Wicked was Wicked Awesome

For about a year my friend Joleen has been talking about going to see Wicked. She arranged for group tickets, for about half off the regular price. My Mom took Christine and I. It was amazing!!

Seriously, once it started, I was all, "What is this Feeling?" No wonder this play is so "Popular"!

It totally "Defy's Gravity". No mourning for this Wicked! And I'm done with the puns.

Our Mother/Daughter Date. This was taken at the Orpheum, even though you can't tell. I wanted a picture out front with the marquee, but everyone was in too big a hurry to get inside.

Of course, the BFF's came too, aka the Sisterhood

There were about 30 of us from the ward. It was wonderful to be together and enjoy this amazing experience. I have been listening the the soundtrack nonstop. At least until a few days ago , when Callie jammed her Hannah Montana CD in my CD player and now it says "NO CD", even though I know Wicked is still in there. Sigh. Dave will fix it soon and then "The Wizard and I" will be together again....

BEST DAD, HANDS DOWN!!

The Saturday before Father's Day, I went to Schnucks to pick up a few things. They were advertising an opportunity for kids to paint Father's Day shirts. There would be face painting and even Chester Cheetah was making an appearance. Sounded like fun to me. We grabbed the Georges and headed over.

Callie got a flower on her face. Chandler got a shark. They each stamped their hands on their Daddy's shirt.

Of course, Ethan was the only one brave enough to get his picture with Chester Cheetah. Can I admit I'm kinda scared of him too?

On Sunday morning, I realized I didn't have a gift bag. No problem. Dave came down the stairs to this:

Hope all the Dads had a great day!

Hotlanta

Does anybody know why people call Atlanta that? Anyway, back in June, Dave and I escaped for an "alone" weekend. The kids went to stay with Dave's family. It was a heavenly trip with dinner at Ruth Chris, shopping, Six Flags, and a session at the Atlanta temple. It's nice to miss your kids every once and a while, right?

I don't think I've been to a Six Flags in 10 years. They had something like 12 roller coasters. It was awesome. Here's our favorite, Goliath.



Remember the Sky Ride at Disneyland? They had one like it at Six Flags, except these were called the "Sky Bucket." So of course, I made the universal sign for bucket.




We might be a little hot and sweaty.



Ruth Chris. It was soooo good. Dave was all about the steak. I was all about the creme brule.



I think we may have to make this an annual trip. Or monthly. Maybe this weekend....

Summer Days

Summer sure is flying by. We've been keeping busy, mostly in the water. We kicked off summer with a trip to Mud Island.

Wait, are anybody's eyes open?

Bathing Beauties

Chan is very excited to be at Mud Island

Summer also brings swimming lessons with Grandma. This year Grandma decided that Callie and Morgan would take lessons in both sessions. The first session was repeat of last year, mainly a whole lot of screaming, crying, and shaking on the steps. But somewhere towards the end, Callie decided she could do it. She now LOVES to swim. We can't get her out of the pool. She can jump off the diving board and swim to the side. (which she does about 50 times every time we take her swimming.) She can swim the length of the pool. She even likes to float.

It's truly miraculous. My Mom and I just keep looking at each other and asking, "Who is this child?"

Callie and her class

Chandler didn't quite understand why he needed swimming lessons, since he's already a good swimmer. He did learn some new strokes, including the butterfly. And, no, he's not skinny.

Some of the dads were so excited about swimming lesson graduation that they came in matching outfits. Aren't they supportive?

Last weekend found us back at Mud Island. We better enjoy it why we can. School starts in 3 weeks!

The Graduate

If any of you were hoping this post referred to David, Sorry. No such luck. That would be next May. I'm sure it will be here before we know it, as this year has flown by. Chandler is a kindergarten graduate. It seems like just yesterday I was blubbering over my "Night Before Kindergarten" post and here he is, already done. It was a year of learning, for both Chandler and his parents.




The graduation itself was quite the event. Unfortunately, it was held in the un-airconditioned gym. Boy, was it hot! The kids were really cute and sang lots of fun songs they have been learning all year. Chan will still occasionally bust out in "There's a Little Wheel Turning in My Heart." My favorite was the song "First Grade, First Grade", set to the tune of "New York, New York." (Start spreading the news, we're leaving today. We want to be a part of it, First Grade, First Grade!)

We've been spotted! His hat might be a little big...

Receiving his dipolma from Principal Carilse. How about Dr. Carilse has been the principal at Riverdale for 26 years? Chandler's teacher actually went to Riverdale and he was HER principal!

Chandler and his teacher, Mrs. Moske. He loved her!! She knew all about Star Wars, Transformers, and Inspector Gadget. (Along with, of course, reading, writing, and arithmetic.)

"So now we've made it there,

We'll make it anywhere!

We're on our way,

FIRST GRADE, FIRST GRADE!!"

The Messiest Child Ever??

Does anybody want to be in our contest for the messiest child ever? I didn't think so. There's no beating Callie Grace. Her Dad has been calling her this since she first started eating solid food. Her messiness does only relate to food. She doesn't destory with toys and such the way she can with a good meal. I like to tease her that it will be very embarrassing for her to have to take a sippy cup on her first date. In the past few weeks, she has been healing from her tonsil surgery. This involved halfway eaten melting popcicles all over the house- including her bed, the bathroom, and the living room. Also she has spilled yogurt and hidden dried out jello on the carpet. Is she allowed to eat out of the kitchen? No. Does this stop her? No again. She is feeling better, so this week, she squeezed out an entire caprisun in my car, dumped a family size bag of Cheetos out on the living room rug, and decided to fill her spaghettio bowl up with water from the fridge door. Water downed tomato sauce everywhere!! This morning I gave her breakfast and went upstairs. I came back down to find this.

She had pulled a little chair over to the counter and gotten down the powdered sugar canister. Then proceeded to dump it out and eat it with a spoon. I was flabbergasted. The entire kitchen is covered in a thin glaze.

Good thing she cleans up so nice. We love our messiest child ever. She'll eventually grow out of this, right??

A Finger, A Foot, and some Tonsils

The past few weeks has our family thankful for the miracles of modern medicine. And health insurance. And priesthood blessings. And good friends and family who watch kids, cook meals, and call just to see if we need anything. We love you all.


David started it all. He was sitting on a tug at FedEx. Another weary employee ran his tug into David's. It hit the front wheel and spun Dave's steering wheel. Dave tried to get his hand out of the way, but was not quick enough to avoid the impact on his pinky. It almost took it clean off. His bone was severed. After some workers compenstation red tape, he got to see an orthopedic doctor after 5 days. I was not happy. Anyway, turns out there isn't much you can do for a broken finger. Just wear this awesome splint. He was just recently taken off "light duty" at work.




A few weeks later I had surgery on my foot. Dave informs me that I am worse than average at the crutches. I was glad to send them packing. My arms were hurting worse than my foot. I am now getting around pretty good. It still hurts, but I anticipate that it will for a while. I also get to wear this sweet shoe for 4 weeks. It goes with everything. Wish I had two. (not)





Good thing I am walking again, since Callie had surgery herself this morning. For some reason her tonsils decided to grow as big as golf balls. She was having trouble sleeping and swallowing, so they had to come out asap. We went in to see the doctor again Tuesday and he scheduled the surgery for Thursday. Callie was such a trooper. It turns out Daisy needed surgery too. Her tonsils were even bigger than Callie's. Daisy and Callie got matching surgical gowns and slippers. I hope I get to see this happy smile again sometime soon.




The surgery was really quick. Callie was NOT a happy girl in the recovery room. I could hear her sobbing, "I want my mommy!" as I walked down the hall. Once she was in my lap, she went right to sleep. It's hard to take a picture of someone in your lap, in case you were wondering.




The children's hospital here has a special toy room called the "bunny room", where the kids pick out a toy on the way to surgery. Callie picked out a baby doll. I don't know how well you can see, but Callie had a purple bandage on her arm where her IV was. When she came back from surgery, both Daisy and her new baby doll had a purple bandage on their arms too. It almost made me laugh out loud as I rocked my sad, sick little girl.




We're home now and Callie is sleeping. She wanted to stop at Chick-fil-a on the way home and get chicken and fries. I told her she would have to make do with a popcicle. She ate a whole one and then went to sleep on the couch. Hopefully her recovery will be speedy. And I pronounce our family done with doctors, hospitals, and anesthesia for a while. We can hope.