A Night with Guys and Dolls

We made it kind of a tradition a couple of years ago to go to the fall musical put on by the high school. This year we went to see "Guys and Dolls". It was well done. The girls enjoy going a lot, but we probably should have explained to Kaitlyn what a doll was. About halfway through the production she yelled out, "When are the dolls going to come out?!" After we explained that they call women "dolls" she was much happier. She has been telling anyone she sees today that she and her mom are "dolls". She's so proud of herself!
We saw the musical at Mountain View High School, my Alma mater. We usually go to Lehi High School, but they were doing "Aida" this year. I love "Aida", but it is a little much for the kids. The last couple of scenes are pretty intense and they cry when Charlotte dies in Charlotte's web, so I figured funny would be a better bet. They really like to meet the characters after the show is over. Here they are meeting the character Nathan Detroit. According to Kaitlyn, "he is very cute and has a mooostache!"

Canning Catastrophe

I have been trying to can a few things lately. We had been successful several times so we decided to do some more canning. Well, I managed to set my mom's kitchen on fire this time! It's really not all that surprising if you know me. These kind of things always happen to me. When I was in college, I had Organic Chemistry lab. The building and everything in it was relatively old. My bunsen burner had a leak in the hose. I was already really fearful of lighting my burner anyway, but when I lit it this time, there had been gas leaking out from the hose and the entire countertop went up in flames! Everyone's papers for their lab were burned, which if you have O-chem, the labs take hours to do and your paperwork is kind of important! No one was very happy! Luckily no one was hurt. Needless to say this was not my first catastrophe in chem lab, nor was it my last. It was kind of difficult for me to get a lab partner. You had to be brave (stupid) to pair up with me!
I was trying to help my nephew in the kitchen and I put the canner on the stove with a hot pad stuck to the bottom of it. Neither my mom or I were paying attention because we were trying to clean up a mess. Next thing I know my mom is yelling, "Something's on fire!" as smoke comes billowing towards me! It was bad! Of course I panicked and started throwing things off of the stove to contain the burn. We all had smoke inhalation for sure. We went around opening doors and windows. It was very hard to breathe. I got a real sense of what it would be like to have even more smoke with a huge fire. I can see the danger in the smoke!
Everything worked out though. There was no damage, just a few melted dishes. We got everything cleaned up and went on with the canning. To think I was just trying to do some food storage!

Star Wars for the Win!

The girls both wanted to be Princess Leia for Halloween. (This is influenced by their father!) They have seen the movies quite a few times with their dad. I then got an Ewok costume for Gavin. He made an awesome ewok. He looked just like one. When he walked or tilted his head he completely resembled them. Complete strangers were taking pictures of him with their cameras and cell phones because he looked so strikingly similar. He loves having his picture taken so the attention was welcome. The girls insisted on light sabers, even though technically Leia doesn't have one. It was better than trying to figure out how to make them both Luke Skywalker!
I had to get up extra early on Friday to get them both dressed up for school. At school, many of the children did not know who Kaitlyn or Maya were dressed up as. More of the kids at Maya's school were familiar with Star Wars. So when we went trick-or-treating, Kaitlyn made sure to tell people "I'm princess Leia, from Star Wars" Of course, most of the parents handing out the candy could figure it out from the famous buns over the ears!
We like to go to my parent's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating. I always went to my grandma's house to trick-or-treat and it was fun. I know all the people in the neighborhood so I feel safe taking my kids there. We saw C3P0 and R2D2 while trick-or-treating. (if you don't know who those people are, you really need to get out more! :) ) They were excited to see our Star Wars characters, so they took some photos. I left my camera at home, but hopefully I can track down the picture because it was priceless! The girls were stoked that they saw other people from Star Wars.
Gavin did quite well considering it was his first time trick-or-treating. He wanted to go inside everyone's home. He would take a piece of candy and then crawl up the step to go inside! He got a little confused because some people let him choose a candy and other people handed him one. That's just too much confusion for a 1-year-old. He didn't know what to do at each door! I got tired of taking him around so I tried to leave him at my mom's house, but he just followed us back out the door to do more trick-or-treating!
It wasn't too cold, and we got done reasonably early so I think overall it was a success. Thankfully we have a whole year before we've got to do that again!