I forgot to mention that at the end of November, Katie's Cadette group had a movie night.
They watched the first TWILIGHT movie.
There is nothing more entertaining than reading texts from a 13 year old who thinks that Twilight is literally the WORST thing she's ever seen.
Hilarious.
Scratch that.
There is something more entertaining.
Listening to her ACT IT OUT in the car after you pick her up from the meeting.
Priceless.
Priceless.
The first week of December, Mikey started not one, but TWO! new drama classes.
One class he took with a friend and it was called, "Broadway Review: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". They each got parts, lines and began to learn a song or two.
The second class he took on his own and it was called, "Combat and Comedy". In this class, they learned how to fake slap each other and the elements of clowning.
Our school distict superintendent paid a visit to the middle school and had a meeting with parents.
Myself and two other moms showed up.
I had to rush to get there.
The meeting was at 7:30am and I had to make sure the kids were up and moving before I left.
I didn't get a chance to actually get out of pajamas. I just threw on some jeans.
The superintendent called out my "Darkwing Duck" shirt which unbeknownst to her were my pajamas.
Embarrassing.
The first weekend in December we had two holiday parties to attend.
The first was the neighborhood adult party just down the street.
It was a pot luck.
Huzbend made bacon wrapped, goat cheese stuffed figs.
They were pretty good.
And, the biggest surprise, both kids LOVED them.
They ate a few before we left.
The second party was Huzbend's work party in Seattle.
There were games there.
A photographer was wandering around taking pictures.
Huzbend says that this is my "Really?" look.
He says I give it to him all the time.
Katie asked me to take pictures of our meal.
There were lots of options.
Here's some prime rib.
She also asked to see dessert.
I had one of each.
Yes, the table cloth is fuzzy.
After dinner, it was rockaoke time.
Same as last years party.
This time Huzbend sang some Judas Priest.
Oh, of course I have video.
And, yes.
This is what he actually looked like.
We skedaddled from the shindig a little early.
We came home to find Katie wearing a suit.
I guess she was inspired by us "dressing up" to go out.
She really loved Huzbends suit jacket with the large shoulder pads.
The next week was just as crazy.
There were some meetings for me and I got to help 8th graders fine tune their National History Day projects.
Girl Scout caroling and another Cadette meeting for Katie.
And,....
...Mikey's FIRST band performance!
Mikey (and the other trombone players that you can't see) showed us how to "buzz" your lips.
That's how you play a trombone.
Here's just the trombone section.
The kids had been playing for two months.
Not too shabby.
He caught me taking a picture.
Here's the brass section rendition of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
And, last but not least, the entire band squeaking playing "Jingle Bells."
I'm glad that he was having a good time learning trombone.
Yep.
Still taking pictures of you.
Mikey attended an after school Science Day Camp thing hosted by our local high school's Science Olympiad team and then headed to his elementary school for a La Posada celebration.
Pinata time!
We waited too long to visit a U-Cut tree farm this year.
They were all sold out.
We decided to head to a local nursery to see what pre-cut trees they had available.
While we were there, we realized that the price of a pre-cut tree was equal to the price of some of the living trees.
We decided that we would get a living tree.
The kids had opinions on what tree we should get.
Some opting for a very un-traditional tree.
It was chilly and rainy out and I we couldn't make a decision, so we headed inside.
Dogs are allowed in the nursery.
We tried to take a nice kid/dog picture in front of the poinsettia "tree".
Ralph was way too distracted.
Too much to sniff.
FINALLY!
The Mikey head claw grip must've done it.
On weekends, the nursery has live entertainment along with free cocoa and pastry.
There were lots of yummy floor crumbs.
And, this, ladies and gentlemen, was our tree.
We rolled it into the check out line and took it home.
The tree barely fit in the back of the car.
I had to sit in back with it to make sure that it didn't spill out of its pot.
That meant that Ralph got to sit in the backseat with Mikey and Katie sat up front.
I guess Ralph wanted to sit up front.
This is where I was.
Holding the tree up with my leg did not stop the extra water from pouring out onto the mat and then soaking into my ass.
Of course, Huzbend had to take a picture.
Ha. Ha.
FINALLY.
This was the last pile of leaves in my backyard.
All in all, it took a full MONTH to get rid of all our leaves.
Mikey was busy the night before my birthday.
He left me notes all over the house to find when I woke up and throughout the next day.
The best birthday gift was getting to see Katie perform in her drama show:
"An Absolutely True Story: As Told By a Bunch of Lying Liars."
Play synopsis:
A family heirloom vase is broken.
The parents want to find out who did it - daughter Kelly or son Fred.
Each sibling has their own version as to what happened.
It's no help.
The parents then ask the friends of their children that were over that day.
They have their own slightly crazy versions of what happened, including a visit by the Nutella Man.
(If you are truly hungry and truly love Nutella, you say his name three times and he appears with Nutella and a theme song, "Oh, I'm Nutella Man and I'm here to say, I give out Nutella every day. Hazelnut and cocoa and sugar and sugar! Eat Nutella all over your face! Break it down now!")
A dog whisperer is brought in and we even see what happened from the dogs point of view.
But, are any of them telling the truth?
And, anyways, what is truth?
In case you haven't guessed, it was a comedy.
Katie played the dog. His name was Marlan.
She was able to do a lot of character study at home.
Pssst.
I'm lookin' at you!
Here is Kelly's friend Ava's version of the story of how the vase was broken.
Ava is infatuated with stories about love triangles (hence the Twilight shirt).
After all the kids stories seem to be totally at odds, a crazy neighborhood lady is consulted.
She can speak with animals.
We learn Marlan's version of the story.
The play ends with the parents believing Marlan's version.
But, then, we find out that the Mom used Marlan's story to cover up the fact that SHE broke the vase.
"Good, Marlan!"
But, is that REALLY the truth?
Wait? Is that the Nutella Man?
The play ends with Marlan breaking it down for us.
Curtain call!
A bow from the cast.
A little "behind the scenes" fact.
This costume was worn by 4 other Marlan's over the course of the week and had previously been worn in rehearsal.
It was a very hot costume.
At least Katie got to wear it first.
She's gonna hate me for putting this in writing.
But, SHE WAS SO FRICKIN' CUTE IN THIS COSTUME!!!
Not only that, she totally rocked her "break the fourth wall" monologue at the end of the play.
Some younger kid in the front row was so impressed he sought her out and gave her a high five.
Here Katie is regaling Huzbend with her onstage experience while recovering from the excruciatingly hot dog costume.
When we got home, I got to eat chocolate whipped cream, marshmallow, Hershey kiss pudding pie.
And, I got this t-shirt as a present.
Love.
The next day, Katie went back to the show to watch some friends.
I volunteered to be the "adult presence" backstage for the rest of the show running that week to make sure that no funny business went on.
(Only a true adult would use the phrase "funny business")
For some reason, at the end of the show, Katie sat down to read the dictionary.
Leading her to lecture me on how everyone should read it and then they would become smarter.
"It's all in here, Mom."
The next evening, Katie had a small part as, "Barney in the Present".
From my place backstage, I could see her across the way.
She is the one in the white t-shirt behind the curtain on the other side of the stage.
She mouthed (and acted) the lines of every single role.
At one point, the actors forgot to re-set up the vase (it could break and be put back together).
Katie had to sneak out and put it back up.
Here she is as Barney.
A video game playing, Nutella loving teen.
Now, you may have thought to yourself,
"What about that Nutella? Was there actually Nutella on stage? What about her nut allergies?"
I am happy to report that Hazelnut is NOT one of Katie's tree nut allergies.
We did a "test run" and let her try a small (VERY SMALL) taste of Nutella.
She had no reaction.
Then, we let her have a bit more.
It was all good.
In the course of this experimentation, we learned that tubs of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting are actually HEALTHIER than Nutella.
She decided that she would substitute chocolate frosting in her Nutella tub.
She planned to eat it while on stage, but it fell off the pedestal that she was sitting on.
When she was done with her part, somehow she acquired the tub and proceeded to eat it while backstage.
Surprisingly, she didn't eat the whole thing.
