Lights! Camera! Dance! The Rehearsal...

We got a new camera. So far, we are not very good at it. I'm working on it, and so is hubby. The "crop" feature has become my very best friend. Great googily moogily. Anyway, the reason we bought a camera is for the performances the kids will be in this Christmas season. My phone is great for stills, but you add lights and motion and it's all over but the screaming. Usually it's me screaming because I missed something, but you get the idea.

And speaking of pictures, I am about to inundate you with a plethora of various shots from rehearsal. The big girl and the boy had 2 shows this weekend. The first was a tree lighting and performance, the second was just performance. I don't have many action shots from the performances because I was helping kids into costumes and we are still novices with the camera. The first night, my batteries died. The second day, the camera kinda freaked on me a little and quit working. I didn't think about taking the batteries out then putting them back in until we were on our way home. If all else fails, do a hard reboot. These are just rehearsal pics. I'll post pictures from performances later. Ready for pics? Here we go:

The big girl and her friend, B. I love these girls! Whenever they are together, they're dancing. In class, out of class, in the living room, with a fox, in a box, on a plane, on a train. They may not like green eggs and ham, but they love to dance!

This is just part of the group. There are a couple of more at the end of this line, but for some reason, I didn't add that pic. Hmmm...

I love this shot. Just happens to be one of my favs. I think it's the smile on K's face.

The final pose for Skater's Waltz. This is the number that opens the show. Fantastic way to open a show, if you ask me. And the girl 2nd from the right is my favorite dancer in the group. That's my big girl!

This is A. Oh. My. Word. She is an amazing dancer. She is beautiful and graceful and she may lose that pancake tutu. I'm gonna steal it, but don't tell anyone. It'll just be our secret...

Look at these cutie patooties! These are the junior company girls. These are some of my favorite costumes. The color is super gorgeous. The girls have worked very hard and they should be very proud of themselves! I know we are!

Ok. I am a huge Santa fan. I think Santa is awesome! But look at my boy! He makes an amazing Santa!

These are Santa's elves! The big girl is all the way to the left. Cutest. Dance. Evah.

The boy has three heel clicks he does. See the height? Yeah, that's what he does. He flies. Reindeer have nothing on this Santa!

This is jazz to Joy to the World.

 

The big girl's contemporary number to O Holy Night. That is my all time favorite Christmas song. This dance makes me tear up every time! Every. Time! My big girl leads them on stage. The girls needed a little extra practice for this one, but they did the work and got it done. Makes me teary just thinking about it.

There are more pictures I could have added, but even I have my limits. Not many, but limits nevertheless. If you have a chance to come see some very talented young people, please do. They have 2 or 3 performances left and a parade to dance in. I am so proud of my kids and so proud of these dancers.

Have a great day.

Flower Power

I've been teaching a biology co-op one afternoon a week. I am digging it. Biology is one of those things that more fun with a crowd. It's the experiments. Who wants to dissect alone? Well, serial killers, but we aren't talking about them. We haven't gotten to the dissecting part yet, but I am working on it. We're getting closer every week.

We started with the plant unit. There is a lot more to plants than I remember. Some of it, I'm not sure I wanted to know, but I do now, so there you go. It was actually kind of cool. I might take one day before Christmas break and we may do the microscope labs we didn't get to do during the plant unit. Hmmmm, there's an idea. Anyway, we did the big collection and identifying and labeling lab. That was one of my favorites when I took biology, all 3 times.

To celebrate the end of the plant unit, we had a party with edible plant cells. The kids had to make edible representations of the plant cell to share. We had pizza and cookies and, wait for it, chicken enchiladas. Those things were super good. We also took a field trip to a local botanical garden. My family had been before, but some of the kids and their families hadn't. I gave the kids a sheet they had to fill out to prove they didn't sleep through class. They all did very well.

And, of course, there are flower pics:

Such a great place to go. All the plants were labeled so you knew what they were. They have several gardens set up. They have a native plants, a southwest garden, marshlands, butterfly garden, and more. The part the kids liked the best? The maze. They played hide and seek tag. At least nobody came running to tell us we couldn't come back! I call that a successful field trip.

Have a great day.

Daybook Be My Playbook

Catchy title, huh? Things are a little jumbled in my head, so it's the easiest thing for me right now. Ready? Come on...

• I am listening to... Queen's A Crazy Little Thing Called Love. My kids are diggin' Queen. Me, too, actually. I downloaded their greatest hits and now the kids want me to make a CD for the van. Well, ok, when I get the time. Oooo, Destiny's Child now.
• I am reading...Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. It is almost the continuation of The Shining. It's the story of the son, Danny. I borrowed it from a friend. It is so good. Hubby and I stopped at the library today and I browsed their bookstore. I walked out with 2 Dean Koontz books I hadn't seen before. I'm ready to read those, but I need to get through the Stephen King book first. Our after dinner book is the last 39 Clues book from the Cahills vs. Vespers series. We had started it, but we weren't able to finish it before we had to turn it in. In the four weeks we waited for it, we started Where the Red Fern Grows. We'll go back to that when we finish the current book. So much reading and switching, I hope we remember it all.
• From the kitchen...So, you know we do the whole cook from scratch thing. Hubby has taken on a new endeavor in that arena. He bakes bread. I had done the whole bread from scratch thing a couple of times. It was just not my thing. I liked the bread the first day, but come day 2, I was not impressed. Hubby found a recipe that is super yummy on day 2 and beyond. It makes the most delicious sandwiches. Oh, my. His brother just gave us a ham from a pig he caught and I picked up some conch peas at the farmer's market. We are going country around here. Add hubby's bread, sliced and still a little warm. Makes me want to cook right now!
• From the garden...We let the chickens free range in the garden a few times. That was hilarious the first time, watching the ladies look at each other and trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. They did a very good job of scratching and eating lots of little buggies from the raised beds. Hubby cleaned out the tower and gave it a good scrubbing. We got everything planted finally a couple of weeks ago. We have brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage. Our pepper plants are still hanging in there. We aren't getting any peppers, but the plants are still green and growing. I am so ready for those brussel sprouts! I've got a few weeks to wait bit I go out every day and encourage them. Go, sprouts, go!
• From the schoolroom...Still trying to find a groove for the big girl. So much work, so little time! We have gone to a block system. She has one hour a day for each subject she has to do. So far, there have only been a couple of days where she had to go back and finish something. And now there's driver's ed in the mix. She is about halfway done with it and I am ready for it to be OVER! She has done very well and hubby gave her the first driving lesson today. I'm not sure I'm ready for that part, but it's almost here, so I need to get over it. I have dropped Latin for the baby and the boy. It wasn't getting done, and before I knew it, 3 weeks had passed and there hadn't been a lesson done. Ok, then, moving on. Works for me.
• From the dance studio...rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal! We are about 3 weeks out from the holiday performances. All of the dances are done and now it's clean up time. The baby started rehearsal for the group that dances in the Christmas parade. It's tough right now, and it seems like we only have time for dance and school (because that's all we have time for!), but I am so proud of the kids for all of their hard work! I love to watch my kids perform!
• Around the house...I know that one day Mt. Laundry won't be there and the dishes in the sink at Mt. Washmore will be gone. I'll miss the chaos and the scrambled to get out the door. I know I'll have time to actually clean my house. It will be here before I know it. Until then, I'm trying to not have a panic attack at all the cleaning that needs to be done around my house. I'm breathing, I'm breathing...I'm freaking out just a little.

And that's what I've got for now. Just a little peek into the funhouse. Who doesn't like a little fun?

Have a great day.

Dancing for Joy...and a Few Tears

I'm late. I know. Get over it. Anyway...

The big girl and the boy made the company dance team at our dance studio! Yea!! I am sooo proud of them. One of my very favorite things in the world is to watch my beautiful kids dance.

The boy owns the stage like nobody's business. He was born to perform and be the center of it all. Good thing he's my middle child. He even has a ballet solo. That does not hurt his feelings at all!

The big girl's group for contemporary has me in tears at every practice. I cannot even imagine what a blubbery mess I will be come performance days. And she gets to be in the group of kids that perform at the tree lighting in our town.

Now, you may notice the baby is missing. She didn't make it. She was so upset, she cried all the way to the studio the day we got our letters. And since I was driving, there was not one thing I could do about it until we got there. Hubby came and got her and took her to dinner and got ice cream and he held her while she cried. That's an amazing Papa Bear. By the time I got home with the other 2 kids, she was all better. And working her way into an ice cream coma. Ice cream and Papa Bear hugs make it all better!!

Our weeks are crammed super full with school and dance and practice and, and, and. We only have one day a week where we are home and the alarm doesn't go off. That day varies from week to week. We are tired. But we are happy.

Have a great day.

Daybook

Hubby's almost done making tortillas, which means breakfast, so let's get started, shall we? Music's rolling, lights are dimmed, and queue:

• I am listening to: Godsmack right now, but who knows what will pop up next. The kids were on restriction  from electronics for a week and today is the day they get them back. I have to be honest and say I can't remember what they got put on restriction for, since that was longer ago than yesterday. Anyway, The TV has finally come back on and I don't want to hear it. Yuck. Oooh, now I'm listening to Snap! I got the power!
• Around the house: The pig sty has returneth. I miss July when the chores were getting done. But, we started school and science co-op, so there goes what little time we had for that. It's really not as bad as I make it sound. For the long weekend, hubby has a list of chores we need to get done. Yea, chores! Not really. I despise chores and I wish I had a chores fairy. The most exciting news is that we just celebrated the big girl's birthday. She turned 15 and we spent the day at Disney. Duh. We all had a good time, but you probably already knew that. Guess what she gets to do now? Learn to drive. That is hubby's job. I told him I carried and birthed the babies, he gets to teach them to drive. That seems fair, don't you think? Heaven help us.
• For the holiday: Ha! I added a new category! We don't have big plans. We're talking about going to the beach. Hubby wants to metal detect after 4,000,000 people have been there for the weekend. We just bought a grill. It's a little $20 table top. We haven't had a grill in almost 2 years and we wanted one. Burgers're going on that thing this weekend. I. Love. Grilled. Burgers.
• From the schoolroom: It's been a bit of a rough start for us. We started at the beginning of August so we are about 4 weeks into it. It has been a huge adjustment in workload for the big girl. She was using FLVS for Latin, but she dropped that class. What a big, giant cluster of mess that is! If you haven't used the website, it is not user friendly at all. The lessons seemed to weave back and forth, but never long enough on one topic to make sense. Her teacher was really nice. I have heard horror stories about some of the teachers. Gives me shivers. She will take driver's ed from them because I hear that's pretty good. I have high hopes. The boy and the baby have a heavier word load this year, too. I added vocabulary to their day. There was always vocabulary in their language arts, but I didn't feel like it spent enough time reinforcing the word. They're both using Wordly Wise 3000. I used it with the big girl when she was in the 5th grade. Love it! They are both learning Latin this year. They get science at co-op, so that kind of freed up a spot. So far, so good. They both seem to be enjoying it, so yea!
• From the dance studio: We start dance next week!! I cannot even begin to express how excited we are about that. There are just no words.
• And don't forget Stella: Stella is 6 months old now, closing in on 7. She is not the teeny baby anymore. She is so big. She can set her head on the dining table. We don't let her keep it there, but good grief. She is super smart. She and hubby were chasing each other yesterday. At one point, she reversed on him so many times, he had no idea where she was going to come from. I watched the whole thing and I had no clue! She's learned sit, lay down, show me your belly, and off, darn dog, get down! She still follows hubby like he saved her life. She has even made friends with the neighbor's dogs. They run up and down the fence line, chasing each other. She won't get to go play for real until she gets Bob Barkered. We still can't get her to stop barking at Mr. D, our neighbor. He even brings her cookies! Maybe one day.

I think that's about all I have for now. Tortillas are ready and I'm hungry.

Have a great day.      

Happy Birthday to My Big Girl!

Normally, for birthdays, I do the whole "I love my kid, who is the greatest kid ever" blog. I'm changing it up a little. Change is good, right? I don't believe that for a second, but I'm doing it anyway. So, today is my big girl's birthday. I love that girl something fierce! Here's just a few pics so I can brag on my girl.

Oh, my stars, she's beautiful! How on earth did I get so blessed? She is beautiful on the inside as well. She is kind and caring and loves very deeply. She is super smart and talented and I am honored to be her mama!

She didn't think she could get away with wearing a scarf. I think she looks great! I like that scarf, too.

You know she is patient and tolerant because I am her mother. She has to put up with me!! She will dress up like the cat in the hat while dancing down the street...

Or get her picture taken with Pocahontas, et al. at Disney because I asked her to. Ok, sometimes it was more like telling, but she never rolled her eyes where I could see, so she gets bonus points.

She has always had these beautiful, long fingers. When she got old enough to take care of her own nails, she grew them long. And they are beautiful. She is very artistic. She loves to be creative and this is her way of painting. And she's good.

These were some of my favorites. I loved the sunset colors and the beach emblems. She free handed those, by the way. She does have stencils, but she rarely uses them.

I love the penguins! They are so cute!! She did something similar to this. She painted tuxedos. Each bow tie and cummerbund was a different color. She didn't like them, but I did!

We got her some nail brushes and a dotting tool for her birthday along with some nail polish colors she's been asking for. She did this bee in about 5 minutes today. She was thinking about putting Winnie the Pooh on the other hand.

I could not be prouder of her! She has stepped outside her box and is taking on new responsibility every day. She is a talented, beautiful dancer. She decided to forgo her allowance so that she could take an extra dance class. She is so excited for dance to start! She has done very well with her school work, keeping a straight A average. She is creative and wonderful and a great big sister. I love her so much! Happy birthday to my big girl!!

Have a great day.

Bookish

I'm just going to dive right in. Everybody got your floaties?

• I am listening to: Well, until I started blogging, I was listening to thunder. There's a storm all around us but not quite over us. It's raining all around us. Kinda cool, actually. Now my headphones are plugged in and my play list is shuffling it's heart out. The kids are holed up in a bedroom somewhere watching videos on YouTube. Yes, I know what they're watching and I really do know where they are. I think. Uh. Oh.
• Around the garden: Some success, some failures. We seem to be the bell pepper masters. They don't get ginormous, but they have some decent size to them. We almost can't get them to quit growing. I found tobacco worms the other day on one of the plants. They chewed the tops off of most of the stalks. They will never do that again. I looked at the plant yesterday and they are already growing new leaves. Yes! Our okra in one planter is beautiful. The plants are anyway. I'll be excited to be able to pick. And of course, we have lettuce and spinach growing like nobody's business. Well, except for yours because I just told you. We have them growing in stages. We have what we're picking now in the aero system that hubby built, soon to be picked in the tower, and seedlings in the other half of the aero tower. We also have chard, baby bok choy, sweet potatoes, and strawberries. The strawberry plants were bonuses as they just showed up in the garden one day. Awesomeness!
• Around the school room: Out with the old, and in with the new. All the new books are in the appropriate drawers, waiting for the first day of school. The big girl has been registered for her Latin class. We're just waiting for her to be assigned to a classroom and a teacher. Co-op day and time have been set. The big girl and I have made lesson plans. A school supply list has been made. I have some ideas for field trips that have to do with our biology. Believe it or not, even the kids are ready to start school.
• From the kitchen: Tonight is make your own pizza night. I've been in kind of a cooking rut lately. I get that way, usually in the summer. I'm done, over it. And then, a couple of months later, I get my second wind. Come on, second wind!! I did make some brownies the other day that were super delicious. I added peanut butter to them. They were so good, I had to make a second batch. A few months ago I learned how to make a really good roux, which is a base to gravy and some sauces. I use it for everything. Macaroni and cheese seems to feature prominently in the requests for dinner. I use the roux to make the cheese sauce. I added mozzarella to it the last time I made it. Holy cow, that was good! Other than that, I'd rather make a phone call or reservations.
• Outside my window: Weirdness. Weather cracks me up. The storm that was around us has moved. Now it's gray out the back windows and sunshine coming in the front windows. Mother Nature is a woman, you know.

That's about it for now. I need to go cut veggies for pizza. My belly's growling.

Have a great day.