Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan

On January 8, 2013 I took the kids to see Peter Pan at Gammage. When I heard that Cathy Rigby was starring in it I had to. See, Grandma and Grandpa Christensen have a VHS that is a perfessional recording of the play with Cathy Rigby as the star so I knew they would love to see it in real life. It was expensive though to Russ decided to stay home with Joseph.

I didn't want to be late and rushed with them but overcompensated and got there too early so we had some time to kill.

 Gracie seemed to get a little figity towards the end but they both really loved it.

 To meet her after the play you had to buy a $25 poster (for charity) for her to sign. Not wanting to spend even more money on the event I was a mean mom and said, "no" but I did give Gracie my phone to sneak past the guards and take a picture. 

 We googled how old she is on the way home and found out she is 60! She was amazing. I could not wrap my head around her being 60 and that fit, limber, and energetic. 

The next morning they got some of the fairy dust that they had collected and went outside to throw it.

The Secret Garden

Also for my moms birthday we went to see The Secret Garden at the Hale theater. 

With Dicken (he was my favorite and I think Gracie's too)

With Colin

And with Mary and Dicken (I think William really liked Mary, he kept wanting to look at this picture:)

I really like taking my kids to plays. I hope they get the chance to experience being in a play or production. It is really fun. Our next play is going to be Peter Pan at Gammage in January and we are really excited about it.

Marie, William, Gracie, and Anna

Newsies

We walked around Soho for a little while and then decided to head over to Grand Central Station.

 When we were on the subway we decided to get off on the Bleecker Street to take a picture because of the  song by Simon and Garfunkle and Travis

Then we headed over to Grand Central Station and it was gorgeous. I mean wow. We went to the place where you can stand in opposite corners and hear each other whispering but guess what. They had some kind of wall up in the middle of it. It kinda worked but now well.

Then we headed over to 

On our way there.

Right in front of the Rockefeller center there was a Lego store where I went to get William gift. Lord of the Rings character Lego's that turned out to be magnets (lame). I think Lego's are such a rip off.

Well, here w are. We were hoping to run into Tina Fey but didn't.

Then up on top we could see the concert we were missing in Central Park. It was Foo Fighters!!! and The Black Keys!!! :(

Lindsey paid to use the view zoomers (that't their name, right?) to see who was on stage. We could hear the bass but not much more. We think it was The Black Keys.

Then we went down and hurried our little tails through time square and made it just in time for Newsies.

It was awesome! Such good dancing and the music was awesome. I loved it.

Connie wearing the hat I got for William

We waited outside to meet the actors because, duh.

These dudes are brothers. Maybe twins?

This is the fella that played Jack Kelly

And this was Crutchy. They all did so good. We were really disappointed that they didn't come out in costume. When I mentioned my disappointment to Lauren she said, "I know I was expecting newsies. These are just boys, what good are they to me?"

In Time Square, which was kinda annoying to me. Lindsey liked it, I think that's because it is shiny.

Then we headed over to Carnegie Deli and got some pickles, large amounts of corned beef and a big piece of really yummy cheese cake.

I think after that we just went home and went to sleep. With very very tired feet.

crazy days

So the Friday of the birthday boyz party my mom was good enough to watch my kids and let them spend the night because the next morning Russ had to go to work and I was having a baptism in our pool. So I got up that morning and took a bunch of stuff that I was donating to a church swap, had breakfast by myself, and cleaned up my house and made cooking for the baptism. 

The baptism was really neat and I am glad I got to be there for it. After that was over my mom brought the kids back and Mark, Ashley, and Sam came over for the start of the visit here. We got to swim.

And be reunited with cousins!

Then my mom watched the kids while all the grown ups went and saw Batman Rises. This was the week after it had opened. We all decided to wait and see it together when Mark would be here and we had to see it at the imax (said Russ). It was awesome. I am pretty sure Bane is my favorite villain.

And Connie made me this cute batman bobby pin. The next day was Sunday and then Monday was Gracie's birthday and party (which I already posted about). It was one of those whirlwind weekends were so many things were happening, but I loved it. It is tiring, but fun!

online friend become real life friends

Way back about 3 years ago I got the chance to be part of a fund raiser called Project Book Babe. While we were there we got to meet some awesome authors and a budding author (who was in the process of writing her first novel, I believe) Stephanie Perkins. I have since read her 2 books (Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy Next Door) and loved them. I also read her blog. But Connie has stayed in good contact with Stephanie and we both just adore her, so we were so excited when she was coming to Phoenix. We went to the Changing Hand event and had a really good time. Connie has more pictures of that here.

Then on Monday we got to see her again. We were going to go to a movie, but that didn't work out which was fine with me cause it gave us more time to talk, shop, look at books, eat yummy food, look at more books, and talk some more.

And this afternoon made me realize a couple things:

1. Mrs Stephanie Perkins is an amazingly nice/genuine/creative person

2. I want to be creative more often. I don't want to write (it's not my thing) but I realized that being creative makes me happy and I am going to try and do it more.

3. I think it is crazy that authors have NO say in the design of their book cover. It is just crazy to me.

4. I really want to meet her good friend Laini Taylor in real life. And if Shannon Hale could be there too, that would be marvelous. And Rachel I would want you there too because I know you love all these ladies too, and I know we would make good real life friends as well as online friends, and by the time this all happens you will be one of my favorite authors too.