John's the big 3! (New and Improved Video!)

No surprise that the one place John wanted to be on his birthday was the Fire-station. It was a really cool tour and the kids loved the fire engines. Hayden and Erin were so "into the moment" they tried to crank one up. And we thought we only needed to keep our eyes on the little guys.

The party continued at Robin and Stephen's house with lunch, cake, ice cream and some rearranging of furniture! You just never know what you'll get when you have us over.

Snow day.

Well, we waited, and waited, and waited until we couldn't wait any longer. We had to get out in the snow even if it was only 1/4 of an inch. Thankfully the trampoline, slide and Trooper had enough snow to make some pretty good snowballs. The boys and I had a pretty good strategy of me distracting the girls and them stealing their snowballs.

We moved out front to make some driveway snow angels and a snow person. Thankfully we were able to "borrow" some of our neighbor's snow or he would have been a very vertically challenged little guy.

Different views.

Him: Hey, woman, when you gonna get in here and fold this laundry?

Her: I see him looking at it. Does he know what it is and what to do with it?

This is definitely not UPWARDS!

In order to make Hayden a more competitive basketball player, we have moved her to a recreation league. It is through Westminster and is for girls 12 and under. I've only seen 2 games so far since the boys and basketball don't mix right now. I don't know a whole lot about the game, but that doesn't keep me from hollering. Mostly I just yell, "Defense" or "Offense" with the occasional, "Get her Hayden!"

Boy howdy.

These aren't the sweet days of Upwards basketball anymore.

The last game was in Hazel Green. Let's just say they grow 'em big and mean. Elbows, cussing, staring down our fans and giving attitude to the refs were all the norm for these little sweeties.

I made sure I had backup in the parking lot.

Ringing in 2010 with lots of GIGGLING!

I tried to fight it. I hoped it would just go away. Surely, my counterpart would take my side.

Not so.

Hayden would have her New Year's Party.

I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Lots of giggling, snacking, games, more giggling, party hats, food, more giggling, loud poppers, more giggling and some very sleepy girls the next morning.

The audition.

I like taking Ally to auditions. Partly because I like watching her show her true self and how uninhibited she can be. The other reason is because I love watching "theater" families.

Last nights audition for "Mulan Jr." was no exception. And I have a witness this time. I won't mention her name here, but she can verify what I'm about to tell you is true and accurate. She didn't get to see it all, but what she did see was enough. Right Julia?

The audition was at a small theater known for their musicals. It is a children's musical, so there were lots of kids ranging from 5 to 17. They grouped the kids into 3 groups: young, middle and older. Ally was in the younger group of 5 year olds to 7 year olds. They were all called up front and the student director randomly drew their names. Ally was first. She sang her song and then chose to do something "spontaneous" with the director. I know that I am prejudiced, but she did great. We are not singers. However, she was smiley and showed a lot of character for her age.

Within her group was a little girl that I think was 5. She gave her music to the pianist and prepared to sing. The pianist started and the little girl stood there. "Is this the wrong speed?" asked the pianist. The mother stood up, shook her head disapprovingly, and booted the pianist off the piano. "Let me just play it for her." Ok lady, you've got my attention. The little girl sang her song and did something next. I can't really recall because I was trying to remember if this was the same lady that was in that Lifetime show about the cheerleader thing in Texas. You know the one where the Mother was jealous that the other girl got on the squad and her daughter didn't so she killed the other girl. Something like that . I don't watch that channel, I just remember some commercial about it.

After all the little kids finished they were sent to the back room to learn a dance. The director made the statement that the girl teaching the dance could use one Mom back there to help with crowd control. Guess who jumped up. Well I've gotta see this. So I jumped up too.

Once back in the room the girl started teaching and the Momma started dancing. She was learning it too. After a couple of run thru's, the Momma wanted some clarification on some of the moves. Was it the right foot first or left? Do you punch on Queen or dancing? Do you lean over 45 degrees or 52 degrees? Then she proceeded to correct her daughter. Did I mention her daughter was 5? They had all of 5 minutes to learn it. They had to wait 20 minutes to perform it. They are nervous too. I'm just guessing here, but all they can possibly hope for is a little rhythm and for the kids to not fall on their faces.

The kids finally went up to perform and all went well. I know there were 2 disappointed people in the crowd. Me, because I really wanted her to jump up and dance with her kid and her, because I know deep down she really wanted to jump up and dance with her kid.

Don't mess with me and my trash.

I love a lot of things. My camera is one of them. As I have admitted to my small "counseling" group that I meet with once a week at various restaurants, I have, in the past, used my camera to give proof to the things in life only pictures can prove. Yes. I have ducked down behind the steering wheel in car rider line and snapped a shot of people and activities I find humorous. It's all about sharing. I want to share with others those things I find funny.

Along with that, I want to share with others those things I don't think are very funny at all. I've become one of those people and I really don't care.

Case in point: my street after "Christmas" garbage pick up. It has become a tradition for us and a family down the street to race to our "vacationing in Florida" neighbors trash can and cram it as full as possible with all our Christmas boxes, wrap and Barbie twist ties. It was perhaps a little too full since it was as tall as Ben. However, I'm not sure how you manage to dump trash on the ground of 4 out of 5 cans on our street?

Never fear! We sent this little picture to our sanitation department and county commissioner. They were out within an hour to check it out. Unfortunately, one member of our family was worried what the neighbors would think and cleaned it up prior to the visit.

Ok, so maybe I do care that I raised a stink.

Can't wait to see what our garbage man does with us next week!