Embrace the Camera

One of the blogs that I like to read gave a challenge to all their readers.  She told the true story about a young mother who realized she was never in any pictures with her daughter.  So she decided to "embrace the camera" and get in the pictures with her.  Shortly after that, she was tragically killed.  She then challenged us to get in front of the camera with our kids so they will remember that we were part of their childhood, not just the picture taker.  The following pictures were posted on my Instagram every day for five days. They gave us a new theme everyday.

Day 1: Smiles

Day 2: Making Memories

Day 3: Everyday Moments (always in my car)

Day 4: Creative

Day 5: Faces

It was fun (and a little alarming-I don't like these pictures of me) and I'm glad I did it.  I hope my kids remember me as an active part of their childhood when they grow up.  I love them so much!

Ally is 14!!

Ally turned 14 on September 28. It was quite a weekend for the birthday girl!

This is the collage I made for Instagram.  So fun to see her change through the years!  I swear she was just placed in my arms for the first time.

It was a friend party year, and Ally is such a sweet girl, she didn't want anyone to feel left out.  So we ended up with 20 girls over for a party!!! (insert your comments about my sanity here)

We all walked up to Grandma June's for a game of Annie-I-Over in her yard.  Her house works perfectly for the game and is a family tradition that was reintroduced this year.  Ally was excited to teach her friends how to play.

Catch it Carolyn!!

Then we headed back to our house for pizza, cake and pumpkin painting.  The girls were all so creative and had fun.

The birthday girl and her (bright pink) cake.  That pink frosting became face paint for some of the girls later.  And it didn't come off.  Oops!  Silly girls!

Opening presents.  They were all so generous!

Look Mom, I got a skirt just like yours.  We can be twins!

Then they headed upstairs for some fun party games. And then the best part...their parents came and got them!  JK.  It really was a lot of fun.  Loud, crazy, teenage girl fun!

The next day was actually her birthday so she and I got to celebrate with breakfast at Kneaders and a day of shopping!  Then the boys came home (they decided to hide at the cabin during the party-smart) and we had dinner with the Grandparents at Chilis. Wow!  What a spoiled birthday girl!

We love you, Ally!  But would you please stop growing up!

For Fun

I just keep finding fun pictures.  It's hard to keep them all organized now that I have my phone, Josh's phone, Ally's ipod, Logan's ipod, and my good camera to look through for pictures. Oy!  Too many different places!

We loved having the Kotter's come for one of the shows!  It's so much fun to have friends in the audience.

I loved this picture of Jens' "tough guy face".  The Lollipop guild is supposed to be the tough guys of Munchkinland so he tried really hard to look tough!

These girls were so cute and Ally had a blast with them!  They cried buckets at the last show.

This is the best photobomb picture ever!  Aaron seriously jumped in with the ax at the last second while I was taking a picture of Logan and Spencer with Kasey.  Kasey was the Tin Man.

Ally's wall of fame.  I'm pretty sure she won't have another year where she is in three of Heritage's productions. She was in "Cinderella", "Willy Wonka" and "Madison Square Garden's A Christmas Carol" in 2012.  That was A LOT of trips to Heritage for me last year! I think our car got confused when we didn't pull into the theatre!

Kind of a fun picture of Nimby.  Yup, she's still around.

My awesome find at the DI!  I posted the picture on Facebook and it sparked a whole huge conversation about Colorguard.  It was funny!

Yes.  It's my old Colorguard costume-one of them anyway.  We didn't get to keep them and I was sad.  But now I'm the owner-ha, ha!  Still can't figure out why someone would send this priceless relic to the DI!  There were others, too.  I ended up picking up another one for a friend.  Brought back lots of fun memories!  Go BEHS Colorguard '95'96!

Back to School and Such

This will be another random post as I try to catch up.  I keep finding pictures that are blog worthy. :)

I don't think I mentioned that Logan got braces.  He is lucky because he lost his baby teeth at a younger than usual.  He will have his braces off before middle school.  He still looks great, missing tooth and all.  It's a long complicated story about his missing teeth, so I won't bore you, but eventually he'll have a false tooth with a brace on it.

Jensen had a rain gutter regatta and placed sixth out of 24.  Not bad!

 

Silly Ally

Holden was feeling a bit eccentric this day.

The kids went back to school!!  *happy dance*

I miss them, but we were all ready to get back in a schedule.  Jensen has Mrs. Hardy this year.  Ally is at the Middle School and Logan is at the Intermediate School. Ally has one teacher that both Josh and I had-Mrs. Cox. Kind of funny! Anyway, I have three kids in three different schools.  Four, if you count preschool.  Yup, it's kind of annoying.  At least Ally and Logan ride the same bus.

The picture says it all.  I have to admit I am a little sad.  Our last preschooler.

He is going to the same preschool as his siblings with Mrs. Hardy.

After the play on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, we headed to the cabin.  We went to the Paris Ice Caves.  We hadn't been there for quite a few years.  We had a nice weekend away. 

That catches us up a little more. ;)

Wizard of Oz

After Willy Wonka, Ally found out that Heritage Theatre was going to perform The Wizard of Oz this summer.  For a year, our family had been planning on auditioning for the play.  Me, Ally, Logan and Jensen all tried out.  The kids made it as Munchkins!

*side note*  I didn't really fit in the cast, I was too old to be an Ozian, and not talented enough to be a main character.  At least that's what I tell myself...

I was so excited for the kids to be in the play.  They each ended up with their own special parts as well.  They made some great friends in the cast and had so much fun.  This will probably be a bit of a picture overload, but here we go...

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." Ally is in pink, peeking around the flowers.  She had to practice keeping her tall hat hidden while crawling to her spot backstage.

Ally and Josie are checking out "the young lady who fell from the stars".

Jensen was mostly in the back, but had a special part later.

Logan and Ally, front and center. Logan couldn't lift his arms up all the way in his costume.  It was a more authentic Munchkin pose.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Ally and Logan are going to punch each other.  But really they were dancing together.  They had to pretend to be happy about that. There was some real acting going on! ;)

Jensen put his whole heart and soul into singing!  I can't believe how much he enjoyed being in the play.  I thought he would be shy.

Logan was "City Father #1". Don't you love his costume?

He had three solo lines: "Spiritually, physically" and "you'll be hist" and "be a bust".

Fun shot of Jensen and Logan.

Ally and her two friends from Willy Wonka, Josie and Shae, got to be the Lullaby League.  I loved how a ton of the Willy Wonka cast tried out, but only a few made it in this show.  The director knew what kids were nice and well behaved and chose accordingly!

Jensen was in the Lollipop Guild!  I was surprised when I found out he was in it, but he was the anchor of the group.  He sang the loudest and kept them in rhythm on the dancing.  It was so fun to watch his confidence grow.

The witch was really good!  Ally got to hide Dorothy's feet for the ruby slipper scene.  The kids did really well at pretending to be scared of the witch, too.

And finally "You're off to see the Wizard!"

Ally also got to be a Poppy.  She's excited that Dorothy woke up from the Witch's spell.

The boys also got to be Flying Monkeys.  The pictures didn't really turn out.  They were on and off so fast.  They loved running up and down the aisle, whooping like monkeys.  Just perfect for a bunch of boys!

The meet and greet after the show.  The kids loved to see if they knew anyone.

Ally's Poppy costume.

The boys in their Flying Monkey costumes.  These were such quick costume changes, I could only snap pictures inside between acts.

And finally our traditional picture in front of the Heritage Theatre sign.  We spent all summer listening to the music from the play and have it all memorized!  Even Holden.  He asked to listen to it every day!  He also loved going to the practices and the play.  I also might or might not have recorded a few little parts of one of the rehearsals. Shhhh...I won't put it on here because I'm sure it wasn't exactly legal, but my kids were cute!

Talk about a fun summer!