Showtime!

We have a wonderful civic theater group that puts on a kids' play each fall. Last year was our first experience with it when Otter was Mowgli for The Jungle Book.  Many happy nights were spent at a barn with Otter rehearsing and me working on my sewing machine doing alterations for lots of monkeys.  Beans was so excited to get her crack at it this year as she was finally old enough to audition.

Otter is in the blue short and Beans is in the pink skirt.

A late-night phone call made Beans one happy little lady.  She was cast as a mouse in Cinderella and she couldn't have been happier!  Otter would also be living it up on the stage again, this time as one of the other mice, Luc.   Lots of Bippity-Boppity-Booing and prancing around on toes followed for the next few weeks at the house and at the barn for practices.   Any straight object was turned into a wand and mouse talk became a normal language at the house.  Squeakity-squeak-squeak.  The sewing machine happily whirred away to make a few mice costumes (not as many as last time though!).  Finally, the big opening night came and it was just awesome all around.

Note the "cheesey" bouquet....

We didn't even bother with flowers for Otter, we just gave him a block of cheese for his "mousestanding" performance.

But, of course, the spirit of Cinderella was not over after the night of the play.  There was a few weeks of "theater" being played at the house as well, complete with curtains, makeup, costumes, and, yup, still lots of Bibbity-Bobbity-Booing. This has all just left Smoosh biting at the chomp for when he is old enough to audition and be a part of it all!

The theater pros applying stage makeup to their siblings.

Adorable little mousey!

Huh....I think that was a tiger?

Spalsh Park!

One of our fun summer adventures was hitting up the Splash Park.  Our friends joined in for the adventures.  As soon as we were tired of running around in the water, we mosied on over to the playground then to the dock for a picnic.  Even the fish got some of the lunch goodies.  

Squeaks just ran around squealing in the water.

Feeding fish and eating lunch in bathing suits...does it get any better on a warm summer day?

Tired, happy bunch.

Children's Museum

Sometimes its hard for people to know what to get this chaotic family for gifts, especially with the "we don't need more stuff" mantra from this mama!  However, my parents got us one of the most awesome gift ever when they bought us a family membership to the Madison Children's Museum.  We love that place.  Big time love.  We go there as often as we can.  Because of the membership, we no longer rush through the place trying to see everything at once.  We get to take our time in one area all day if we want because we know we can come back again and do another part of the place another time!  We also get to share this great gift with friends.  These are the pics from one time this summer when we went with our favorite little pal next door =) 

 Inside, there are lots of fun things to play with and do.  I only have a few shots; maybe next time I can stop playing so much and get more pictures of the inside:

Ready to get going!!!

Automated legos to play with...wicked fun.  Otter needs to learn how to do this so we can start building Lego robots to clean the house.

Playing with wooden musical instruments.

 

 

 

 

 

Smoosh always heads for the veggie garden to plant things!  LOVE it!

Looking at the Madison Square from the rooftop.

The rooftop is my favorite place in the Museum.  Gardens, chickens, a clubhouse full of baby chicks, turtles, and seedlings - what's not to like?  Maybe one day my backyard can look like the rooftop...

Possibly the only thing cooler than backyard chickens are rooftop chickens!! Maybe our coop can look like this one day?

Exploring the pond...

...climbing the rocks...

...wondering why jumping in the pond is not allowed.

This is how the girls play with the fish...."ha doh widdle fishie..."

...so sweet...and cute.

And this is how the boys play with the fish...never still, always moving..climbing and conquering the foul beast from the depths.

Definitely one of our most favoritest places to visit =)  We'll show pics next time of the awesomeness inside!

Strawberry Pickin'

We love our fruit over here...we go through bananas, apples, grapes and oranges like it is our job.  But, we especially love our fruit when it is fresh from the vine, tree, or plant.  What better to do than on a windy, still-chilly, summer day than head out to the local organic farm to pick some delicious strawberries...especially since our own little strawberry patch at home is still growing and still enjoyed by the birds before us on most occasions (stinkin' birds...gonna try that bird net on the strawberries next year as well as the cherries!).

Now, strawberry picking is not just some simple event that you go out and just do.  There is a certain protocol to follow when grabbing the plump berries.

STEP 1:  Jump out of the car, running and hollering like banshees while making a mad dash to the strawberry field.  All the while being too loud or too excited to hear any responsible adult calling out "slow down" "be quieter" or any other such silly nonsense that just slows down the aforementioned mad, loud dash. 

STEP 2:Try to wait patiently while the fine details of strawberry picking are explained.  Feign interest and attentiveness, only to demonstrate failure to comply with most of the fine details (but who really notices anyways?).

STEP 3:  Shove as many strawberries as possible into your tummy before even having them reach your basket.  This is the only fine detail that was paid attention to (and probably the most important one!!).

STEP 5: Finally settle down and start grabbing those berries!!!

Well, one of us wanted to go back to STEP 1 with running and screaming like a wild banshee.

STEP 6: Proudly display your day's harvest and happily head home with baskets and bellies full of berries for some strawberry ice cream and jam making.  And maybe a cup of hot chocolate as it was a tad bit windy out there.

Big Girl Bed I

I do so hope my laziness in blogging will be forgiven...I'm making a go at it....again!



It's always an exciting transition in life when one moves from the crib to their own so-called big bed, in this case, a big girl bed.  The transition began for Squeakers with a girl-only trip to Ikea to get the big girl bed that would be replacing the crib and Bean's old bed.  After a run through Ikea and a giggle-filled lunch at the cafe, the new bed was brought back home.  The bed had to be painted white....and maybe Huck needed a little paint, too.

















It was a full family affair assembling the beds, some of us even needed to get dressed up for the occasion.

The event went on beyond the time anticipated, so we worked on through dinner.  Well, one of us worked, the others of us enjoyed dinner.

 And then...it was done.  And of course once a new big kid bed is installed, it has to be tested out by everyone:)

Girl on the Run

Ok, this will be an actual real-time post before I get back into "catch-up from summer" blogging mode.  Seriously, I will stop eating my bon bons, lying on the couch and doing nothing so I can get back to writing stories...

Today, Beans ran her first "official" 5K run with Girls on the Run.  The day started out with a nice protein-filled breakfast and lots of race flare for Beans and her fan club.

Daddy and Beans headed off to the race, while I got the rest of the crew ready.  Maybe there was a little bit more yelling and frustration then happiness and cheer as I got the other 4 kids out the door.  Seems like a fun family event doesn't really get started until their is some dysfunction, tears, and sore vocal chords.  One of these days - right?  But they pretended to be happy and smile for one pic before we left....it looks convincing right?

I think the fan club and I walked a 5K to get to the race, barely making it there in time for the start....so typical.  This is what we got to see at the start:

But don't worry sports fans and rubber bands!  We had a live, one-the-scene reporter there to grab the crucial moments of this girl's run:

And in the middle of the race:

We were all anxiously waiting for her at the finish line, even though some of us wanted to run down by the stream and throw things in it.  Said person required threat of bodily harm if they did not stand still at the finish line and cheer happily for their big sister:

I think he finally got the message.  We at least got to see her cross the finish line and that really cute, live, on-the-scene reporter also shot the winning moment:)

you can barely see the reporter filming the rockstar as she runs, she has pink leggings on.....

And her adoring fan club was there in the end to celebrate her great accomplishment with her....

The on-the-scene reporter with his little clone:

Our walk back to the car was oddly peaceful...maybe that had something to do with the little clone going with the Big Daddy, maybe.

It was a great day, despite the frustrations, and Beans was happy and tired at the end.  She wanted nothing more than to go home, snuggle up under her covers, and finish her Nancy Drew book. Well-earned I would say!