Be Our Guest

Emma's middle school production of Beauty and the Beast ran last night. Emma had several chorus parts and can bee seen here as a plate in the upper left picture. She was fabulous, of course. Two of her good friends were also in the show including Mrs. Potts and another chorus girl (who I don't seem to have a photo of). Everyone was worried that it wouldn't turn out very well, but as usually happens, it all came together in the end and they did a really cute show.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Maddie was in the High School Musical this year as a candy kid. I'm sure you all know by now about the almost-lead that she had. She was called back for Charlie along with one other kid, who they ended up going with mainly because he was a BOY. Imagine that! Still, she did a great job and had tons of fun meeting new people and making friends. And that's what it's all about. Right? P.S. I've been neglecting this post because I kept thinking we might get some better pictures, but this is what we've got. It's a racket they have going to get nice photos of the play. Seriously. Still considering it, but YIKES!

Spring Break

Nothing fancy for Spring Break this year. We made our way over to Chicago via Springfield, IL and stopped over to visit the Lincoln Presidential Library. It is a great museum with video presentation marvels akin to Disneyland. Extremely entertaining AND educational. You can't top that. Here the girls are posing next to their favorite Mary Lincoln dress and then dressing up as Mary and Abe. We learned a lot about the civil war and politics during that time. We also learned about Abe's childhood. He only had one full sibling- an older brother, and was raised primarily by his step-mother. I thought that was interesting.

Then it was off to Chicago. We stayed in Naperville at the Holiday Inn and something happened that has never happened to me before. At about 2 AM the fire alarms start blaring in our rooms and throughout the hotel. We were evacuated along with everyone else and immediately the fire trucks were there. Turns out, someone pulled the fire alarm. There was NO fire. Thank goodness, but still a strange experience. And thank goodness there was no snow that night.

The next day was spent in the city at the Art Museum. That was one place we never got to during our time in Chicago. It is an amazing place and HUGE. We were there for several hours and probably saw about 1/5 of the place. Then off to a place we HAD been before, our favorite restaurant in Chicago- Piazannos! We love their chicago-style pizza. It is soooooo yummy!

Then it was back to Plainfield for the big show! Yes, Plainfield North High School's production of Annie. It is the reason we went that direction in the first place. Very cute, and of course, we saw our friend Aram who sang, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." Maddie got to spend the next day with her friends while Richard attended some business meetings and we went to a movie. We had never seen Princess and the Frog and were able to catch it at our favorite dollar theater. All-in-all a great trip. Very low-key. I liked it. A lot.

Another Year

This was about as low-key a birthday as they come. I made a cake and let the little ones decorate it. Ellie let me wear a veiled crown and boa. I opened the dollar store gifts from everyone which included flowers, a frame or two, body wash, a tape measure, and a few other fun items. The big gift was an electric can opener--awesome! But the really big gift was that the kids cleaned the kitchen, decorated it all up for me, and behaved like angels for the whole day. I couldn't ask for more. It was wonderful.

Pioneer Day

Our school's mascot is a pioneer, so every year they have "Pioneer Day" and dress up. Here are the girls in our best pioneer outfits. Lauren is going for a more youngish look, while Ellie is looking more mature. Adorable either way. Ellie's day was shortened that day due to a fall which gave her several big scrapes, including one on her forehead. The nurse thought she should come home and rest. I thought the fall may have had something to do with running in a pioneer dress, but Ellie insists she just "randomly fell." Okay.