The Dreamers

Lizzie is my Project Girl.

She likes to create things. This summer, she, Eli, and their BFF's Audrey and Max created The Dream Club. I believe I have shared an installment of their newspaper in an earlier post.

Well, in the latest installment of the Dream Club Newsletter, it was announced that they have created a band named "The Dreamers" and that they were soliciting fans for their Band. The kids worked really hard on making copies of this cute newspaper and bicycling around the neighborhood, dropping them off at houses.

A couple of days later, Lizzie says to me: "Mom! I have to check my email and see how many fans we have!" I helped her log onto her Gmail account, which we set up so she could email her grandparents, and then I got distracted making dinner. When I went to check my email later that night, this is what I found:

mom,

i can't belive it! nobody wants to be a fan of the dreamers! i feel
like nobody even cares about our newspaper!

is there any way you can help?

love, lizzie
p.s if you don't help, i don't think anybody will come
to our show. please email me back with some ideas.

Well, you might as well wrench my heart out and stomp on it! I felt horrible. Like any jaded advertiser, Lizzie had learned the hard way that print advertising is out. I steered her towards internet marketing. I asked Lizzie to write up an email and that she could ask for fans that way. This is what she wrote:

dear ______,

my best friend,audrey, her brother max,eli and i started a club called
the dream club. so, we decided to start a dream club band, and we called it the
dreamers.we are going to do a show soon. the only problem is we don't have any
fans.you decide if you are a fan or not, and only the fans come. after our main
song, we'll have a big party! plus you get free candy.

2.00 a ticket
4.00 a backstage pass
8.00 tour of many things
10.00 souvenires & treat

hope you can come!!!!
(lizzie)

p.s. will you be a fan? please email me back.

Then I showed her how to send it to all her family and a few neighbors who received the newspaper. Grandparents to the Rescue! We have such a supportive and fun-loving family, who all emailed her back and pledged their Ultimate Fan-dom. Every day, she would check her email, and then gleefully add to her list of fans. When Grandma V. sent $4.00 in the mail so they could be part of the Fan Club, Audrey and Lizzie decided it was time to put on their first show.

Well, it was an event! We had the Andrews and the Taits and us. I figured we better serve up some dinner, to thank the "fans" for their generosity! I even made This Punch in honor of it.

The Dream Club worked for several days beforehand, preparing, and their hard work paid off. Lizzie and Audrey made a huge list of things to do, like sweep the stage, bake cookies, make "souvenires," plan hair-do's, buy the candy, and set up the Tour of Many Things. It was a Raging Success! And all together, they made $17 dollars last night, to be put in the Dream Club Bank. For what, you ask? For future candy, I can only suppose. And because Lizzie says that this is a Real Club, not a kiddy club, because they have Field Trips (to the Front Yard) and Fundraisers. She's got a point. They really do have a Real Club.



The pre-show set-up with the tarp covering the stage.
Meet here for the "Tour of Many Things"
My Construction Paper Wristband.
Ticket Sales!
The Dreamers Lead Singer: Lizzie
On Drums, we have MAX!
Eli's rockin' out with his GUITAR
And Audrey is workin' the KEYBOARD! (Notice the decorated wall behind - it says "Dreamers")
I forgot to mention their song: "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"
THE DREAMERS!!!
The reprise had the Dreamers in a different Staging setup.

They said "free candy," and they meant it! Kim was pelted by numerous Starbursts.

Everyone sang in the chorus! Ella and Ava Tait were groovin' to the music!
This was one of the souvenires.
Signing autographs... During the Tour of Many Things, Ava (a Groupie) was able to touch and play on the exact same keyboard that the Dreamers used. It was an exciting moment.
Late night swim party after the entertainment. What a great way to end our Summer Vacation. To me, this is exactly what childhood and summer are all about.

And I just want to give a shout out to all the FANS!!! This wouldn't have been possible without you! :)

Ivy

This week, we've been getting ready for school to start! It's so exciting.

But Ivy kept saying "I don't want a kitty carton!"

I didn't know what in the world she was talking about.

Then it finally dawned on me: She's saying "I don't want to go to Kindergarten!"

how cute.

Colorado Pictures!

Here's a little photo journal of my awesome trip! Enjoy!Nicole and her darling boys, Henry and Jackson. What a sweet family!

Royal Arch - a 4 mile hike climbing 1500 vertical - and so worth every altitude wrenching breath! My friend Lynn Copes enjoying the view!
A peek through the arch of the Boulder Flatirons.
My crazed look with my crepe.
The Royal Arch Quartet: Soprano (me), Brian the Bass, Bruce the Tenor, and Lynn the Alto.
My sweet host and new friend, Pat

A delicious lunch in Boulder - organic, fresh - very typical Boulder style!
This is Banjo Billy with his Bus Tour
It was part tour, part stand-up comedy, and we all loved it. Except when he was holding his microphone in one hand, gesturing with the other, and turning back to look at our reactions. While he was driving the bus. Eeek! No, he was great.
A pretty little part of Boulder I saw.

Watching the sunset over the Rockies with Heather and her host family You had to be there - this picture doesn't do it justice!
Clementine, Pat's beloved Bassett Hound.

Simone, Ann, Leslie, Tia and me.
I spent an afternoon reading a book on a bench here - such a treat!
Dr. Gentry, our choir conducter in the music hall at Chautauqua in Boulder
My view

And finally, here's Lynn, recreating the yoga class we went to where she turned from an alto to a contortionist as Brian looks on! This kind of thing kept us entertained while we were at the airport for 6 hours before boarding our plane! Good times! :)

Yo from CO!

Hi Everybody!

Just have a second here to say hello and that Boulder Colorado is one of the most beautiful places ever.

You know, it's been pretty awesome! I've done things like...

1. Hiked 4 miles to the Royal Arches near the famous Flatirons
2. Contorted my body in a Seriously Awesome Yoga class
3. Sang "OhHo the Wells Fargo Wagon" on the Banjo Billy Bus Tour
4. Sweated buckets on a stage in an unairconditioned 102 yr. old Concert Hall
5. Ran into a friend from my past! Becca Moench, who is playing in the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and with whom I played with in Jack's orchestras, went to Suzuki camp and also to Europe! Haven't seen her since my junior year of High School! Small world!
6. Ate dinner on Pearl Street, the downtown Boulder pedestrian street, while costumed bikers raced.
7. Watched the sun set over the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Incredible.
8. Jogged at 8 am and didn't fry.
9. Had a pun war with Banjo Billy. Organ puns. I was un"stop"pable. Hehe.
10. Sat in the Denver Airport for 6 hours with Tia and Lynn and became totally punchy.


Sure miss my family!

Pictures coming soon!

I'm with Nicole!

So, I flew to Denver today, and I get to stay one night with my cousin, Nicole, before she leaves for SLC tomorrow! She has the two cutest boys ever, Henry and Jackson. I'm here with the Phoenix Symphony Chorus, and we'll be singing in a music festival this weekend. It's so fun to be able to see Nicole in her cute house in Beautiful Denver, and she's so nice to let me stay here.

"Adam Squared" Reunited

Adam's roommate of 5 years during college, Adam, recently moved to the Phoenix area! We had dinner with his family and him on Saturday after having lost touch with them five years ago.

Duh for us - we forgot to take a picture while they were here, so instead, I have supplemented with pictures from their long and varied past.

Let's begin at the very beginning. Freshman year. As we can see, my Adam was much more into the relationship than Adam W. He obviously wasn't so sure about the fro-haired dude from Cali. And rightly so. Look at that MOP! And I'm not sure, but I think that might be a hyper-color shirt Adam S. is wearing. Holy 90's batman.As Freshman year progressed, so did their friendship. They joined a gang, apparently. Just kidding, I guess they were going to a dance and thought those bandanas would impress the ladies. Hmm, mmm. For all of you youngsters out there, that big white box behind my Adam is not a mini-refrigerator on the desk. It's an Apple IIe computer. Yes, they used to be that huge. By the end of the semester, the Adams were Infamous and Inseperable. Two-armed side-hug. That's as good as it gets for guys!But then, they each left for 2 year missions! How would they survive apart!?Their friendship picked up right where it left off when they each got home and decided to room together again. And that's when the craziness began. Among other stints, we had "The Grecian Urns" - the best skit of all time...

and "The Lonely Goatherders." Consequently, this event was the first time I noticed Adam. I was there in the audience thinking, "Who is that guy in the lederhosen with the great legs?" And then I married him. I really do love the Sound of Music.
Welcome to Phoenix, Adam and Whitney!!

Since we Canteloupe...

...we grew our own! I'm so proud!

Eli is 6!

We had a big birthday bash at the bowling lanes!The Little Sister Posse



Aaron Steenhoek got the only Strike of the night! GO Aaron!

Our Bowling Lane Cake!Look at all these Friends!!



Grandma V. sent Cash money!

And, yes, Eli got his skateboard. And not a single mention of bumpy spoons. :)