the p.m. show...

Friday night we went to see Clara's last performance of Aladdin.  I didn't take as many photos as I had planned due to the large size of the crowd (the gym was nearly full!!) and I really just wanted to enjoy the show again instead of watching through a camera.

I still am in awe of how well done the production was from start to finish!  The costumes were beautiful, the backdrops and scenery were also beautiful, the large dance numbers were well choreographed (especially given the limited dance education most of the kids have had) and the talent of some of students was amazing!  Clara thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and made some really good friends in other grades as well.

Here are some of the photos I took...

One Jump Ahead (this was the Disney version of Aladdin so same songs as the movie)...

 One Jump Ahead...

 A rolled up Magic Carpet in the cave with Aladdin...

 Magic Carpet flying Genie and Aladdin out of the cave...

 Prince Ali....

 Prince Ali....

 Clara after the show in her townsperson costume (she LOVED this costume)...

 Clara and Alex after the show...

 Magic Carpet :-) ...

She had such an amazing time being part of this production.  And as I mentioned before, she made so many new friends outside of her grade.  She's already talking about next year :-)

the a.m. show...

The day is finally here.... it's time for Aladdin!!  Clara was so excited to get to school this morning.  At 10:00 they performed for the school and tonight they'll do a second show for family and friends.  I plan on going to both :-)

It was so good and they all had such a good time!  I didn't take any photos during this show (I wanted to watch), but hoped to catch her still in costume after the show.   Well... I was too late!

She was already hanging up her last costume and animatedly telling the story of something that happened during the show...

 She got to wear her make-up to class for the rest of the day...

I can't wait until the second show tonight and hope to get some pics!

lazy again...

I haven't gotten my big camera out for a while again.  Just the one birthday photo of Alex has been it.  I promise I'll have it out tomorrow though!  :-)

Cell phone photos again...

Clara didn't have school last Wednesday and I made the poor girl get an eye exam.  Actually, she desperately wanted an eye exam because she thinks she really wants glasses.  No glasses this time, but a referral for eye therapy to strengthen her right eye muscles.  She did have to get her eyes dilated...

... she was not a happy camper... especially when it didn't wear off in the three hour time frame they told us it would.

I think I mentioned it before, but the Battle of the Books team Clara is on made it to the citywide finals!  Here she is with her finalist medal...

Saturday morning, Jeff and Alex had a Bat Mitzvah to attend, so we celebrated his birthday at dinner.  We took him to Texas de Brazil...

We did family presents when we got home that night.  The friend party will follow at a later date (I still haven't booked it).  He polled all of his friends last week and the unanimous choice for his party was laser tag. I just have to figure out if any of the dates we have available mesh with any of the times that the venue has available.  Looks like he'll be celebrating his birthday for about a month :-)

On Sunday, he rode his bike to the Cubs game with a friend and his family!  The last weekend they were at the White Sox game together and this weekend they were at the Cubs game together.  While at the game, they hatched a plan to build a soccer ball bazooka in the alley.  As soon as they got back, Alex started gathering supplies.  They got it built, but never got it to fire (thank goodness!). 

And finally, the cookie cake Alex picked out for his birthday celebration at school...

... turning 12 seems pretty good, don't you think?

last day in mo...

 Friday was our last full day in MO for this trip.  We spent part of the day celebrating my grandmother's 91st birthday by going out to lunch.

I think Alex has caught up to her in height...
After we got back to my mom and dad's house, the kids decided that they should work on their golf skills before they take golf camp this summer...

It was such a beautiful day and a nice way to end our spring break trip!

changes...

okay... not happy with the template yet, but need some feedback on the actual blog part... does it look okay?  Big pictures... yes or no?  Will be tweaking things over the course of the week and wanted to check... especially when it will look good in some browsers and not in others sometimes.

silver dollar city...

Back to our MO trip...

After our morning at College of the Ozarks, we headed over to Silver Dollar City to spend the rest of our day!

The kids love it there!

First stop was the Flooded Mine...

 It's a lot the same as it was when I was a kid, but a few years ago (probably longer than I think), they added guns and targets to shoot at...

I should have taken a photo of my score because I was the winner of this round!  :-)

Next up was Thunderation...

 The lines were just horrible!!  :-)

(no they didn't switch places mid ride... they got off and were able to immediately get back on and they switched then)

Clara likes the swings, so they headed over that direction...

 Like the seats they chose?  10 for the 10 year old and 12 for the almost 12 year old.

They stayed on for several turns in a row, but the turns started to get short because the wind kicked up and was tossing the empty swings about a little too much.

See...

 ... the crowds were just INSANE!!!  :-)

Not sure what they were so captivated by at this moment...

 I asked them to pose together and this is what I got...

 ... don't you love how that not only are they not looking at me but that they aren't even looking in the same direction?

Ahhh... there we go...

 Next up was Powder Keg...

 Blurry photo... but you've got to love their faces at "blast off"...

We got in several other rides too... Fire in the Hole and Wildfire for Alex and me.  We had a great time and stayed up until closing time.  It was a perfect outing!

I have some videos of the day that I'll have to edit and get posted sometime!

(blogger made some changes and I have to do some work to figure things out... that's why the photos are smaller - click on them if you want to see them big - it's probably time to update my template anyway since I think I've had this same set up for about three or so years now, based on the photo in my header!)

TWELVE!

Happy Birthday Alex!!!

College of the Ozarks

Wednesday of spring break was another big shopping day. We hit Mardel, Hobby Lobby, Target and the dance supply store. It was a brutal day :-) I took no photos. The highlight of my day was getting to go out for coffee that night with some friends from high school. It was so nice to sit and chat with them for a while!

On Friday we all loaded up with my mom and dad for a trip to College of the Ozarks. The main point of this trip was to take the kids to the Ralph Foster Museum "The Smithsonian of the Ozarks"...
One of the main things about the museum that I remembered from my youth, was the actual truck from the Beverly Hillbillies tv show...
The kids had never heard of the show before! So my dad found some episodes on youtube and showed them. They thought that they were pretty funny... we watched the golf episode and they still make references to it. We may have to find them on dvd.

Another thing I remembered was the Rose O'Neill display with all of the Kewpie dolls...
My kids had never heard of Kewpie dolls before... sigh.

Here they are typing out messages in Morse Code...
(they had heard of Morse Code before)

After spending quite a bit of time in the museum, we drove through campus to the Edwards Mill...
It's an actual working mill, run by a waterwheel (it wasn't operating the day we were there). The students grind grain there to sell.
Upstairs is a weaving studio where we saw beautiful projects on the looms. Those projects are also for sale at the mill. Clara bought a pretty little woven bookmark as a souvenir.

After looking around inside, we headed outside to look at the waterwheel.

We all liked this arrow in the stonework by the stairs...
The kids by the wheel...
Alex communing with the ducks and swans...

Next door were the greenhouses...The orchid greenhouse...
And finally, we headed over to the Keeter Center for lunch.

College of the Ozarks is a really neat campus. It's nickname is Hard Work U, since there is no tuition. Instead, students work their way through college at different on campus industries.

It was a great outing... but our day wasn't over yet!

TOTALLY UNRELATED NEWS:
So proud of the girl and so excited for her!!! She just found out yesterday that the Battle of the Books team that she's on made it to the citywide finals!!! Go Clara!!