Highlights from Beauty & the Beast

I mentioned in an earlier blog that I took the girls to see Beauty and the Beast last weekend. It was Saline High School's production. I was quite impressed with the level of talent. The girls loved it.

Here are some highlights.

Watching the show. That's Vivian, Audrey, Delaney Bebow

(and Monica in the background)

Posing for a picture with Mrs. Potts and Chip after the show.

Vivian was particularly fascinated with Lumiere. He let her play with his magic candle hands.

She kept "blowing it out" or so she thought.

The belles with Belle.

The "feather duster" was Audrey's favorite character.

Here the girls are on the top floor of the castle.

Delaney and Audrey posing with Lumiere and Babette.
I have no clue where Vivian is at this point. She kept running off. Her favorite spot was behind stage in the blacklight.




The girls taking their turn at being the "star."

Vivian with her usual casual air. She knows who the real star is.

Our little genius

Vivian loves to spell her name. In addition to that, she spots letters and calls them out all of the time.

"Look Mommy! It's 'V' for 'Vivian'!" . . . or 'N' or 'A' for Vivian . . . cause they're in there, too.

She also amazes us with her computer and technical ability.

This morning while riding to school with Daddy, she was quietly (I assume) playing with one of her techie toys.

I got a call from Curt that Vivian had typed out her name on the handheld toy that she recently got for Christmas. This is a drawing toy that apparently has a keypad in it somewhere. I didn't even know this keypad existed. But she not only found it, she typed out her name.

Curt took this picture and emailed it to me.

Now if we could just get her to master the whole potty-training thing . . . .

Facebook is sometimes creepy

Robert added you as a friend on Facebook. We need to confirm that you know Robert in order for you to be friends on Facebook.

Robert says, "Love to know more about you.".

=====================

I have no clue who Robert is.

Action: Ignore.

Who ARE these people and why do they go around friending people they don't know? We don't have any common friends (my usual barometer for whether I will friend someone or not). Creepy. What makes this even more unnerving is that I got two other similar friend requests from people I don't know in the last two days.

Was my profile published somewhere? Is that a vain thought? Probably. ;-)

Ashes, ashes. We all fall down laughing.

I had to laugh when I saw this on-line today.

This is exactly the OPPOSITE of how Audrey feels about today.

Today is Ash Wednesday and I will be taking the girls to church this evening to get ashes placed on our foreheads during Mass.

Audrey was bummed when I told her we'd be going in the evening. Last night she begged me to go to the first Mass in the morning. [I didn't even realize she was aware that there's an early morning Mass. I used to attend that Mass, but that was long before I had kids .] I explained that it would be difficult since our morning was pretty busy already. She said she would get up early so we could go. I figured the issue would just die on the vine since she's a bear to wake on school day mornings most of the time.

But not THIS morning!

Right smack in the middle of my workout (doing deadlift weights with 20 pounds in each hand no less) she appeared bright and smiley down in my workout room (aka the basement). Once again, she was pleading with me to go to the early Mass this morning.

The reason? She wanted all her friends at school to see the ashes on her forehead.

This is a total hoot. I love that she has no inhibitions about it all . . . I must be doing something right.

I told her I could put pretend ashes on her forehead and she could explain to her friends that she would be getting the real ones later. She wasn't crazy about that idea (and frankly, neither was I . . . I'm not sure why I offered it. Catholics out there - did I do a bad thing?) But in the end, she decided that "yes, she did want fake ashes." Oops. So, I took a little gray eye shadow and made a smudge of it on her forehead.

She was so pleased! What a freak. ;-)

I can't wait to hear her report on this later tonight.

www.7Audrey.com

Audrey is a big fan of the show iCarly. The show revolves around a girl who has her own website called icarly.com. Actually, Audrey is a big fan of all things beginning with www.

She has been inspired by iCarly and the internet world in general to create her own website. Her imagination has been running wild with great ideas for this website. I'm pretty excited by it myself!

While I was on my business trip last week, Audrey and Curt discussed this website idea of hers. To make sure that Curt would not forget that discussion, she posted this note on the bathroom mirror.


Translation:

"At work today, make a website called www.7Audrey.com. Get a computer and a camera."

She'll soon be way ahead of me and my piddly-ass little blog.

Catching up

I was on a business trip last week and I'm still getting caught up on life since my return on Thursday night. It was just a three-day jaunt to my company's corporate headquarters but with a delayed flight on Thursday night and an INSANE day back at the office on Friday, I got thrown into a bit of a tailspin.

The girls were mostly good while I was gone. Curt actually enjoyed his time with them, I believe. They went out to eat to Red Robin one night because Curt thinks that's the place where all the abandoned Dads take their kids. We see a lot of single Dads when we go there. In any case, the girls went easy on Daddy by being basically good-natured most of the time -- they even got up and out the door in the mornings without a fuss. Personally, I think they are on their best behavior with Daddy. There's just something incredibly comfortable when Mom is around and they lose all sense of propriety.

Only moments after I walked in the door Thursday night (after the squeals and hugs) did they start in with the crying and fighting over something. Curt looked at me in disbelief. "They did not act like that when you weren't here." It truly is amazing.

And apparently Vivian was completely unclear about where I went. She told her daycare provider earlier in the week "we can't find Mommy."

Well, I was found again and happy to be back home.

And despite lacking much motivation, we did have a full weekend of activities.

Curt and I had a wonderful date night on Saturday that I also need to write about. I took the girls to see Beauty & The Beast yesterday, which was a hoot. They dressed up as princesses and we took loads of pictures on the stage with the cast after the show. I hope to have pics up soon.

I guess I'm putting off most of my blog for another day. One thing at a time.

Earlier IS better!!!

EXCEPT FOR ME!!!!!!

A beautiful vase of flowers just arrived on my desk at work!

Thank you, honey!

And I get to spend all day tomorrow going to both Vivian and Audrey's Valentine's parties (thank the LORD they're at different times!)

I love Valentine's Day!

Two days and counting

I haven't had much to say in recent days. Mostly because our family has been stricken this past week with a stomach virus of some sort.

It all started very innocently with Audrey telling us last Tuesday morning that her stomach hurt. I walked a very fine line of not believing her tale AT ALL to making the decision to stay home and keep a very close eye on her.

Whew. Glad I made the right choice.

By mid-afternoon, she was spending a lot of time in the bathroom. And then . . . oddly enough, my own stomach started feeling kind of crappy (and I mean that literally). So . . . two down now.

Audrey went back to school the next day but I stayed home yet another day.

On Friday morning, poor Vivian couldn't even lift her head at the breakfast table. Something was definitely not right in her world. She's NEVER one to complain about illness so she's not easy to diagnose . . . but this sign was very clear. Curt decided to take his turn at home with a kid so he stayed home while I went to work. That might not have been a wise choice. By Friday night, he too, had been hit. Bleh.

About this time last year, Curt and I were getting ready to take off for our first vacation in YEARS when we all came down with this very same thing.

I guess February is not our month!

We're still not 100% but we've all been at our respective desks/playgrounds for two days now. Now if I can just get Audrey to stop trying to wheezle her way out of school. She thinks saying her "stomach hurts" is automatic grounds for a day at home.

Community Scrapbook

Much to Audrey's delight, her picture was in the paper last Sunday.

Vivian is in there as well, but you can only see a hint of her pink sweater dress behind Audrey. She was much more interested in coloring with the markers than posing for a picture. My defiantly independent little girl.

A couple of Sundays ago, on a very snowy afternoon, a bunch of civic theater folks sang for two retirement communities. It was a hassle getting started with the weather and late arrivals and lugging LOTS of equipment but we did it. The first show was absolutely incredible for our egos. They loved us there and the feeling was mutual. This is where this photo was taken. The folks at the Village at St. Joe's are lovely, lovely people.

The second show was not quite as ego-boosting. It appeared that the community residents were not given any choice in the matter and were simply wheeled down in their wheelchairs and left there. One woman very loudly talked through the entire performance. Things like "THIS IS TOO LOUD" and "I WISH I COULD GET OUT OF HERE" were uttered numerous times. I was caught between emotions of laughing and crying. Crazy. Another couple of people kept motioning to Curt to turn down the music. Uhh . . . it's not easy to sing a belting Broadway tune sotto voce. At least one singer stood literally five feet away from the microphone. Funny.

I was glad the girls came along with us. At least they were a hit at the event -- both of them. Vivian even asked if she could sing and kicked off the 2nd show with an a cappella version of Twinkle, Twinkle -- her current favorite tune.

Audrey told her classmates that her picture was in the paper. She said some of them didn't believe her. Good thing today was show-and-tell day at school for her (just her -- whoever brings in snack gets to bring in a show-and-tell item.)

I wish I could be a fly on the wall when she proudly pulls out the newspaper article!

That's my girl!

Like a little prayer . . .

Audrey is home sick today (and consequently, so am I. Although not sick --- yet. I AM having what could be psychosomatic symptoms.)

As a result of being home all day, she has been watching a lot of TV. A LOT of it.

She just saw this commercial on TV and now she wants one. She even went so far as to pause the TV while the 800 number was on the screen. She handed me a post-it and a pen and told me to write it down and call the number.

Perhaps it's something to consider for her Easter basket this year. Or perhaps I can distract her with the homemade popsicles she begged me to make.