Hello Dolly

Two months ago, I took Halle to our local community theater auditions for "Hello Dolly."  Since they said they don't accept any kids younger than eight, I was just planning on showing her what an audition looks like.  But once we got there, she begged me to let her get up and try the dance with one of the audition groups, and they agreed to let her on.  She didn't even get an audition number or anything, but the next week she was on the cast list. 

 

Now here we are at dress rehearsals, and Neal has spent just about every evening and Saturday building the sets with one other dad and I am working behind the scenes moving set pieces on and off stage.  Neither of us had planned to get this involved, but it's been a lot of fun.  We are, however, relieved that it's almost over.  Since we won't actually get a chance to watch the play, someone took some pictures for us.  If you look close, you can see Halle in a few of them.  (Oh, and you aren't supposed to see Dolly at the top of the stairs at "Harmonia Gardens."  We just didn't have the curtain up yet)

Buzztimus Prime Ballerina Army Super-Girl Unicorn Rider

New Glasses

Dillon has glasses now and he looks so different- so much older. They seem to fit him, though, don't they?

A Few More Laughs

Alas, the home computer bit the dust for good a few months back.  So much for catching up.  But I wanted to share a few more comical kid-isms we've had in the past week.

 

Halleisms (if she doesn't know the exact pronunciation, she picks the next closest thing) - ie- the Rifle Tower or Naturella Cheese

 

Katiesm (courtesy of cousin Katie) - "Are we going to the Home Hippo (Depot)?"

 

Dillon - "Mom, can we go on vacation to Jamba Juice someday?"  (I call that excellent advertising)

 

Halle - "Mom, I think my heart attack came back again" spoken with her hand on her forehead.

 

 

And last, but not least . . .

 

Halle - "Mom, is Daddy coming to church with us today?"

Me - "No, he's sick today."

Halle - "Is it because he ate too much candy?"

Me - "No, he has a bug."

Halle - "What's a bug?"

Me - "You know when we tell you to wash your hands really good because there are germs on them?  Well sometimes the germs are still there and they can make us sick."

Halle - "Oh."

 

10 minutes later at church, our neighbor came over to say hi and Dillon says to her, "My daddy swallowed a bug."

A Few Things to Smile At

Aaahhhh! My old slow computer is back up and running and I can finally work on pictures again. That's enough to make me very happy. I have a whole lot of catching up to do, but for now I wanted to post a few things that made me happy as I was trying to decide where to start.

This video is from Halle's preschool concert last spring. You can see that she was way more into it than her backup singers were.

This is actually a very recent picture. I always forget to take progress pictures of our home improvement projects so I am proud of myself for remembering this time. We are finishing our basement right now and this is the mess we are living with right now. Dillon has been helping the guys with whatever he can help with. He's finally starting to mimic the men in his life a little and apparently this is a huge milestone. That makes me smile more than seeing my basement finished any day.

A Beautiful Fall Day

Our evening bike rides are fewer and fewer as the sun starts setting a little earlier each night.  We have a nature park very close to our house that we love to ride through and this night was perfect. 

We're still here

I just wanted to post and let you know we are still alive and playing.  I know I haven't put anything up here for a while - let's see, summer has come and gone and the kids have finished their first month of school by now.  Where did the time go?  Actually, I haven't been very motiviated to pay for my computer to get fixed that has all my picture stuff on it when we have another computer that works perfectly fine.  But it will get done eventually since my camera card is getting pretty full.

 

Anyway, we spent some time at the sand dunes last week as a family.  I'm not a huge fan of sand, but the kids sure are.  I could barely get them to look at me for a picture since they were so busy making "stew" and "growing flowers."  The weather has been so beautiful right now so we've been attempting to capture every last nice day we have before it turns cold and nasty.  It won't be long now.

Pure Joy

We've been a little busy lately. We just moved into our new house a month ago, and between finishing the basement and new yard and cleaning the old house and unpacking in the new house, we are still blessed with all the fun that summer break brings (as long as it's not raining anyway). We started taking Dillon to therapeutic riding to help him gain better balance, and he is loving it. I do have pictures of him but they are on my camera which needs to be connected to the computer we don't have set up yet. So those pictures are to come.

And since Dillon gets to ride horses, Halle is of course on his heels begging for a turn so we signed her up for riding lessons at the same place. She is in pure heaven when she goes. Thursdays are her day to ride and she is sure to have her "cowgirl" clothes on all day. She does feel a little guilty about leaving her stick horse and constant companion, Stripes, behind to go ride real horses - but only a little.

Anyway, Neal took this picture of her on his phone this week when he took her. Apparently she didn't stop talking with her teacher the whole time and decided she was ready for the "regular" horses next week. This pony's name is Winchester and he is so sweet with the kids. Her feet can barely reach the stirrups but if you could see her face, you would see a look of pure joy.