Happy Birthday Laurie!

And Another Happy Birthday Shout-Out Goes To My Sister Laurie!

I hope your having an awesome day!

CHEERS!

Love,

Lesley, Travis, Brian , Dani & Michael

Happy Birthday Danielle!

And let's not forget that in the middle of all the theatre / t-ball madness... my truly fabulous daughter celebrated her 11th birthday! We all played hookie from school & work and went to DISNEYLAND! It was a beautiful day!

And even "Indiana Dad" got in on the birthday fun!

Meg got a little tired.....

But Kate was ready to PARTY!

We didn't have any birthday cake...

Although Minnie did have one in the oven...

But we all had a great day at The Happiest Place on Earth!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLE!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

Scrapper

And what has that little maniac Michael been up to while the rest of us have been living at the theatre for the last 10 days? Well... he's been busy with Assistant Coach Daddy and his new T-ball team, "The Scrappers."

DAMN THIS BOY IS CUTE!

I swear with those squinty eyes and big ears he looks just like my dad!

Chocolate Thunda'

Of course, we couldn't actually let a production go by without getting Brian in there somewhere! So he signed on as Thing 2:

And let's not foget our beautiful song bird, Miss Jadie (in her bird girl costume)

The Many Faces of Dani

In the upcoming Seussical production, Danielle plays many parts! She's a Monkey, a Mermaid, a WHO, a Circus Performer, a Hunch, and The Marshall! I was able to snap a few pics during costume check:

Marshall (minus monkey ears)

A Hunch

And her very cute WHO

OMG Those Beautiful Eyes!

Mission Impossible

I was asked by our costume coordinator to "WHO-ify" this hideous monstrosity! Jeez woman! I'm only human!

It's amazing what can be accomplished with some collaboration and the right embellishments! The dress really does look cute up on stage and the young girl it was designed for was very pleased with the outcome! (Not that it would have really mattered if she hated it... she was still going to wear it! HA!)

Rehearsal

All made up and on our way to the theatre for one of MANY rehearsals...

SAY CHEESE!!!!!! (or not)

Costume Check ~ 2/14/09

MOVING DAY!

Tomorrow is Moving Day!

At 8:00 am trucks will be loaded up with stage sets, props & costumes and we move-in to the theatre! At 10:00 am we begin costume checks and by 4:00 pm rehearsal will begin! Kind of a miserable way to spend your Valentine’s Day… So last night I put together 80 Valentine goodie bags to pass out to each cast member as they complete costume check! So that takes care of the kiddies… As for the moms? We’ll be the ones drinking heavily in the darkest recesses of the theatre uncontrollably singing songs from Seussical as we rock in the fetal position!

HOPE YA’LL HAVE A HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

XOXO

Busy Busy Busy

Today is a very busy day for the Kindergarten class in room 2!

~ They have their Friday spelling test & bible quiz
~ Its share day with the letter ‘Q’ (Michael brought in his baby quilt)
~ It is Kevin K’s birthday so they’re having pizza
~ They will be exchanging Valentine cards and decorating cookies during the Valentine Party
~ And it’s the 100th day of school! The children of room 2 will be parading in the halls wearing colorfully decorated hats with 100 items on the individual hats!

Michael decorated his hat last weekend! I set out bowls of feathers, pom-poms, beads, pipe cleaner, flowers, googley eyes, plastic clothes pins, and construction paper! Of course, Danielle got in on the crafting fun as well!

Valentine's Day

Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is St. Valentine and why do we celebrate this holiday? In my quest for information I stumbled upon this little tidbit of 411 and just had to share:

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or Lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.
The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Well, slap me with goat hide and call me a baaaaaaahd girl… And to think that modern day Valentine’s have been reduced to a card and box of bon-bons! Leave it to the damn Christians to ruin a perfectly good matchmaking orgy in which even the most homely of maiden’s had a chance for procreation! Grab ‘em and bag ‘em!

You Be The Judge

So, I’m watching TV last night and I catch a clip about Psycho Octuplets' Mom and how the reporter couldn’t deny the uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie! WHAT!?! Are you even kidding me? I’ll give you that this nut job does resemble an actor… but it’s certainly not Angie Jo. So I put it out to you…

Does this loon…

Look like Angelina Jolie...

Or Janeane Garofalo...

And they call themselves entertainment reporters! Honestly! Do I really have to point out the obvious?

Flashback Friday

Weather has arrived in sunny SoCal! Last night we were blasted by rain and today it continues. Very Exciting! A few weeks ago on the morning of January 26th we actually had a significant amount of hail. What’s interesting, (and sort of freaky), is that 1 year ago on the morning of January 24th we also had a hail storm roll through! So much, in fact, that it covered our yard, patio, cars, rooftops…. And Brian was able to make a Hailman! (Of course he was only about 7 inches tall…. The hailman, not Brian.)

Living The Musical

While most Americans are struggling to “live the dream” in this economy… I find that I’m perfectly content to “live the musical.” Those movies that you see when somebody randomly bursts out in song… yeah, that’s my life. Many a morning I will go through the house flipping open the blinds while singing (loudly) “Oh what a beautiful morning!” from Oklahoma. (This was always a favorite of Brian’s… especially as he entered his teen years.) In my home we sing show tunes, rock tunes, goodnight songs, Disney songs, we play music while working inside or outside. So, with my love for the musicals and Trav’s love for just about all music, it’s really no surprise that our children love music as well.
When Brian was little you could always hear him at the school music recitals. At age 6 he sang at our wedding reception and whenever that boy was in the shower a closed door couldn’t hold back those raging vocal chords!
Danielle always loved to sing! Reciting Brittany Spears and Pink from the time she was in preschool. Nowadays with four musicals under her belt, and number five about to launch, if she’s not singing a show tune then she’s usually singing something crazy with me!
As for Michael, he has loved music since infancy and would non-verbally communicate with me to sing (clearly the child was tone-def). We found that loud heavy metal music would lull him to blissful sleep. As he got older he would take words or phrases he knew and put them to Mozart or Bach, and just sing over & over. Many times while working or playing he’ll just start to sing, (something we had to warn his teacher about because he’ll sing in class while working in a book). Michael will sing anytime, anywhere about pretty much anything that jumps into his mind. A few weeks ago he sang to me, “toothpaste, toothpaste, mommy will you put the toothpaste on for me.”
So, if living the dream just isn’t cutting it for you… I highly recommend living the musical. Life is just more cheery in song!!!

Wordless Wednesday