On Stage

**** All of the following photos were once again taken by the lovely Angie Wilson ****

Waiting to get their costumes:

 

The dressing rooms:

Staging the show:

(Do you see those balloons?  Very hard to come by, my friends.  You know, there is a helium shortage nowadays, and no one in Iowa carries balloons anymore.  Luckily WalMart has a balloon kit you can buy because this was all I had planned on for circus scenery.)

There was a brief time when one of my wild animals broke his leg and another was going to be out of town, so I recruited M and a friend to be stand-in animals.  While the whole class eventually danced, M and her friend got to dance too.  Check out M's roar:

GQ was an excellent roar-er.

Tight-rope walkers flying away (E is front, left):

Boys

Baby S has recently begun to enjoy laying on his tummy because then he can look around and see the world.

Sometimes when he looks around to see the world, he finds his brother.  If he is alone, and he sees GQ - he starts to cry.  GQ is not very good at boundaries.  If there are adults to act as referees than he is willing to smile and enjoy his big brother.

"What?  I shouldn't grab his head and rub it for good luck?"

On the day we took pictures of all the ballerinas, my friend Angie tended Baby S when I went to pick up E from school.  She just happened to take these adorable photos while I was gone.  Now if only I could convince her to do our family photos.  Apparently some crazy lady conned her into taking a bunch of dance photos and she is feeling slightly worn out.

Performance Time

*** All of the pictures below were done by the wonderful Angie Wilson***

Recently I did my second PreBallet show here in Iowa:  "A Circus!".  This year we were at a real theatre!!! and I had help sewing my costumes!!! and all of my kids were involved!!! (except Baby S.)

Here are their official "posed" photos.  Later I will share some of the candids which are my favorites!

The Wild Animals

The Clowns

The Tight-Rope Walkers

The Pony-Riders

Photo day took place in my living room and was a crazy day.  But we survived and got to take pictures of all these very cute girls.

Camping Trip

Last time we went camping, M was a baby.  We entirely skipped GQ.  This weekend we decided to repent and get going.  Everybody had a great time.

For dinner we had tacos that I made at home.  I didn't feel ready to depend on making the whole "cooking on the fire" thing work.  Remember, I am not used to being the grown-up when it is camping time.  (This may also be why we arrived without a single flashlight... thank goodness for "flashlight apps.")  I also thought I should have brought a tablecloth - especially since a Daddy Longlegs colony had set up shop under the table. 

Luckily our tent is big enough for the pack and play to go camping too.  Since that is all Baby S sleeps in anyway, he felt right at home and slept like a champ.  (We have not yet convinced GQ that he doesn't want to sleep in his crib.)

E quickly set to orchestrating activity story-time for all the kids.  Are we surprised?  They also played tag, follow-the-leader, and house.  Their ultimate, favorite activity was playing in the tent and jumping on the sleeping bags.

We had a hard time finding firewood.  While we searched, E remarked "It's okay, I'm sure I'll have a smore someday."  This was said in an entirely un-okay tone.  Luckily, we found some and we all got to make some smores.  M, of course, did not like them.

I should have remember to take a photo in the morning.  GQ was asleep horizontally on E's pillow and M was all the way down at the bottom sleeping on top of GQ's sleeping bag.

Taking a nap in the morning:

Around camp:

Wahoo!!!

Dress-up

The girls enjoyed playing dress-up at Young Women's:

GQ found a cowboy hat he was pretty sure made him Woody, but I missed getting a picture of that.

Two Years Down

This week Justin had his "review".  Pretty much this is where the faculty gets to tell you how they think you're doing on you PhD program.  What fun!  Afterward we went out to dinner to celebrate two years done.  That was fun.  Outside the restaurant was a lake/park that the kids had fun finding dead fish in.

"Look, Mom, a dead fish!!!"

"I see it too!!!"

And a good old-fashioned comparison photo... since I am apparently obsessed with them.