Stage Decks and The Birthday Party

Dale and Rob have spent the last couple of days sanding and repainting all of the stage decks. If everything works out right, the Egyptian Theater will be renting out our stage for the winter. Hopefully it will be a set-and-forget situation, but we won't know for sure until they are installed and beautified with carpet and marroon drape. The first concert the stage will be used for is Saturday night so they have to be installed on Friday. We won't get to all the nitty gritty fancy details like carpet and drape for a couple of weeks. This could be a really good thing to help sustain us this winter.

I spent the day getting ready for the party. Rob came home in the evening and set up the truss, screen and projector for the outside movie. We invited nearby neighbors to lessen the risk of complaints.

The main thing Zach wanted to do at his birthday party was to have a nerf gun battle. We bought a nerf gun for everyone and as soon as it got dark, the lights in the house went off and the battle started. Rob and Zach bonded as an unbeatable team.

Rob is just too sneaky and scary. One neighbor kid (not the one in the picture) said he wasn't afraid of anyone and he even nerf gun battled with his Marine Uncle and wasn't scared. I think he might have peed his pants when Rob came around the corner.

We played Cars for the younger kids in the neigborhood that were too little to join the fight.

Zach opened presents at midnight and THEN we had cake and ice cream.

The boys got a real treat when Rob set up the Playstation on the big screen and they all played the Star Wars Battlefront game. I went to bed.

Saturday morning I found the boys still fast asleep at 10:00 a.m. I think the party was a success.

Zach and Gloria stayed up well past midnight to work on the Ferris wheel.

Gloria did most of the sorting and Zach did most of the building.

When Zach woke up this morning, he told me he finished it around 2 a.m. Gloria didn't last that long, but they sure did a fine job.

Dale and Rob were both impressed with the project and spent some time admiring it before we all left for Nampa Nights.

Tonight the band was Wild Card. It's the same 80's band we ran a few weeks ago at Hawks.

Zach:

D.J. Dale:

Vic came out with the kids:

Gloria braided her hair earlier today. It's a good thing she has a good sense of style. She doesn't get it from me. . .

Gloria has been begging to go back-to-school clothes shopping. She found a couple of things at a little store next to the park and since they were on sale, she got a new pair of jeans and this pretty coat. This could save me from having to go to the mall!!

www.wildcardrocks.com

Happy 15th Birthday, Zach!!

It's hard to believe that my baby is 15 today. I enjoyed my trip down memory lane today digging out these snapshots of my first-born's journey thus far:

NICU 4 lbs 13 oz

About 1 month old:

This was taken on Halloween at the age of 2 months- he was a healthy eater:

Somewhere around 4-6 months. Rob had sole responsibility every evening when Zach was this age since I was waiting tables at Garcias. Rob looks so young and cute:

9 months-ish:

Two and a half:

Three- our yard was beautiful back then. . .

Teacher Merrily's preschool:

Five:

Celebrating his 7th birthday with Amanda at the fair:

Eight:

Birthday number nine:

Ten:

10 or 11:

Age 12 with Gloria and Ethan:

13th birthday party:

14:

Today at 15:

Rob loves birthdays and holidays just like his mom. He's like a little kid!! Even though I had already shopped for the birthday party on Friday, Rob had to go to the store and pick out something himself so Zach would have something special to open on his actual birthday. Rob wrote clues on pieces of paper and Zach went on a treasure hunt to find his present:

The final clue was in the mailbox:

It led Zach to the back of the truck where he was very surprised to find a Lego Creator Ferris Wheel:

Celebrating 17 years of marriage and having my baby turn 15 makes me feel soooo old. Where did the time go??? I think I'm finally starting to grasp the importance of cherishing every moment.

It's always just a little more difficult to put all of this up again when we just took it all down. Adding to the frustration, we only have three hours to put up something that takes about 5 hours on a good day.

Both kids pitched in to help. Zach is almost tall enough to really help with the canopy.

In the midst of all of these shows, we are still trying to run a business which includes meeting with clients, returning phone calls and keeping up with the calendar that is still filling up even though our busy season should be over. Rob had a meeting today with Curtis Stigers who will be at the Egyptian Theater sometime next month. I admit, I'm a star-gazer, so I had to take this picture. I'm not a star-stalker, though, so it's kind of hard to see who it is from this distance!

Once the canopy was successfully raised, I sent the kids in to see a movie as a reward for their hard work. On to the (ugh) stage:

We beat the clock and were ready to go 10 minutes before the event start time. The band is The Solution Brothers. This is a block party for the Fiesta Bowl Documentary so the BSU band, dancers and cheerleaders put on a show:

Will this be in Gloria's future??? I think she thinks so. . . .

The event was scheduled to run from 5-8 but the promoter got disgusted with the poor turn-out and shut it down at 6:45. We put all of this up just to take it all down after an hour and 45 minutes. . . .

We took our time taking it down since we were all so tired. Gloria hammed it up for the camera:

Zach had the hard, dirty job of crawling around under the stage taking off the clamps:

He's done a great job today and he has the dirty hands to prove it:

Tomorrow will be a recovery day. I hope.