Bye Bye Birdie

Here are some pictures of the fun production of Bye Bye Birdie Aubrey was part of last month.  It was such a great play. She feels like she learned a lot, and we were so impressed at the quality of her singing, dancing, and acting. I am still hoping that we can get some more official professional pictures or video from the show.

 One of the parents snapped these pictures at one of the dress rehearsals.

On the way to the first performance.

Bailey and I attended the first performance. After dropping off Aubrey to get dressed, we walked through the FREEZING and WINDY weather to get some authentic Mexican food and then to get delicious Cacao drinkable chocolate (it is just as good as it sounds!)

We were not supposed to take pictures during the performance, but I furtively grabbed a few shots with my iphone.

Dan and Joseph sat on the front row.  At one point Aubrey was singing just inches from them!




















Pictures afterward:

These pictures were taken after another one of the six performances:

Aubrey's cute vocal teacher came to see her in the play!  I didn't get a picture, but Aubrey's favorite Sunday School teacher/YW leader Becky Harrington also came with  me to see the play.  And another wonderful leader Cami Lemmon came with her husband on one of the Saturday performances.

 Changed out of costume and ready to go home.  What an exhausting but wonderful two weeks!

November thoughts

Oh, November . . . . where did you go? I feel like this month has been a blip and now we are barreling headlong into December.  As I raced my way through this crazy month I kept a few notes on my phone about things I wanted to note in the blog. Here they are, in no particular order:

The Most Important Part of Our Year Supply

This is the time of year when the good Guittard chocolate chips go on sale at Winco and I stock up on my year supply (a variety of course: extra dark, semi-sweet, milk chocolate, mint, white). One year a friend saw the 40 or so bags of chocolate chips ready to go in my freezer and she thought it was really funny. I didn't understand her mirth. Doesn't everyone have a year supply of chocolate? If you don't, you will not be as happy as we will be during any disaster, big or small. 

Also, I have to admit that we ran out of last year's supply of chocolate chips by JUNE, but I blame my daughter who likes to cook now and who used up lots of the hoard making yummy treats. Usually the 40 bags gets us through to the next November, but this year I will compensate by buying many more bags.

The Bane of Leftover Halloween Candy

Speaking of chocolate, we gave out at least 400 pieces of candy for Halloween this year but somehow ended up with two huge Costco sized bags of candy left over. This has been a problem for me for all of November as the Snickers fun size bars called my name every single day. I finally sent the remainder of the bags with Dan to give to his Seminary class. It's crazy - I usually eat really healthy meals with very little sugar and normally I never EVER crave or purchase a candy bar. (This is progress for me, because in high school I considered candy bars an adequate breakfast and lunch.) But if the candy bar is already in my home it is too difficult for me to resist. From now on I am only buying Sour Skittles or something equally disgusting and non-chocolate for Halloween.

"What's the Story, Morning Glory, What's the Word, Hummingbird?"

Some of that chocolate was needed as I spent quality time driving back and forth to Portland the first few weeks of November. Aubrey was in a play, Bye Bye Birdie at the  Winningstad Theater in downtown Portland.  The first week of the month was "tech week", in which the kids had run-through rehearsals every day immediately after school until 9 p.m.  That meant that I did a lot of driving and searching for parking spots.  Some days she rode in a carpool, but every day I had to make her dinner and then meet her at the school at 4 with her food.  

On the definitely positive note, I really enjoyed the time in the car with Aubrey and her theater buddies. They are good kids, and it was so fun to see kids who live and breathe music and theater the way that she does. I loved the fact that she would ask, "What is your favorite song from a musical?" and everyone, from the 6th grade girls to the high school boys, had definite favorites and enthusiasm for musicals. We had some great sing-along moments between Vancouver and Portland. 

Boot Season

Can I just say that I welcome boot season? That means that I don't need to shave my legs or paint my toenails until about June of next year!

Helping in the School

I've always loved helping in my kid's classrooms. In fact, I make that my priority and eschew PTA-type duties (after one stressful year when I tried to do both - I'll have to write sometime about how I learned to prioritize my time).  Usually the teachers have had me run a small reading group which includes one of my kids. And I LOVE doing this and seeing my amazing and super smart kids in action.

This year, however, the teacher asked me to do something different, and it has been a remarkable experience.  She asked if I would give one-on-one help once a week to a boy in the class.  This boy has had a rough life so far from what I gather. He has bounced from neglectful and likely abusive parents to foster care to eventually living with grandparents who don't speak English.  He attended almost no school from kindergarten through halfway through 3rd grade. So, he has what the teacher sweetly calls "holes" in his learning. There is just no way he can keep up with the normal 4th grade expectations when he reads about as well as my kids have read at age 5. I'm assuming he gets professional resource help during the day. My help is not at all professional, but it has been such a gratifying challenge for me to help him with rudimentary reading and math. Now that my  kids are growing up and shining in the academic arena, it's been awhile since I've helped a child make the initial exciting acquisitions of the basics of language. I find myself thinking about different ways I can explain things to him. I think that it would be fun to do this type of tutoring when I'm "retired" someday.

What Time is For

I have a lot more things on my "to blog about" list, but this will have to do it for today, as I have a lot of pre-Thanksgiving errands to run (yuck - I hate crowds).

Last week I was in charge of making and taking treats and cards to all the women at church who have a birthday in November. Because of some different time constraints, I  needed to accomplish these deliveries the week after we returned from Hawaii. I guess I haven't blogged about this yet, but it's coming . . . we came home and immediately needed to buy a fridge, and then it was delivered midway through the next week. The point is that I had a lot to do when I set out to deliver cookies. On top of doing laundry and finishing unpacking, our new fridge had just been delivered and I needed to shop for food to replace almost everything in our fridge and freezer so my poor family could have a decent meal for the first time in a week!

As I walked toward the first door I fought an inner battle. What I really wanted to do was slip the treat bag on the door handle and tiptoe away so I wouldn't have to talk. I figured that if I allotted no more than 3 minutes per delivery plus drive time I could be done in time to run to Costco and get home before the kids returned from school. 

As I stood at the first door, though, I didn't feel right about slipping away without at least ringing the doorbell. So I did, and I had a sweet conversation with an amazingly independent woman who was turning 92. At the next house I heard the fun story about the woman's birthday - she was born at home in a small village in France on November 20th. But her father forgot to report the birth to the local authorities until November 22nd and he would be fined for this oversight, so he noted her birthday as November 22nd. Her mom objected to the change in date, so growing up her mom celebrated her birthday on the 20th and her dad celebrated it two days later!  At another house I talked to a woman whose husband had a successful liver transplant recently, then to a friend whose daughter is a rebellious and struggling teenager. At one house the woman wasn't home, but I talked to her husband, who proudly showed me the flag they were just presented at a reception in Florida when their son retired from the Air Force. 

And so it went on for hours. I didn't get around to food shopping until the next morning and I didn't even finish all the visits until the next day.  As I was driving home to throw together something out of the pantry for dinner I sighed and thought about how I loved the visits but they just took so much time.

And then I had this very clear thought: 

"This is what you have time for."

I wrote down this experience so I will remember it whenever I'm tempted to let my to-do list take precedence over really seeing and loving the people I'm able to encounter each day.

The roundup of Halloween week

 We kicked off the week before Halloween with a fun party for Aubrey and 5 of her friends, who attend a total of three different high schools. What great girls they are! I was so impressed with the kind way they visited with each other. After eating dinner and talking they watched "My Best Friend's Wedding." We hope to have more fun friend parties soon!

 The next day the girls received their pre-order of Taylor Swift's new album on itunes. You should have heard the shrieks and giggles emanating from our den.

Monday night . . . family home evening was about the Armor of God (Dan taught the same lesson he would give to the freshman-age seminary kids the next day).  Joseph very happily volunteered to dress up in complete head to toe armor, including Iron Man helmet, random tough guy breastplate, Batman belt (to "gird" up his lions"), Captain America shield, Spiderman socks, Pirate sword.  It was pure awesomeness in every way, and I even learned some things about the symbolism of the armor talked about in the scriptures.

 Tuesday. . . . after cello lessons and basketball practice we raced over to the church for the ward Halloween party. Joseph decided at the last minute not to wear the Ninjago costume we purchased this year. Instead he wore a ninja costume from a year or two ago. The length of the costume really shows how tall he is getting! These are three of his good buddies.

 The party was a hit in every way. So much better than lame truck-or-treating.  Dan was asked to deejay music and songs for Just Dance. He dressed the part, as deejay Dan the crazy Seahawks Fan. Or something like that.  Bailey dressed as Taylor Swift.  I dressed as . . . a chauffeur. Luckily, I didn't have to change my outfit because chauffeuring is my almost full-time Mom job. In fact, I had to leave the party early to get Aubrey picked up from her theater class.

 Dan in his deejay duties.  The entire ward had such a good time dancing along to Just Dance songs!

 We held our annual Mom's Disgusting Halloween Dinner two days before Halloween.  We had lots of gross sounding but normal tasting food on the menu.

 Bailey pointed out that this was her last Halloween at home. From now on she will be at college and living her life elsewhere.  That makes me sad. I hate how there is a hole left in our family when each of the kids grow up, even though we are so happy for them and proud of them.

 Joseph choosing his menu items.

Only Joseph wanted to do pumpkin carving this year, and he attacked it very studiously.

First he drew a picture of his plan and transferred it to his pumpkin with a sharpie.

Then he very meticulously carved it just the way he wanted it.

When we were done I taught him how to light a match and we looked at the eerie glow the candle made.

Halloween Night

I'm not going to lie. By the time Halloween hit we were pretty darn exhausted in this house. The week before the holiday was full of events, adding to our schedule already filled with sports and theater practices, college applications, and high school homework. The emotions at our house were all over the place and we had some major costume drama. Luckily, one of my good friends saved the day with the perfect costume at 10:30 p.m. the night before Halloween.

And the costume that Bailey was really excited about turned out to be pretty poorly made and needed major alteration, and she lost her nerve and decided not to wear it for her party.

But Halloween day was really fun and festive.

The cleaning the house part wasn't so fun, and neither was my mad dash to stores to get food for the evening.  But then I was able to help at Joseph's school. What could be more fun than an elementary school "Harvest Party" (they aren't allowed to specifically call it a Halloween party).  I was in charge of planning a game for the party so I did what all seasoned moms do . . . I picked the easiest activity I could think of, one with little preparation required.

The kids dressed each other like mummies using toilet paper.  It was actually an interesting sociological experiment, as I observed the girls meticulously wrap toilet paper around the "mummy," with very neat and proper mummy-looking results.

And the boys (including Joseph, here on the right), chose to haphazardly throw toilet paper all over the place. Because their "mummy's" wraps wouldn't stay on, they chose to lay down like they were dead for the picture.

By the time evening came had lots of friends visiting and our house was literally rocking with kids from age 9 to teenager eating, laughing, running up and down the stairs.







Dan handed out candy nonstop and supervised the parties while I took Joseph and two buddies trick or treating.  Joseph is crouching down in true ninja form in this picture, and in coming years he is going to wonder why he looks so short!

I love trick or treating, and when the boys wanted to quit after half an hour I told them they were absolutely NOT done yet. I might have even (lovingly) told them they were being wimpy.  Don't kids these days understand the value of candy? I lived for trick-or-treating when I was a kid and then hoarded my candy for many months!  Despite their whining, we did continue on for another half an hour, until their pumpkin baskets were sufficiently full enough to meet my approval.

Then we came back home and the boys traded candy, which we all know is the very best part of Halloween.

Except that I have realized something interesting about Halloween, at least in our neighborhood. Because we get SO MANY trick-or-treaters and hand out so much candy, everyone in our neighborhood buys the same huge bags of chocolate candy at Costco. Which  means that the kids get the exact same 5 types of candy. That's kind of a bummer!

Our friends the Kartchners talked to us in the living room for a long time while the kids handled handing-out-candy-duties.  While we talked I shoved one Snickers bar after another into my mouth.  That very likely explains my serious stomach ache the next two days.

Happy Halloween!

Welcome, November!

Rolling with a change of plans - Pumpkin Patch 2014

Every year since we moved to Washington we have visited a pumpkin patch, every year but one we chose the one at Bi-Zi Farms.  We have loved all the activities, the hayride to the fields of pumpkins, the live music and free hot chocolate, and the fun of running into so many of our friends and neighbors there.  

Here's a visual recap of the last 8 years of Washington pumpkin patches.

2006

2007

 2008

 2009

 2010

 2011

2012

 2013

So, that brings us to this year. When we looked at our October calendar we realized that there was only ONE day when all the kids would be available for our annual pumpkin patch foray, and that would not be until the end of October, when the kids had a day off of school. Every Saturday since September has been monopolized by soccer and football games and Aubrey's all-day theater practice.

So, we planned to attend on our one free day with the Kartchner family.

However, when we arrived the pumpkin patch at 10 a.m. we found it was only open "by appointment" for preschool groups until 3 p.m. And the weatherman had accurately predicted that by 2 p.m. it would be POURING rain, and the kids had lessons planned for later that day anyway.

So, we first felt sad and disappointed that our pumpkin patch trip could not happen. (All except for Alex, who couldn't figure out how to look disappointed).

Since I had my camera all ready for pumpkin patch pictures, first we snapped a few photos.

And then we decided to make the most of it and head to Starbucks to treat ourselves to some hot chocolate/pumpkin creamers and cake bites.

Then on the way home my kids and I decided to stop at the Felida Red Barn, a local store based in an old farmhouse. While they didn't have all the bells and whistles of the big pumpkin patch, they did have a lot of pumpkins for purchase spread out across their property and a small corn maze.

It wasn't what we are used to, but it was nice in its own way. And we got our pumpkins and got home before the deluge hit our area.

Joseph hated touching the wet and slippery pumpkins, so pointing worked too. 

And one last picture . . . as we drove away from the farmhouse I saw this sign which is just so Pacific Northwest. Around these parts even our firewood needs to be organic!