Countdown to Beauty and the Beast

So, it's three days until opening night of Beauty and the Beast, Jr.  Aubrey, otherwise known as Belle, caught the nastiest of all colds about four days ago.  We have used every trick we know to shorten the duration of the cold and free up her vocal chords to sing again.  There is no understudy.

This is "tech week," which is theater speak for all actors will be at the theater from right after school until after bedtime every night this week.  Tech week takes place at the actual theater so they can run through the play on the stage, with the sets, and eventually with the costumes. Fortunately for us, all the theater classes and rehearsals (until tech week) are at our local middle school, five minutes away.  Unfortunately for us, the actual theater is almost an hour away from our home . . . each way. 

At the same time, baseball fever has begun in Vancouver, and Joseph is a Chicago Cub, Little League style. We had the rah rah rah Opening Ceremonies for Little League a few weeks ago, kicking off the season, and then the skies dumped rain (and even snow) for two weeks. So, many games were cancelled during that time. Guess when they rescheduled the games?  You guessed it - this week. Almost every night this week Joseph has to be to a game at 5 p.m., the exact time someone needs to be driving Aubrey to rehearsal.  Most days Dan can drive for either baseball or theater, but today he goes out of town until late evening.

For someone who hates to shop and tries not to step foot in the mall, I have spent way too much time buying shoes lately. For Aubrey, that is. I told the director of her play that I would find shoes to go with her outfit.  Finding the right shoes which look the part/feel comfortable/can be danced in has turned out to be a challenge!  I just purchased 6 more pairs today for her to try.  That brings the grand total to 10 pairs . . . hopefully one of the options will be perfect.

It's one of the weeks when we just focus on one day at a time. Somehow between us and all of our resources, we will manage to divide and conquer this week. Exciting times at the Porters!

And now . . . the rest of the story

So, the following post will likely not be printed in our family blog book, as I would hate for Joseph to read it sometime down the road and feel like I did not value giving him a magical birthday party. I am so glad that he had fun at Chuck E. Cheese, but I feel the need to temporarily document the rest of the story.

There are some things you do for your kids because you love them, not because you really want to.  Here is a partial list I came up with:

1.  Listen to/watch Barney.
2.  Eat at kid-friendly restaurants so the kids won't complain rather than the really good Thai restaurant down the street.
3.  Sit through certain animated movies in the theater.
4.  Read 10 Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed every night for a year.
5.  Go to Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday afternoon.  Or any time, really.

Given recent events, I am going to focus on #5 today.  Over the years, each of our kids has been enamored with a Chuck E. Cheese-type place, and each has had a birthday party at raucous kid-centric party establishment. And they have each loved it. And now I have done my duty by providing this rite of passage for each of my children, so I formally absolve myself of any guilt to ever set foot in Chuck E. Cheese again. Because I am so done with it.

Sensory overload. That's a good way to describe it. Blinking lights, incessantly loud sounds, rude and annoyed people packed into every square inch of space, a "birthday party table" which is crammed right next to ten other birthday party tables in one very loud room. Lines for everything.  Lines to get in, lines to use the bathroom, lines to use the games, lines to redeem prizes. If I wanted to wait in lines, I would go to Disneyland, where the ambiance compensates for the lines.

As I mentioned before, Dan wasn't able to be at the beginning or the end of the party, so Bailey came along to be my helper.  She and I handled the really messy parts of the party, like getting everybody checked in and set up to play, gathering them together from the games to eat the super-expensive-cardboard pizza we had bought, and waiting forever to help each boy redeem his tickets for incredibly useless prizes.  By the end of the party both of us were blubbering idiots. As we finally fought our way through the crowds and herded our group of five boys to the car, Bailey and I almost cried at the sight of fresh air and freedom. 

On the way home Bailey looked through her ipod and found a song by Kelly Clarkson. We blasted the music and sang along to the chorus all the way home (this was partially to cover the sound of five boys batting their Chuck E. balloons and Chuck E. plastic bottles together in the back of the car).

You think you got the best of me  

Think you've had the last laugh  

Bet you think that everything good is gone  

Think you left me broken down  

Think that I'd come running back  

Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

Lest you fear that we made Joseph feel bad that we were so negatively affected by his party, rest assured that he was obliviously happy.

Before the party, we offered Bailey an incentive to help. Dan and I erred in not setting the terms of the incentive.  After the party she turned to me and said, "my price has gone up."  So, after a few hours of recovery at home, Bailey and I left the boys home building Legos and ventured out for some Payless Shoes therapy. Bailey tried on lots of heels that she says would never wear because they would make her too tall. But they looked great!  She finally settled on some cute plaid boat shoes.

Then we drifted over to Target, where we bought some delicious peppermint hot cocoa to warm our tummies on a cold, rainy day, and looked through the makeup displays.  It was a satisfying end to a super busy day.

And I'm not kidding that I'm not going back to Chuck E. Cheese. I have done my duty. In the words of Kelly Clarkson, I survived, so I must be stronger. And smarter.  So, take that, Chuck E. Cheese.

Seven is Awesome

The day after Aubrey's birthday and party we woke up to begin anew with birthday celebrations.  Joseph's birthday was actually on Sunday, but we did most of the celebrating on Friday and Saturday.

At school on Friday he shared Krispy Kreme donuts with his class.

The next morning Joseph received his breakfast in bed. He had put in his breakfast order weeks in advance and woke up about an hour before it was prepared. He waited patiently in his room until we had made his favorite muffins and prepared his tray (he also had requested strawberries and orange juice).

 

 

 Joseph opened a few gifts . . .

and set to work building his Lego set while I prepared for his party and Dan ran to the Republican Caucus.

A few hours later we took off to the party destination of Joseph's choice . . . nothing other than Chuck E. Cheese. A child's dream. A parent's nightmare.  What can I say?  He loved it.

 

We loaded up all the guests with tokens, and they were off happily playing games.  Dan was still at the Caucus (he arrived halfway through the party), so Bailey came along as my helper. She took most of the pictures.

After awhile we called everyone back to the party table for Chuck E. mayhem. Otherwise known as the "live show."  There is lots of yelling, chanting, loud music, dancing with a big mouse, the bestowal of a birthday crown, and birthday celebrating.

 And then there were awesome presents to open. Joseph invited these friends to his party: Alex and Chase Kartchner, Gabe Tobiasson, Matt Sjogren, Jack Surface, Robert Nava, and Ian Lay.

Joseph took a trip into the "Ticket Blaster", where the birthday kid is surrounded by thousands of tickets blowing through the air. The goal is to catch some of them, all which can be redeemed for super valuable Chuck E. Cheese prizes.  At the end of the blaster experience, Joseph had tickets sticking to him everywhere, including inside the safety goggles.

And we ate birthday cake, courtesy of Costco, and a chorus of "Happy Birthday". Look closely at the picture below - when the attention is focused on Joseph he sticks out his tongue.  I love it!

I particularly loved the way that the Chuck E. Cheese hostess taught the kids to bang their fists on the table and chant, "I want cake," "I want cake."  Charming!

 The kids thoroughly enjoyed every second of the frenetic action.

 
There are no pictures of the last hour of the party. That would be because Bailey and I (Dan had to leave early to pick up Aubrey from theater rehearsal - yes, he got off very easy on this party) had to wait in line for 25 minutes to help each of the 8 guests redeem their prize tickets for a receipt and then wait in line for another half an hour to cash in the receipts for prizes. It was . . . . not fun.

But Joseph had a great birthday. On his birthday we attended church and he was serenaded by the Primary.

After church he opened a few more presents from us.  A few drawing books, because he is big time into art and drawing things.

 New pjs to fit his super long legs.

 And a pirate ship!

Then he spent hours building the Lego sets he received for his birthday.  Dan was his slave on Sunday afternoon. He sat next to the birthday boy in our bonus room and helped him put together every single Lego creation.

We loved celebrating with our sweet, smart, kind, fun seven-year-old!

Aubrey is 12!

Oh, what a fun time we had celebrating Aubrey's 12th birthday. Her big day fell on a Friday and was jam packed with everything wonderful.  At the end of the day she sighed, "this was the best birthday ever."

The day began with breakfast in bed - crepes with whipped cream and powdered sugar and  bananas and peanut butter.

Dan was out of town, Bailey was already at Seminary, and Joseph was slow to awaken, so Aubrey and I had our own little celebration.  She opened a few presents . . . a book of Broadway sheet music and some Young Womens goodies.

Aubrey got ready for school and drove with me to drop off Joseph. Then we drove across town to pick up donuts from Krispy Kreme for Joseph's school class (to celebrate his bday) . Lucky Aubrey - she got her own hot donut, as well!

As I I dropped Aubrey at school, two of her friends met us and led her inside, where they had decorated her first class with birthday signs and decorations!  Below - one of the decorations which she brought home.  They welcomed her as the newest "tribute."  If you don't know what that means, then you seriously need to go and read Hunger Games!  (Hurry - the movie will be out next week.)

Next, I picked up Aubrey for a special birthday lunch ( this was about 1 1/2 hours after dropping her off at school. In between time I took the donuts to Joseph's school for his class bday treat and then helped in his classroom. Yes, it was a very busy day.).  We drove to Jamba Juice and had a simply splendid lunch of smoothie and homemade cheesy pretzel.  Yum!

Back to school for Aubrey, where by all accounts she had a wonderful day, with lots of attention and well wishes.

At 4:00 p.m. I drove back to her school (which is in downtown Vancouver) and picked up Aubrey and two good friends for her birthday party.  Bailey tagged along for the festivities, as well.  We drove to Olive Garden for an early dinner - Aubrey's all-time-favorite-place-to-eat.  Double yum!

 We ate until we were completely stuffed, and Aubrey opened a few presents.

Bailey out-ate all of us (three bowls of Zupa Toscana soup, a plateful of fettucine alfredo, and lots of delectable breadsticks.)

  She was in agony for awhile, and uncharacteristically camera shy.

But, then, we were all pretty full by the end of the dinner.

We said no to dessert, but our nice waiter brought Aubrey a complimentary dessert cup anyway.

We left the restaurant and drove to the Dollar Store, where the girls each had $5 to spend on whatever wacky things they wanted.  Then we drove back to our house, rocking out to music all the way home.

We ate Aubrey's delicious ice cream cake (courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery).

 

Then Aubrey opened a few more gifts from us, including her very, very special gift . . .

A trip to Utah with me to celebrate her very important birthday!  (We were inspired by her cousin Brynlie's recent trip with Ali to see Wicked .)The week after her upcoming play we will fly to Utah for a few days. We will stay with G&G Springer and will spend our days doing everything Aubrey wants to do.  We have tickets to attend two plays at Hale Center Theater - Zorro and Xanadu. We also intend to shop, get our nails painted, spend time at a makeup counter, eat lots and lots of Cafe Rio and Zupas, and hang out with Aubrey's best friend Breanne.  We're so excited!

The day after Aubrey's birthday the girls from her church class came over when she was at rehearsal and decorated her bedroom door:

And on Sunday she made her big debut in Young Womens, after being escorted out of the Primary room by the entire Beehive class, walking on a red carpet while the Primary kids sang their final goodbye.

All in all, an amazing birthday for an amazing young woman!

Love Day 2012

Okay, so I'm playing catch up here. Apparently I never documented Valentines Day 2012.

The day started with love notes from Dan/Dad for everyone and special goodies for all:

Is there anything cuter than a 1st grade classroom party?  Seriously, so cute. I wish I could freeze Joseph at this age forever.  I helped with the classroom Valentines party and snapped a few shots of Joseph opening his valentines and playing games.

And then, the perfect end to our day celebrating love . . . we drove to Portland to attend Broadway's Beauty and the Beast.  We got dinner at the Quizno's across the street from Keller Auditorium and then enjoyed a fantastic performance. It was especially fun to watch the Broadway version because our very own Aubrey is debuting as Belle in the upcoming community performance of Beauty and the Beast! (Look closely below and you can see Dan in the reflection, taking our picture with my phone).

Finally, I want to document my own love letter to my sweetie.  It's good for my kids to read mushy things that I write about their Dad.  So, I am going to require them each to read the sentences below . . .

I feel so lucky to have married the most wonderful man in the world. Here are just a few things I love about Dan:

•  He is the most unselfish and family-centered man I know. Everything he does is for his family. I'm pretty sure he literally wakes up every morning and thinks about what he can do today to make me and the kids happy and comfortable.
• He has always, always supported me in anything I want to do or anything I feel is important. 
•  From the earliest days of our marriage he has always said, "what would you like me to make for dinner?"  Now, it would help if his repertoire expanded a little (one cannot live by bean burritos alone), but I appreciate the thought.
• He is insanely smart and good at math. This is good for many reasons, including the fact that our  kids have inherited from him their math smarts. And they can ask him for help when they are stuck on math homework. (They don't even bother asking me!)
•  He is the only accountant I know who is not only good at all the math-related stuff, but also has great people skills and a killer sense of humor.  Let's face it - my natural tendency is to be too uptight and driven. Dan has always been the perfect counter-balance for me, in that he has helped me learn to relax and have fun. "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" - that is Dan's motto and now a motto for our family.  Because of Dan's example, each of our kids is also witty and has a fabulous sense of humor.
• Over our 23 years of marriage he has also taught me that, although frugality is very important, it's okay to spend a little sometimes to make life easier or to have some fun (my natural tendency is to spend nothing, save everything, and deny myself of anything that costs money).
• He must be the only Dad around who is so up-to-date on the latest fun, enjoyable music. He also loves many other types of music, including Broadway musicals. Because of this, our kids have learned to really enjoy all kinds of music and also are great arbiters of appropriate music themselves.
• He is patient with me and always working together with me to improve our relationship.
• He is willing to travel to exotic places around the world with me someday, even though he would really rather be home than traveling.  He even bought me a book for my last birthday, 501 Must-
  See-Destinations, and we are circling the places we want to visit.
• His desire is always to do whatever the Lord would have Him do. He happily serves wherever he is called.

I love you, Dan!