Success!

SURPRISE!! Mom arriving!

What a great weekend. The party was a success (surprise 50th party that Stacy, Jessie and I put on for our mom). I only wish that I would have visited more. It felt like I had lots of time and then all of the sudden people were saying it's time to go!! I'm sorry about that.

LA on Broadway

Once again I am in LA on Broadway. It is a collaboration of singers from the village/school that put on a pretty good performance with their renditions of various Broadway songs. This year my solo is "Till There Was You" from The Music Man. It has been a month long process of practices (Every day this past week from 6:30-almost 9:00!!) This Saturday night and Sunday afternoon are the shows.

This is Georgia's first year. Here she is at dress rehearsal last night. The picture on the bottom is her with her LA on Broadway T-shirt that all cast members were wearing to school today. She looks pretty proud!!

Easter

My Three Girls
Some long lost siblings. Cassie had to work.

Russell wasn't feeling well.

The whole gang (minus Cassie). We missed you Cass.

Mystery Play

I wanted to take a minute to express how extremely proud I am of my brother Ben. For a couple of years now he has participated as a mystery player. Friday I went to see the play and was once again blown away. What an awesome experience it is to let go of your inhibitions and allow the Blessed Mother and her story touch your heart. Ben played soldier number 1 this year. If you go here www.mysteryplay.org , click on the sorrowful mysteries box as shown above and you can see a short clip. Ben would be the soldier seen doing the scourging. I think you all should try to book them next year!!

Happy Easter! Alleluia!

Stained Glass Cross

The first thing you do to make a stained glass cross is get a piece of wax paper and fold it in half. Find some old crayons and start sharpening them on half of the waxed paper until you have a little pile.

Fold the wax paper over the shavings and prepare to iron them. If you have a lot of shavings you may want to fold the edges of your wax paper over so the crayon doesn't leak out all over your ironing surface.

Next, take a piece of scrap paper to put down on the ironing board and put your crayon shavings on it with another piece of scrap on top. Heat evenly and check every few seconds!

Here is what our melted crayon looks like. Beware- it doesn't take long for it to melt. Our first one turned into yuck because I heated it too long.

Then, you fold a piece of construction paper in half and cut a shape through both halves. We chose a cross for Easter.

You need to make sure you cut out the melted crayon so that it is a size to fit inside your construction paper "card".

Lots of glue so it sticks real well. Josie's favorite part.

Last you fold up the paper to reveal the crayon through the cut-out cross.

Here it is!

This is the result. A beautiful cross that looks like stained glass. Josie is very proud can you tell. Georgia made one when she got home from school. She used shades of blue. It looks very nice in a color family.

A few more birthday pictures.

Playing with my three girls.

A great big "Hello" from the whole gang.

Signs of "Hello"

Grandma and Grandpa told mom they wanted to see her on the blog!!

Here she is!!

Here are the Great Grandgirls wishing you a "Hello".

More pictures of Mom's 50th party to come!

xoxo to you all.

pat-a-cake fun

"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake bakers man..."

"Roll it..."

"and throw it in the oven for Emmy and Me"

and you too!

Hangin' out at Dad's school again.

We recently visited Dad at school again. (school was cancelled for Georgia) I wish everyone had a big open space to play around in like this. It really does wonders for our souls. I like to shoot baskets and do cartwheels when no one is looking! Georgia has been practicing her cartwheels too.

One of the things the girls really enjoy playing with when we visit Brad at school is the bowling equipment. Josie is showing some nice form.

I thought these next few pictures were really cute. Emmy is on the prowl and she is going to wreck this game of bowling.

Darn it big sisters got there just in time.

The way she turned around and looked at me was priceless. Poor girl never gets to have any fun.

finger painting

The kids got some finger paints for Christmas. I figured it was about time to get them out on account of being virtually trapped in our house due to the storm yesterday. They made some great pictures and got very messy which makes painting MUCH more fun.

The mind of a baby

Emeline has taken to playing. She especially loves to play with her sisters. She also loves to play with exactly what they are playing with! You can only imagine what that leads to. Every once in a while she will sit down and play by herself for quite a while. I can just see her little mind at work.

birthday girl

A few pictures from Georgia's birthday party Saturday. Instead of asking for gifts we decided to do a benefit party for the food pantry. This picture is her next to all the "stuff" that we collected! We will deliver it this weekend.

sprouts

The seeds we planted last Sunday are showing thier little heads already. They even survived a terrible spill by Emeline pulling them from the window sill!