The Wiz

When Camryn came back from Christams Break, the school was puttting on the play "The Wizard of Oz". Camryn stayed after school to audition. The cast was selected somewhat by size (the company had premade costumes), and on being able to project your voice and be expressive. Camryn got the part of a Winkie, a bat-like creature that worked for the Wicked Witch of the West.


The kids rehearsed everyday after school, sometimes until 7:45 at night. It was a long but fun week. Finally, on Saturday, they gave 2 performances. The kids did a great job, with so little time. Grandpa Jenkins had Camryn sign his program to keep her autograph for when she is famous and it will be worth a lot of money.


After the last show, we stayed at the school for a cast party. Everyone brought treats to share and enjoyed the job well done.

Christmas Break with the Cousins

We spent the whole Christmas Break playing with the cousins.

Friday, December 17th - We started with Uncle Lee taking the 9 & under crowd to see Tron. And Ryan and Dave took some of the bigger kids the next day.


Tuesday, December 21st -A few days later Dave and I took our kids to see "Tangled" on $5 Tuesdays at the Regal Theaters. It was such a cute movie. The whole family enjoyed it.


That night Dave took me to see "Viva Elvis". When I was in middle school, I had Elvis posters on my wall instead of boy bands - young, good looking Elvis; not bigger, jumpsuit wearing Elvis. The kids had a cousin sleepover at Ryan's which included mattress surfing and pancakes. It was nice to have a night to ourselves, with a late dinner at Cheesecake Factory and trip to T-Mobile in the morning. I got Dave a new, fancy phone for Christmas.


Thursday, December 23rd-When we took the kids to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop, they were disappointed that they missed the mermaid in the aquarium, so we made another trip back. The kids noticed the zipper on the back of the mermaid costume and lost their belief in mermaids. They still thought it was fun to watch. Then we headed to the Bellagio to see the atrium and the water show outside.


Monday, December 27th - Lee and I took our kids to see Charles Edward Queso (Chuck E. Cheese). We went early and just let the kids play games. Good thing we bought lots of tokens. Camryn and Caden were putting them in games to get tickets. We watched Cam put about 5 into a game in about that many seconds! When they were out of tokens and had turned in their tickets for "prizes", we took the kids back to our house for Mac & Cheese and to bounce on our new trampoline.


That night we had a 2nd cousin sleepover. Dave and Lee stayed at our house with the 9 & under crowd. They watched Toy Story 3, projected on the living room wall. Melissa and I took the bigger girls over to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's. We watched a movie, then the girls gave each other facials and they played Just Dance. Us older ladies were pretty lame and went to bed early.


Tuesday, December 28th - We all headed back to our house in the morning to have a big pancake breakfast and more jumping on the tramploine.


After breakfast Dave and I met my parents to see True Grit. The last movie I remember seeing with my dad in the theater was Return of the Jedi. True Grit was my dad's kind of movie and I was glad to see it with him. It was very violent, but so well made and the young actress in it was brilliant.


Thursday, December 30th - We decided to have a grown-ups only night out. We went to eat at Ryan's favorite and where some of us had gift cards - Outback. It was nice to spend some time together without kids running around. We had all the kids at Ryan's house with the olders watching and youngers.


The whole break also included a lot of playing Just Dance I & II on the Wii.


The break was so busy, it almost felt more like a break to have all the kids to go back to school.