Halloween 2012

This year, the kids were the martians from Sesame Street.  They weren't on the show very often, but they're our favorite!

 

If you don't remember them, search "Sesame Street Martians" on YouTube - you won't be sorry!  I gathered up some crushed velvet, old baseball hats, ping pong balls, and pipe cleaners and voila - Costumes!

The kids got to trick-or-treat twice this year.  Once at the trunk-or-treat and then again in the neighborhood on Halloween.  We have plenty of candy at our house!

The Farm

This weekend, Rob's friend Bill from work had a little party at his house.  He lives less than a half mile from us, in a little pocket of farmland.

First, we got to see the piglets and the huge momma pig.

Then we saw the chickens.

Then some tortoises.

And some chicks.

The kids absolutely loved the animals!  Bill told the kids they could climb around on the farm equipment...

And when they were climbing into this one, he joined them and started up the engine for them.  He lifted up the front and drove just a little bit with them.  Robbie especially loved this!

There was also a haystack to climb and a little playground area.

Bill and his wife provided hot dogs and beef brisket and shredded pork, and everyone else brought sides and we had a good lunch.

Then the kids got to ride a horse!  This was the first time for both of them.

 

 

Bill pulled all the kids around in his barrel train, and later he drove everyone around in an adult-sized train with bench seats (no picture of that one).

It was a gorgeous day to be outside.  And it was good for these city kids to hang out on a farm!

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat that night (no pictures) - also on a farm!  It was a nice, full day.  Then we stayed up late and ate candy.

Seussical

We were in a musical a couple of weeks ago.  That’s not something we’d normally find ourselves doing, but it was cool.

About every four years, our stake puts on a free play.  (Stake = church term for a geographic grouping of several congregations)  They alternate between something spiritual and something Broadway-ish like The Music Man.  This year, they were doing Seussical.  Our friend Steve was the director, and one day he mentioned to Rob that he could use some more male voices.  Rob pitched the idea to us, and we started going to practices.

At first, it didn’t seem like such a good idea.  Some of the practices were frustrating, and we were definitely out of our comfort zones!  Plus, we had practices every Saturday morning and most Thursday evenings for two months.  Long practices.
 

(Our family is to the right in this photo.  Behind us are 3 or 4 people at sewing machines, working on all the costumes during rehearsals)

But it grew on us.  The music was fun, the other cast members were very cool, and we made some new friends.  It’s fun to part of a production like that, all working together.

The play combines several different Dr. Seuss stories, like Horton Hatches the Egg, Oh the Places You’ll Go, The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, Oh the Thinks You Can Think… you get the idea.  We had minor parts, as we were citizens of Who.  We had loose costume guidelines of orange and yellow clothes with pink or green accents.  It was fun to see all the different variations of Who outfits.  Our leads and major characters had some really neat costumes.

 

The week of the play, we had a dress rehearsal on Tuesday and performances Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  They even added a matinee performance on Saturday because the tickets were going so fast!  It was a BUSY week.  Rob would get the kids after works and they'd pound through their homework and hurry up to the church.  I'd go straight from work and meet them there.  We ate fast food all week and got home after 10pm every night. Phew!

Here are some photos from my phone, mixed in with some good ones that Steve Stringham took and shared with us (his are the ones with the copyright at the bottom).

 

No way you can see everyone in this photo, but this is the entire cast, band, lighting/sound, hair/makeup, and backstage directors.  That's a lot of people!

 

Since we only participated in a handful of songs, we spent a lot of time in the greenroom.  We found lots of way to pass the time - kids did homework, we read books, visited with new friends and made acquaintances into friends...

 

 Erin & Robbie looking at Dean Kleinman's photos of the wood carvings he does

 

 Lots of video games, phones, ipods (and kids watching movies in the background)

 

Drawing on the chalkboard (this cute little girl is in Robbie's class at school!) 

 

The Grinch was fabulous!  He was so good in the show, but he would pop back into character often and play with the kids.  He was hilarious!  Here he is playing a board game with Erin and some other kids.

 

 

And reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"!  I'm telling you, he was awesome.

That's me on the right, all hunched over putting on makeup.  Robbie is next to me, and you can see Rob's neon green legs.  Not sure where Erin is in this picture.

 

Since we were either on stage or in the greenroom, we didn't get to see the play, except for what we saw during rehearsals.  And because of copyright issues, we couldn't record it.  But on the last day, the lighting/sound crew set up a TV with live feed from the gym so we could watch it!

 

 

Robbie lost his first tooth that week.

 

 

Here's a closeup of the kids in costumes & makeup:

 

 

Rob was an athletic-themed Who, and we found him an orange foam finger, which he wore proudly on his left arm:

 

 

Erin invited her teacher, her teacher from last year, and her 2nd Grade teacher, and they all came!  Mrs. Jones, who taught both kids in kindergarten also came.  Erin's 2nd Grade teacher was unfortunately an Arizona Wildcat, so she and Erin had a year-long ASU vs. U of A rivalry tease going between them.  Mrs. Peterson made a point to wear this awful shirt just for Erin - ha ha!

 

 

That's her 4th Grade teacher, Mrs. Murphy on the left, and Grant, who goes to the same school

 

Overall, this was a neat experience.  It was good for the kids, and it was good for Rob and me.  The play itself was a fun show with a good message.  Even though we had minor parts, I think performing improved our confidence, and we have a lot of good memories.

 

 

"Oh the thinks you can think, think and wonder and dream, far and wide as you dare..."

 

Seuss!

 

Some Other Stuff We Did This Summer...

Checked out a cornfield – not quite as tall as Illinois corn, but much taller than the kids thought it was from the car!  From the car, they think it's only a couple of feet tall.

I already posted about camping, but I liked this picture of the kids in the truck on the way there.
 

Got $1 subs at Jimmy John’s for customer appreciation day.  Erin’s mood improved after we removed all the lettuce pollution from her sub.
 

The kids swam several times at Grandma & Grandpa’s house this summer.  Erin finally got comfortable diving head-first, and Robbie finally got comfortable swimming on his own.  I wanted to post videos of both, but the upload isn't cooperating and I've put off blogging long enough!

 

Dressed up for Cow Appreciation Day at Chik-Fil-A.  Well worth the free meal every year!  Chik-Fil-A is awesome for several reasons.
 

Went to Big Surf to celebrate both kids’ birthdays.  Instead of parties, each kid got to pick one friend and we all spent the afternoon at Big Surf.  No photos because we were all too busy playing.

Had both our catalytic converters and O2 sensors cut off our car while we were at church.  For real.  Sawed off in the parking lot.  Since our church was burned down, we’re attending in another building while we rebuild.  The other building happens to be in Maryvale.  For those of you not familiar with Phoenix... Maryvale = No Bueno.  We had the car fixed the next day (after a hefty insurance deductible) so all’s well that ends well.  We’re driving Rob’s truck to church now because it only has one catalytic converter.  Maybe that will make it less appealing than the Sequoia.

Went back to school.  Yes, Erin wanted to wear dark clothes and boots despite the fact that it was in the neighborhood of 115 degrees all week.  Yes, they were both happy even though the photo doesn’t convey it.

The kids are enjoying 5th and 1st grade, and they're both doing great!  We're back into the full swing of school and work and homework and life.
 



Happy 10th Birthday, Erin!

Erin turned 10 in July.  Double digits!  A whole decade!  We are very lucky to have Erin in our family.  Here’s a photo from every year, along with ten things we love about her, in no particular order:

1. Erin is a nice kid.  She is friendly and will go out of her way to do nice things for people.  She leaves little notes or draws pictures and always offers to help with things.  I like to watch how kind she is to animals, and to little kids or babies.  She is very, very kind to her little brother.  She is a sweetheart.

2. Erin is unselfish.  She’s never really begged & cried for things in stores, and she’s pretty content with what she has.  She is quick to offer something of hers to someone who might need it.  She likes attention, but she isn’t loud or obnoxious to get it.

3. Erin is sympathetic.  She is sensitive to other peoples’ feelings and very compassionate when someone around her feels bad.  She’s very tactful in the way she talks to others, and she chooses her words carefully so she doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.  She’s friendly and doesn’t want anyone to feel left out.  She will try to be a friend to someone who looks lonely.

4. Erin is smart.  This is a blessing/curse.  It doesn’t take her much effort to learn new things, so sometimes in school she’ll get bored during instructions and drift off a bit.  Or she’ll get in trouble for trying to help someone else.  She has a very analytical mind and can figure things out quickly.

5. Erin has an awesome memory.  Sometimes I think she might have a little bit of photographic memory ability because of the details she can describe (accurately).  This is a big deal to me because I seem to forget things all the time, and I can always ask Erin something and trust that she’s right.

6. Erin is responsible.  She sets her alarm and gets herself up on school days (I didn’t do that until college!) and I know that she’ll be dressed and ready by a certain time.  She doesn’t try to get out of doing stuff.  If it’s a chore, she might not always do it with the best attitude, but she will get it done.  She doesn’t have a reckless nature, so we know we can trust her to make good decisions and not do anything dangerous when we’re not around.

7. Erin is spiritual.  Although we’ve raised her going to church every week and praying and reading scriptures, some spirituality that can’t be taught.  It comes naturally to her.  If she has a worry or a problem, her first thought is to pray about it.  When it’s resolved, her first thought is a realization that her prayer was answered.  She understands what we read in the scriptures and can comprehend the principles behind the teachings and explain them in her own way.  She gets it. And I hope she will always have such a natural relationship with her Heavenly Father.

8. Erin is funny.  Not telling jokes, slapstick funny, but realistic and a little sarcastic (in a good way). She can find silliness in almost every situation, and she knows how to get others to see it.  She has a good ear and can do some pretty spot-on impersonations.  I think her goal in being funny isn’t just to get laughs, but to foster happiness, and it shows.

9. Erin is talented.  I’m very curious to see what she’ll be when she grows up, because she could go several directions.  She is a very good writer.  I really enjoy reading her stories.  She is a good artist; she has a very visual imagination, and she can recreate her ideas on paper.  She’s shy about singing in front of others, but she has very good pitch.  I hope she’ll get more comfortable with it, because she is a good singer.  She’s been playing piano for about a year and a half, and she’s catching on quickly.  Her playing gets smoother every day.    

10. Erin is a good example.  No, she’s not perfect, but she teaches her very-imperfect parents good things every day.  This post is not about Robbie, but a lot of the reason he’s such a good boy is because of what he learns from watching his big sister.  We all learn from her, and we can become better people because of her example.  She’s positive and encouraging.  She has integrity.  She wants to do what’s right.  She’s not afraid to show love or to speak a kind word.

We love you, Erin!

Camping 2012

We only went camping once this summer, because we're saving our money and vacation days for the Disney cruise we're planning in November!
We went to Knoll Lake as usual, but this time some friends from church, the Woodruffs, came with us.  They have 17-year-old twin daughters, and one of them has been spending a couple of days a week at our house with the kids while Rob and I are at work.  They're great girls.

One thing we like about Knoll Lake is that usually when most of the state has fire restrictions, the Knoll Lake campground isn't restricted.  Rob checks the Forest Service website every day leading up to our trips each year, just to make sure.

Well, this year, he checked it early in the morning the day we left, and unbeknownst to us, they placed a fire restriction a couple of hours later.  Oops.  After setting up camp and relaxing a bit, we built a nice campfire and made our hobo dinners.  We were all sitting around the fire when we had the pleasure of meeting Mel.

The campground used to have a caretaker called Mountain Eddie, who we really liked.  But this year, the Forest Service decided to manage the campground themselves, and they guy replacing Mountain Eddie was much less personable.  Mel drove up to our campsite, headlights blazing into our faces, and marched right up to our fire with a 5-gallon container of water.  "I'm going to have to put out your fire," he said and immediately dumped the water on it.

We were all a little dumfounded, and Rob started asking him what was going on and what they guy's name was.  Mel was kind of a big jerk, but he eventally explained that he was away from the campsite during the day because he had to go into town to pick up the fire restriction order, and that he had to make sure all the fires were out.  Fine - we're all about not buring down the forest, and we would've put out the fire if he had asked us, but he didn't have to be a creep about it!  We were scared we wouldn't be able to cook all our meals and we'd have to go home early.  The kids were crying.  Good times!

The next morning, Rob talked to Mel and he sort-of apologized for the way he treated us and offered to let us use his gas camp stove to cook our meals.  It ended up working out OK, but it was kind of a rough start.

The rest of the week was nice!  The weather was great, no rain at all.  The lake was too cold for me, but we went several times, and most everyone else swam quite a bit.  Even the Woodruff's dog, Drew had a good time swimming.  The kids loved having Drew along with us!  She's a very good dog, and Robbie was in heaven.

We played a lot of cards and ate a lot of candy.

We went on a few hikes, and the kids were excited to find this log they like to walk across every year.

We had baseball gloves & bats, so we played catch a lot and we even had a little bit of batting practice.

The first day, before we knew we wouldn't be able to have campfires, Rob had gathered a bunch of firewood.  Since he went to the trouble of getting it, he went ahead and split it all, and we brought it home so we'd have it next time we go camping.  It's hard to see in this picture, but Robbie had the mallet and was helping split wood.

It was a much-needed vacation!  And the next weekend was Father's Day.  One of Rob's presents was a small propane table-top grill, just in case.

Tolleson Ward Building

One Friday morning at the end of June, Rob woke up at 4:30 to use the bathroom and got a text from his mom when he was getting back into bed.  She couldn't sleep and was up watching TV.  She told him to turn on the TV because she thought our church building was on fire.  WHAT???


So he did.  And we stood there in the dark, half asleep, watching our church burn on live TV.

What a weird feeling.  I had to be up in a half hour anyway to go to work, but I felt creepy leaving for work that morning.  I felt like I should be doing something!  Rob, too.  But there was nothing for us to do.  We just kept checking the news/internet for updates and tried to wrap our heads around it.  It's just a building, but it was kind of a second home.  We spent every Sunday and at least one evening a week there for the last 11 years.  Our babies were blessed in that chapel.  We had parties and activities and spiritual experiences there and made friends there.  It was hard to see it go.

The first thing you wonder about a church fire is whether it was done on purpose.  I didn't know this, but every time a place of worship burns, the ATF has to investigate it as arson.  That's too bad.  After a week, the investigators announced that it had been ruled an arson.  So then we knew, but what do we do with that knowledge?  The outcome is the same, regardless of the cause, and as Christian people, we can't hold a grudge against the person who did it.  So that's that.  We try to be OK with it and move on.

It's neat that a couple of schools in Tolleson called and offered up their facilities for us to use on Sundays.  There were three different congregations meeting in our building, so other LDS church buildings found room to work us in to their Sunday and weeknight schedules.  Some congregations had to change their meeting times to accommodate us, and they did it without batting an eye.  So we're meeting in another building for a year or so until we can rebuild and everything is fine.  We do miss our old building!

(image from Google maps)