2009 4H Fair

Many of you probably already saw this on facebook, but I wanted to post it here mainly for my pleasure. :-) Yesterday was judging day for Masons rabbits. We were told it would start at 10am and so we figured we would get there about 9 so that Mason could get Dixie and Joe ready. What we weren't told, and failed to realize, was that he wouldn't be showing he breeds until later that day. We stood around waiting and waiting and waiting only to hear the judges are going to take a lunch break and then we'll resume back. We ended up not showing until way after lunch time! Don't get me wrong it was good for him to see what had to be done, ask tons of question (okay I was the one asking questions but still) and get prepared, or nervous. Haha. I never knew how much went into the judging. There are so many classes in each different breed that depending on how many are being shown in that breed it can take over an hour! Crazy I know! Then we had entered Dixie in the fur contest which meant she had to go back on the table after ALL the regular judging was done...boy was that chaotic! Then we were told because Joe took Best of Breed he had to back up for Best of 4 Class, what we failed to realize becasue the comment sheet was all messed up was that Dixie needed to be up there too. So you had tons of kids standing around holding several rabbits for about 20 minutes. It was quite entertaining! :-) I stood behind all of them holding Dixie for the judge so I was in the middle of all of it. It came down to Dixie and 2 others, but because we didn't realize that Dixie won Best of Breed and needed to be up there we didn't groom her. The judge told us, and everyone else for that matter, that it was such a hard one to judge and it came down to the nitty gritty, she was talking about Dixie. :-) It was so close that she had to find some flaw between them and because we didn't know Dixie was supposed to be up there we didn't groom her, so she got elimanted for her bottom being matted and wet. We were told though that there was nothing technicaly wrong with her and Mason had a great Holland Lop! So that made it all better. :-) Mason handled it extremely well when he didn't place for the fur class and the Best of 4 Class...I was completely shocked and underestimated him.
Not bad for his first year of 4H!!

I am so proud of you Mason!! You did a great job all day and all your hard work paid off!! WAY TO GO!!!

I see YELLOW!!

It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I would brag on Mason a little bit. :-) Today Mason earned something that he has worked really hard for and I am SO VERY proud of him.
He earned his....
YELLOW BELT!!! :-)

This is one of the things that he had to do to earn it....



This is just part of what he had to know, but it goes to show that he is definitely a hands on child. I can't tell you how proud I am of him. It was amazing to see the smile on his face when he walked in with a yellow belt around him!! You couldn't wipe the grin off his face for hours...he is so proud of himself. We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to Mike for taking the time to teach these boys!!!

Many of you know, or maybe don't know, that I LOVE the theatre!! I have a huge love for broadway! Seriously...HUGE! Well yesterday I got to share my love with the kids. For a couple years now the boys have listened to the OBCR of Wicked and watched every clip possible on YouTube. I even have video of Mason singing and acting some of it out, but I will save him the embarrasment...that is for now. ;-) Anyway...Wicked is in Indianapolis and will be in town for 3 weeks. The boys have been asking to see it for a couple years now, but the website said no one under the age of 5 was allowed and 8 was recommended. So I told the boys that when they turned 5 they could go. Now mind you every child is different and you really have to judge it based on your child, but I knew the boys would be fine since they knew almost ever word to the OBCR.

So on Thursday afternoon we headed up to Indy to try for lottery tickets. Which by the way is almost impossible to win for Wicked. I figured it wouldn't be crowded because it was a matinee in the middle of the week...wrong. It wasn't as crowded as the night before but still crowded for a middle of day performance in my opinion. I didn't figure that they would let the twins put their names in but I knew that at least we had 3 names in and that would hopefully be enough. To my surprise they said if they can write it then they can enter. WOO HOO!!!

...leave it to the kids to win!! Here they are sportin their buttons that say "I WON the Wicked Lottery!" Isaac was the first name to be drawn! YAY!! :-)

Needless to say we were really excited!! Then came a huge delima...we had 2 seats that were together on one side of the theatre, 2 seats on the complete other side and one in the back. Yikes!! We thought it would be the typical lottery seats that were front row, but it happened that they were partial view up the sides. :-( So after much deliberation we decided to put Mason and Isaac on the side where the seats were together and I set strict ground rules. Weston and I sat on the other side where he was in the row behind me but we both had seat 3 so I was right in front of him...and then we put William in the back so he could get to them (Mason and Isaac) for potty breaks during intermission. Sounds complicated doesn't it?? It was! But I am happy to report that it worked out extremely well!! The boys LOVED the show and are begging to go back and try lotto again. I think I've created monsters. :-) I didn't panic or have an anxiety attack with them being by themselves and we all enjoyed it so much.

They don't look excited or anything...I don't think they could have smiled any bigger!! Haha! And those are "real" smiles...not the fake cheesy ones kids always give you when you tell them to smile. I didn't even have to say those words.

So...my advice...GO SEE THE SHOW!!!! :-)

A week ago....

...this did NOT sound like Amazing Grace. He is so proud of himeslf and this is, by far he says, his favorite song he has had to learn. I will try to get an audio of it when he plays with his piano teacher. It sounds beautiful and he does a fantsatic job keeping his part. But for now this is what ya get. :-)

I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, but you guys get ther point. :-)

I am SO VERY proud of him!

Enjoy!

Not a whole lot here....

So there hasn't really been much going on around here. Nothings really changed job wise and we're just trying to hang in there. So I thought that I would post some pictures. Mason recently had a piano recital and he's really enjoying it. We've went from fighting and throwing books to him just sitting down and playing. :-)



We also took a mini-vacation up to the Dells thanks to last minute deals on travelzoo.com. We have really grown to love that place. We spent a couple days at the Kalahari Resort where the boys tried their hands at flowboarding, which is like body surfing, enjoyed all but 2 waterslides, floated on a lazy lazy river, rode a ferris wheel, drove go-karts, played mini-golf, walked up about 100 flights of stairs total (I lost count) and wore their parents out! It was very kid friendly as you can tell!
On the way home Weston finally got an up close and personal interaction with a red-eyed tree frog! :-)As Weston and Isaac continue to remind me of them turning 5 in a couple weeks, I am amazed at how fast they have grown up. I have something in the works for their big 5 birthday and can't wait to see their faces. Keep on the lookout for pictures! :-) Oh and I also made a trip to the city to hang out with a friend for a couple days. Happy to report I survived the plane ride, all 6 of them, and had the time of my life. I seriously LOVE that city! I spent several hours in Central Park on Saturday and captured some great pictures. So I'll leave you all with some pictures of a place thats so beautiful, relaxing and calm, such a contrast to the city that surrounds it. :-)

Yesterday my sister and I took off to spend the day in Chicago together. She just lost her job recently and doesn't really get out much and I wanted to go see a show one more time so I figured it would be some fun sister bonding time. We have an odd relationship. When she was 15 she came to live with me and I went from being her sister to her parent. When she moved out a couple years ago we kinda lost contact due to some family issues and just recently got back in touch about a year ago. We have done the girl thing and went to lunch and hung out but its been akward. Its very hard to go from being a sister to a parent and then back to being a sister again. So this time for us was greatly needed to kind of reestablish our sister bond and learn how to just be sisters and have fun. And we did! We had loads of fun!! I have been to Chicago before but never downtown and she had never been to Chicago at all. She had never even seen a toll booth before let alone downtown Chicago. So it was great to get to experience that with her. To see her get so excited over a toll booth made my day! :-) I can't express how much fun we had together. Of course we saw the show twice as most of you already know. Yes again! :-) While the show was what intiated this trip it was more than just seeing a show, it was a much needed bonding time between two sisters! And the show didn't disappoint either! They were on top of it at the night show, the emotions were flying and it was fantastic!! We also visited Millenium Park and got to be a little silly with The Bean and took pictures to prove it! :-)

The Bean

Yes we laid on the ground and it was so much fun! :-)

Us taking a picture of us taking a picture! LOL!

Looking up from under The Bean.

Me being silly!

We had so much fun taking pictures with this!

Ashley at her first broadway show...and my favorite show!

We had so much fun, wait...did I already say that! Haha! I have been informed that this will not be the last, that its just the beginning...I can't wait!! :-)

Announcing.....

the newest members of our family....

Dixie (aka Dixie-do, and yes she answers to that, its the cutest thing ever) who is a Holland Lop- Torte. She is extremely friendly and already has one leg under her (which in regular terms means she has already won Grand Champion once!)


Joe... is a Thrianta (which is a new and gorgeous breed). He came from a well known breeder and his mom was a champion, which apparently is a good thing! :-) He is still a little skittish when being held, but sits on the table extremely well. I just remembered that he was shown last week and won best of show!
This really isn't a great picture, but it was the one that showed off his red firey color the best!

So after much fretting and many hours of research we finally walked out of the barn with, in my opinion, the 2 best rabbits in the entire barn. But I'm a little biased! :-)