April 24, 2007

The kid's had their 6 month check-up today at the dentist. They both got a very good report although we all got in trouble for not flossing their teeth enough. It's hard enough getting them to eat vegtables, bathe regularly, finish their schoolwork, get 9 hours of sleep, and actually brush their teeth even once a day to find the time to get them to floss everyday!! Mother-guilt weighs heavily when it comes to these kinds of things. I'll put it on my list of very-important-things-I-need-to-do-everyday but I'm afraid it will still be about number 50. Sigh. . .

Gloria was nervous about the cleaning because she says it's hard to breathe and swallow when she has to keep her mouth open for so long. These are real issues to her so I gave the hygenist the head's up about the anxiety issues and she was pretty good about giving her "breathing breaks".

Middle Earth versus The Galaxy:

Zach has set up the Star Wars Risk game next to the Lord of the Ring's Risk game and is planning to have the orcs, elves, riders, ringwraiths, eagles, and cave trolls battle against the clones, super battle droids, clone tanks, and AAT tanks over the next several days. It'll be interesting to see who wins. . .

Meanwhile Rob and Dale are still working on the list. . . all 6 of these speakers have to be painted and re-loaded with all of their speaker peices/parts by Thursday night:

Jeff flew in last night and loaded the truck and trailer today. I dropped by to say hello and bring the baby cradle Rob repaired to be loaded onto the truck. It was great to see him!

Monday, April 23, 2007

The Calm Before The Storm

April really has been quiet as far as events go. We had the Bogus event on April 1st and the rest of the month has been spent in maintenance of new and old equipment for the upcoming season. Things will be kicking into high gear at the end of this week with two shows on Friday, a stage set-up on Saturday and a concert on Sunday. And that's only the beginning. May is almost full of weekend events and June is packed nearly every Thursday-Sunday with very little time for recovery before the next event starts. It's all load-up, load-out, set-up, run the event, tear-down and load-out from this weekend until sometime in September. I'm trying not to be anxious about it, but I'm already stressing just a little bit. . .

Rob still has a bunch of cases to build. . .

. . . Dale finished sanding and refinishing the existing stages and continues to sand on the speakers. . .

. . . and the kids and I just keep trying to keep up. I try to make school a priority and so other things (like a clean house) go out the window, but we are mostly staying on schedule. Gloria checked a book out of the library on ballet and while she was reading through it today she recognized a picture of Louis the XIV and ran to show me. A few weeks ago we studied all about him in history. He was very artsy and performed in the ballet which gained him the nickname, The Sun King. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction that these details stuck in her mind!! I'm never sure what goes in one ear and out the other and what actually sticks. I had to pat myself on the back!

Zach tried (and failed) to teach Gloria how to play Risk today. I really need to make the time to play it with him.

Gloria spent quite a bit of the day admiring her post-braids curly hair:

Zach and Gloria read through Gloria's gymnastic library book and were amazed at how strong and limber the gymnasts were:

So, tonight as I'm uploading my pictures so I can post to my blog and go to bed, the kids were laughing their pants off and trying out one of the gymnastic moves they read about in the book. Of course I had to take a few pictures:

Getting ready:

Almost there:

One of many tumbles:

Trying again:

As close to what they were aiming for as possible:

The end!! (I can finally go to bed!!)

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Unalduterated Joy:




The boy from across the street came over this afternoon and he and Gloria played together for several hours. It was just the two of them in our front yard and Gloria said he was really fun to play with. There are usually other kids around when these two play together and he really annoys her. It was nice that they could just be themselves and hang out.



After church today the three boys got to hang out together at the shop. They played Lord of the Rings Risk, which is one of my favorite games that I rarely have time to play. :(

Meanwhile, the girls went to Savanah's birthday party at Pojos. I picked them up and took a few pictures (of course!):

Bumper cars:

April 21, 2007

We had a nice, lazy Saturday at home. Well, I guess it wasn't really lazy since I made another good dent in the yard and the house, but compared to the busy-ness of most days, this day was pretty laid back. The kids don't watch a lot of TV but they happened to catch Homeward Bound
today and snuggled up to watch it. Emma was in her happy place!!

Snowfie was thrilled we were home, too!

This is Gloria's first year of piano lessons so this was officially her very first piano recital. She wasn't the least bit nervous and played like a pro!

These are a couple of the kids in Gloria's group lessons. Her teacher is James. She's really enjoyed having him as her teacher this year and we're all disappointed that he's moving to Virgina and won't be teaching at the studio in the Fall.

These are shiny shoes hanging from the ceiling as decorations to illustrate the recital theme, "Polished to a Shine":

Gloria!!

April 20, 2007

Gloria's a snuggler. This morning when Rob sat down to put on his shoes, she took advantage of the opportunity and snuggled right up. Then, of course, they had to sit a watch TV for awhile and enjoy each other's company:


Emma's a snuggler, too, and thinks it's her right to sit as close as possible, whenever possible, to her best friend, Rob.


At the shop, when all of their schoolwork was done, the kids were hanging out, just being friends.

After a fairly productive day at school and work, Zach had his first and last piano recital of the year. The Studio has one big recital at the end of the year and this year it is titled, "Polished to a Shine". Zach played "Chariots of Fire" and did a great job.

After the recital, we went to Maggie Moos for ice cream.!!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Today we had a long meeting with the event cooridinators of one of our summer events. We will be spending most of a week at this beautiful location in June:

The kids had fun checking things out. During the actual event, they will have wristbands to a carnival for 4 days. How many kids get to "live" at a carnival/park for almost a week! These are the times that I feel a little less guilty about this crazy life we live.

While we were out and about we checked out two other locations for upcoming events. This field will be transformed into a festival with a carnival, a mini-rodeo, and plenty of food booths and vendors. This event will also be in June:


Yet another big June event at this location:

Our calendar has filled up almost completely for May, June, and July. It's going to be another crazy, busy summer. . .

Good-bye!! :(

This is the back of a taxi, it's trunk stuffed with 15 suitcases on it's way to the airport. . . taking my good, good friends far, far away at 4:30 a.m. this morning. . . :(

It's hard to say good-bye