Our Daily Forecast: Frozen on Ice!

 I scored tickets to the Disney's Frozen on Ice show that was coming to Richmond way back in May.  I got 5 tickets to cover our family (Jason could either stay with a sitter or stay on a lap since he is under age 2).  Jason ended up staying with Margaret since the show went straight through his nap time, and that was such a good decision!  The seats were tight and I could just imagine Jay running up and down the stairs while I missed the entire show.  
The show started with the favorite Disney characters coming out on the ice:  Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Goofy, and famous duos like Nemo and Marlin, Belle and the Beast, Woody and Buzz, etc.  They had them all!  There was a little demo show for us, and then the ice was cleared for the big show to start. 
And it was wonderful!  Seriously, worth every penny and then some!  The songs were perfect, the acting wasn't too over the top, and the props/costumes/special effects were great.  I could see us making this a yearly tradition.  Tim remembers seeing the Ewoks in Disney's Ice Capades when he was ten, and I have never been to an Ice show before, so it was a real treat for everyone!
Everyone but Garrett that is  :(  When we got the tickets Garrett hadn't signed up for Marching Band.  So his first competition was Saturday and he missed the show.  If you ask Garrett, he didn't mind at all.  And Caroline's friend LoLo was happy as a clam to take that extra ticket off our hands! 

Start of show:  hand in cotton candy bag, Disney snowflake ears on head

And Frozen starts!

Anna doing her opening number when they open up the gates.

Anna and Hans at the ball.

Elsa and Anna!

Sven and Christophe

What Disney Ice show is complete without an overpriced twirling light stick?!

Caroline and LoLo representing in their Olaf shirts!

Emily wore her Frozen shirt too, and got a snow cone in awesome cup with lid, which we brought home of course.

It was such a great show!

Hip Hip Hooray for Hats and Halloween!

 I received an email back in June asking if I would please donate some items to a regional magazine called DomiCile Magazine (it's for the goings-on in the DC area) for their fall kids' fashion spread.  I said sure and sent the pumpkin hat and apple hat that they requested along with the baby pink crown they asked for.  I honestly didn't think another thing about it until a week ago when I got an email from them telling me to check out their fall issue (see above).  And there in the "local fashion" section were my hats!  It was exciting!  I tracked my views from the DomiCile magazine, which amounted to a whopping dozen or so over the next couple of days.  But the fame is nice!
This must be baby season because my photographer friends have been asking for lots of cute outfits and sending me picture after picture of some of their cutest ones!  So I get professional pics and they get to build up a props collection.  Here are some of my recent additions:

And in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to wing it and made this "little witch" hat with no pattern.  I used a slightly thicker black yarn so that the peak of the hat could be posed, like I did in the pic above.  It turned out great!  I listened one and it sold 3 days later, so I made another one and listed it, which sold 4 days after that!  It might end up being a seasonal favorite for me.

I'm With the Marching Band

They have this adorable little saying in the KG Royal Regiment Marching Band--"the football team will provide the pre- and post entertainment for the marching band's halftime show".  And it's truly how these hard working kids feel about their marching band!  Garrett joined the marching band with lots of warnings from me about how it's daily practice for 3 hours at a time, long weekend travel for competitions, lots of $ (which, honestly, was my problem, not his), and required a good chunk of his precious summer vacation for band camp.  But he didn't care.  He loved the idea of the marching band, having listened to many stories from band friends that have been there and done that.  It didn't hurt that his girlfriend (of SEVEN months!) Shelby was also joining marching band.  

Here are pics from Shelby's mom of the first home game against Stafford last week.  We all came out to see the show, even Emily in her fox costume, which was a hit.  

The enthusiastic new band director, Mr. Daniels!  In this pic he's starting "the wave" during some down time.  

Garrett's lady friend Shelby

Game Night

 Isn't it funny when "game night" with friends turns into "family night"?  We invited Sam and Katie over for some burgers on the grill, beer, and Scattergories.  Of course, we had the kids, and they had to get a bath, get stories, and go to bed.  Sam and Katie took it like champs, with Jay never leaving Sam's lap (Sam didn't know he was getting a best friend for the evening!) and Emily taking no less than 127 pics of Katie ("I take your picture now!").  Emily insisted that Katie read her bedtime stories.  They took it all in stride, especially since Katie has babysat for us overnight several times.  
And after the younger ones were in bed, it was on to Scattergories!  Some truly original and outrageous answers came from that game, and the kids even slept in a little the next morning, thank goodness!

Jason giving Sam a kiss goodnight!