Wizard of Oz

Kylie participated in her 6th grade play The Wizard of Oz. She tried out for the part of Dorothy and since October she has been practicing several days of the week, memorized a lot of lines and even learned a few new songs. She had so much fun and the performance was great! She did such a great job!! Here are a few pictures of that night.





Tinwoodman -(Shaefer), Lion (Derek), Dorothy (Kylie), Toto (Trase), Scarecrow (Jared).



 

Kylie is having an adrenaline let down. She is realizing it is over and the tears are signifying all the fun she had in the play.

*Thanks Marc for taking all the pictures and videos and putting them on the blog for us.

Caribbean Cruise

Marc and I went on such a fun trip to the Eastern Caribbean. We were able to go to Princess Cays, St Maarten, St Thomas, and Grand Turk.We did a lot of snorkeling and I made a few friends in the process one being this little shark. We spent time on the beach, sightseeing at  Blackbeard's castle, visited the Maho beach airport where we watched the airplanes land right over our heads. The ship was beautiful but the friends was our favorite part of the trip. We laughed and cried from laughing everyday. It was a Wonderful trip!!

 

Kylie's Birthday Fun

It's official-Kylie has turned 12!

She is so excited for this milestone birthday of hers. She was finally able to get her ears pierced. I loaded all the girls up on Saturday and we headed for the mall. Kind of a dangerous en-devour for a mother of 4 girls. We went straight to Claire's and chose our earrings and after all the paper work, she was ready. I think the pain caught her off guard a little and with only a little water in her eyes she did great. She has been happy with the results and has taken great care of them.

Is it just me though-should little, little, girls really be getting their ears pierced when they keep insisting they don't want to? The cutest little girl about 18 months was telling her mom she didn't want pierced ears and her mother was bound and determined to get them done whether that little one wanted them or not. I just thought it was so sad.

Before all the partying started, Kylie's cute friend came and woke her up and kidnapped her for breakfast. definitely a highlight of her day. It made her feel so special.

To end the day we had a birthday party where we played Minute to Win It. It was so much fun and all the kids were such great sports. After the games Marc grilled some hamburgers and we had a BBQ. The weather was absolutely beautiful.

 

After our BBQ we stared a fire while it was getting dark and a little chilly. Everyone gathered round and watched her open a few presents.

 

We ended the evening with a ice cream bar. I think I bought every ice cream flavor available and even though it was cold at this point-we all dug in.

I think everyone had a good time and I know Kylie did, so I am happy she had such a wonderful 12th birthday.

Halloween 2012

Halloween 2012

We made these super cute witches last Sunday to start our Halloween celebration. Each child made their own and I think they came out great and it was so much fun. Thanks Becca for all your help!!

 After we made the witches we had a Halloween mystery dinner. Everyone had three courses they had to choose from-witches brew, vampire blood, wicked witch fingers, ghoulish eyeballs, worms, monster mash with rubber skeleton, etc for each course. It was so much fun watching them get dessert first or all their utensils at the final course. McKenna couldn't get into the thought of eating dessert first. It was just past her comprehension so she had all three courses in the order of her choosing. We had a lot of fun!!

 For our annual Halloween school parade Kylie was a jelly fish.

 Kamryn was an angel.

Conner was Percy Jackson-can you guess which book he just finished rereading? His costume always seems to center around that theme.

 Kelsey was a devil. Her costume centered around her clip on earrings.

What a fun Halloween-Now on to Thanksgiving.

Washington DC July 2012

We took a wonderful trip this summer to Washington DC. We went with Marc's parents, brother, and sister and their families. We spent the week in a beautiful home and took to the city during the day. Here is a little of where we went in a photo blog.

Our last morning we all jumped in for a picture before we headed to different parts of the country.

 We went to several Smithsonian's. Conner participated in a reenactment of the 1960s 'Sit In'. Four members of the audience who were holding menus, that they passed around at the beginning, came to the front and were to sit on stools while everyone else went up to stare at them. They were not allowed to touch just stare. Notice the woman in red who was very uncomfortable but Conner is cool as a cucumber. He has a few sisters who stare him down on a regular basis.

 Kelsey loved all the neat dollhouses.

 McKenna preparing to become President of the United States.

 We visited the monuments. The weather was extremely hot but everyone was a trooper.

 This child has a love for animals like no other, even if they are bronze.

As a side note we lost our second hamster two weeks ago. And when I say lost I really mean LOST. This one (Ella-not to be confused with the first whose name was Nilla) was an escape artist. While we were in DC I received this e-mail from friends who were watching her:

So I guess I should let you in on what happened now that everything turned out okay...

Friday night after you brought Ella she escaped by pushing off the blue cap on top of the cage.  She got out during the night and the cap was found on the floor.  After four days, stakeouts at night with headlamps and flashlights, google searches on how to find a missing hamster and food traps set up in each room, I happy to say that Ella was found last night at 12:02 a.m. in the corner of our bedroom.  I am nervous as to what she has seen and heard going on in our room over the past four days but I guess there isn't much that can be done about that now ;)

She is resting peacefully in her cage with duct tape over the cap.  I have attached a picture of her a few minutes after she was back in her cage.  Apparently she was hungry and ate half of her food and that's why her cheeks are so big!  I am glad your family pet is safe and I am also glad that I now know if something crawls up my leg during the night it's not a hamster...

Sincerely,

The Rodent Recovery Crew

 

Back to 2 weeks ago she escaped Monday night. Kelsey was dismayed to find her missing Tuesday morning but we told her not to worry because she has always come back. During the day I heard some disturbing noise from the laundry room and went to investigate, while I stood on a stool with a flashlight and stick (you never know what could be making that noise), I couldn't find anything. I even called Marc at work to have him listen and he instructed me to go outside and look on the dryer vent to see if a bird was caught. It really sounded like a bird flapping its wings-nothing. I closed the door so Marc could investigate after work.

 

Late that night Marc was in his office and he heard something outside his window in the window well. We were having a windy storm so that accounted for the noise.

 

Days and nights went by and still no hamster. Finally on Friday night we set up 4 traps. Marc and Kelsey got buckets, 2x4s, cheerios, and hamster snacks but come Saturday morning they were all empty.

 

Saturday Marc noticed a huge pile of lint from the vent outside the dryer and called me out to see if it was there when I check on Tuesday. Well I guess I didn't actually check the dryer vent what I was checking was the fireplace vent. After some investigating Marc found Ella in his window well-expired. Another heart break. Needless to say we are taking a little break from hamsters.

 

Now back to DC...

 Everyone enjoyed their own personal TV on the back the each seat on the airplane.

Kelsey was a little nervous flying so she got to sit with me. What a fun trip with so many memories for years to come. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Rice!!