Tessa's Dance Portraits

Charley's First Movie Theater Trip

It was 97 degrees today in Indy so we headed off to the movies. Isn't that the kind of thing that excessively hot days are good for?

We decided to see Rio, a cartoon about tropical birds. It was super cute. I'm not going to lie and pretend that I didn't doze of on two separate occasions, but Disney shouldn't take that as any indication in the quality of the film.

The kids each got a 'kid's pack' which is a junior popcorn, fruit gummies and a pop. Junk food city. Basically this was lunch today, and it cost as much as a meal in a restaurant!

Once Charley got his kid's pack he was like a wild animal, hunting for the place to sit and feast. We had to walk to the end of a long hall for our theater and I thought his head might explode. "Daddy! I gots me KA KORN, KA KORN!!!".

Yes he call me Daddy all of the time. I try not to take it personally.



Once he was done with his ka korn he was ready to get out of his seat and inspect the little lights on the theater stairs. But overall he did great. Tessa was completely enamored and engrossed with the excitement of going to the theater. She has only been twice before, to see Toy Story 3 and Tangled.

Honestly, since we have a nice HD tv and comfy couches, not to mention a supply of my brother's home grown popcorn to eat....I can't really justify the cost of the movie theater. It's fun once in a blue moon but just doesn't make alot of sense for us. We'll probably go again later this summer to see Cars 2.

And in the fall, I'll be there for Breaking Dawn of course. Me, my Mom and all of the pre-pubescent girls of Johnson County.

Crock O' Tea

Since I wrote about my Mother's day present, a big ceramic drink crock, I've had a couple folks ask me how I make my tea in it. Well gee, that's an easy enough answer. Yes I'm writing a blog about how to make iced tea. My life is pretty exciting sometimes.

Two important ingredients, a kettle of hot water and tea bags. These are just straight up Luzianne iced tea but you could use any kind. I use four for the whole crock but hey, more or less strength is totally your call. Tie the string in a knot for easier retrieval.

When it gets all steamed up it will shout, tip me over and pour me out....Sorry, but do pour it out and into the crock along with the tea. Let it sit and steep. 5-10 min is fine, then scoop out the teabags.

Fill the rest of the crock with cold water. And some lemon if you're feeling citrusy. We prefer unsweetened tea but if you'd like sugar, I suppose now would be the time to add it. Or mint!

Utilizing the leftovers from when I made Grammie's lemon cookies.

Then I put the whole dang thing right in the fridge so it's ice cold. This crock is awesome, so much easier to refill with than a big heavy pitcher. And Jeremy is concerned about using hot liquids in the plastic pitcher anyway, so hopefully now we won't get iced tea disease or anything.

We had a cheapo sun tea container but the spigot always dripped. This was $30 but worth the extra money I think...no drippage, ceramic and aqua marine!

So that's just straight up iced tea, but I like to do different flavors sometimes. Green and mint teas mixed together are a crowd favorite as is 'constant comment' cinnamon tea.

As I'm typing this and looking out the window I realized that I had intended to plant mint this year but never did. Wondering if it's too late now.

Dance Recital '11

Tessa sure has grown alot since last year's dance recital. I guess I knew that but it was certainly evident by her excitement and maturity this year (I hesitate to use the word maturity, but you know what I mean). She knew exactly what to do and she was excited to do it!

Jeremy and I had a tag-team strategy this year where I sat in the audience and watched the tap section and then we switched for ballet. He had a little too much fun being stage-Dad. I actually had to force him to his seat at intermission.

Like last year the recital had two parts, tap and ballet. The theme of the tap section was 'Back the Future' featuring songs from both the 80's and 50's. You know, like the movie. Tessa's song was 'Personality'

Tessa was the line leader!

Recognize another blog regular dancing right beside Tessa?

That move is apparently called a 'boogi oogie'.

The ballet was Beauty and the Beast and Tessa was a snowbird in the snowy section of the story. You know, where they dance around and fall in love. I had never seen that movie before this past Christmas and now I know it by heart. That's the pace things move with small children I guess.

The snowbirds danced with Belle, then took a seat and admired her solo.

I didn't see it from offstage but apparently Tessa bit the dust pretty hard. But Jeremy reported no tears were shed, she went on with the show!

The whole cast onstage. The studio rotates through 5 casts throughout the course of the weekend (with the featured older dancers remaining the same). Someone said that equals to about 800 kids total, which I can totally see. It's a big production!

I was the gift bag moms. Meaning other moms in our class gave me trinkets and treats and I threw them all in pretty pink beachbags from the Target dollar spot. Hard job. The girls went bananas for them.

Tessa's favorite dance partner.

Are you wondering how Tessa's short hair suddenly became long enough for the required ponytail? It's fake! That's right Tessa had a beautiful hairpiece in place, along with 75% of the cast. Fake hair everywhere.

What a great picture. I would say this could be our Christmas card except for two problems...1) We are missing a kid. 2) The heat and humidity of backstage made unruly things happen to my hair.

The missing kid was with his favorite babysitter, a girl from our church. But next year you will see him in the recital right along Tessa. After some debate and thought we decided to sign Charley up to join Tessa in the preschool dance class next year. Yes there are boys in some classes, no they don't wear tutus or hairpieces. And given his consistent desire to run out and join his sister during weekly dance classes, I know he's going to love it.

Charley's First Day of School

The church where Tessa attends preschool also has a summer program called SWAP which stands for 'summer with a purpose'. It started today and look at who joined her!

They will be going 8 hours a week (two days at four hours each). EIGHT HOURS A WEEK to myself. I think I might lose my mind! My plan for today was to start cleaning out closets but instead I sat on my tush and watched a movie, haha! That really can't be my plan for the whole summer. Just sometimes :)

Charley was such a stud. He was SO excited that he finally got to go into Tessa's school with his own backpack and lunchbag. I dropped Tessa off first and he was ready to drop his bags and join right in with the 4 year olds. I directed him to his class and he banged on the door for me to open. He was ready!

And I have to take a moment to brag...my goal was for him to start SWAP in underpants and he totally did. Dry all day, no problems. That's my little man!

I told Jeremy later he was like the 'big man on campus'. The SWAP program will be more like day camp or VBS than school and they are going to do SO many cool things this summer. I think it will be great for everyone.

Even Mommy....who can be found at home either asleep on the couch or knee deep in the closets talking to herself.

Gleeked Out

Thursday night, my friend Allison and I left our babies at home and went to see Glee Live in concert! Well actually, I didn't leave them at home. Tessa had the dress rehearsal for her big dance recital, so Jeremy go to play stage-Dad.I thought he might be pretty miserable as stage-Dad, but he seems to have enjoyed himself and all went well.

We stumbled on a little wine tasting bar and bistro right near the concert and ate dinner there. Then we headed over to Conseco Fieldhouse (where the Pacer's play). I've never been there..holy big arena!

And steep! We were on the second level which ended up being great seats but wow, what an incline. The people climbing over their seats and running up and down the stairs were giving me mini-heart attacks every time.

Allison and I, along with several thousand teenagers and their parents settled in for a great show. Okay there were lots of old folks like us, and lots even older. It definitely was a family friendly show though, lots of kids. Surrounded by my fellow Gleeks, I fit right in.

Don't Stop Believin', the opening number of course.

We could see them pretty well but also had a great view of the jumbo-tron from our seats.

Born this way- wearing their tshirts from the show. They were for sale in the lobby too. I thought I should get one that said 'can't sing' and wear it to worship band rehearsal.

The Warblers were there too! Actually with all the teenage girls in the audience, it was a screamfest when the Warblers came out. I thought I might have punctured an eardrum. Imagine that old footage of girls fainting over the Beatles, only now they are holding iPhones.

They recreated the Glee classroom onstage and a couple of times Mr. Shue or Sue Sylvester addressed the students or audience over the jumbotron. They basically did all the big songs you would expect, and then some of the duets and sweet ballads from the show. They addressed each other as their character names as if they were actually the New Directions on tour.

It was a great show and since we had scored such an awesome parking spot, we were home nice and early before 11....which was good cause it was my bedtime!

Pool Day!

It's hot hot hot...time to break out the baby pool and Elmo sprinkler!

I'm not sure which they liked more, the actual sprinkler or playing in the mud puddles it created.

Putting the baby pool at the bottom of our slide. My best idea ever! Although I'm surprised Charley didn't seem to like it.

Even pool days require potty breaks.

While all this happens, Mommy sits in the shade and takes pictures.

We ate lunch outside in our wet bathing suits.....so very summery.

Finished up by ice cream of course.