the end of the day we watched Honeymoon Suite perform… just to add another concert to her list

Justin strolled back into daycare after being away only one month and the teachers were asking “what happened”? Maybe it was all that fresh northern air while at the Blue Demon Lodge… or is it just the dreaded terrible “2’s” ?Erika started Junior Kindergarten and looks all grown up in her “school uniform” We snapped some pictures and recorded a short video for her to giggle at down the road.