Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Cinderella! Picture blog

The first weekend in December found Audrey on stage and under the lights while I was hidden in the "cave" (as the mothers affectionately called the basement of the auditorium at Ypsilanti High School).

Audrey and her cohorts performed in the holiday ballet production of Cinderella produced by the Ypsilanti Area Dancers. The production was beautiful and Audrey had a BLAST! I was worried that the crazy schedule (and let me tell you, it was CRAZY) would leave Audrey with a bad taste in her mouth for future ballets, but that didn't happen. She is pumped and ready to do The Nutcracker next year!

Audrey posing with the leads after the final performance.
Front row: Audrey and Spring Fairy
Back row: Cinderella, Fairy God Mother, Summer Fairy, Winter Fairy, Fall Fairy

Lots of tears!

No tears for Audrey. She's all smiles. Here she is with fellow butterfly, Hannah.

The stepsisters backstage (without their wigs, of course).




The bugs are lining up to head upstairs and onto the stage!

Audrey loved the Wicked Step Mother

Here's what they spent MOST of their time doing all weekend. This group is watching Disney's Cinderella!!

Comparing notes on their Nintendo DS systems.

Two of my buddies all weekend. Nobuko and Beth.

Elvis Lives!

No . . . no . . . this is not a left-over Halloween photo.

Audrey's class celebrated their 50 days of school a few weeks ago by researching the 1950's and attending an in-class sock hop.

Audrey's assignment was to find an object from the 50's and then write a report about it discussing it's significance and how this object might be used today.

For some random reason (because that's just how Audrey rolls) she picked as her object, Elvis Presley. She even did research as you'll read in her report below. She also desperately wanted to dress up as Elvis for the sock-hop party the next day. While all the girls in the class were sporting skirts and ponytails, my daughter wanted to wear an Elvis wig and a white T-shirt.

I managed to remember to snap a pic of her before she left for school that day (mornings in our household are pretty chaotic!)

She wore the wig the entire day!

Vivian's family portrait

Vivian handed me this drawing when I picked her up at pre-school one day this week. It's a lovely picture of her family.

We appear in this order from left to right: Vivian, Mommy, Daddy and Audrey. Notice that Vivian is the largest figure. And Daddy has no hair (LOL. THAT's a laugh.)

Also floating above my head is Cookie, the kitty.

All is a blur

The holidays are zipping by and I want to get a few pics posted of Halloween before the snow flies.

Oops. I think I'm already too late for that deadline.

Anyway, as usual, a gathering was held at 201 N. Wallace on October 31st to celebrate the tricking and treating for all the little ones. We were blessed with pretty nice weather and a wonderful backdrop of yellow leaves in our backyard for some photo opps.

The gang hangs out on the play structure waiting for "go" time!

BFFs!!

Parents trying to get a group shot!

What a mess.

Getting ready to hit the streets.

Ursula stops by!

and then there were none

Due to city budget cuts this year, Curt and I were forced (er . . . had the privilege) to BAG all of our leaves instead of merely raking them to the curb like we've done since the day I moved into our house. [And it was quite literally, the day I moved in. I purchased the house in October of 1992.]

Please don't mention the Ypsilanti City Manager's name to Curt in casual conversation. That is, unless you enjoy seeing the veins popping out of his head.

All total, we filled 80 lawn bags full of leaves. EIGHTY. The pic below only shows 62. But the pic below that shows how many more leaves we still had to go.

And I won't mention that the city did not supply us with any bags and that I had to go to three different stores one afternoon to find some.

I just kept thinking . . . "gee, this is good exercise!"

And then there were none (finally).

Halloween Chili (aka Crock Pot Chili)

As long as I've lived in my house in Ypsilanti, Halloween has been a celebration. Right after I bought the house (over 17 years ago. gulp.) I immediately hosted a Halloween party. Perhaps it has something to do with the close proximity to my birthday . . . it becomes an early birthday party of sorts.

Before we had kids, a ton of our friends would come over and "help" us pass out candy to the treaters because . . . well, our neighborhood is just that cool at Halloween.

Of course now all of our collective kids are in full-blown Halloween mode these days so our house has become the meeting point for a bunch of them. This year we had the GREAT pleasure of having Halloween on a Saturday. And even though I had time to cook (although not really thanks to Saturday dance classes and such) I decided I would take it easy and make a crock-pot style chili. I found this recipe and it turned out so fabulous that I wanted to post it here for posterity's sake.

I doubled the recipe below and although it barely fit in my enormous crock pot, it was the PERFECT amount for our crowd. There was only a small amount remaining for leftovers. Sniff.

Crock Pot Chili

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground chuck
1 cup chopped onion
1 green pepper, chopped
2 to 3 ribs celery, chopped
1 large (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
2 cans kidney or pinto beans, drained
1 tsp. pepper
3 tsp. chili powder
hot pepper, to taste, cayenne
1 tsp. garlic salt

Preparation:
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain well. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker; cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours on LOW, or until done.

[About half-way through the day, Curt turned up the heat by throwing in some extra cayenne and spices. It worked. I hope he remembers what he did for next year.]

bon anniversaire

This is a big week for me.

Even as a kid, having my birthday just two days after Halloween (and one day after All Souls Day if you're counting that) was an exciting and busy time of year. Funny how they seem to run together more as an adult than they ever did as a kid, though. I mean it's a different month and everything.

Nine years ago today, I added another event to this jumble of days by marrying my honey on November 4th.

To this day, he'll say we rushed it by planning our wedding in four months but I wouldn't ever change a thing! (And I guess he should have known what he was getting himself into.)

I love you, husband.

My big yellow tree

I love the big old maple tree in my back yard. It's majestic and formidable . . . yet welcoming and huggable at the same time. It's, without a doubt, the focal point of our yard.

It never shines more brilliantly than in the fall when the the green leaves turn a bright golden. They seem to light up the area.

I finally remembered to take some photos of this beautiful tree in it's fall glory. I managed to take these shots just days before a windy/rainy day removed all of the leaves.

Audrey doing a "jig" in the yard.

Running in the leaves is so much fun!

And so is raking . . . for about five minutes.

Here comes the wind (although it's difficult to capture in this photo that Curt took).

All gone. Sniff.

And Curt is definitely looking forward to bagging all of those leaves. Just ask him.

Getting an early start on Halloween

On Sunday afternoon, Curt and I took the girls to the UofM's Exhibit Museum of Natural History for their 15th annual Halloween Party.

I can't believe this is the first time we've ever made it there, but I have a feeling we'll be back. We only hung around for more than hour of it (it was packed and hot in there) but it was still a ton of fun and a nice addition to our Sunday afternoon.

The museum has recently been hit with controversy surrounding their Native American dioramas --which have made those exhibits more popular than ever. I'm glad I got a chance to see them one more time before they're gone.

Here are some snapshots of our visit on Sunday.

We ran into Tate and MacKenzie (and their parents) as we were coming in and they were going out.

A quick shot with Mom before we head into the dinosaur room.

Posing with Dad next to the stuffed wolverine.



The live lizard was really cool.

But the snake was even cooler!

The Bridge is Mine

Audrey has been displaying a very creative flair lately -- both in her dramatic abilities and in her writing.

The drama, I could do without.

She has recently concocted a series of "illnesses" that get more and more alarming with each incident. This is all in an effort to yank me out of work so that I can take her home and thereby get her out of school early.

I bought it the first two times. I mean . . . what else are you gonna' do when the school secretary calls and tells you that your daughter is sick and wants to go home? However, by the third phone call in as many weeks from the school office, I was done. I don't even remember what the first two illnesses were but the third call was about her "arm hurting." There was no accident or anything . . . her arm just started hurting. Oh geesh. Thank goodness the school nurse wasn't buying it either and Audrey stayed in school that day.

The very next day, we got a call that her hips were hurting.

Seriously??

At least she is venting her creativity through music and dance in a much more positive way. Not only is she heavily involved in her tap and ballet classes on the weekends, she has also taken to music-writing like her Dad.

She recently composed this beautiful song. I hope to get a video of her singing this song and will post it soon.

She has plans for many more songs. She commented that she wants to make a "CD of 29 songs." That is -- if her injuries don't get in her way.

Introducing Foofie, Fluffy, Hildy . . . er Cookie!

We have a new family member! About three weeks ago we took the plunge and finally got Audrey the kitten she has been begging for. It was a belated 7th birthday gift. Belated because summer was so crazy and then we decided to dig big holes in our front yard and basement. There was no need to add a kitten to that chaos.

This tiny little tuxedo kitten was Audrey's first pick at the Humane Society. I was nervous because she apparently had been sick and in a foster home and she seemed waaaaay too mellow and borderline lethargic at the shelter. I was trying to coax Audrey to go for one of the more active tiger kitties. But this was Audrey's pick. I needed to stay out of it. We had to wait a day to pick her up since she had not yet been spayed.

Boy, was my first impression completely off base. This cat is NUTS! She's playful, skittish, friendly, adventurous and all kitten-ey wrapped into one little fur ball.

We're still getting to know one another and the girls are learning how to handle her. Her initial name was Hildy . . . but I think Audrey was simply feeling the pressure and picked the first name that popped into her head (which also happens to be the name of the last cat we had). That lasted for a short while before the girls were calling her everything under the sun. Curt and Vivian still call her just "kitty."

Vivian: "Mommy, there's the kitty." (Even when the cat is sitting right next me. Viv loves to announce the cat's whereabouts.)

We held a naming session one afternoon and landed on the name "Cookie." I was going for "Oreo" but Audrey didn't like it. Cookie it is!

Now if kitty/Cookie would just stop sleeping on Curt's face, we'll all be much happier.

Talking too much

I'm not sure why this spoke to me this morning, but it did.

she has her phone, too

Vivian drew a picture of the two of us during pre-school yesterday. The picture includes a caption.

I guess she knows how much I love my Crackberry.

Takin' care of business

Curt and I hosted the Kiss Me Kate video party last night at our house. We were blessed with beautiful weather so it was easy to have an outdoor large screen viewing on our garage door. Isn't that what all video parties should be like?

In any case, it was fun reliving (some of) the show and see some folks I don't get the chance to see on a regular basis.

The kids were great and there were no major incidents to report. We left them alone for huge chunks of time so it's always a gamble. Yeah, I found pieces of "Candyland" scattered all over the living room and some juice was spilled on the floor in front of the couch but if that's all that happened, then I'm well-pleased.

The party ended around 11:30 and then Curt and I got into clean-up mode. We usually do just enough not to embarrass ourselves within the neighborhood and then finish the rest the next day. We got all of the foodstuffs into the kitchen when it occurred to me that I should probably check on my girls . . . things were too quiet. The last I knew, they were going to watch Pink Panther on the living room TV.

I walk into the living room to find Audrey snuggled up in the blanket sound asleep on the couch. Awesome. One down. "Maybe Vivian put herself to bed?" I thought. That would be absolutely perfect! I walk upstairs. Not in Audrey's room. Not in her bed. Not in our room. It's too quiet. Where is she??

I turn and look into the bathroom. There she is, on the floor in front of her training potty. She quickly looks up and says, "I"m just cleaning this, Mommy." She has a bottle of Windex and a towel. She's spraying the carpet with Windex. I quickly deduce that Vivian didn't quite make it to the potty. Her skirt and underwear are located on the floor about a foot away. And instead of the spray carpet cleaner, Vivian grabbed the Windex.

Oh. my. Gawd.

She is sooooo cute!

Oh, Say Can You See

yourself singing at the Palace? That's what this website says and that's exactly what Curt did yesterday.


He participated in a singing competition/audition (not exactly sure which and neither are they) to get a chance to sing the National Anthem at a Pistons game. We think. Again, we're not really sure what the prize is. I'm guessing the Pistons don't know either.


So, he had his eighty second shot -- two actually. He wasn't happy with his first round since they made him wait for an hour or so in a stuffy room, but of course his crappy singing is better than most because he made it to Round 2. (He can out-sing anyone even on his worst day) Round 2 took place on the Palace floor itself.


Another 80 seconds and he nails it this time. Whoo hoo!! I'm getting text updates on my Blackberry. So . . . now what??


Oh crap. Go home. We'll call you. In FOUR WEEKS!


But he had a great time and would do it again in a heartbeat.


Meanwhile (and with a less-than-subtle segue), Audrey has been listening to my Brandi Carlisle CD in my car ad nauseum. We went to Frankenmuth yesterday and I heard it many times on the way there and back.


She has never tried singing any of the songs herself, but after Daddy came home from his Pistons audition (and after bath time) somehow the sparks flew and she gave it a go. I fired up the words and guitar tabs on my laptop and here's what happened:

Anything Goes!

The end of Summer is closing in on us. As a matter of fact, the weather these past few days has felt more like football season than swimming season. Although, "cool" was the norm this summer.

There are just a couple more days left of summer camp at CCC. And that means that show week has come and gone. I didn't get in here to write about it because, frankly, I didn't have time. Production week at CCC is much like production week at any other theater I've been involved with. It's all-consuming. It involves evening dress rehearsals, opening night galas, naps for everyone and a party after every show. Somehow amongst all of that, I still have to go to work!

Here's a brief recap of our exhausting but oh-so-fun week.

The show poster was designed by three different kids. It was actually three posters merged into one. I was part of the small committee that made the selection. It was a hoot to look through all of the poster designs the kids came up with.

Audrey and Brennan opened the show with a couple of lines from

"Another Openin', Another Show!"

Audrey was concerned that Brennan was singing too loudly and she couldn't be heard. Uhh . . . no need to worry, darlin'.

Kevin, Will and Bihanna were three of the leads. They were remarkable!

Hallie and Will singing their duet.

Bihanna and her "angels"

Audrey and Sophie singing downstage!

Adrianna, Grace, Audrey and Natalie during "Heaven Hop."

This was Vivian's favorite song of the show. She knows all of the words. When she came to see the show with me on Friday, she jumped out of her seat and performed along.

Audrey can't contain her enthusiasm in front of an audience!

Random cast shot.

I feel like a song is about to start . . .

Here's most of the cast partying at the Wednesday night gala event on the deck after the show. Curt is DJing in this pic but he gave Brennan a quick training session and was free for the rest of the night.

That is . . . until the rain came.

Vivian, of course, joined in on the dancing. Here she is doing the Cha Cha Slide.

A scene from the closing performance cast party after the show on Sunday.

Laurie, always gracious, hands out thank you notes to parents and staff who helped with the show, the gala event, stuff all summer long. She takes time to speak about each person. Chris is getting his speech in this shot. We love Chris!

Sara had flowers for all of the kids.

Vivian bugging me while I'm waiting to get our thank you note from Laurie.



Our bartenders for most of the weekend: Smitty and Matt

Bartender? I don't need no stinkin' bartender. I helped myself. ;-)

Vivian and Mara decorated the house on the playground with Sara's flowers.

I have many more pictures and many memories to share. It's always bittersweet when the show ends. I miss the energy around CCC, partying with the parents and staff, seeing our kids performing their hearts out (I cried every performance!) and knowing that the summer is ending and we'll all be going separate ways after this. But we're also very tired and you just can't keep up that pace forever.

Thank goodness for Facebook since I'm friends with almost all of the summer camp parents!! And of course, Vivian will still be going to preschool there. Whew. it's going to be REALLY strange when she's in kindergarten and we don't go back there in the fall.

Sniff.