We spent the weekend in Michigan because we’re just four hours away! On Saturday we introduced the kids to bowling, and Henry, Sterling, and Woodleigh joined us! Most of the cousins thought it was pretty fun.
Christmas 2019
Dec 25th, 2019 by ECM
The Goodbyes are Starting
Dec 7th, 2019 by ECM
Today the kids spent their last night with Julia, who has been babysitting them since her freshman year. She’s one of the few people I trust to do Annie’s feeds and breathing treatments and put all five kids to bed by herself! She’s been through a lot with us, including all the foster drama of the past three and a half years, and we love her to pieces.
Even though we’ll be back next summer in between Notre Dame and Iowa, the students will already be gone. So we’re weirdly already starting to say permanent goodbyes to some of our Pepperdine people.
(And we’re moving out of here in one week. SO MUCH to do between now and then!)
Finally, Ragtime Videos
Nov 21st, 2019 by ECM
I reread my camera manual to fix the focus problems I had during last dress rehearsal. Since this was a brush-up rehearsal, they just sang to piano instead of orchestra, and everyone skipped hair and make up. But here are Elizabeth’s main scenes! (Parents, there are a couple bad words in the opening number and Night that Goldman spoke. I don’t play those songs around Annie since she’s too young to know what a bad word is.)
Opening Number:
A Shtetl iz Amereke and Success
Nothing Like the City
The Night that Goldman Spoke at Union Square
Gliding
Last Week of the Show
Nov 20th, 2019 by ECM
Tonight was the brush-up rehearsal, so we finally got backstage pictures with more of Elizabeth’s buddies!
Journey On
Nov 15th, 2019 by ECM
So this was not the best quality from the first dress rehearsal, but mid-song, Elizabeth shows off her Latvian accent. This is one of her favorite songs from the show!
Ragtime Photos
Nov 14th, 2019 by ECM
I’m working on uploading some videos to youtube from the first dress rehearsal, but tonight Noah rested his voice and just mouthed everything, so I just took still pictures.
It’s tech rehearsals time!
Nov 10th, 2019 by ECM
Elizabeth has been having a blast doing Ragtime this fall. Yesterday was the (very rough) tech rehearsal, and since they were playing with the lights, I put my phone on no flash so as not to distract them and did my best to get at least a small sense of what the set is going to look like. Elizabeth and Noah are front and center, coming on stage with the other immigrants in the opening number, though the spotlight has washed them out so you can’t actually see their faces. I’ll try to bring my real camera and get some better shots during the dress rehearsals this week. Her first performance is next weekend!!
Halloween 2019: Alice in Wonderland
Oct 31st, 2019 by ECM
(Someone liked the idea of a costume more than the reality of wearing bunny ears for a family photo, so here I am, dressed up as a harried mom who drove into Hollywood for a doctor’s appointment only to come back and spend the next two hours trying to keep the headband that I burned my hand hot gluing together the night before on the baby long enough for a picture)
Happy Third Birthday, Annie!
Oct 27th, 2019 by ECM
The big kids all started off Annie’s birthday yesterday by singing her the first of many “Happy Birthdays” in her crib. She sang along heartily. She opened presents, including the traditional three books for a three year old, then the little girls and I took her to see a puppet show down at Pepperdine (she didn’t pay much attention and spent most of the time cruising along the empty seats in a back row of the theater). After naps, we headed over to the Hamiltons’, where Annie happily watched Notre Dame football with Daddy and Mr. Zane until we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her again. She wasn’t interested in the dairy-free muffins I made her and threw her birthday muffin on the ground repeatedly before we just gave up and did another tube feed for dinner. Maybe she’ll be interested in eating by next birthday!
