Fabulous!

Wildcats in the house!

We went to Lakeland last night to see the final dress rehearsal friends and family version of the HSM on Ice tour that is set to debut to the public tonight. The girls all had a great time and got a lot of stuff. I was chastised by the retiree security guard before the show even started and I was told I couldn't' take pictures. Damn the man! Greg's camera is less obtrusive so he got a bunch of pics and video. I only got a few pictures when I was sure I could get away with it.
The show was about 2 hours, with the original High School Musical portion, then and intermission and finally the Ice version of HSM2.

On the way from the airport to the show.


Getting settled before it starts.


Skating and singing and stuff.


Some more skate singing.


Getting their head in the game...

That's no moon...

Oh, wait. It is a moon. It's not a deathstar at all. Although interestingly enough, Melissa got her roster for her soccer team today and there's an Anakin on her team. Word to ya' lightsaber.

After getting reports from Melissa and Jen about how big and bright the moon was tonight I went out back and took a few pictures.

JEEEZ People!!

I am trying to keep up with the blogging but it is quite difficult. Here it is 8pm and I have a million things to do but all I want to do is sleep! I was bad and didn't go to bed til midnight Sunday night so I am paying for it today. On top of that I am totally sore from my pathetic run with Chris last night! I felt so bad for him because not only does he run faster because his legs are like twice the length of mine but he also just runs plain fast! That beach jogging kicked my butt! In other news, I will be in first grade this week subbing for the same class as last week. I am supposed to be getting "observed" on Wednesday by the principal so I have that to look forward to. Thank goodness the day after that is HSM on ICE!! Greg and Karen will be arriving at the airport and we will go eat dinner and see the show. It should be an awesome day. OK, I need to go relax before I do some work! Peace Out!

Sophia and Rat Bauer snuggling. Don't tell my other cats...but this kitten is seriously one of the best kittens ever. She is so snuggly and will lay anywhere. She also lets the girls hug and squeeze her all the time.


Do NOT be jealous. Mike ordered us some tee shirts from this cool website Gregory sent him. I think its www.nerdyshirts.com . I totally got a Jack Bauer shirt. I love the pic just not crazy about the shirt color. Dang I look good, and its even from a low field of vision...EM!!

Beach run

Melissa wanted to go running tonight so she made a plan to run on the beach with Chris while Jen and I watched the kids play. The tide was way high and there wasn't a lot of room for playing, but the kids spent most of the time glued to the same spot burying their feet. After we got back Melissa and I spent most of the rest of the night working on getting some things ready for her teaching assigment tomorrow. The teacher that was in there for 3 days before switching to another job at a different school wiped out the supplies and left nothing in the room for decoration or anything, so Melissa had some catching up to do.

Before the run, looking confident.


Off to a good start, but look out for that cloud.


After. Oh, the humanity!


Mug shot.


The wind was kind of messing with their hair.


Em sitting in her chair with her feet buried. She had a volcano shaped sand mound over them. She told me there was a little person in there and he was going to operate on her feet.

Art time!

We finally went to Emma's art exhibit. The exhibit opened while Melissa was in Idaho so Em wanted to wait for her to get back. She had 2 pieces displayed, one from each of the weeks she went to the art camp at Atlantic Center for the Arts. Here is the listing from their web page on the exhibit:

August 4-24Exhibition: "Young Masters XI"Opening Reception: Saturday, August 4, 2-4 PM students and children, 4-7 PM publicThe annual Young Masters exhibit showcases the work of talented youngsters ages 6-12. One work by each student attending the CAP summer art camp will be selected to be shown at the gallery, allowing the students to see their best work on display in a professional gallery setting.Atlantic Center for the Arts Harris House Gallery214 S. Riverside Drive, New Smyrna BeachInformation: 386.423.1753Free

The display was really nice. The Harris House people made a really professional display to show the kids art work. As always, the pictures follow...

Some of the exhibit.


Another room.


Em showing Paige the house she made while learning about architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright.


She also made a book of Bubble paintings that was chosen for display. I think it was the only bubble painting in the exhibit.




Looking at the rest of the art. Here Melissa was looking at a collage that Em's friend Sophie Dudley made.


Showing off her yellow house. The blue house next door to the right was done by Sophie Dudley.

More Before School Pics!

Today was a pretty good day for me. I started a first grade long-term subbing job. The teacher was a brand-new transfer who didn't really want to work at the school so she got another job and transferred. The principal called me to see if I would take over until they could find a teacher. Of course I said yes! It was kind of chaotic this morning getting everything organized. Jen helped out a lot and will helping more tomorrow. The other good news is that today the principal asked me to interview for the PE job on Friday(tomorrow)!! The PE teacher's last day is next Friday. Hopefully I will not be up all night worrying about my interview!

This is one of Paige's new outfits. Sooooooo cute.


Sophi also got some new plaid bermuda shorts. Mom found a bunch of cute ones at Dillards. I would never think to shop there for kids clothes but we went in there and they had a huge back to school sale going on. I was happy because we hadn't been able to find Sophi's size anywhere else.....and those shorts are all the rage down here so I must have my girls fittin' in!


Katie and Matt came over tonight and we hung out for a while and had some dinner. The girls had spent all afternoon with Katie and then Mike and I got a chance to work on our bedroom some more. Katie wants to let you know that she had not showered yet so that is why she looks so dirty.


***Em is not pictured in a back to school pic because she declined to have hers taken.***

First Day of School

Here are the girls on their first day of school 2007-2008. We got off to a rocky start since my alarm failed to go off! Em's worked though so she woke me up at 630 instead of 6 and we made it out the door only 10 minutes after I had planned. They were pretty excited to get back to see their friends so there was not a lot of fooling around this morning. I took Paige and Soph to St. Pauls and mom drove Em to her school so that she could walk her to her classroom the first day since she had so many supplies. I hated not being there for her, but I actually got called in to sub Monday and Tuesday because some teacher had a last minute illness. My day was great, everyone I work with at Jen's school is hopeful that I will get the PE job that is opening up in a few weeks, so that made me feel good that everyone is behind me! Now if I can just convince the prinicpal that I'm the right person for the job!! I really love being with the kids all day and I'm just so bored on days that I don't work. Anyway, we were super busy today and it is after 10pm right now so I need to get to bed! I definitely need 8 hours when I teach!

Paige was very happy, Em was a little nervous and Soph was up for anything.


She already has a brown dress so I dont' know why I bought her another one, other than the fact that it was on clearance!


The first day went fine, Em seems to like her new class even though none of her friends from kindergarten are in there.

Where's the tooth fairy?

Big news today... Em lost her first tooth! The thing was hanging by a thread and she could push it so it was almost sticking straight out, but she didn't want me to yank it. We were playing with it and wiggling it and it finally worked loose enough that it really had to come out.





Not much else is too exciting today. Melissa and I were working on some more home improvement type stuff this morning. She taped off the bedroom and I texture-sprayed 3 walls. Now we have to shift some furniture and then spray the last wall this evening. Then we can finally paint the bedroom. It's the only room we haven't painted since we bought the house(other than the laundry room, which doesn't really count). Mo took the girls to Sam's to get some stuff we needed and then took Paige and Sophia to their Meet the Teacher day at the preschool. They finally hired someone who sounds qualified to teach Paige's class so hopefully that will work out well.

The next few projects after the bedroom will be expanding the pantry/closet/thing a bit into the garage which should double the space available in there. Then we are gong to replace some more flooring. It's a big area that we want to tile so I think we'll probably just pay someone this time. Maybe not though, we'll see how it goes. If Melissa gets a teaching job this year I'm really going to lobby for hiring help to do some of this work!

Party like a rock star

Interim Party Update:

Ain't no party like an HSM party 'cause the HSM party don't stop!
The movie has started so things are settling down, but the girls have been having a good time so far, I think. How could you not when there was such an awesome cake?

Surf Contest

There was a Surf Contest for the Volusia County Lifeguards at Flagler tonight. We went up there to take a look, but the waves weren't cooperating. It wasn't too great for surfing so we hung out for a bit and I took some more pictures of the girls. Tomorrow night is the big High School Musical 2 party. It overlapped with another sleepover that the same group of girls were planning, so the parties got combined. HSM2 at our house and then all the girls (I think it's like 8 of them) go over to the other place to spend the night. I can live with that!!!

One of Em's best poses ever


Paige is showing you Blue Steel... or is it Magnum?


Sophie is tired of me taking pictures


So I have to sneak them when I can



I think this guy probably won the first heat


I just can't get all of them to look at me and smile at the same time!


Long range sneaky candid


Sandy nose

Haircuts for the ladies

The girls were gone all day doing some last minute school shopping. The last stop they made before heading home was to get their hair cut. Sophia also got her ears pierced today. Hopefully this will work out better than it did for Paige. She hated having them turned and cleaned so they ended up coming back out!

Paige showing you some mostly-chewed goldfish crackers


The new hair


One last look


Emma's turn to model


Her hair came out really nicely


I think I like hers the most, mainly because I don't like bangs too much


Here's a glimpse of the earring


You know, my other girls do prove that bangs can be cute


Goofball

Crash!

Melissa and I went over and watched Vacancy with the Schrader's last night. It was pretty good. After the movie, we went to take a drive and came home and grabbed my camera in case I wanted to take any pictures. We drove over to beachside and a bunch of fire engines and police cars went by us so we went to see what was going on. Someone had driven through the front of the 7-Eleven on 27th St! Nice one!