Nutcracker Rehearsal

From October on, Nutcracker rehearsals became a regular thing for us, . . . once, twice, often more per week we drove 45 minutes to Asheville just for these professional rehearsals. Whew! I don't think any parents of the eventual "Lollipops" and "Gumdrops" truly understood the commitment! But through it all, the girls ADORED the entire experience with, literally, only ONE practice where they didn't want to attend (which was more than I could say for me). Here are the girls outside of the Diana Wortham Theater, . . . and the last picture is right by one of our other Saturday traditions after practice: Eddie Spaghetti! : )

Annie, "Brown" & Other Kitties

Today featured lots of stroller rides for the kitties and talk of "cometations" for Brown's birthday. (I never was able to figure out what that meant.) : )

Star Wars: In Concert

There was no better birthday gift from Daddy to Leia Rose than two tickets to this show! A huge screen, . . . a live orchestra, . . . favorite clips of all six films, . . . all live. Daddy and Leia traveled all the way to Greenville on a weeknight for this special event! Here is Leia Rose holding her pretend "lifesaver" and posing by all the fun props (a cool bonus!) in the lobby!!!

My Bunny Ate My Homework!

Pumpkin Carving (a little late)

I wasn't going to let the fact that Halloween was a few days ago prevent us from carving our pumpkins! There has simply been SO much going on (both birthdays, visitors, etc.) that we had to prioritize. Still, pumpkin carving can still be a peach of a fall project! : ) Leia was VERY interested in truly "helping" with the carving this year. Annie was VERY adamant on NOT touching the slime. LOL. Annie has always been my tactile child, . . . and if she doesn't like the feel of something, then she won't have anything to do with it. (Another example is how she HATES the feel of any wet on her clothes.) I think this is the fifth year that we've used the same "kitty cat" stencil for our pumpkin. The girls ALWAYS choose that one, . . . why mess with perfection? LOL. Then we always paint smaller pumpkins (this year I would use the same pumpkins to make pumpkin butter during the Christmas season), . . . and Leia painted a "little girl and a ghost, . . . and this side is the close up of the face." While Annie pained a "gray sparkley kitty." : ) And don't forget seed-roasting! : )

Best Friends

Caverns & Clouds

Today we traversed a brand new mile-long hike to a beautiful waterfall with caverns behind it! It was just so wonderful to share the beauty of these mountains with our very special family friends! The girls gathered all sorts of leaf collections, climbed on the rocks in the cavern, and Annie even got to touch some real lichens! And I even got to have my special birthday meal at the Pisgah Inn on the VERY last day of the season! . . . I was actually pretty bummed to sit in a room full of windows to look out on only the white fog until Laura came to the rescue with, "What do you mean? We got to eat in a CLOUD!!!" What a great friend to put such a positive spin on it! : )