A Weekend with the Arts

We had a very busy weekend. On Saturday, the little girls and I had "Annie" rehearsals. The girls were so stinking cute working on "Hard Knock Life" up on the stage. My best friend, Ashleigh, is playing Grace Farrell. Her girls, Meg and Campbell (Sophie and Ella's best friends), are both in the show as well. We ended up having to sneak Ella and Campbell plastic buckets because the metal buckets were as big as they were! They rehearsed for three hours on Saturday afternoon. All four of the girls were so patient and attentive during that entire time. Ashleigh and I were really impressed with how well they behaved. AND with how much the little bitty girls were able to catch on to the choreography.

We are so enjoying our "Annie" rehearsal time. It is a lot of work, but we cannot wait to be on stage together! Our only sadness comes from Ryan not being able to be in the show because of other school commitments. However, she is going to get to work backstage, so we are thankful that she will be there with us each night and be part of the crew.

On Sunday Sophie had her very first Cub Chorus performance at the Shelby County Schools Race for Education. The Cub Chorus at her school is made up of Kindergarten through Second graders who go to school EARLY each Friday morning for rehearsals. When I say early, I mean EARLY. She is out the door and at the school by 7:15 each Friday, even though school does not start until 9:00 am. Sophie is loving her time with these kids. She looks forward to it all week long, and I get absolutely no complaints from her when I wake her up so early those days.

The Cub Chorus was absolutely precious! They were up there on stage in front of a LOT of people. Parents and children from almost every school in the entire Shelby County School system were there to participate in the race. They sang four very cute songs, and we had a blast. Sophie showed us once again that she seems to be right at home up there on the stage. :-)

We all participated in the race after the choral performance. Sophie and I did the 1-mile fun run, while John and Ryan did the 5K. Ella went along for a ride in the jog stroller. Sophie really impressed me. I kept trying to slow down so she would not get tired, but she kept telling me to run and go faster. She ran the entire mile without once stopping or complaining. I was blown away. There came a point (I am ashamed to admit) where I was having trouble keeping up with her anymore. We had a sweet time together, just my little-getting-bigger-by-the-second girl and me. Then we waited and cheered on Daddy as he crossed the finish line a little while later with Ella.

All in all, a very busy weekend but a very good one, too!

There are no words....

This has been my life today. My poor Ella girl had a head full of
those nasty buggers this morning. Got them from a friend at school
earlier this week who was all to eager to share, I guess. Think we got
all of the nits, but the washing and spraying and cleaning and boiling
is far from over, I am afraid.

Wordless Wednesday

Our little Bielke

Lots of Treats. No Tricks at all.

Today was a wild and crazy day, but it was absolutely WONDERFUL! Sophie has been participating in a camp at our local theatre for the past three months. Two days a week for two hours after school, she headed up to the theatre to be with other community children who like to act and want to learn more about being on the stage. This is the same theatre where John is acting in "Fiddler on the Roof", so the kids in the camp were working on "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr". Sophie was cast as Tevye's youngest daughter, Bielke. She has been loving every minute of this camp.

Today was their first of two performances. It was PHENOMENAL! Aside from Sophie, all of the other cast members were between the ages of 7 and 13. These are some talented children, and we loved the show. Sophie was precious up there. She held her own with those big kids and you could tell she was just soaking in the moment. She delivered her lines right on cue, and John and I were really very impressed with her poise up there.

We got home from that show (after John took Sophie for some celebratory ice cream) at about 4. John had to be back at the theatre at 6:30 for the evening performance of "Fiddler". We let the girls rest for a while because sweet little Ella was sleepy and a little puny - most likely from all of this stinking rain we have been having! Then we got the girls ready for trick-or-treating early so Daddy could go with us.

Luckily, it was light enough outside that I was able to get some pictures of the girls with my good camera. I have yet to get the flash repaired, but it still works great in natural light! :-)

Sophie was a cowgirl and Ella was Minnie Mouse. They were so precious this year. We only went to about six houses before John had to leave for his show, but the girls had such fun.

We are just so blessed. Our girls are healthy and happy. God provides us with these awesome opportunities for wonderful life experiences for our girls. His mercies are new each morning, and we are so thankful for that! Seeing my girls dressed up always makes me yearn for my sister. I know she would just eat them up. I am thankful for the time we had with her. I am also so thankful for the time she had with Sophie. And I know that she wouldn't want to come back from the Paradise she is in now - not even for my little princesses. But I see so much of her in them, and that is such a treat.

PITIFUL!

Pitiful. I am a pitiful blogger! My camera is broken. I feel lost without it. Completely lost. They told me the average repair time on the camera is 6 weeks. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!? I feel so naked without it. I am having to make do with cell phone pictures, but it is just not the same.

John opened in "Fiddler on the Roof" last night. He is so great up there. Totally cracks me up! We are getting ready to start rehearsals for "Annie" on Tuesday. I still cannot believe that I am going to be on stage with John, Sophie, and Ella. We are so excited; we are hoping that Ryan will be able to work backstage for the show since she is not going to be in it.

I am still working on pictures from our trip to Jackson Hole. John and I had a wonderful time up there. It was gorgeous! After a hectic summer and beginning to the school year, it was wonderful to be able to just escape for a few days and focus on each other.

I am hoping to get the girls to the pumpkin patch soon. Not sure what I will do without my camera, though. :-(

Wordless Wednesday

Change

Please be praying for our sweet Sophie. Tomorrow will start the 4th week of the school year. She is doing so well in school but really seems to be having a hard time adjusting to being a "big girl" now. It is so hard as a mommy to watch her struggle and not be able to help her fix it. She loved school last year and was so excited to head back this year. But the tears came the minute we walked into her classroom. She told me that it made her sad that there were no toys in there (go figure!). I tell you what - it made ME sad that there were no toys in there, too. It just looked like such a grown up room!

In the past couple of weeks, it just seems like she has started really growing and maturing right before my eyes. I mean, I realize that she has been growing since the day she was born, but there is something different about her now. I cannot put my finger on exactly what it is, but I just feel like I do not even want to blink because I will miss something with her. She is growing and maturing into a very sweet and loving little girl. She loves to please. She will write out all of her spelling words for practice and then ask me to draw a smiley face on her paper if I like the way she wrote them.

My very favorite time of the day is when we are walking to school. She holds my hand, helps me push Ella in the stroller, and we pray together. She always asks me to pray for a certain little boy in her class who always has to move his clip. Apparently he has trouble keeping his little mouth closed. Most days she also wants to pray that she makes wise choices. And that SHE does not have to move her clip. She prays a lot about other kids in her class that she is worried about. It makes me so proud of her. She just is such a neat kid. I love it that the Lord puts others on her heart as much as He does. And that she is already willing to listen and act on that. Such a cool thing to witness as a parent!

So, for as well as she seems to be adjusting, we still have lots of fears and tears. Fears over things that are just becoming real to her ("What happens to us if you and Daddy die at the same time?" - yes, she asked me that out of the blue one night during bedtime prayers!). Tears over leaving friends and teachers behind. Everyone warned me that this was a big year of changes and adjusting, but I guess I just assumed Sophie would not struggle with it. Needless to say, I spend a lot of my day thinking about her and praying for her - that the Lord would give her peace and remind her that He is in control. That He would help her to make wise choices and that He would help me as a parent who is struggling to ease her fears.

I now know what people were talking about when they said that becoming a mommy meant you would learn what it was like to have your heart walking around outside of your body. Thank you for loving my little lamb and praying for her. We know that this too shall pass!

Last Hoorah of Summer

It will take a lifetime for me to get all of our Disney World pictures uploaded and organized, but I hope to get some on here soon.

Our last little "trip" of the summer was the big news at our house. Craig and I planned a huge surprise for our sweet Missy. Last Friday, the girls and I drove down to Oxford and showed up on their front porch. Missy had no idea we were coming and it was SO MUCH FUN being able to pull it off. My girls, of course, had known about the trip for a couple of weeks and were just counting down the days to "Missy's buhprise" (as Ella would say). They were all proud of themselves for making it happen without Missy finding out.

We had a wonderful day in Oxford. We ate lunch at an awesome little restaurant, had ice cream, played at a really neat park, and then hung out at Craig and Missy's house for a while. We came home around dinnertime and my girls were WORN OUT. It was such a sweet time with our Missy. The girls have really missed her since she moved, and I have a feeling she might have been missing them a little bit as well. :-)

Happy, happy birthday!

Our sweet little Sophie turns six years old today. It seems like just yesterday that she was born, but it seems like she has been with us for so much longer at the same time. We are celebrating later this week with a party at Build-a-Bear. She is having a blast with the performances of "Joseph", and has had so many sweet people come out to watch her and her daddy and sister in the show. She told me just yesterday that she is excited and ready to be a 1st grader. Made me cry, of course, just thinking about her already being in 1st grade! We are having a playdate with her best friend, Meg, today. Life could not be better in her world! :-)

This Little Lamb.....

 

This little lamb is awfully close to being 6 years old.

This little lamb is holding her own on stage with kids much bigger than her.

This little lamb has a heart for those who are sad or hurting. 

This little lamb is opinionated, strong-willed, and somewhat stubborn. At the same time, this little lamb is loving, giving, and compassionate.

This little lamb is an author, making it her daily practice to write and illustrate books about butterflies, ladybugs, princesses, and all things that sparkle.

This little lamb loves to be in the kitchen baking with her mommy. Or anywhere that her daddy is.

This little lamb has already lost two teeth. Her mommy thinks she now has four other loose teeth waiting in the wings.

This little lamb tells me often (almost daily) how much she misses her Aunt Erin.

This little lamb will never know how much the Lord is using her to heal my heart. Or that she reminds me of her Aunt Erin so often and it is like a Band-Aid for my wounded heart. 

This little lamb wanted to have a birthday party at the pet store, but changed her mind when she realized she did not get to end the day by bringing a new pet home with her.

This little lamb thinks the gold sparkly eye shadow she gets to wear on stage is the best part of the whole stage experience.

This little lamb loves to draw pictures and hand them out to any cast member that will take them.

This little lamb is growing every day, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

This little lamb is a gift.

Where does the time go????

The end of school brought a whirlwind of activity to our house. We started off with a really quick trip to Arkansas to see my granddad. My mom and stepdad were visiting him from Cincinnati, so we met them there for a couple of days. The girls had a blast and came home sufficiently spoiled!

 

Mimi and Ella

 

Papap getting some of that good sugar from Ella

 

Ice cream at Papap's house tastes good.....

 

Tastes really, really, really good!

John and Ryan were auditioning for the local community theatre summer show just before we left for Arkansas. We actually got the call while we were there that they had both been called back for "round two". They BOTH got great parts in the show. Just as exciting as that, Sophie also got cast in the children's chorus, so the three of them are getting to do the show together. I think they are having a blast!

Ryan went to Gulf Shores with the Sr. High at church and had a wonderful time. She came home telling me that it was the best church trip she has ever been on. We were glad she had fun, but it was so good to have her home again.

Both of the little girls did swimming lessons last week and really enjoyed that. I can tell a huge difference in Sophie compared to her willingness to swim last year. She really did so much better this year and I was so proud to see her out there truly swimming!

We had a visit from John's sister and her family last week as well. Our niece, Caraline, got the "all clear" scans from St. Jude. This summer makes TEN YEARS that she has been cancer free. Praise the Lord! 

A nasty storm rolled through this past Friday and left us without power for about 24 hours. It was a storm that reminded us all of "Hurricane Elvis", the inland hurricane that rolled through here the day Sophie was born. There was lots of damage and there are people in Memphis who still have no power. We were lucky to have no damage to our house - just loss of power until Saturday night and phones/internet out until last night. 

This week both little girls have "Fairy Ballet Princess" camp at a local theatre. Today was their first day and they just loved it. We are used to seeing Sophie decked out in ballet garb, but it was so cute to see our little Ella Bella dressed up in it as well. 

I am hopeful that I can use some of the camp time this week to get some more pictures up on the blog. During all of this commotion that we call summer, we also had to take our laptop in for a minor repair. Not having it here for a few days really threw me off! 

I would like to close my eyes and freeze time. I feel like I am going to blink and summer will be long gone!

We have a 1st grader now!

Sophie had her Kindergarten Program this morning. It was ABSOLUTELY precious. Her daddy and I both cried, though her daddy might not admit it! She is growing up right in front of us but it's times like these that make it smack you rig

ht in the face! Her teacher was the most terrific teacher in the world. We truly are so thankful to God for hand-picking her for Sophie. We could not have been more blessed by her than we were. She showed day in and day out how much she loved our little one and was excited to help her grow. 

 

Our Big Little Girl

Sophie lost her first tooth yesterday. It was sad and exciting all at the same time. She really did not know what to think about the whole thing. She cried at first and said she wanted me to put it back in. I finally got out of her that she thought the Tooth Fairy was going to come last night and take ALL of her teeth!!! Bless her little heart, she is so literal!

We treated her to a trip to the ice cream store (Ben and Jerry's, of course - for Aunt Erin!), so that made her relax quite a bit. This morning, once she was able to see the gift from the (overly sentimental and completely still in shock that their baby is growing up so they make a huge production out of tooth #1 and way overpay)  tooth fairies, it clicked. Now she cannot wait for the one beside it to come out. Mommy, on the other hand, is freezing time right now!!!!

 

 

 

 

Ella and the Teapots

Rehearsing.....

Ella sings in her Spring Music Program for preschool tonight. We practiced a little bit this afternoon. :-)

*Remember that you have to pause the music on my blog before hitting play!*

Easter 2009