Adventures in Gardening

Starring: Muddy Shue

It started off like any Spring season; with the blooming of the forsythia Muddy Shue felt the urge to till the ground, plant some seeds and coerce her man, Steeltoe Boot, to build more garden boxes. Once she had tucked the seeds into their garden beds, Muddy Shue thought this season would be like any other; just pop some corn, sit back and watch them grow. But this was going to be a Spring to remember. The trouble began when Muddy Shue received a phone call from her friend warning that their archenemy Jack Frost would be coming. "No way, it's May 18th, 8 days past the frost date!" was Shue's response. But come he would, so Shue gathered up the kids and armed with sheets, buckets, sour cream containers and ironically enough, the sled, they went to battle against Jack Frost.

Although the event gave the appearance that they had entered the "shady" part of town, the seedlings (and kids) were safe in their beds and they all awoke to the sun shining and the knowledge that they beat Jack Frost.

Next came the run-in with Cut Worm. Unfortunately, not all the seedlings survived this nemesis, but with some careful digging to discover to lair of the enemy and some pressure from Steeltoe Boot, Cut Worm was eradicated from the premises.

However, just as Muddy Shue was counting her victories, another villian came on the scene: the elusive Jane Doe. As Shue discovered, masked by gracefulness and beauty, this one creature could do more damage to newly blossoming pumpkin plants in one night than Cut Worm could do in a lifetime. Rather than sing the Blues, Muddy Shue went into action. The weapon of choice? A scarecrow. Shue once again enlisted the armies of her four children to implement this plan.

Some old clothes, old straw, an old lampshade, second hand silverware and voila! the meanest, baddest, bluest scarecrow you ever saw.
Unfortunately, the scarecrow met with Jack Frost's sidekicks Thunderstorm and Hail on his first night. Fortunately, there are plans to revive him and now he has a name (thanks to a friend's suggestion): Lazarus. So ends the Adventures in Gardening, part 1. We hope you enjoyed the show. Stay tuned for more Adventures in Gardening as Muddy Shue fights the notorious Tomato Blight and Japanese Beetle!

Back from the Land of Oz

Throughout the month of May, our family was transported to the land of Oz. Jared, Clarissa, and three of their friends had the wonderful opportunity to be Munchkins in the Pulaski County High School's production of "The Wizard of Oz." Rehearsals began shortly after auditions and thus started our afternoon routines of packing snacks and drinks, picking up Maggie from school, rushing to the High School, trying to keep the little ones entertained while the older ones were rehearsing, rushing back to drop off Maggie and make it home in time to make dinner (we did pretty good, we only ate out twice during the three weeks). Finally came opening night. Pictured from left to right: Maggie, Clarissa, Cailin, Jared, and Connor. Yes, we had a lot of fun coming up with costumes. Clarissa and Cailin were the first Munchkins to timidly come out on stage to meet Dorothy.

Here all the Munchkins sing about how the house landed on the wicked witch.

Maggie and Clarissa wait and listen as the Munchkins town leaders discuss the wicked witch.

Finally the Munchkin Mayor announces that the wicked witch is dead and all the Munchkins rejoice.

Jared, Devon, and Connor are the Lollipop Guild, they welcome Dorothy to Munchkinland.

In this picture, Jared just told Dorothy to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" and is listening as another Munchkin gives the same instructions.

Here are Maggie and Clarissa with the Scarecrow.

Jared (with the blue wings) and Connor were so happy when they found out that in addition to being Munchkins they also got to be Flying Monkeys. They thoroughly enjoyed wearing scary masks, acting crazy, and tearing Scarecrow from limb to limb. How could two sweet boys be so terrifying?

Chris and I attended all six performances and enjoyed each one as though it was the first. We especially loved it in the last performance when after doing the jitterbug dance, the cast broke into the Thriller line dance. The whole thing was a great experience and by the end we all had the play and songs memorized, even Amber. So, it was no surprise that just when I thought we were done with the Wizard of Oz, Chris decided to use lessons from the play as our Family Home Evening the Monday after the last performance.

Chris came up with three lessons to be learned from the Wizard of Oz: 1)The desire to return back home 2)Having friends and family to help you on your way and 3)Resisting and conquering evil. Of course a Wizard of Oz Family Home Evening is not complete without costumes, which we fortunately had left over from Halloween a couple of years ago. At the end of the lesson, the kids decided to act out as much of the play as they could remember (which was a lot!), only Amber couldn't decide if she wanted to be the cowardly lion or the wicked witch.

Here she is as the wicked witch.

And...lest we think that this was the end of our love affair with the land of oz...Our family signed up to do a puppet show for a talent show at church and when I asked the kids (with the help of their friends, the Hales) to write the script, guess what story they chose - that's right, The Wizard of Oz. Only this time, the story was a little different; like instead of going up to Oz in a tornado, Dorothy fell down a hole to get the Oz. And we didn't have any puppets that were scarecrows, tin men, or lions so we used a gingerbread man (who needed a new gumdrop button because a hungry fox ate his), a prince (who wanted to be turned back into a frog) and an elephant (who needed courage against mice). Another funny twist was that Dorothy went to the Ruby city to see the wizard and he gave her Emerald slippers instead of Ruby ones. It was a lot of fun but I don't have any pictures because I was the one holding up the signs for audience participation.

So, now it's June and we are back from the land of Oz, at least until the next impromptu performance, and I just have to say - there's no place like home.