Pictures by Hannah

Hope's Love Of Astronomy Continues

With a little help from clear string and Joe's Sticky Stuff, the universe hangs from the ceiling to the delight of Hope.

Around The House

The tree is up.

Now we need some cold weather and snow, like we had for fall. It's been sunny and warmish the past few weeks.

We had to make a few trips to Hobby Lobby for lights...

Abby and Grandma Jo have been working on Abby's ball gown. The Simplicity pattern does not have good instructions and it has been frustrating. I think they are going to have to go rouge with this pattern and do it their own way.

Hard at work.

If you have ten minutes to kill...

A lot of good insights here.

HT: The Simple Dollar

Decorating- Before

Ebates

I don't know if you all know about Ebates yet, but since Christmas is coming, I thought I'd mention it.

When you shop online, you first visit the ebates site (after you sign up) and then click through to the site you want - for example, Old Navy. If you make a purchase from Old Navy after going though ebates, a portion of your order total will be sent back to you. It depends on the merchant what percent that is, but during promotions, the refund can be higher than 10 percent. Usually it is around 4 to 6 percent. Every three months, ebates will send you a check for the refund of all purchases made online. If you do a lot of shopping online, this can be a helpful rebate! There is no catch- no sign up fee, no surveys or other things that sites like Swagbucks has. I know some have success with Swagbucks, but I couldn't make it work for me. And I didn't like that my web searches were being tracked (not that I have any deep dark secrets to hide...).

(Disclosure: if you sign up using the link below, I may receive a small referral bonus to my account. That's not why I'm writing about this, though. I honestly think this is a great way to save some money while shopping online and I have been using ebates for a few months. :) ).

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=17q%2By7h2UMZzVLCsTdbbOQ%3D%3D

Before and After

Slowly decorating for Christmas. I think the plant needs to come off the mantle since it looks like the wise men are emerging from the foliage. Kind of scary for Mary and Joseph.

In other news, I am preparing for braces (again). In my forties. Yikes.

Around The House

Hope seems to think that I promised her we'd put up the Christmas Tree this weekend. That would be a record for us- and we put ours up a few days before Thanksgiving last year.

Perhaps it's the stack of Christmas books from the library on the coffee table. Or the fact that we have made Christmas candy for the booth twice already. Or that Abby keeps playing Christmas carols on the stereo. Whatever, it appears that that the holidays will be arriving early, with Thanksgiving being ignored. Which is a shame since I like all the pumpkin decorations we have up.

We have been working through this book, looking for new songs to sing.
Who knew that Fum Fum Fum was so well known? We didn't. It makes us giggle. It sounds like someone is sneezing with a Christmas cold.

Hannah's new favorite, most likely because of the David Archuleta version.

And then there are a few that leave us shaking our heads.

But I guess that is part of the adventure.

A Victorian Ball Gown Is In The Works

Gold with burgundy accents.

Abby begins work on the dress with Grandma Jo tomorrow. The ball is in January.

Star Wars Talk to Your Kids PSA- For Jon

HT: Mommy Life

The Lion King Part 2

We got in BIG trouble for taking this picture. The usher came and shined (shone?) her little piercing light on us and sternly chastised us for taking pictures in the theater. I didn't see her going after the other people whose cameras were flashing before the show!

The other picture we took with Rob on stage. I found out later that his friend (also in the cast) who took the photo is a professional photographer. That could be why everyone is centered so nicely. And now we can see Rob's neon shoelaces.

The bathroom had lots of mirrors. And some of the women were in fancy evening dresses. So fun.

Not many places for good photos. So we snapped this as we went back to our seats before the start of the show.

Random thoughts/memories of The Lion King:

-The audience was great! Very enthusiastic participation-clapping, cheering, standing ovation at the end.

-My children are now ruined forever since they saw that live theater is *way* better than movies.

-The costumes are truly a work of genius. The level of creativity was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

-I loved hearing Hope and Hannah squeal at different parts. Hannah's creative soul was sparked in a new way and Hope was thrilled. Abby said she wished she could go to sleep and dream the day over again. Jacob enjoyed it too, in his own quiet way.

-Favorite line in the show: "Wait! This part isn't in the cartoon!"

-I wish I had unlimited money to buy theater tickets. I could do this happily every month.

-Brian decided that this should be an annual event for our family. (yeah!)

A few snow pictures from Hannah

Abby got a bad sunburn on her face this day - she stayed out playing way too long (hours in the bright sun). Hope is now tan and looks like she just came back from a tropical vacation!

The Lion King

Today was the big day.

After the show Rob gave us the backstage (and on stage!) tour.

We stopped for dinner on the way home.

What a day!