Pageant!

The pageant this year was one big long learning experience. Luckily we came home with a couple of trophies, but still no crown. I was very proud of Hannah though, even though she had a temper tantrum when she didn't win. I think it's a hard lesson to learn that every single kid there hopes/thinks she will win. Hannah was the youngest in her category (the other girls were at least in 5th grade) and one of only a few girls who hadn't won the overall title in their preliminary pageant. Hannah wants to win talent though, so that has never bothered her. I have to give a special shout out to Lizzie though, who really only misbehaved once, even though her sister was getting all the attention INCLUDING when she won 1,000 tickets on the big wheel at the arcade. Here are some pictures of our looooong weekend!

First, the good news! Hannah came home smiling and with two trophies!

 

Things started Friday night with the Winner's Circle Reception. Since Hannah made the top five last year, she was invited to participate in this event with the other winners. We got there a little late (and were exhausted!) but Hannah still had time to play a couple of games with the other Cindy girls:

 Then we had to get a good night's sleep because Saturday was a big day. We started of with orientation in the morning followed by interview and then talent in the afternoon. Hannah and I were on our own for the morning and part of the afternoon because Rob took Lizzie to see Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright house that isn't that far from Pittsburgh. Here's Hannah getting ready for her interview:

 

And here's the finished look. She's in a division this year that allows a bit of makeup so she's wearing some lip gloss, eye shadow, mascara and blush, all done in very muted natural colors. Oh and by the way some people spend a lot of money on the perfect pageant outfits (and believe me it is tempting because there are some gorgeous outfits out there!!!) but I prefer to do this on the cheap. Hannah's dress and jacket combo for interview cost $20 including shipping from a pageant swap site:

 

After interview we had some down time so the girls went to the pool and then Hannah had to get ready for the talent portion. Hannah sang "On My Own" from Les Miserable. I posted the actual video of her singing on facebook, bur there is a lot of background noise, so instead I've posted one of our practice sessions at home. This is what she looked like though. The entire costume cost me $10 on ebay.

 

 Then it was time to relax, with the disco party. Here's Hannah dancing the YMCA with a bunch of other girls:

The next day they had the baby pageant in the morning, so we hung out at the arcade where (sadly for Lizzie) Hannah spun the big wheel and won 1,000 tickets.

 Lizzie was not happy about it, but I loaded another $10 onto a card and won her about 400 tickets to add to her own winnings, so she felt a little better (but not much!)

Sunday afternoon was the casual wear and formal wear competition. Here's Hannah doing her introduction with the International Beauty Woman. The dress is from Crazy 8 on sale, with a coupon. I think it cost around $9 so I splurged on the matching shoes for $12, but only because she can wear them again (and again!):

The last competition of the day was formal wear, which means we go all out and put on a pretty dress (this was $10 on ebay, with free shipping!), white shoes ($7 at Walmart) and hair all dooded up. Her hair takes forever because it is straight and thick, so when we're getting ready for beauty wear no one can light a match within 100 yards off Hannah ... there is that much hair spray holding these curls in place:

And here is a closer look at the hair and make-up. Oh, and they were selling these blingy earrings for $5 at the Cinderella gift shop, so I bought each of the girls a pair of those, and Hannah decided to wear hers for beauty wear:

So that was it for the basic pageant. They tally up all the scores from the five areas of competition (there's also a photo contest and I sent in a headshot of Hannah for that) and then the next morning they announce the top five point-getters and those girls re-compete in talent, casual wear and beauty wear and they select the overall winner from that group of five. This year, here's the group of five. Hannah was fourth alternate, but I was surprised that she made it into the top five so that was icing on the cake (and a lot of work for both of us Monday morning!!):

 Here are a few other pictures. This one is from the farewell reception on Sunday night where everyone gets to wear their preliminary crowns and white dresses (Hannah wore Lizzie's first communion dress). This picture includes Miss Tanya, the pageant director and the girl directly behind Hannah is from West Chester, not that far from us. Nearly everyone is from the other side of the state:

 This is Hannah at the farewell pageant with Emma Rose, the outgoing State Teen Queen. Hannah took quite a shine to here and she was gracious enough to pose for a few pictures with her:

Here's the gang just before the luncheon when they announced individual winners. Hannah came in third in talent (the top five were all really strong in talent!) and while she was disappointed (me too!) she eventually got over being angry and decided she'd just try again next year. I'm not sure that's going to happen, however on the way home LIZZIE said she might want to try a pageant next year, too. Oy!!!

Thanks to everyone who bought ads or supported us with good wishes and thoughts. The Cover Girl award went to a girl who sold 12 pages of advertising.

Dance Demo 2013

Today was the girls' Dance Demo (otherwise known as a recital) for their Ballet class. They moved up to a more advanced level and while Lizzie loves the discipline (and she's got great feet for ballet according to her teacher) and the barre work, Hannah (who has terrible flat feet for ballet according to her teacher) does not like anything about ballet these days. However, when you look at the video that I shot during their dress rehearsal yesterday, she is the only kid smiling. Hannah may not like ballet that much, but she loves being on stage and like she told me, "no one is going to be looking at my feet!" :)

So here's their demo. It's my usual terrible video work an I only shot half the stage because that's all I could get in, and still be able to discern Lizzie (in the front row) and Hannah (in the back row, just behind Liz). So when they are standing their doing nothing, you can be assured that the girls on the other side of the stage are dancing.


Today I got a shot of the girls on stage:

After the show with their flowers (and while Hannah IS taller than Lizzie she was wearing boots and Lizzie was still in her dance shoes):

And finally with their biggest dance boosters Shelby and Aunt Terry (and dad!):

Beautiful girls

I love Hannah and Lizzie with my whole heart and then some. I love them because they are funny and silly and sassy. I love them for their faults and their strengths. But really I love them just a little bit more because they indulge my interest in photography. Hannah's pageant is in three weeks, and in our quest to come home with a round crown we are participating in the cover girl contest. For that we had to sell ads (thank you family, for purchasing them!) and then I had to make ads with Hannah's picture on them. Those pictures will be judged and if one of the pictures is loved best by the judges, Hannah gets to have her picture on the cover of the program book at the pageant AND win the cover girl sash and ROUND CROWN.

Which is a very long way of saying that we needed photos. Which gave me a chance to get out the camera and see what we could come up with. Then because I didn't want to leave Lizzie out (and because she indulges her mother) I did a photo shoot with her, too.
So here are the photos. I posted most of these on facebook, but there are a couple extra here ... just for my loyal blog readers!
This first picture is her official head shot photo for the pageant::

I got this shot by having her jump on my little trampoline:

Taking advantage of a little breeze and her (mom made!) curls:

Hannah hates this picture and I love it. I love that she looks kissed by the sunlight and I've seen this trying not to laugh face about a million times:

Getting a serious look out of her is not as easy as you'd think, but we got one:

Out back sitting on the wood pile (where the swingset used to be...):

I think this is my favorite picture because her smile is so natural:

Sassy girl:

And now for Lizzie ... she won't win anything for these photos (no pageant for her) except my undying gratitude that she let me take them:

This is Lizzie's photo from the trampoline -- pure joy!

Lizzie sitting on a different wood pile. She has such a great, natural smile:

 And here she is showing a little sass, herself.

Here she is in front of the tree. It is VERY hard for her to give me a straight face in a photo since she's smiling all the time (in her pessimistic way, of course!):

 I love this picture of her, even though she looks like she's 25. I took it when she was holding her face up to the sun at the end of our photo shoot:

Way Back Weekly

This photo is courtesy of Aunt Brenda. I had the story with which this picture goes, but I didn't have the picture -- and it makes me laugh every time I look at it.

So here is a picture of (probably) the first time T.A. and Tina ever appeared in a newspaper. They were a little less than six months old, since the date on the article is Dec. 1, 1966. The article was written for a paper local to Elk Grove Village, Ill., and prompted by the fact that twins were somewhat rare back in the 1960s and also my dad was a Trustee of the Village.

Beanie looks underwhelmed and T.A. looks like he doesn't trust whatever stuffed animal they were using to try and get the babies to smile.
I won't post the accompanying article but here are some highlights:

The Headline: A Mother's Testimonial: "Babies are Fun; Twins are Great"
My personal testimonial would have been "Babies are Loud; Twins are Twice as Loud" but no one asked me.
In fact, however, I AM referred to in the story as I was apparently reading to  my mother AND practicing my spelling words during the interview, which seems kind of a rude thing to do, but my own children once had a very loud and long pooping contest while I was interviewing someone (I CAN POOP BIGGER THAN YOU ... NO YOU CAN'T ... YES I CAN... etc.) so I suppose it's possible.
Tally (or Tallaine as she is called in the story ... I am "Tresy") got a quote in there. "Gee Mommy, it's fun having babies when you're older."
I must have misinterpreted her wise words as I had my babies when I was very much older and it was not really all that much fun. But upon a closer read, Tally probably meant that it was fun to be an older sister, not an older parent. Oops.
Other gems from the story:
"The family finds the twins have brought twice the usual joy." (To clarify, Terry didn't sleep until we moved to New York because she shared a room with the twice as loud Garrity twins)
"Sometimes things get loud when "Tresy" practices cello and Tommy and Tina join in by crying" (To clarify, it was most likely "Tully" practicing her viola that made everyone cry...I played the xylophone.)
"Tom is ... sympathetic and patient," she said.(To clarify, seriously?) "He is good with all the children, especially at feeding time." (To clarify, seriously?) Just kidding Dad, we all reflect fondly on the cinnamon toast  you prepared.
"It is still difficult to get all the housework done, though, Mrs. Garrity finds. "There are times you just can't get to everything." (To clarify, FINALLY truth in journalism ... no mother of twins should be expected to have a clean house...)

Pageant girl

Three weeks ago Hannah competed in the Southeast PA Cinderella Pageant, again. This year she moved up an age group so she was competing against other 10-12 year olds.

I am happy to report that once again our girl took home the crown for talent! We also got to spend a day with my friend Carol and her daughter Sarah, who won talent for the Mini Miss division.

I don't have video of Hannah singing because my iPad microphone wasn't working, which of course, I didn't find out until after the pageant was over. Suffice it to say she was good enough to beat everyone else in her division!

This means we are going to the state pageant where (please pray) Hannah wins a round crown in something. I am hoping for talent, but I'll take anything. The girls win tiaras in the preliminary rounds and Hannah wants to official pageant girl round crown.

Here are some pictures from the day (I was sick, but still managed to have fun!) This is Hannah and I right after the show ... I was TIRED!

These next two photos were taken by the official pageant photographer. I like her formal wear photo, but I think the singing photo probably could have been a little LESS yellow, don't you?

So now we are onto the states and that means MORE practice. We also decided to sell ads for the program book because they give a round crown to the cover girl - the girl who submits the best photo -- and the more ads you sell, the more photos you can submit. Since we've already seen a bunch of photos of Hannah, here's one of Liz that I took when I did a modeling photo shoot for her (as I did for Hannah's ads -- I'll post a few from those shoots later.) She's a beauty, but there is no way she'll be in a pageant. Lizzie did a tiny little pageant last year (won a 1st place medal for photogenic!) and hated every single minute of it!

Way Back Who?

This isn't a new blog feature, this is an actual question. Does anyone on the Garrity side (and I'm looking at you, Dad) know who this chick is?
I ask because Hannah and Lizzie both looked at it separately and asked: "Mom, is this a picture of you from the olden days?"

And I have to admit, she does look like me. Like, a lot. And not just because of this woman's extraordinary fashion sense. Oh, the only thing I know about this picture is that it's a tintype and those were popular from the 1860s through the early 1900s.

For some reason I think it's Aunt Tillie, but then I'm not really sure if I even have an Aunt Tillie or if that is just family folklore because we had a painting that we called Aunt Tillie.

Anyway, here's the photo:

So does anyone know who my doppleganger is?

Easter

I need to catch up on a few things ... the first is Easter!
We had a great weekend, even though I succumbed to a cold that eventually turned into a touch of the bronchitis. I'm never one to allow a little illness to get in the way of a holiday celebrated with chocolate, so I rallied and was able to have a great day with family and friends.

Things got started on Saturday when the Garritys showed up. I have to say that Hannah and Lizzie always have a fun holiday when their partners in crime arrive from New York. Here are the four of them getting reading for an Easter Egg hunt:

And they're off:

The adults must have hidden about 5,000 eggs and we're pretty sure the kids found all of them except one, which we found the next day. Although last year we found an egg about a month later, so it's possible there are still some out there in the front yard.

The eggs were filled with candy, toys, and little notes that said things like "You can stay up an extra 30 minutes." Those notes were put in the eggs by Aunt Ann, but found by MY CHILDREN, so now I am honor bound to let them stay up 30 minutes later one night. Luckily the note did not specify a year...

Here they are with the loot (and Uncle TA):

And some of the toys I put in the eggs. In fact I put at least a dozen cute little duck/bunnies in the eggs which made Brenna very happy:

 And Tommy, not so much...:

It was soon after they left for the evening that I started to feel really badly, so for some reason I did not take a photo after the Easter Bunny left the premises. Suffice it to say that he left behind MUCH candy and a couple of stuffed animals. And more candy.

The next morning Rob and the girls went to church and then out to breakfast. I stayed home and blew my nose.

Mid-afternoon (after a loooong nap and lots of advil) we went to Aunt Terry's house for the Easter dinner. It was delicious and that's not the advil talking! The girls had fun with their cousins again, and Aunt Ann and learned how to make flowers out of paper napkins, so it was a wonderful afternoon. Aunt Beanie came to eat, too, so that was a super bonus. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took that afternoon, so there is no photographic evidence of the delicious meal or the person who prepared it (sorry, Terry -- maybe next Easter!)

After this picture was taken we came home and I went to bed and woke up two weeks later all better....