Celidah and Jade off to prom! Yes that is right both girls are old enough to attend the prom together. This will be Celidah's final year and Jade's first year. They had fun helping each other get things ready, helping with make up and giving makeup hints to each other. I did Celidah's hair for tonight and took some pictures.

Oh and I just had to play with the pictures afterwards. Yes I had fun!

 Jade closeup

 Celidah closeup

 Jade full gown

 Celidah full gown and tennis shoes :)

 Celidah and Caleb 

 black and white

 black and white/soft/vignette

 (computer generated) pencil sketch

 Celidah hair

 Jade new haircut

the joys of falling (sigh)

So I am not sure why or what's going on, but annoyingly I'm starting to fall more often again. I am actually not looking forward to my next neurology appt because this Dr asks every time if I have fallen since my last appt, what I was doing when I fell, if I got hurt, and how bad. Twice in a week now just walking and my foot has given out.

Last time I bruised my right arm, side, knees, and right leg pretty good. This time I skinned my knee, twisted my left ankle, and messed up muscles in my right calf, and tore a hole in my jeans.

So embarrassing to be leaving a place of business and have another customer following you just to watch you collapse to the ground. We both had to grab something from our cars. More embarrassing, was to leave a bit later with the same person following again, reminding me in front of Frank, Jade, and Trish, my friend that I needed to make sure to ice my ankle once home. LOL had I tried not telling Frank I fell, he would have found out as we left. UGH...

Wacky Wednesday!

So this week has been Spirit week at the Elementary school for Zach and Ellie.
Monday- Movie Character Day- come dressed as your favorite movie character
Tuesday- PJ Day- wear your favorite pajamas!
Wednesday- Wacky Wednesday- how crazy and wacky can you get!
Thursday- Throwback Thursday- Dress as someone from a different time era
Friday- Spirit Friday- wear yellow and blue to show your school pride!

So Monday Zach dressed up as Ichigo from Bleach (anime) and Ellie was a Hogwarts student
Tuesday both kids were in their PJ's
Wednesday Zach dressed as his normal self saying he is wacky enough that he did not need to be anymore silly at school.
Ellie had one pair of pants only half way one and another pair over that pair so the (3rd leg) could flap about. She wore one shirt normally and a second partway one again giving her two more arms. Then her hair was all crazy and wild.

Thursday- Ellie wore her Renaissance style Merida dress from her birthday last year. When they asked her when she simply told them early 1400's Scotland. As she put it best, "Well mom, that is when Merida and her family lived!" (She knew this because we researched it)

Friday (today) was all blue and gold and they wore their bluest and goldest colors for today!

Sadly I did not get more pictures this week.

Mom's birthday

So this year on my birthday I turned 42 and as always when the kids have asked how old I am I just respond with the year I was born and have the kids figure out how old I am. Well this year as my birthday dessert was being served, the kids suddenly realized that I am indeed 42 and they all started giggling then exclaimed, "Hey Mom, you are now the universal answer! You are 42! How cool is that?"

Yes I do love my geeks!

Hide and Seek with a Service Dog

When you have a service dog in your house sometimes little things make you realize how different life in your family can be.

Last night for example the kids were all playing hide and seek and having fun. Well suddenly I heard Ellie, call Ava then heard, "Ava find Jairon." Ellie then proceeded to use Ava to find the rest of her brothers she was unable to find.

Next round, Zach followed and used Ava again to find his well hidden and missing siblings. This same pattern continued on for quite a while as a very happy Ava followed each child and helped to find those that were hidden for the hide and seek game. When you add a service dog that LOVES finding kids scattered and hidden throughout the house, hiding becomes quite the challenge.

Yes, I just sat back giggling as the kids and puppy dog played hide and seek with each other.

Jade is back from her marching band trip. More details later, but how did they score? Well parade and field show 1st place and excellent ratings and overall champion for parade band. Jazz and concert bands all got superior ratings! During their stay in Atlanta Georgia, the kids got to see the Zoo, Aquarium, CNN Studio, Agatha's Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, and of course, Six Flags!

Way to go bands!!!

Zach and Ellie Performances and Auditions 3/28/15

For a while now Ellie has been taking singing lessons and has been doing amazing. Additionally she and her brother have been attending musical theater classes with TheaterWorks Live here in the area and LOVING the classes.

This spring they focuses on songs from the Secret Garden, Newsies, and Music Man. The kids worked on working together as a group in a short dance, and working as individuals in their group songs while singing together.

Well a couple weeks ago Ellie's voice teacher told us about the Wizard of Oz audition that just happened to be the same day the kids were preforming their theater show. Yesterday Zach and Ellie had a very long day, especially Ellie. Since Ellie was already not feeling well on Thursday, we kept her home on Friday to try and keep her cough from getting to much worse. Well, at least for Saturday.

The kids had to be up by 6:30 in the morning so they could shower, dress, eat, get meds, and Ellie get her nebulizer treatments before leaving. The first surprise meeting us before leaving the house was the beautiful snow falling. We loaded everything up that was needed, then dropped Celidah off at her camp meeting and met the rest of the kids off at the school and do their final rehearsals.

All the TheaterWorks Live kids did an amazing job and had a lot of fun on stage.

Zach with his two TheaterWorks buddies

Introduction to Musical Theater 1 group

Seize the Day from Newsies

The Girl [Kid] I Mean To Be for The Secret Garden

Wouldn't It Be Loverly from My Fair Lady

Once we were finished there, Zach, Ellie, and I had lunch, explored the local dollar store, one of Ellie's favorite grocery stores because they carry fun treats she can eat, then headed over to the audition. The kids were given their paperwork to fill out themselves and their numbers. While waiting, both kids were so excited to see a good number of their friends from their musical theater classes at the audition. As the kids were both going into and coming out of their group auditions all the kids were wishing each other good luck.

Once their numbers and names were called they were called called first to learn to learn a simple dance, then moved from the dancing room to the auditorium where they sat until they were called up one at a time to sing their song.

I am not sure how long they were actually in the room learning the dance and waiting their turn to sing, but when the kids came out Ellie came running out with a huge smile and gave me a super high, high five saying "I nailed it mom, they LOVE my voice". She was exhausted from her long day but on cloud nine because she nailed and they loved her. Poor Zach on the other hand, slowly walked out in tears. He said he nailed the dance, but froze and forgot his song when he stood there and saw the judges and all the kids looking at him. He told me I started out really good then just forgot.

This was Zach's first audition like this. So we talked a bit about how the first time is always the hardest and the worst. Ellie even told him how she forgot her song that she knew on her first audition too.