Kelsey Quote

"My bangs are having a bad hair day."

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!

Caitlyn through the years

Now :)
A couple of years ago

Caitlyn has very rarely had her hair short. Just two hair cuts that I think of, actually.

Here she is with it short at 4 years old.

2005

6 months old How sweet is she????????

She was already into ballet at this point. She loved it.

Caitlyn's party

Well, it has happened. My dear, precious daughter turned 13. She is officially a teen-ager. I'm pretty traumatized. But so far she's still awfully sweet and she still likes me, so we are doing all right ;-). I told the girls I wouldn't FB the pictures until thy were either 50 or famous, whichever comes first :-), but I thought it would be OK to post one little picture on the blog. Caitlyn had a slumber party and one thing they did was to pair up and create crepe paper dresses. It was so funny. I had a ball watching! Caitlyn and her friend, Emma. The star stickers are from another game. The idea was to sneakily stick your stickers on everybody else. There wasn't much sneaking done, but they seemed to enjoy it, anyway :-).

We also tie dyed pillow cases (told you that tie dying was fun :-), and had a flashlight treasure hunt. I am always whining about my girls growing up, but I have to admit, it was pretty fun having a party with all these teen-agers! Finally, I know I am getting old, because the girls stayed up waaaaay later than I did :p.

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY CAITLYN! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Zoo

Beauty and the Beast Cast

Gaston has biceps to spare :0)
Half beast/half prince :-)

Lumiere and Cogsworth were both super.

Mrs. Potts, dear

With the incredible Miss Marilyn who put the whole thing together.

Caitlyn and Keegan with Mr. Wess, who played Belle's father. We have really enjoyed getting to know him.
I love this picture :-)The Beast flew up into the air to transform into the price. Above the curtains, he quickly removed his 'beast' garb, then came back down to the stage. During the final show, the head and horns fell back down onto the stage! Belle calmly covered it with his cape (glad it missed falling on her!) and the show continued.Backstage with LeFou, Gaston's sidekick.

That is Caitlyn's spoon attachment behind her :).

Our villain, Gaston. He did such a great job!

What fun. We loved it! See you next year.

Kelsey Quote

"What would you do if you woke up and there was a cactus in the house?"

Keegan Quote

Playing cards, "I am allergic to the other team melding."

Update

Well, I keep not getting my pictures to post, but I will get them here eventually. My computer is being exceptionally ornery, which is saying a lot. Dial-up teaches me patience :-).

We have been running around like crazy lately, involved in all sorts of cool stuff. Keegan ended her first season of plying soccer on a traveling team. She is too young to officially travel, so that worked out perfectly for us ;). She had 3 excellent coaches and learned SO much! She is a good defender, too. AND they won 2 of their 3 games. Now I am not normally competitive about this sort of thing, but this is Keegan's 4th season of soccer and her first win, so it was fun for her.


We spent a fun weekend in Nashville. Caitlyn attended the Tennessee Association of Dance conference while Bill, Keegan, Kelsey and I went sight seeing. she took several ballet classes plus Improv/Choreography, West African dance, and pilates. She wasn't crazy about the West African, so live and learn :). But it was a great experience for her and a super opportunity to get instruction from some different instructors. (Finally got those pictures posted, but I had already written this, oh well.)

Bill, Keegan, Kelsey, and I went to a Civil War fort, the Adventure Science Center (with a 7 story climbing structure - how cool is that??), and the Clarksville Customs House Museum.

Our wonderful friends, the Bosches, gave us tickets to both the circus and the zoo and we had a ball at both! We especially loved the Olde English Sheepdog act at the circus. Also, some acrobats who used a see-saw to flip each other up into the air. And the 2 guys who walked on the big spinning rings. And the tigers, and, and, and.....

The girls have been rehearsing the ballet and Beauty and the Beast performances have started. All of the shows have been well-attended so far, which makes it more fun for the performers. I have gotten to watch it twice, myself. Yay, me! Some of our friends have already come and we have more planing to come. My girls LOVE this. Thank you, thank you if you've come (or are coming) to see them! Kelsey is handling it all with a very good attitude.
Caitlyn has lost her voice twice, but it seems to be back today and hopefully will last through the rest of the shows. At least she is in a chorus, unlike Belle's father who could hardly speak at the last show. We're hoping he is well for this weekend!

Well, there is much more, I'm sure, but this will do for the moment :D

Nashville

A few weeks ago, we all went to Nashville for a mini-vacation and for Caitlyn to attend the Tennessee Association of Dance's annual conference. On the way there, we toured the Hermitage and were all surprised at how luxurious it was for such a very old house.
Kook hitched a ride with Keegan for the tour :-)

We all got out own headphones. They did a very good job of making the kids' information interesting.

The Adventure Science Center in Nashville was so cool.

The tunnel Keegan is coming out of was about the sense of touch. It had all sorts of different textures in it. She and Kelse were not impressed with the carpet on the ceiling it that touched your head - lol.

The seven story climbing structure that went all the way to the glass peak in the ceiling. Yes, we did climb to the top. (OK, I really only went to the 6th level, the 7th one was pretty small and full of kids :-)

One of the many entrances and exit of the climbing structure. You could also climb up or down several giant vertebra :).Kelsey and Keegan in the bottom of a giant femur bone, haha.

This is where I left my baby for dance classes. Without me. It was pretty traumatic. For me. Not at all for her :). Caitlyn took Pilates, Ballet (intermediate and advanced,) Pointe, West African (not her favorite,) and Improv/Choreography.

Kelsey and Keegan loved the moon walking experience. This machine was supposed to give them 1/6 the gravity they have on earth. So every time they took a step, they bounced up into the air. Kelsey barely made the height and weight limit, and I am so glad she did because this was her favorite thing the entire trip.

Shooting rockets up into the air

The pool was definitely warm! This isn't a badly exposed picture, this is how steamy the pool room was. The night before, even the hot tub had been cold, so some people asked the hotel to turn it warmer, and they surely did =)

We also spent time at a museum there in Clarksville (where we actually stayed.)

Kelsey playing Bill in checkers

He may have won, but she had more fun ;)

Dropping golf balls down a neat and very long ball track. For a while, we were the only ones in this area, so Keegan and Kelsey gathered ALL the balls, took them up the steps, and dropped them. There was a traffic jam between hills, but it was still very cool :-).

All in all, a great time :)

Wordless Wednesday - Silly mirror pictures