The Play

Last night was opening night of CAT's (Christian Arts & Theater's) production of Willy Wonka. Victoria plays an Oompa (not to be confused with the Loompas, who wear brown instead of pink) and worked tremendously hard over the last month to get ready. This week was "Heck Week," and Victoria had rehearsals and/or shows for ten days in a row, in addition to school and homework. Although I'd seen the show in rehearsals countless times, I was really excited to see opening night with the lights down and no director interrupting to make corrections. It was so amazing. The play is great, if you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. And my baby looked like she was having the time of her life. I couldn't be more proud of her!

The World's Best Valentines

I have two Valentines, and can I just tell you that makes me the luckiest mommy in the world.


My daughter realized on Friday night that no one had taken her shopping for my Valentine's Day gifts. She asked me to go to bed early so she could prepare my V-Day surprises. I was exhausted and gladly obliged. While I slept, she did this to my closet door:

She also surrounded me with all of her Valentine's Day themed stuffed animals from years past. I woke up with teddy bears and heart pillows and flowers all around my head and the decorated closet doors in front of me. It was so sweet!

For dinner, I let my "Valentines" have whatever they wanted. They chose to have hot dogs-yum :-( , corn, and maccaroni and cheese. The stipulation was that they wanted to use food coloring to dye the corn and pasta pink. It turned out...well...interesting, to say the least:

As I cooked, Victoria decorated the dining room table for the special meal. It took her about three minutes and was absolutely beautiful!

I don't think Justice understood the day at all. But he must have liked all the kissin' he was getting. As much as I teased about not having a Valentine, it turned out to be a wonderful day, full of love!

The Movie!!!

Anyone who has spoken to me for any length of time over the past three weeks knows that I have been reading the Twilight series of books and am absolutely obsessed. I quickly read through the first three books and am actually dragging the last one out because I don't want to finish. Today, I had a girls' day out with Jackie, Jennifer, Patricia, Shelley, and Debi (the mother of one of my current students). I got my nails done, met them for drinks and appetizers, and then watched the movie, which by the way, I thought was fantastic, even in it's cornier parts. Before this big day, I ordered a t-shirt to wear for the momentous occassion.
Most fans of the series are "in love with" (for lack of a better term) the main male character Edward, who incidentally is a vampire. Some others are drawn toward one of the other characters, Jacob, who happens to be a werewolf. I, on the other hand, am torn between the two and found just the right shirt to represent.

My friend, Carrie, is a devout member of Team Edward and is morally opposed to being a member of both teams. She insists one must choose. But I disagree, and believe the back of my shirt tells it all:

If you thought this series was just for teenagers, you were so wrong. I am loving me some Twilight! Can't wait for the movie about book two, New Moon, to come out. Maybe by that time I will have convinced Carrie to join my team!

The Talent Show

Last week, Victoria performed in her second talent show. In third grade last year, she sang alone. This year she decided to do a duet with her school BFF, Eanna. They sang a Miley Cyrus song, "True Friend." They choreographed the whole thing themselves, and rehearsed weekly for about two or three months. Truly, they did a great job. They looked adorable and had fun. Nice work, ladies.

This first shot is a picture of the girls before the big performance.

Obviously, this one is during their performance. I SOOOO want a Canon Rebel. My current camera doesn't take clear pictures of anything that moves. You get the idea, though.

Lots of talented kids...I really enjoyed the show.

The Superhero and the Head Injury

Justice is all about "Super Why." Super Why is a PBS superhero whose special power is the ability to read. My baby boy, who had no interest in letters when I worked with him last year, learned all of them in about three episodes of Super Why. He is truly obsessed. For Halloween I had to resort to EBay and thus paid a pretty penny for this relatively flimsy costume. I have certainly gotten my money's worth, though. Justice would wear it every single day if allowed. Instead, it has become a regular in our jammie rotation.


The fact that my son idolizes a character who reads leads to me a silly conversation we had yesterday as I read an online article about Barack Obama and Justice ate his snack of fishy crackers and a banana, at his table behind me. It went a little something like this:

Justice: Whatcha doin, Mama?
Me: I am reading.
Justice: But you don't have a book.
Me: You can read the words on the computer, too, buddy.
Justice: No I can't.
Justice: Mama, I don't know how to read (and his facial expression added "DUH").

Technically, he is right.


Unfortunately for Justice, Super Why's power is not the power to fly, be invinceable, or heal quickly. So, when he falls for no reason from the couch, onto the train table, and finally onto the tile floor, in his typically coordinated way, his mortal self can be terribly injured. Check out the head.

The Sickies

Saturday morning, I woke up sick, too. I spent the day sometimes taking care of Justice, sometimes sleeping. Victoria had rehearsals for Willy Wonka and then went to her friend's house for talent show practice. When she got home, she found Justice and I both feeling really yucky. Her poor brother was all broken out in a terrible rash.

Being the sweet, loving daughter that she is, she brought me up a snack in bed. Yes, those are Ritz Crackers with chocolate sauce on them. Chef Ramsey would approve the presentation, I bet. However, the food combination was questionable. And, yes again , I did eat two of them (I had to, right?).

If you were wondering, blue is what happens to Sprite when the fancy, paper umbrella your daughter adds for presentation purposes, falls in. Yum!

We woke healthier on Sunday, though. Justice still had a low fever and the rash had moved onto his neck and chest, but he was in a much better mood. So much better, that he decided to steal some Hot Tomales. Too bad the box was opened, and being 3, he HAD to turn it upside down when he picked it up.

Getting better every minute!

The Make-up Disneyland Trip

Justice has been begging to go to Disneyland for a couple of months. I don't even know why he was thinking about it...he hadn't been since he was just a little younger than two. So I told Victoria that I was going to take them somewhere (in Justice's words) "Vehwy Speshel." However, when Neil got so sick, we postponed. I decided to take Friday off and give us all a day of fun. Off we went, Justice, Victoria, and I headed to the Magic Kingdom!

The weather was fantastic, and the day got off to a really great start.

A couple hours in, though, you could tell Justice just wasn't himself. He seemed to be having fun, but he was really calm and fell asleep early.

He woke up CRANKY, and started running a little bit of a fever. After that, he didn't enjoy his special Disneyland trip much.

It was still a fun day, though. Victoria had a great time. Justice's illness didn't stop her!

Don't worry, Baby Boy. We'll go again, soon!