FIrst Day of School, 8-13-2009!

I was so thrilled this year to be able to take the girls to school on the first day!!! I usually have to be with my class, but this year, they started before we did, so I got to be there! I took pictures with my phone and took them to their rooms and helped them find their desks, and said hi to their teachers! yay! As you can see, yes, they are wearing matching outfits. This year though, this is only one of two that outfits that match. Everything else is different, I promise (I know Cammi totally understands, haha) :) -and I actually need to mention here that the girls decided that they both wanted this outfit, and that they really do think it is okay to match, sometimes! Here is Mallory as she found her desk in Mr. McNabb's 3rd Grade class. They had to look on the pocket chart behind her for their name, and find out their number, because they wrote their name on their name tag, and everything else. Oh, and behind her in the red shirt is Mal's best friend Megan. I really should have taken her picture too. Megan's mom teaches Kindergarten at Mountain View, and her dad teaches 5th grade. She is a sweet girl, and I am glad they are friends. Mallory was completely thrilled that they were in the same class!

Mallory and Mr. McNabb, she had heard he was going to be mean (from Becca!), but she came home and said, "it is so not true, he is nice!"

Bec and Mal in Bec's class. Becca's response about everything on her desk- there is a notebook for everything, and we will be writing a lot! She especially liked Science time already, because they are already learning all about rocks and minerals. She came home and was telling me all about it, and I just laughed and said, yep, this will be my first year NOT teaching that myself! It is so strange to me to have a 4th grader, because it means my baby is so big, and also since I am not teaching it anymore!

Rebecca and Mrs. Nixon, Bec said she was very nice

Ah school...we are off and running again! I think we are off to a good start though...

Beautiful Big Girls!

We finally took the girls in for pictures in their baptism dresses. It was about time, since Rebecca is already 9 1/2! Thank goodness her dress still fit alright on her! These are not the best scans of the original photos- the originals are 11x14, and so they didn't even fit all the way into my scanner. Also, Mallory's dress looks like it has a spot on it, but in the original it is fine, nothing but white. Anyway, I was very pleased with the photo shoot and am excited to get some frames for them.

I love the one with them together too, so precious!

This was a great day at the mall. We went and took the pictures, and there are more that were so good, I am going to probably go back and get one or two more of the poses, as well as copies for grandparents. After the shoot, we walked around the mall, and the girls picked out book bags, not backpacks, mind you, after seeing some bags on sale at Pac-Sun. I had no objection with letting Mallory get a black Billabong bag that was only 6 dollars and Becca got a Hurley one that was only 7 or 8. Oh, and I need to add that they had brought their allowance and decided to buy them all by themselves, after paying tithing the Sunday before! This year the school shopping was fun- they really are starting to have their tastes, yet a lot of it is agreeable with what mom likes, YAY! (no Hannah Montana or High School Musical on thier clothes, even though they like them, they don't ask for the clothes- hahaha!). Well, after the school shopping and the baptism pictures, I realized how fast my babies have become these big, pretty girls in these pictures. I wanted to cry because it just makes me want to cherish the time I have with them more. And they are such sweet young ladies most of the time (occasional sisterly spats, but what sisters don't fight a little sometimes?). They like to read the scriptures with us and like to make sure everyone gets their turn at saying family prayers. I love them so much and hope they continue to be so beautiful inside and out!

Our "Wicked" Weekend in San Francisco!

Here we go! We're "Off to see the Wizard", and have "One fine day, in the Emerald City..."

Couldn't leave home without the Nintendo DS players

Golden Gate Park!

Walking out on the Golden Gate Bridge. A little windy, and the fog would come and go, but it really was a nice day for walking out there. The girls really thought it was cool that you could walk on it!

The girls...

and Daddy with his girls

a cool shot I got

a freight liner going under the bridge

checked in to the Good Hotel, remodeled from recycled products, small but very clean, and very San Fran and "green". Only around the corner and a block down from the theater (Market and 7th Sts.). Except for a little confusion over the billing, it was a wonderful place to stay. We would totally go back!

Our farm girl and our witch are ready to go!

YES!!! Mommy is excited too!!! Here we are, at the Orpheum!

sillies...

Inside they tell you you can't take pictures, but I really wish I could have at least taken a few of the inside of the theater. It is beautiful. Anyway, the show was so incredible, and our seats were third row, so we really did feel like they were performing just for us. The costumes, sets, orchestra, vocals, EVERYTHING was amazing. Made me miss doing operas a little, but it was sooo fun to sit back and enjoy all the talent!!! The girls were totally mesmerized. It was great to see them experience it!

So throughout the whole thing, we were getting compliments on how great the girls looked in their costumes (a couple other kids were dressed up too, they said, but we never saw them). Because of this, one of the ushers said that we needed to go outside and wait by the stage door for the actors to come out, as they would get a kick out of seeing the girls. Sooo, we waited just a little bit and got to meet them, take pictures and get a few autographs. The first one is Glinda (Kendra Kassebaum), although Kris moved as he was taking ker picture and got a blur of her. Her resume is totally impressive, and she has played this role on Broadway and in the touring group, she also just finished a film with Lisa Kudrow and Natalie Portman. So cool! At least the rest of the pics are better...

Here they are with Boq- who later becomes the Tin Man (Eddy Rioseco). Awesome!Fiyero- later becomes the Scarecrow (Nicholas Dromard). Awesome acting and voice

And as Madame Morrible, the one and only Patty Duke!!! She was tiny and spunky, and soo sweet. She talked to the girls and gave them autographs, talked to everyone, and then got in a SUV with her husband and left. Soo cool to meet her. And despite being so nice to everyone that night and playing such sweet roles when she was younger, she did awesome job being the villain!!! (but then again, what do you expect from the person that gave us such an awesome childhood performance as Helen Keller in The Miricle Worker?).

waiting by the stage door!

Finally, we got to meet our other witch. She took a little while to get all that green MAC Makeup off of her! She was incredible and oh so nice. Such talent!!! Thank you Vicki Noon, and even though we love Idina Menzel, you are now "OUR" Elphaba forevah!!! posing with Dorothy and mini-Ephie- played by Becca :)

and our very own Dorothy, Mallory!

We were all tired and happy after the show, and it didn't take long for us all to fall asleep once we got back to the hotel. Besides, we had to rest up for Day two!

On day two, we woke up got ready and ate. Then we went down to the shopping plaza on 5th and Market, and bought our Cable Car passes. We enjoyed talking to people in line and watching them turn the cars around to go back down the route. Oh, this might be a good place to add a comment about the little pink purse that Becca had strapped to her on the rest of these pictures. On our way to the theater the night before, a man had walked by and complimented her on her costume and gave her a brand new purse for free. I told him he didn't have to, and he insisted. He was kinda one of those shall we say "earthy" city types. Later we speculated on how he had gotten this new purse with tags on it. Hmmm...Becca likes the purse though. Mallory, who had been a couple steps ahead with Kris wondered how she had missed out. So we may have to get her a purse next time we go shopping. Okay, back to day 2...

I had a little scavenger hunt mapped out for us in Chinatown, so we got off there first. We didn't find everything on the list, but we found quite a bit. Here are a few...

this is the The Fortune Cookie Factory. It is down an alleyway and somewhat hidden, but so fun to see how they are made. They start out flat and hot off the press, then they put the fortune in and fold it quickly before it cools. They were nice and let us take pictures, and gave out samples. YUM!

This next one is of an herbalist shop. Some of them do not like pictures being taken inside their shops, and this one had a sign on the window that said so. We took this picture so the jars with interesting-looking contents could be seen in the background. So cool to think they have used these remedies forever, and all of these things remind me of a children's book called The Last Dragon, which is about a boy staying with family in Chinatown. There was a street where each building was painted in different random colors and red lanterns out. Cool, although I didn't get a picture of it...The girls like the kite shop a lot!

One of the stops was the first Eastern Bakery in San Francisco. I wanted to try something Chinese, and the girls wanted to eat chocolate chip cookies. I made them get chocolate covered fortune cookie and share a chinese pancake with me. We didn't like the pancake much, it had some sticky, rice custardy thing in the middle. We did like the chocolate covered fortune cookie though...

Back on the trolley...

Being the thrill-seekers that we are, the girls and I were excited to stand and hang on to the outside railings. The next stop was Fisherman's Wharf, so this was our view as we went down the hill and towards the Wharf. We saw Alcatraz island out there perfectly...

Right before we got on the trolley, we took a picture of St. Mary's Cathedral. I love the different archetechtral styles you find in SF. Also, I wanted to get a dragon lamppost picture before we left Chinatown.

okay, back to the Cable Car ride...

Mandatory "we were there" photo...

another one, with Alioto's and the boats behind them

Awww, a cute shot of my babies!

Between Piers 41 and 39, where we chased seagulls and watched street performers. There were several "robots" there, a huge, "moon guy", and of course the bush guy, that didn't scare the girls. They saw him scare someone else ahead of us while we were walking and laughed pretty hard about that :)

Watching them make the sourdough bread at Boudin's Bakery and Cafe. We had seen this a couple time before at Disneyland, so it was cool for them to see the real place.

Back at Market and 5th, watching them turn the cars around again!

It was pretty crowded but we had a great time in the big city! The girls totally enjoyed it and said that their favorite parts were walking on the Golden Gate bridge, the cable cars, and getting to see Wicked, among other things. I am glad we could make some memories as a family. It was also nice to get out of the summer heat and have a change of pace. But at the end of the journey, as Dorothy would say "there's no place like home!"

The Return of the Dancing Diva!

Okay, so today Becca FINALLY started back into dance! We are now going to a studio literally two minutes away called The City Performing Arts Academy. It is pretty intense, especially in the Jumps and Turns class she is taking. Becca has a lot of work to do this month if she is going to audition for their team, but we know she can do it!!!

I will be updating this entry next week to include a closer-up picture at the beginning, with her outside her new studio. Bec is the one in the middle of the frame in the black shoes.

The man walking by is JP, one of the owners of the studio. He seems very nice, and thought she did a good job trying to keep up with his fast pace. Becca is happy to be dancing again!