Last week was Jeff's spring break from school, so as always, we spent the week with family.  We were at my parents' house from Monday-Thursday and Jeff's parents' house from Thursday-Sunday.  We (well, mostly the girls) did many things from going to a puppet show, decorating an Easter tree, eating and playing at McDonald's, playing with friends at a church function, hunting Easter eggs, painting Easter eggs, going out for breakfast with Grandpa, and, of course, spending time with grandparents, Aunt Valerie, and Uncle Troy.  And Jeff and I even got to go to a movie!

 

Pictured are the Easter egg hunt and the girls dressed in their Easter dresses for church.  After church Sunday, we ate at Cody's and poor Lucy just couldn't keep her eyes open.  She spent the majority of our time there sleeping on the table!  We had a great week and appreciated all our parents did to make it fun for us!

Last weekend we traveled to see the high school production of "Oz!" at my brother's school.  Troy is the art teacher at the school and designed and made all the sets for the musical.  The story of the Wizard of Oz can be a bit scary for little ones, but thankfully this version was very tame and filled with music so Ella and Lucy did fine.  Lucy actually sat on my lap and quietly watched the whole thing!  I'm excited she is getting to the age we can start taking her to more things now!  The only kind of scary part was when the wizard talked from behind the screen, his booming voice lined up with flashing green lights on the face on the chair you see pictured.  The girls didn't care much for that and didn't want to go near it afterwards when we were on stage!  Overall, though, we really enjoyed the performance.

 

From Sunday-Wednesday of this past week, Jeff and I led the music for a revival at a church in a nearby town.  It made for a very busy week, but it was a great experience.  We enjoyed getting to play, sing, and lead in worship for five services in 4 days!  The evangelist, Hollie Miller, was excellent, too.

 

We are now officially on spring break!  It will be so nice to have a week off from all of our regular responsibilities and especially to have Jeff around so much more!  We know we better enjoy it now because April is going to be CRAZY!  Have a wonderful week!

Last weekend, we celebrated my mom's 66th birthday at my brother and sister-in-law's house.  Lisa made a great dinner, followed by Mom blowing out the candles on her ice cream cake and opening her cards and presents.  After that we had some fun family time playing the wii, which is what we usually end up doing at their house!  I also got to try my hand (or should I say my feet) at "Dance Praise."  It was so much fun!  And a great workout, too!  The girls had a blast playing with their cousins, as always.  The only downer was that Jeff wasn't there, but he had a very successful weekend!  He was on the third and final show choir competition trip (for the group he accompanies) and they won grand champion!  It was a great way to end "show choir season."  (Did you know there is a season?) 

 

I also had to include this short clip of Lucy singing "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" with her magic wand.  What a cutie. 

 

 

While at my parents' house this weekend, we continued a tradition...Ella had her picture taken in the antique dress.  As you can see in the pics, my grandmother had professional pictures taken in this fancy dress in 1920 when she was four years old.  When I was 4, in 1980, my grandmother still had the dress and my mom took my picture in it.  Well, in 2009, this paper-thin dress still hangs in my closet at my parents' house...and now I have a four-year-old...so we had to continue the tradition!  I only wish that my grandmother would have thought to take a picture of my mom in this dress when she was 4 (which would have been 1947, with a 27-year-old dress).  I hope to get Lucy's picture in it two years from now and if the dress can survive, maybe one or more of my daughter's daughters will wear it some day in the future!

On Wednesday of last week, Jeff got a call from the wife of another HS choir teacher (there are 5 high schools) asking if he could fill for her husband and direct a concert celebrating Black History Month.  Her husband had a heart attack that morning (Wed) and the conert was Thursday night!!  And I should add, this was no small undertaking!  It was an hour and 40 minute concert, consisting of 3 choirs (beginning, intermediate, and concert choir), a guest reader (with whom Jeff would interact with a narrative on stage), a guest vocalist (an opera diva flown in for the occasion thanks to a grant this teacher had applied for), and two DVD segments, one from which the choir would have to pick up it's opening pitch for an acapella number that followed.  The concert choir alone sang 11 songs!!  This is the kind of thing you run from - how could you ever step in the day before and try to put together and direct a concert this teacher had been planning for months!  But Jeff and I both felt this was something he needed to do, so he agreed.  He had one after-school rehearsal that evening (for which he had to cancel his musical practice at his own school and arrive 30 minutes late to the showchoir rehearsal he accompanies, he got someone to cover his classes for a while on Thursday so he could drive over for the other school's concert choir class time, and he left his opera rehearsal (which he accompanies) 30 minutes early on Thursday evening so he could be at the school an hour before the concert started to practice with the kids one last time.  It was CRAZY!  But God was so good and it all came off so smoothly.  I was absolutely amazed with how effortless Jeff made it look, especially knowing how HARD it really was!  I think anyone who came in not knowing what had happened would have had no idea Jeff wasn't the regular director.  It was very stressful, but what a huge feeling of accomplishment in the end!  I was so proud of him!  And my parents were kind enough to drive over and watch the girls so I could go along for support and also video the performance so the director could see it afterwards.  You can see a bit of the enormity of it in the still pictures.

 

Also pictured:

Lucy is still working on potty-training.  This was her first time to earn the privilige of wearing real underwear.  She loved it.  I'm trying using them as a reward for now.  We'll see how that goes.

 

We had a fun concert in our living room one night.  The girls sang, played, and danced.  We got some of it on video.  We're going to try doing this kind of thing with them more often as our schedule allows.

 

This past weekend, my parents (along with Uncle Troy) came and took the girls to see Playhouse Disney Live - complete with the casts from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Tigger and Pooh, Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny.  They had a blast.

 

Life is still running right along and we're just trying to keep up with it.  I can only imagine what it will be like as our kids get involved with school.  Yikes!