Nutcracker!!

It's been a while since I've blogged, so here's an extra long, picture filled post. Let the celebrating begin!

Anyone who knows us (which is probably everyone reading this blog!) knows that we have been consumed with "The Nutcracker" since the fall. This was the girls first (and possibly only) Nutcracker so they were angels. They were spectacular and worked very hard to learn the dances. They both want to be in the show again next year when they can also be sheep and polis and little mice. Of course this means that they will have to continue taking ballet and Hannah has already expressed her displeasure with it. Lizzie is still on the fence. So we'll see. I have been very clear from the beginning of dance that the Nutcracker was all about ME and that I wanted them to be in it one time so I could sit in the back of the darkened theater and cry about how gorgeous and talented they are. With that mission accomplished they can give up dance tomorrow and I'll be fine with it. Here they are as angels. I spent the entire production backstage, and you're not allowed to take pictures in any of the common rooms, so I got them in the very un-Christmasy stairwell:

The was at the cast party. Hannah is here with Karla, another of the angels. There were 24 angels in all. I know this because at least twice during every performance I had to get each of them into and out of their costumes!

Lizzie at the cast party with her favorite cupcake. Can you tell from this picture that fewer than 24 hours later she would be holding back vomit during the last scene of the ballet? Well, my little trouper picked up a stomach virus and insisted on performing anyway because the family was all there to see her on Sunday. So she did it and then at the very end when the last angel had run from the stage she threw up in a garbage can. AND she did not get any on her costume. AND someone else cleaned it up BEFORE they came and got me. BONUS all around!

After the show (the Sunday show was a near sell-out by the way -- which they said hadn't happened in years and I suggest is owed to the number of people we had in the audience!!) we had people over for a little get-together. Here's the special angel cake I got from our favorite bakery (Churchill's in Pottstown, if you're local). The cakes are expensive, but so very very worth it (once a year!):

Here I am cutting the cake. As you can see, Lizzie is still up and around and having fun. Each of the girls got to invite a friend and the little girl standing by Lizzie is Phoebe (and Phoebe's mom Jen), who is actually Hannah's best friend. The Kevins were also able to come to the show:

Aunt Tina also came to the show and went home not only with good memories, but also Lizzie's germs, which had her down for the count at the Garrity Christmas gathering (which I'll post about in the next couple of days). By the way, thanks to Grandma Connie for some of these photos ... I was exhausted by the time the party rolled around and didn't take too many photos. Thankfully someone was on top of it!!

Speaking of the Kevins, here are the girls with Little Kevin:

The Kevins took the opportunity to give the girls birthday presents in addition to the gazillion flowers they got. Here they are opening some of the gifts while Grandma Connie watches. They seriously think their birthday lasts for three weeks. Whenever they go anywhere in November and December someone is giving them a present:

Hannah was over the moon excited about the HUGE makeup tray she got. Here she's putting some eye shadow on Tanja (also known as Girlfriend Kevin):

And here's one of my favorite shots. Big Kevin putting some lipstick on Hannah:

This though is my FAVORITE shot. Hannah putting some eye shadow on Big Kevin. By this time Lizzie was passed out on one of the chairs on the family room. She slept for about an hour or so:


Lizzie finally woke up and enjoyed looking at the pictures Kevin had taken while she was sleeping. She's smiling here, but she was sick for several days and didn't go back to school until THURSDAY of last week. Also, in addition to making Aunt Tina sick, she also gave Rob her germs, so he was sick, too:

Yet despite the sickness, it still was a great show and a fun day for family and friends and kicked the Christmas season into high gear for me. Mostly because I realized I'd done very little Christmas shopping and the big day was fewer then three weeks away!

In closing, here are twin roses the girls got that looked just as perfect as the performance:

Thankful

I was feeling very nostalgic last week. Maybe it was the Walton's Thanksgiving special, or the fact that I spent most of the week in a fevered, mucus-clogged state, but I found myself thinking about Thanksgivings past.
And, as fate would have it, traffic forced us to take my old route from PA to the Shore, this past Thanksgiving. And my, how things have changed.
I remembered the time I was driving home from Terry's 20 years ago, late in the evening with a horrible migraine and cursing the fact that there was simply no place to pull in for a cup of hot coffee to try and kill the pain.
But back then it was just me and the lonely, painful road.
Now there is a WaWa every hundred yards or so. Or a mall.
Twenty years ago, I was returning home after an afternoon-long Thanksgiving extravaganza with Terry's in-laws as well as my niece Shelby who was three or so. My head was killing me, and so I went upstairs to lay down before driving the two hours home and Shelby kept coming in to check on me, to see if I needed a drink, to give me butterfly kisses.
Another time I was making that drive, it was to see my family at my nephew's christening. And another time to have a kids-and-grandkids photo taken as a surprise for my parents' anniversary.
This year though the scenery that I watched whiz by the window was different. Very different. There were strip malls and housing developments and traffic lights. Oh my!
Driving back to the shore 20 years ago, I knew that my boyfriend, then fiance, then husband was waiting for me (when he wasn't with me) in my cute little house that was way too close to the train tracks.
And that feeling -- that anticipation of sharing time with people who know you, who get you, and who love you anyway -- is still the same.
So it turned out that as much as things had changed, they really had stayed the same. At the end of this ride was Grandma Connie who would lavish her love (and cooking!) on all of us, and on the way home I'd be in the car with the three people I love most in this world, heading full sprint into the holiday season. The feeling of comfort, of love, of togetherness -- even if we can't always be together -- is still the same. And it is for this, that I am most thankful.

Here's Grandma Connie anxiously awaiting Lizzie making her birthday wish. Hannah (the unicorn) had already wished and was digging into the strawberry shortcake. Lizzie narrowed it down to three wishes and finally settled on "I wish that Aunt Linda gets married this year." By then her cake had burned to a crisp. (Just kidding...but Lizzie DOES consider her decisions very very very carefully!)

Here's some of the loot they got. You can't tell Grandma Connie to scale back on the gifts. I mean you CAN, but she'll just ignore you. So, you just can't. Birthdays look like this every year (but Aunt Linda and Uncle Dude helped make these piles, too.)

Then it was time to EAT. Lizzie was ready. Menu was turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes (LOVE THEM), turnip, candied carrots, sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and several different types of pie for dessert. I can say without fear of contradiction that Lizzie ate every bit of it:

Here's most of the gang. There was a picture with me in it, too, but it was really blurry. You'll be happy to note also that Hannah took off the unicorn costume to eat dinner. The woman sitting next to Lizzie is Beth, a long-time neighbor of the Rasmussens and a friend of mine from my days at the Herald.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a clip from one of my favorite television shows of yore ... have a happy turkey day, everyone!!
xoxo The Raz Report

WKRP Turkey Drop from Mitch Cohen on Vimeo.

Wii are 8

So Hannah and Lizzie turned 8 on a day when I was sick, sick, SICK. Not that it mattered to anyone but I did rally enough to make them cupcakes -- which were not only enjoyed by Hannah and Lizzie, but also Cash. We think he ate six of them, but since there was no crumb evidence (0ther than a little vanilla frosting on his ear) it's our guess that Hannah may have helped him in the commission of the crime and the eating of the cupcakes.

Anyway, the girls had a great birthday and even though I told them time and time again that their trip to Great Wolf Lodge was their present, I'm a total sucker for birthdays so I got them the Wii, too. It has turned out to be a whole lot of fun. Here t hey are boxing. I swear I laugh everytime I see them play this game. And they ALWAYS knock out their opponents. I usually win by decision, but then I'm more of a pacifist. Clearly though, it's the footwork used by both of them, that gets them the KO.

And while we're talking about knocked out -- is anyone else bowled over that Hanah and Lizzie are 8?? I mean, wasn't I just changing diapers and stressing that they might actually cry until they were 18?? And seriously how did THEY get to be 8 when I only aged a few mere months?

As always I honor their birthparents on their birthday. They were there, helping them get into this world. So that we could teach them to box. :)

Simple Woman's Daybook

For Nov. 14, 2010

Outside my window... The weather is actually pretty warm for November. The sun is shining and there is a gentle (warm!) breeze. I don't think we'll have too many of these days left, so they are a special blessing on a Sunday when I can send everyone outside -- including the dog.

I am thinking... that I can't believe November is half over and the girls' birthday is next weekend and then it's Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then a brand new year. I'm trying really hard to hang on to the days, but they seem to slip through the fingers like sand and, you know, I'm not a big fan of sand.

I am thankful ... for friendships that sustain me in this very busy life I have.

From the kitchen... the prep for Cream of Broccoli soup that I'll make later this afternoon. I make a lowfat version with fat-free half and half that really tastes like the "real" thing. It's a favorite even when it's a warmer-than-normal day in November.

I am wearing... blue leggings, pink shirt, wine colored bigshirt, black shoes (yes I'm wearing shoes because I'm about to go OUTSIDE once the girls and Rob get back from the bike path!)

I am creating... lists for Christmas gifts and baking and Thanksgiving trips, Nutcracker rehearsals etc. etc. etc. Believe me I would have preferred to write "the great American novel" but it ain't happening.

I am going ... to take a cruise with Rob and the girls to take a look at some houses (not to buy) and then stop at Dunkin' for an Iced Decaf.

I am reading... Martha Stewart's Living magazine. Lots of good holiday ideas that I won't do in there.

I am hoping... to get 7 hours of sleep every night this week. Every. Single. Night.

I am hearing... my friend Jeff (Wagenheim)'s Sunday radio show, Country, Blues & Bluegrass on WMUA in Northhampton on Sundays, 1-3 p.m. I'm so happy that I get to livestream it and that he has his kids do little bits of the show.

Around the house... well, I cleaned off the kitchen island this morning. And it was clean until at least lunchtime!

One of my favorite things... Stark. Raving. Mad. Mommy. a blog written by an old friend of mine. She was funny 25 years ago and she's even funnier now. In between the hilarity she blogs honestly about parenting a couple of special needs children, too.

A few plans for the week ahead... Hannah's drama class presentation, brownies, piano lessons, dance class observation, Nutcracker rehearsals -- pretty much the standard although I am thinking of getting my hair cut if time allows. Which it probably won't.

A picture I am sharing... My dear friend Amy and I took a Moms Only trip to Valley Forge on Monday and it was a fab time. Here she is one of those little huts and I just told her there was a ghost to her right, kind of in the corner. You can see the energy from the ghost sort of in Amy's hand. It looks like it could be the movement from her hand, but the same glow would have been on her arm or wrist. Sometimes ghosts sort of "glow" around people, and that's what's happening here. This is the only ghost picture I got though, because the place that is really haunted (Washington's Headquarters' attic) I wouldn't get close enough to shoot. Because I'm really a big chicken when it comes to these ghost things.

My job today

I had two interviews today. The first was with Tom Rush who is a singer/songwriter folkie from way back in the day (meaning I was a fan of his back in Boston in the early 1980s!) Anyway here's one of my favorite songs of his that I think all of you will enjoy and many of you will relate to!



Then I interviewed Jamie Lissow, a comedian. As our interview was winding down (or up?) he told me that he was going to go take a nap before his show tonight. I told him that I was JEALOUS because in 12 minutes two 7-year-olds were going to burst through my front door and I was going to have to take them out to take photos to illustrate the theme "Together We Can..." and I really really really wanted to sleep.
His suggestion: Together We Can...be really quiet while Mommy takes a nap.
That's an award winner if I ever heard one!!
:)

Exceptional Wolf Lodge

We are back from our whirlwind trip to Great Wolf Lodge, which we have been forced to rename Exceptional Wolf Lodge because it was THAT much fun. Seriously, we all enjoyed it when at least one of us, or probably two of us, had low expectations. Come join us for a little trip over the past 48 hours.

It all began at The Trivet. Aunt Anonymous told us about this restaurant several years ago and we've been a couple of times, but because it is about 15 yards away from Yocco's the Hot Dog King, we don't often get there. But since this was a SPECIAL occasion (and because we were going to stop at Yocco's on our way home) we began our trip north at the Trivet with two very excited little girls who pretty much ate none of their chicken tenders and fries:

We were going to GWL to celebrate Hannah and Lizzie's birthday. Their actual birthday is Nov. 21 but we wanted to do something special and this Halloween weekend worked well for us (read: it was a lot cheaper to go on a Sunday night when there was no school the next day, than a weekend...). It also gave Rob the opportunity to buy them this cool spider cake:

Making the first of what will probably be 42 birthday wishes. Since it was Halloween it seemed appropriate to do everything in costume. I say that because with Hannah and Liz, there doesn't have to be a reason to wear a costume, but this time, there actually was!
However the main attraction of GWL is the water park. It ROCKS. We have gone to the Split Rock water park for the past two years, and it's fun, but this water park is beyond what any almost 8 year old could imagine. Here's Hannah on a random woodland creature that was in the middle of one of the pools:

Oh, and here is the reason Rob enjoyed himself as much as he did. The water park had a BAR in it. And they NAMED IT AFTER HIM:

Lizzie taking a ride around the Lazy River. It's the only time she wasn't running around during the whole trip. This was also Rob's favorite ride, although he wanted to write on the comment card that the innertubes need cup holders:

Both girls on the woodland creature:

Here they are coming out of one of 7 BIG slides (By the way I was using my new camera which is okay for still pictures, but is NOT good when there is action going on -- which there usually is at a water park). They have other smaller slides, but Hannah and Lizzie did every slide about a million times once they learned that Lizzie was tall enough. This one was dark with strobe lights and rock music. There's also a roller coaster slide that goes up and down and around, and then one that twists around outside the building with two large drops somewhere along the way. There's also a slide that sort of flushes you down a drain. I have no first hand knowledge of these slides but Hannah and Lizzie do. They went on all of them. I went on one of the family slides and let me tell you they are fast, and curvy and long and will seriously make you rethink the gyro salad you had for lunch at the Trivet:

Here's Rob and Hannah in the wave pool. I got them in a pool of sunlight so that you wouldn't know if Rob was really that white, or not. The wave pool was probably my favorite part. The waves were fun and Hannah and I both liked banging into each other in our innertubes:

This is one of those balance things that you walk across. Lizzie was pretty good at it. Hannah had more trouble, but I think it's because she thought the lifeguard was cute and wanted him to help her. In fact, Hannah got well acquainted with several of the lifeguards and not because she was drowning or anything. She kept getting her innertubes in places where they weren't supposed to go:

After the water park it was time for the candy trail. The girls got on their costumes and we walked all over the hotel searching for clues and candy and toys. It was a good tour of the hotel, which has lots of activities, AND we got to end the trail in the Cub Club with cookies and hot chocolate:

Here's Lizzie eating one of the gazillion pixie sticks she got:

And here's the post-pixie-stick face:

Here we are getting ready to go to the clock show and storytime. This is the third floor and behind them you can see a couple of wolves that are on the giant fireplace where they have the storytime:
Hannah was in awe of the clocktower show. It starred an Indian princess who told the story about not being scared in the forest. It was all done with these animatronic people that frankly I thought were a little creepy:

Lizzie watching the show:

After the show it was storytime with one of the GWL mascots. Hannah and Lizzie were THRILLED by this, and got seats right up front:

And here they are waiting to meet Violet, the girl wolf mascot (although with about 3,000 other kids!):

And here they are with Violet:

And just to prove I was there, here I am in one of the woodland scenes in the Cub Club, which is the arts and crafts and play area for kids. Which is why I was there:
No, really we were there so that the girls could paint some stuff. Lizzie is concentrating on her frog bank:

And here is Hannah working on hers. (More on the tiaras in a second) There were dozens of items from which to choose, and they both ended up picking the same thing:

The tiaras actually came from the Scoops Spa where the girls got their first ever official pedicure. Let me tell you this place was a little girl's paradise. Here they are in their tiaras, which they got to take home, and the robes which they could have taken home if I bought them, which I did not. The place has an ice cream theme and they both chose Neapolitan which meant they got things in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors:

Here's the final product. Hannah and Lizzie BOTH chose the red glitter nail polish. They were very twinny this weekend, but I have to admit that I'd have chosen this color, too! The best part (or one of them, because there were many) was that they were given the bottle of nail polish to take home, and an ice cream cone when the pedicure was over:

Here's Lizzie getting her polish painted on:

Both girls getting pampered. I knew Hannah would love this since she is always stealing my makeup, but Lizzie loved it too, and kept smelling her feet, which (trust me) very rarely smell like strawberries:
There was lots more. We were back at the water park after a good night's rest. We had ice cream and pizza and watched television and had birthday cake for breakfast. Oh, and as sort of a pre-birthday present, we got the girls feetie pajamas that they couldn't wait to wear. In fact when we got home this afternoon they both put them on and watched movies in their jammies ... great way to end the birthday bash:

It really was a great time and we'll definitely be back!