Crazy Cows Cause Cheerful Calamity - Updated with better quality video (hopefully)

Heard at dinner tonight:
Eric: What do you get when Casey goes swimming?  Hairy Water
Ethan immediately responded: What do you call Chewbacca making a bowl?  Hairy Potter

Ella's second grade program was last week, and boy did she love being a part of it.  She is definitely not scared to perform in front of people, and she spent the weeks leading up to the program singing songs, practicing her part, and asking everyone how excited we were to go see the program.  They have a great music teacher, who has brought some great new programs, so I actually was pretty excited.

As I have mentioned before people in Scottsbluff have the tendency to attend every program, recital, meet, or clothes fitting that their second cousin's mother's boyfriend's neice is involved in.  I knew we would need to get to the school early, and Ella had to be there early anyways, so I thought 15 minutes would be plenty of time to get an okay seat.  I was expecting front row, but I was under the impression I would get a seat.  I was wrong.

By the time we got there every single seat was taken.  Every single one.  One man told me, like I couldn't tell, that the room was full.  His wife also stated that I should have shown up earlier.  I may have asked in a petulant tone "What do you want me to do?  Go home? Miss my daughter's program?"  Now I know there are multiple classes, but even if every child had both parents, and step parents, and 3 siblings in attendance there should have been room.  The problem is all 8 (including step) grandparents, all 30 cousins and all 15 aunts have to be there too.  I shouldn't complain.  If my parents lived closer I would ask if they wanted to come, but when space is limited and people treat me like I am an idiot I tend to get testy.

Eventually we squeezed into a spot on the floor, behind a speaker, to the side, but we could see Ella, so I guess it was fine.  It was also mercifully short, since I don't think Eric or I could have taken much longer sitting on the linoleum. The title was "Barn Yard Moosical" and Ella was a very cute cow.  She is on the top row (of course) and has a little too much attitude in the first song.  It made me laugh with delight, and a little bit of fear:
Here is her saying her part.  Maddi says "Most Cows are known for their milk and their butter." Then Ella says "But we're dancing cows and we're like no udder." (Just so you know what they were saying).

Self Portrait, and Sheldon Coopers 3rd Grade Program

I had a hard day. Top ten as far as melt downs go. I went outside (because I figured it was a better option than running away) to try and blow off steam by taking pictures, as the light was awesome, but found out my camera's battery was about to die. I only got to take one picture and decided this was about all I could manage. ( I love how my hands are so ugly they look like a 100 year old mummy's)

Later that night Ethan had his third grade music program. Just for back ground, Ethan is a VERY shy person. He is not just introverted, he down right painfully shy. He is open and fun around close friends and family, but if other people are around he clams up and tries to get away. It's been a real struggle for us as parents to know the correct way to deal with his particular situations as they come up since I am not shy and Eric is neither introverted nor shy.

A music program is basically the epitome of all that Ethan dreads. He has to sing, dance and talk (they had parts) in front of not only strangers, but LOTS of strangers. His singing teacher pulled me aside at Church (we are in the same ward) and asked if I thought Ethan would be interested in playing Aesop, since the original had backed out. I laughed to myself and told her she was welcome to ask him, but I doubted he would want to. She asked and he gave a resounding "No," and promptly ran away down the hall. He did agree to two narrator parts, so I was pretty excited to see him "perform."

Well, it was overly crowded as only all events in Scottsbluff can manage (if you are even distantly related to someone you are expected to drop everything to see your 2nd cousin 4 times removed 3rd grade music program). We did manage to get seats, but the microphones were a little on the soft side and basically Ethan whispered his lines. I couldn't hear a single thing he said, but dang if I wasn't the proudest parent there.

He hated every second of it, I could tell. He hated the singing. Some times (ok, lots of the time) he reminds me of Sheldon Cooper from "The Big Bang Theory." This was one of those times. He hated the dancing, but he did it. It wasn't the most enthusiastic performance, but he knew the words and the moves and he did it, begrudgingly.

He is on the back row, wearing a toga, between the girl in blue and the girl in green. Sorry for the wiggles in the beginning, I had a 3 year old on my lap.



In this one, the girl in blue (a girl from our ward that Ethan has a secret, even from him, "thing" for) was making him bust up. She is the best actor in the whole grade and was singing right to him, which made him embarrassed and happy and here is the result. Don't blink or you might miss it.

Ary, Ary, Ary

We have a wonderful video of Ethan when he was about 3 seeing a frog that Eric had brought home from fishing. Ethan looks in and says "Ary, Ary, Ary," while signing "scary." (translation: "very, very scary").
It's been that kind of week for me.
Eric quit his job...
His wonderful benefits, government job...
In the worst economy we have been alive for...

I do understand why we are doing this. I do understand he isn't paid enough. I understand there is no room for growth at his job. I understand he wants to be his own boss. I UNDERSTAND all of this on an intellectual level, but it is still "ary, ary, ary."

So to lighten our (my) moods here is Ella's class doing the BEST rendition of "I'm a little teapot" I have EVER seen!!!! No joke! Ella's on the top row, and I think her snobby, British pose is the best!

Copy Kitty

I always wondered what it would be like that have a sister just a few years younger than me. Now watching my girls I realize that things worked out for the best. I could never be as patient as Ella. She is a great older sister. Me? I would have been the girl who punches the younger sister while she is interrupting my performance (as seen in all the Funniest Home Videos).

Breaking Up The Band

This is why I get migraines: (I love how part way through they have "creative differences")

Singing in the Airport

While we waited at the Burbank airport for 5 hours waiting for our plane to come in everyone got a little antsy. There isn't a whole lot to do there, there is only one place to eat, and one little newsstand. The newsstand was having a sale on neck pillows and since we would be landing about 3 1/2 hours later than we planned we hoped to get some sleep on the plane (no one did. It made the next day really fun) so we purchased a couple. For some reason the girls just thought they were the best toys ever.
Then the lack of decent food and time spent in a tiny airport started to weigh on everyone. Livi started running around people as they came off planes, singing at the top of her lungs. We finally got her to sit next to Ella and this is what happened:

It's not that far to jump to this:

Thanks snowstorm. That was awesome.

Mom, I Am NOT A Performing Monkey

We had watched the video of my nephew, Ebby, sweeping the floor, and Livi got inspired. She loves to help and has pushed the broom around before, but this time she was actually taking the dust pan and pretending to dump it in the trash! I ran to get my camera, because I knew no one would believe me and this is what I got instead:


So it didn't work out as I expected, but I thought "hey, I'll have her sing Ba Ba Black Sheep, like she loves to, and then I'll have a cute video for our parents." She starts out really well and then...

Pomp and Nanny Goats

Preschool is over. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I am so proud of Ella, I love watching how she grows and learns. I have loved Ready Steps and all the amazing things Mrs. Hessler has done for the kids. I have loved spending a few minutes with the other moms and Mrs. Hessler, and connecting to other women, even if just briefly. Not only is this the end of that era, but Mrs. Hessler will be retiring after next year so Olivia will not be able to have this wonderful experience too.Last Friday we had graduation. The kids put on a mini opera of "The Three Nanny Goats Gruff" and Ella even got to be one of the nanny goats! (Some of the girls really wanted two of the parts, 'Fanny Goat" and "Big Bertha Lee." I guarantee it is the only time girls fight over being called "Fanny" and "Big Bertha.") I was able to play the piano for the songs, which means I had the opportunity to watch the play a few times, and see the kids grow in their parts. There was a lot of effort on Mrs. Hesslers part to make this a great graduation, and it really was. I am so grateful to have had her in our lives!
Luckily, two of the girls that were with Ella are also members of our ward, and we will get to keep seeing them throughout the year. Here are Ella, Leah, and of course, Maddi (amazingly enough Ella is the youngest in her whole preschool class). This was our favorite song, which as Melissa pointed out was particularly poignant. The second video is Ella's speaking part, which you cant hear, but she said it perfectly!

Christmas Ella Singing

Ella had a Christmas party on the Tuesday before Christmas. Mrs. Hessler is amazing and goes all out for her parties. The kids sang the Christmas songs they had been learning. Santa came and each child got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Each child got a candy cane and a stocking filled with goodies from Mrs. Hessler. I brought cookies and juice, and we played lots of games. Eric took a short break from work and came over to enjoy some of the games with us. Melissa and Carter stayed the whole time, too, which made it even more fun for me. Ella sings so beautifully, with lots of enthusiasim and pretty much on pitch. I love to watch how much fun she has while she sings. (although in the videos she gets a little distracted by happenings around her)Ella actually sat on Santa's lap. She told him exactly what she wanted, "A Playmobil Magic Castle," but never looked him in the face. You can only overcome so much of a fear in a year, I guess.
I love this photo because it is not posed, not encouraged, just pure cute baby all the way. Carter kept trying to give Livi hugs and he finally pulled himself up beside her and put his arm around in a love. They were pretty cute and played together more that I expected from two 1 year olds!Livi loved being with Ella and wanted to be in the middle of everything she was doing. Here she is as the center of attention during the calendar section of their morning routine.

Singing Sensation Ella, and Her Back Up Dancer Livi

Livi finally got to turn her car seat around, and thought it was stupid the first time she tried it. She has since found out life is a lot more fun when you can see where you are going. Ella is still addicted to the Twilight soundtrack, and more specifically Muse. Here are my girls enjoying listening to "Super Massive Black Hole" ( a rare treat, because I am a little sick of it after having to listen to it over and over and over and over).