a week of fun!

a few highlights from our week with Miss Aylabelle and her family

Aylabelle's favorite book for a while was "Puppies".  She did the motions to every page.  I video taped it in November and it was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.  She's still loving the book but has much more "grown up" actions!  LOL  I love to hear her sweet voice reading it!

Some puppies nuzzle.

 playing Tenzi, our new favorite game!

Aylabelle has her own set of dice and plays right along.

 

The kids performance of Music Man was a fun family activity!  We had dinner at Firehouse and raced to Smithfield for the show.  Aylabelle thought it was pretty cool and loved looking for Grace and Quayd on stage.  They were both "townspeople" in the chorus and they just sang and they danced their hearts out.  It was a great performance and the quartet and lead female were amazing.  Their voices were perfection!  Loved it!  Between the intermission, we went backstage and found Quayd and Grace for a few pictures.  Aylabelle had a ball dancing with Grace and then loving on them both.

Grace is sporting her surgical boot again.  All of the dancing and practicing has her foot giving her fits.  They probably didn't have surgical boots this advances back then, but, she's wearing it on stage as well.  The show must go on.

As ZJ told her goodbye and wished her good luck, she said, "Break a leg, Gracie!  Wait!  Break the other leg!"

 

  

One of my favorite things is these two sisters' friendship.  They, for the most part, really are besties.

Aylabelle loves her Uncle Quayd and Auntie Grace and they absolutely adore her.  Can you say "spoiled baby" when she comes to town?

These two are pretty good friends, as well.  I don't think that any of the babes realize how much they will miss each other when Quayd serves his mission.

 

 Quayd really touched my heart this week.  He has a huge "rug burn" on the side of his face like nothing I've ever seen from an "exfoliation" experiment gone bad.  He has been so self-concious of it since it happened.  We told him that he should not even consider stage make-up on it after the first performance, which only made it worse.  He really did not want to be on stage in front of hundreds of people like this, but he "cowboyed up" and did it anyway.  It took a lot of courage because he was horrified.  I was proud of him for getting out there and just going for it anyway!

Grace was in front a lot of the time and did a super job.  It made it easy for Aylabelle to keep her eyes on Grace.

 

I've never seen Music Man but loved the music and recognized so much of it, not realizing what it was from my whole life.

Following the show, we were greeted by the cast outside of the theater.  Again, I was proud of Quayd for facing everyone up close.  They were very proud of the show and the job that everyone had done that night.  Outstanding!

I wanted to add that Liza was, I think, more proud than I was of the fact that the kids are so involved in their high school activities.  She shows such interest in the kids, even though she's 15 years older than them and lives 400 miles away.  She really is involved in their lives and I don't think that, even she, knows how much it means to them to have such an awesome big sister!  I heart this girl!  She's my hero!

 

On Friday, Liza's last day in town, we met at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch.  I had one last princess doll for Aylabelle for this visit.  She was so excited.  I was just excited for one last little hour with them before they headed back south.  Saying good bye is getting easier each time because I realize that we are truly close enough to see each other almost anytime!

Aylabelle is absolutely intrigued, like most two year olds, I'm guessing, by the Disney Princesses.  After lunch, they dropped by the house to pick up a few things that Aylabelle had left behind. While talking about dances, I asked Grace to show Liza her dress for her next prom.  She brought it up from her closet and Aylabelle's eyes were so big!  She said, "I want to wear it."  So, we put her into it on the floor.  It was the cutest thing ever when she said, "It's a miracle!" just like Cinderella says in the movie.

 

She immediately wanted me to go into the living room and dance with her while she held it out to her sides.  Oh my gosh, I love this child!

 

Aylabelle is going to Disneyland soon and I can't wait to hear about her reactions to seeing the real princesses!

 Aylabelle thought it was Auntie Grace's turn, so Grace tried on the dress and danced with her too.  I think that she was really excited to be dancing with a princess.  I shouldn't be sharing this picture before Grace is even asked to the next dance.  If I thought I could stand being apart, I might suggest that Grace go to Disneyworld and be hired as a Belle or Jasmine!  She's our princess, indeed!

 

It's been a crazy week!  A FUN week!  I've loved every second of it.  I've hit the hottub between visits and early morning and late night.  It took all week to catch up on the things that needed to be done after my being gone all week.  But, we've made fun memories!

Tonight, Saturday night, Alan and Jill and their family are all coming over for games and a giant Firehouse pizza.  We had more snow this morning, but it's all melted now and it's a beautiful night!  The inversion goes away whenever there is a storm, so we can actually burn a fire tonight.  I'm a happy camper.  Fun food, a fire and our favorite family!  Life is so dang good!