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!

Ducklings!!!

We have had several sets of ducks through the years and some of them have laid eggs.  However, nothing has ever happened with the eggs and so we would just get rid of them.  This spring we noticed our lone female duck had made a nest in our bushes and there were some eggs in it.  She took to sitting on the nest all day, every day.  We didn't really think anything would come of it so we told the kids not to get their hopes up.  We weren't sure when they would hatch so we just kept watching them.  One day, Mama duck pushed a couple of the eggs out of the nest.  We thought for sure that meant the eggs were bad.   Then one morning (July 18) the kids came running inside saying there was a baby duck outside!  I came out to see this...

at the bottom of our basement stairs was a baby duck and a partially hatched egg.  The duck in the egg was pecking away at it's shell!  They had fallen out of the nest, but were okay!  Then I looked over and saw this...

A freshly hatched duckling halfway down the wall!  It was such an exciting morning as we watched the miracle of life take place in our back yard.  We were so worried about the little ducks we finally ended up putting them back in the nest with Mama and the egg hatched the rest of the way with her help and the others fluffed up nicely!  We ended up with five ducklings!

They were so cute!  We all especially fell in love with "Sunny", the one with the bright yellow chest.

We put them in a Rubbermaid tote, inside a dog kennel to keep them safe outside. The kids were in heaven taking care of the babies.

Our other two ducks were males and did not like the baby ducks at all.  We had to lock them up when the babies were out or they would try to kill the babies!

Is there anything cuter than a baby duck?  I think not!

We loved letting them out to play in the water.

This is how we had to get them back in the cage.  They would only follow Mama duck.

They grew up SO fast!!!

We decided we couldn't keep eight ducks so we took the babies (except Sunny) to our friend's pond.

This was the day we took them to their new home.  The male ducks never would accept Sunny and kept trying to hurt her, so when one of the males died (the white one-Clover) we took the other male (who was the super mean one) to the pond, too.  So now we just have Mama Duck and Sunny.

The kids each got to let one of the ducklings go.

 

Jensen's smile.  It never gets old.

We even let Holden let one go.

They flew right to the water and gathered up in a little huddle.

Another one being let go.

I love this picture of Josh and Holden saying goodbye to the ducks.  We checked on them a month later and they were still doing great.  I hope they are happy in their new home.

 

The Fourth of July

We love our little town's celebration and were up bright and early ready for the parade.  I was the photographer again this year so I wasn't in the parade.

Holden was SUPER excited to ride his bike in the parade with the Primary.  "I'm gonna win, Mom" he told me.  Ha, ha!  We had to remind him that it wasn't a race!  I was a little nervous to leave him with the Primary leaders, but he made it back in one piece. 

I just love this picture of Ally and Grandma!  We love Grandma's happy attitude towards life.  She always has a smile or laugh for any situation.

Jensen rode with his team on the fire truck.

There's Holden racing by the other kids!

Holden was the only one to ride the rocket ride this year.  My kids are growing up.

*sad sigh*

Holden really enjoyed the water slide and I thought this picture was fun.  I'm loving my "real" camera that I saved up the money for.  It's a lot of fun and it feels nice to have a camera that works! 

Ally, Logan and Jensen spent most of the time off with their friends so I didn't get many pictures of them.  In fact, the Kotters even came to enjoy the morning with us!  It was nice to share our traditions with them.

There's Jensen, Katelyn and Ally playing some games.

We didn't sign up for it, but Josh and I ended up helping with the home run derby.  Then it was time for the pick up game where Logan and Jensen made some fun family memories!  (Ha, ha-see next post)

Jensen caught one of the parachutes. 

We had pirate stories with Dusty again.

We also snuck in a trip for patriotic snow cones in there somehow!

It was such a busy, fun, exhausting day!

We love celebrating America!

T-Ball, Baseball and Other Summer Activities

From March until August there is one main word that rules our house: Baseball (or T-Ball or Softball).  I tried to add up all the games we went to this year, but I couldn't count that high!  Ha, ha, just kidding.  But it was a lot!

Logan was on the Orioles again this year.  He turned into quite the little ball player this year and made the All-Stars team at the end of the season. 

At the pick-up game on the 4th of July, Logan and Jensen ended up being on opposite teams.  Yup, you guessed it...Logan ended up getting Jensen out.  It didn't go over very well at home later, but I'm pretty sure they will always remember it!

Logan and Jensen always played their games at the same time.  I ran back and forth when I could sneak away from score-keeping.  Sometimes it's as exhausting to play first base as it is to run up and down the hill to see my boys play!

This was Holden's first year playing and he knew exactly what was going on.  He knows more terminology than your average four year old!  He was awesome at hitting!

He also knew how to play first base.

But his favorite thing is the free snow cone after the game!!

Here's Holden at the end of season party.  He LOVES his medal!

Ally reluctantly signed up for softball this year.  She likes it, but has so many other things going on, we weren't sure how it would work out.  Well, after dragging her to her first game, she was hooked!  I think the coach judged her unfairly at the beginning because he knew she was a ballerina, piano playing actress, but she ended up being one of the most important players on the team.  She couldn't make it to the practices, but she made every game and worked hard!  She ended up playing second base.  Her team (the A's) ended up playing in the championship game, but lost by one point. 

Way to go, Ally!

Holden:  Going slow makes me angry!

Grandma and Grandpa brought everyone hats back from Oregon!

Swimming Lessons!  I put the kids in private swim lessons this year with Miss Bonnie and they loved it!  They made so much more progress than they ever have before.

Well, that sums up a little more of our summer.  The way I'm going on this blog, I might get caught up with summer...by Christmas!!!