Musical!

Here is the elementary school stage, empty and lit. Parents are jammed into the auditorium, waiting for the annual third-grade musical to begin!

And here are the kids filing in and taking their places. See Benny? Striped shirt?

Now do you see Benny?

Let me just say that the musical was wonderful, and fun, and SO GOOD. And Benny did an AWESOME JOB!

The kids sang a spooky Halloween song where the lights were turned out and they all used small flashlights to illuminate their faces and make swirly light patterns in the dark. At the end of the song they all suddenly screamed BOO and it scared us!

There were many songs and they were each wonderful. The kids had hand and arm movements for all of them. They must have worked so hard to put on this show.

The songs were a lot of fun and at the end they sang a very moving song called You Are Our Heroes, written as a tribute to the people in the armed services. Listening to their voices sing, "What can you say to a hero? We can say, thank you......." moved me to tears.

And have you ever seen so many cameras in one place? This is what an auditorium full of parents with cameras looks like, two minutes after the show is over and the lights come up. Photo op!

Benny did so well and I am proud of him. And it seems like only last year that Sam was in HIS third grade musical, but it was actually two years ago already. Hard to believe how fast time is passing by.

Jump

I have come to a conclusion. If you are a boy, life is full of self-made tests of strength and agility.
Huge rocks for example, are meant to be climbed. Small rocks are meant to be flung as far as you can. (Contests and challenges tend to pop up in situations like that.) Dirt exists so it can be dug around in. And leaves on branches are all about being touched. The more "just out of reach," the better.

Benny had to go to school last night to appear in a musical. Walking in, the boys began jumping, trying to touch the leaves on the trees. Both of them just wordlessly and without any communication at all, sprang into jumping beans. swatting at the leaves. It was like an unwritten Boy Code that they both understood.

Lucky I had my camera with me!

They are growing bigger and bigger, and I remember a time when they would jump as hard as they could and come nowhere near the leaves. Now.....well, they are making contact! Someday they are going to reach even higher for it to be a challenge. For now, I just enjoyed watching them have so much fun in such a simple thing.

A Rainbow

A couple of nights ago we were headed to the football game to take pictures. It had been raining off and on all day. Suddenly we caught sight of this magnificent rainbow!

We stopped at Chick Fil A to eat, and I took these pictures from the parking lot. Everyone ( and I mean everyone) was pulling over, getting out of their cars, and using their cel phone cameras to take a picture of it.

I just happened to be breaking in my brand new D700, and this was the very first two pictures I took with it. I think it's a good luck sign, personally!

So now we joke that at the end of the rainbow, lies a WALMART. Who knew?

Just a few minutes later the rainbow disappeared and the rain fell. But it was great while it lasted!

Ghosties and Bear Cams

Last week Benny and I made ghosties to hang from the loft. See them up there?

We make them with balled up paper towels, a little string, and a black marker. I think Benny did an exceptional job with the faces this year.

Also of semi-recent activity was the purchase of a trail cam. We bought it in the hopes of getting a surprise picture of our marauding bear that's been vandalizing the neighborhood. Benny and Marty put the camera up together.

Benny had to put all the batteries in and he made sure they were put in with all the postives and negatives where they should be.

We mounted the bear cam and ran many tests. But weeks later, we have yet to get a picture of the bear. But this is a GOOD THING because I think it means the bear has moved on. No one has disturbed our garbage or anything else for weeks!

We do, however, have a nice picture of the UPS man, the kids stumbling out to the car in the dark of a school morning, and several pictures of Marty walking to and from his truck.

And maybe a horrible picture or two of me in my robe and glasses, backing the car up and prepping to drive everyone to the bus. But those pictures are meant to be burned!

Rainy Soccer Game

Okay. So you never saw an athelete this cute before. Right? But at the time this picture was taken (by Marty, while I sat dripping wet in the car with dripping wet Benny) I wasn't thinking about cute or anything else, just getting home and getting into some dry clothes!

But when you are a soccer fanatic, you don't mind playing in the rain. Or dark. Or with an injured arm. You are just glad to play. So glad you can easily take the time to pose for a pic.

Tuesday night's games started off fine. We had to shoot two team photos and dozens of children's portraits, which went well. Then the games began, and halfway into them, the rain began to fall. And fall. And fall. And they called off all the games except Sam's, which was fine with him. Benny and Marty and I waited in the car until the game was over, then we all headed home and plunged into hot showers and dry clothes and hot chocolate. Who knew soccer would demand an encounter with the elements and push all the whine-buttons? (Mom's included.)

But the game was played and finished, and though Sam's team lost, we got these great pictures, and Sam was happy as could be just to have played.

Pumpkin Shirts

The other day I saw a "cute craft project" in a magazine and thought I'd have the boys do it. The project is tie-dyed pumpkin shirts. So. Materials were gathered with the help of my mother, and the project was undertaken last night. Benny was thrilled. But as with any "cute craft project," there was a bit more to it than I thought, and a couple of small snags. Still, fun for everyone, and here it is: First, you take a white T shirt and decide where you want your white circles to be. The goal is to make small white circles all across the shirt.


After you have rubber banded the shirts to within an inch of their lives, they are ready to go.

There's our shirts, awaiting their fate.

Oh, but first, you must take a picture of Mom for the blog. Holding her shirt. Be sure and tell her exactly HOW to hold it.

Prepare the dye............

Get ready to dip the shirt in the dye........

And then dip it in the dye and pose for another picture. Be sure and tell Mom HOW to pose for the picture. Then rinse and rinse and rinse those shirts until the water runs clear.

Oops! Orange skin!

Wash the shirts in warm water and detergent, then dry. Now the fun part! Paint your faces in the white/orange pumpkin circles, using dimensional fabric paint.

And there you are! How cute are they??? The boys did a great job. Mom....not so much. Mine didn't turn out, and we'll leave it at that.

A few pointers for anyone thinking of trying this at home:

1. Do NOT use your kitchen sink. "Stainless steel" doesn't really mean "stainless," in case you were wondering. I had to scrub frantically with bleach to get the orange out.

2. Wear old clothes.

2A: Understand the rubber band part takes a while. And there will be many comments about how difficult it is to get the rubber bands tight enough.

3. After washing the shirts, immediately run your washer on a hot, empty cycle with bleach to get any residual dye out.


Other than that, jump in, and enjoy!

Benny was so pleased with the project that he decided he was going to blog about it, too. So look for an update on his blog soon.