An Afternoon at The Park

Aside from the noisy landscapers that occupied the park this afternoon, it was a BEAUTIFUL day to spend the afternoon outside! We met up with Cathleen and her kids right after Rachel got out of preschool and spent the entire afternoon at the park. Packed lunches, played, sat around and chatted. Mid afternoon, we were joined by Amy and Bethany when Amy got off work. It was a great afternoon and we're looking forward to doing it again!

"I'm Celebrating Being Off Track!"

Disney's new promotion for the year is "What Will You Celebrate?", which I'm sure by now, everyone has seen the commercials, promotions, etc. If you go to City Hall in Disneyland or Guest Relations in California Adventure, they'll give you a "I'm Celebrating" button. Today, we went in and got a button, because we were celebrating being off track, don't you know!! LOL. We went to California Adventure first. We wanted to sit and wait for the High School Musical 3 street parade. We've seen it a couple of times from the back, but we wanted to be in the front, so that was on our list of "to dos".The cost of food at Disneyland has been on the rise for a while now, and most trips I pack sandwiches, etc, today was no exception. We found a shady table and unpacked our 'picnic' lunch. And wouldn't you know, the pepperoni on Hannah's pizza Lunchable formed a Mickey head. She's sooo my daughter! :)After lunch we hit the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail for a while and other favorite attractions. But then we headed across the way into Disneyland, where the crowds were abundant! The girls had brought their things for pressing pennies, so we scoped out some penny press machines and they each added a few more to their books.We did a walk through Fantasyland and the place was just so busy and the lines were so long that we decided we were good and we'd come back one day during the week, seeing how Hannah is off track. Despite the crowds and people everywhere, it was a beautiful day for being outside. The spring flowers and planters are absolutely beautiful and these pink trees are in full bloom, which made for beautiful picture backdrops. We had a good time, and of course Hannah is very much looking forward to coming back with friends next time.

It's Official...We Are Off Track!

It's 3:00 on this fine Friday afternoon and that means school is out and we are off track!!! I'm so thankful to have the break that is ahead of us.

Hannah had already been told a couple of weeks ago that when she went off track, she wouldn't be wasting the days away in front of the television. She would once again have to earn TV time in the form of reading and educational computer games. She came home today with a packet of 'optional' work to do over the break. It became un-optional for Hannah and is now another way of earning TV time. If she completes it and turns it in, the teacher will be rewarding the students when they come back on track with ice cream sundaes and depending on how much work you completed, determines how many toppings you get on your sundae. LOL. State testing is in April, so she wants to keep the kids' minds working and practicing on what they've been doing in class, etc.

Needless to say, Hannah has already asked what we're doing on Monday...LOL.

Performance Day 2

Hannah's class was invited to view the performance yesterday. But half way through Steven's videotaping the performance, he realized he forgot to turn the sound back on. So I NEEDED to go again today and videotape again.

Originally, I was going to sneak Rachel in to see the performance seeing how she was at school yesterday and will be tomorrow, but last night she had a fever, and was still sleeping when I needed to leave this morning, she she stayed home with Daddy. She'll have to catch the performance on video tape.

I stayed at the school when I dropped off Hannah and managed to score front row seats. So I was able to get a few pictures a little better today. She was excited after the performance to tell me that news reporters were there today from the newspaper! Two days of official performances down, one more performance to go! And then for our class, we're having a breakfast cast party on Friday morning!

Kids Rock!

Day One is done for Hannah's performance and what a performance it was!!! All their hard work, practice, and efforts paid off and the performance was AMAZING!

Pictures were a little hard to take as our seats were towards the middle and the lighting made it difficult. One of the cool things is they took shots of the kids yesterday in dress rehearsal and are selling 5x7 group shots, etc. So when I get those when we come back from being off track, I'll scan those in and share them. This is Hannah's (and one other class) number. They sang and danced to "It's a Hard Knock Life" from the musical Annie. They're all dressed up as different jobs that parents would have because they changed the wording to sound as though adults are singing about their hard knock lives as working professionals. Not a real good picture of Hannah as a maid, but she was cute!!!Mommy and Daddy brought her a bouquet of purple carnations and she was surprised!! Tonight, we're having a special dinner in her honor for all her hard work and practice and effort she's put into this performance. She picked the menu (hamburgers and onion rings) and Gramma and Papa are joining us for her special celebratory evening!

An Exciting Day!

Today's the day! Hannah's performances that her class, and others, have practiced so hard on begin today and will run for the next three days.

It's only 6:10 and she is already up and dressed with shoes on. We don't normally even leave the house until 7:35. Can you say 'excited'!!!

I'm trying to make the day special for her, she's worked so hard and practiced so hard and wants to do well.

I went to Costco yesterday and picked up a bouquet of purple carnations to take and give her after the performance. I know she's going to love them. Then tonight, I'm making a special dinner - she planned the menu - hamburgers and onion rings. And I threw a few other things as well. LOL. For dessert, we'll have pizzookies (warm cookie pizza with ice cream atop).

With eleven classes participating, they had to assign when each classes parents and families could come, we're allowed to come and view today. Rachel has school today and is bummed she is missing it. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to sneak her in tomorrow to see it. She's proud of her big sister too!

Pictures to be posted later today!