Everybody Wants to Be a Cat!

After two months of rehersals, the opening night for Disney's Aristocats, presented by Pulaski County High School and performed by community children of the New River Valley was on Thursday, April 7, 2011. The actors and actresses were full of energy and the show was a huge success! Here are the kids with their friends Cailin Hale, Delaney Hale and Janet Brame.
After some costume alterations and a day of learning what not to do with Rit dye (I had complications with changing Clarissa's costume from white to calico, but in the end it worked out great!), the kids returned on Friday night looking fabulous and ready for their speaking parts.
Jared was Berlioz, one of the Aristokittens. Here he is singing with some of the Aristocat family.

Clarissa was Slickcat, the Alleycat. Crazy man, Crazy! Her part had a lot of singing and dancing and she loved it!

Amber was Agnes Gabble, one of the gabbling country geese. Yeah, she's the adorable little one.

Krystal was a mouse named Brie, she's the fancy one in the pink skirt.

This is a photo of the director, Jeff McCoy giving a donation from the proceeds of the show to the Red Cross to help aid the tornado victims from the town of Pulaski which was hit by a tornado during Friday night's performance. It was touching how everyone in the show came together to help the community during this time of need. We are so proud of each of the kids and all the hard work they put into doing this show. Each of them grew so much as they had to get out of their comfort zones and work together with new people to memorize lines, songs, and choreography and to make memories that will last forever.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

Where do they come up with these amazing creations? I mean, don't miss the cowboy boots paired with the Minnie Mouse dress or the fairy wings paired with the leather jacket!

Unfortunately this picture does not show that she's wearing one of Dad's old t-shirts, has bare legs and kitty galoshes on.

Dressing up in some of Miss Hannah's old costumes at dance class.

All dudded up for church, complete with panda backpack.

What do a cheerleader fairy, an East Indian woman, and a tourist all have in common? Their mother adores them and doesn't ever want them to grow out of this stage in life.

Congaree National Park

We decided to get away from the cold Virginia weather for a day and headed south to S. Carolina for a family trip to the temple in Columbia, to visit some friends, and for a field trip to the Congaree National Park.
Clarissa and Krystal can't contain their excitement about our boardwalk adventure.
Congaree is most known for being one of the largest old-growth flood plain forests in the U.S. It is full of trees like the tupelo and cypress that are flood tolerant. The cypress trees are among the largest in deciduous forests and their bases can be as wide as 6 feet. This tree shows the cypress "knees" that are part of the root system, but stick up out of the forest floor. It is not known if they are only acting as anchors or if they also function as snorkels for the tree.
This pictures shows how silly Chris can be, as well as how high the flooding can get, see the line of dark coloring on the trees in the background? That is how high the flood waters rise, about 6 feet or so from the ground.
The trees in the Congaree are deciduous, losing their leaves in the winter. Although the trees look mostly dead near the base, they are teeming with the life of spanish moss growing in the tops of the trees.
This part of the forest reminded us of all the movies with swamps in them that we've seen like The Princess and the Frog or The Rescuers. We were glad that we chose to visit this swamp in the winter when the Skeeter Meter was at it's lowest. We enjoyed our visit so much that it prompted a unit study at home on the different types of forests and the life that lives in them.

Happy Valentine's to Me!

The kitchen is my domain. Really, I love to be in my element, cooking in the kitchen. But, I have never liked the vines on the walls of my dining room and everyone who knows me knows that I do not like white walls. So, finally, after 4 years...I am getting my kitchen painted.
Step 1: Prime over the green vines and green paint under the chair rail. We did this one weekend.
Step 2: Cut in Toasted Coconut above the chair rail. This was my job.
Step 3: Roll Toasted Coconut onto walls, all the kids helped Chris with the rolling.
Step 4: Original hand-painted artwork on outlet and light covers done by the girls.
Step 5: Cutting in and rolling of Red Delicious below the chair rail. (To be done over two weekends as it took 8 coats!! of red to cover the primer.)
Voila! The kitchen/dining room of my dreams. Reminiscent of warmer days and many Mexican dinners of the past and many to come in the future.
This picture shows the colors as they really look, the red matches my Kitchen Aid perfectly, Thank you Chris for your many tireless hours of painting red on red on red. I love it!!

Why I love my family

Happy Valentine's Day!! Amber, I love you because when you decided to stop sucking your thumb, all it took was the simple childlike faith in Jesus to help you and the promise of a pillow pet for you to stop. So now, after 2 years of sucking, you are thumb free and have a new friend to keep you company at nights. Oh, and I love you because you randomly wear stickers on your forehead.
Krystal, I love you because of your new found sense of style. You are growing up and trying to be independent and part of that independence is picking out your own outfits. I love what you chose to wear to the Valentine's party (and yes, that is a slip with pretty lace at the bottom).
Although it's not pictured, Clarissa, I love that you helped Dad make breakfast for me on Valentine's morning complete with flowers and a card and then made breakfast for your sisters; eggs and toast with fairy sugar sprinkles.
Jared, I love that while we were all making Valentine's cards you turned on the Primary songs and sang along with them. I really appreciate your sensitive and loving personality and hearing your beautiful voice. And then to top it off, you graciously helped your sisters to finish their cards. They are so lucky to have you as a big brother.
Chris, I love that after all these years, you still love to get out and boogie with me on the dance floor. I love that you came up with the idea to be the only couple dressed up like the 70s at the stake Valentine's dance and that we could have so much fun together just being crazy. I truly am blessed with a wonderful family!

A Winter Treat

There isn't much I like about winter in Virginia, but occasionally Mother Nature gets out paints other than drab gray and white to provide us with a beautiful display of her talents. This is the view from our backyard on one of those occasions.

Crafting and Creating

Amber's hair is getting long. She likes to refer to herself as having Rapunzel hair, thank you Disney. I enjoy creating pretty hairdos, but she doesn't let me do it very often, so I was lucky to capture this fleeting moment.
Jared with his Ninja training center Lego creation. Much cooler close up, but he's too cute to leave out of the pic.
On a whim, Jared decided to build the London Bridge out of K'Nex. Any guesses as to what profession he is most likely to choose. By the way, I should be getting paid for all this name brand advertising.
A friend of ours was collecting blankets for birth mothers of adopted babies so we decided to make it a family service project to make a couple and donate them. Jared wanted to do a fleece tie blanket like the one his Aunt Michelle gave him years ago (in the background on the chair). He picked out the fleece and did it all by himself, including adding ties to the middle. I didn't get a picture of the one the girls made. They picked out some coordinating flannel and Clarissa sewed it together on the sewing machine. They both came out really good.
A friend taught me how to make these hair bows and a couple nights later, the girls and I made a bunch more. They enjoyed picking out the fabric and embellishments and even did some of the twisting.
Here's Krystal wearing one of the hairbows on a headband.
I have been working on printing many of our photos to decorate the house with. I got this collage frame on sale and couldn't wait to fill it with family pictures of famous or interesting places we have visited. It is hanging in our hallway.
This is a one-of-a-kind creation by Amber. She collected scrap wood from Chris's workshop and glued a broken necklace and beads to it. I love how she came up with this idea all by herself. What a budding artist, modern art, that is.