A Day at the Nutcracker

The Chattanooga Ballet puts on The Nutcracker every December, and for $4 per person school groups and other groups can attend a matinee during the week to see a condensed version of the ballet. In place of live orchestra recorded music is used, however, the length of 2 hours including an intermission is the perfect length for young children to stay entertained but still get the gist of the story and to hear lots of wonderful music.

When I was teaching elementary music the fifth graders used to attend a school performance every year. For about two weeks prior to their field trip I introduced and taught the music from The Nutcracker Suite to the students so they would be familiar with it when they went to see the show. I even got to attend it with them which was always a treat. Last year when Rebekah was four years old I took the opportunity to take her for the very first time. I spent some time introducing the music to her as well, and we danced a lot to the different selections of music. To this day, whenever we hear a selection of music from the suite Rebekah will recognize it from The Nutcracker.

Tuesday we had the opportunity to see a school performance for this year. My parents were keeping Joshua, and I had plans to make this a special date. Afterwards we would go out for lunch and then pick up Joshua for the afternoon. The morning started out a bit rough because Rebekah was so slow getting ready, but we made it in time.


Rebekah got to sit with one of her friends from church, and she hung out with her and her mom during intermission while I went to add money to the meter. As I headed to the van it was raining and cold. I didn't have my umbrella with me, so I walked briskly in my chunky heeled shoe. As I walked between two vehicles parked on the street I stepped into a low spot in the road filled with water, twisted my ankle, and landed on my left side. My entire left leg was drenched, and my left hand was bleeding below my thumb. I got up and went to pay the meter and took back coats and umbrellas, headed to the bathroom to clean up, and entered the auditorium for the second half after it had started. Of course, it was hard to enjoy this portion of the ballet when I was wet and cold.

Obviously, my accident dampened the rest of our day, and we were unable to go out for lunch. Instead, I picked up lunch and took it to my parents' to eat while my pants went in their dryer. My hand was hurting a lot, and I was afraid to put much pressure on it due to the pain, so I went to get x-rays on it. I would have to wait until the next morning to get the results back.

As the evening progressed my ankle felt like it had been twisted from the fall. Joshua was really fussy yesterday and had hardly eaten all day. He had a very, very low grade fever, and he began messing with one of his ears. Darrin and I decided it would be best to have his ears checked. While they were gone to the after-hours pediatric doctor's office my ankle continued to worsen until I could no longer walk on it. I was sure by this point it was sprained. I alternated cold and hot on it and tried to keep my foot propped up as much as possible.

The next morning I got the results back from the x-rays on my hand. It is not broken. However, my mom came over to help me yesterday with the kids and preparing lunch. I've borrowed her crutches and ace bandages and have been resting my foot. It is feeling a lot better, but it will take a while to heal. Rebekah thinks the crutches are really cool, and she likes to pretend she is walking with them with her arms over the handles.

I'm thankful to have my parents help me out during this time when it's so hard to do basic things. I hate being helpless like this. Hopefully I can start walking a little so the kids don't miss preschool again tomorrow. So for now I'll rest my foot and enjoy some extra snuggle time with the kids.

Rebekah even crawled up next to me the other day while I was propped on the couch, she put her hand on my belly, and she made up a song for her baby brother. I told her he could hear her sing, and she sang a sweet song about how much she loved him and how handsome he is. As she was singing he moved for her! It was such a neat moment.

More Birthday Fun

One of Rebekah's favorite birthday presents was this Snow White dress, shoes, and head band from my parents. She wears it nearly every day when she's at home. She loves playing dress-up in it!


The following Saturday was supposed to be Rebekah's birthday party, but since she got sick we had to postpone it. The same thing happened last year. We had to put her party off a week because she got sick. I hope this doesn't become an annual tradition!

On Sunday night she was feeling better, so she got to attend Cubbies. The children are recognized around their birthday, so she received a birthday ribbon during group time, and the children sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She loved the attention!



The Little Gym was wonderful about allowing us to postpone our party. They book up very quickly, but in certain circumstances they will allow a party on Friday evening when they don't have something else taking place. They were gracious to allow us to move our party to the following Friday. Because of the change in schedule, Mr. Keith, the owner, conducted Rebekah's birthday party. It was such a blast, and it was so nice for me not to have to do so much! I was able to relax, take pictures, and enjoy the party.

One of Rebekah's favorite apparatuses is the beam. She whizzes across that thing like she was running on the floor!


Rebekah on the beam with her friends Heidi and Maggie


Rebekah and Olivia


Joshua enjoys climbing on some of the equipment


Circle time


Rebekah and Caroline look through their "binoculars" during a game



Joshua tried really hard to participate and do what the older kids were doing. I was so proud of him!



Heidi made sure she was holding Maggie's hand as well as Joshua's. It was so sweet that she made sure he was included!



The air track was a big hit.






Joshua even surprised us and went across the high beam!


One of the games Rebekah requested was to ride the dolphin, which was riding a big block over 3 octagons. The majority of the kids thought this was a blast!




The last game they played was with the parachute. Rebekah got to sit in the middle for part of the activity.



After all the activities the children went into the party room for cake and ice cream. The cake was made by Piece-A-Cake. It was a strawberry cake on the inside. I provided the feathers, sunglasses, and beads to decorate the cake. The theme was Fancy Nancy ballerina.





Next Rebekah opened her presents then received a T-shirt from Mr. Keith and The Little Gym.


What a fun party it was!

Catching Up

Wow! It's been over a month since I've blogged! I apologize to my readers, what few there may be. So, what have we been doing over the past 5 weeks or so? Well, Rebekah's birthday party was scheduled for right around the last time I posted. Rebekah woke up sick the morning of her party. She curled up on the couch to watch cartoons and fell asleep after eating a little breakfast. A few minutes later she woke up vomiting. The Little Gym was gracious enough to reschedule her party for the following Friday. It actually worked out well because all her friends except for one was able to come, and another friend was sick the same weekend she was sick, so it worked out well. It just rained really hard before the party and some were late, but it was a very fun party!

The following weekend Rebekah attended a birthday party, and that next weekend we had fall break. We took our first family trip to the beach. We stayed at Seacrest Beach in a condo owned by our friends Tim and Stephanie. My parents joined us for the week. While the water was too cool to really get in it other than to let the waves run over our feet it was a nice, relaxing trip. Rebekah loved every single little aspect of the trip, and going for her was all worth it.

After we returned from our vacation Rebekah attended two more birthday parties. That week we also had a field trip with Rebekah's class to the Apple Valley Orchard and then our church's annual fall festival on Halloween.

Since then my mom and I have spent a weekend in Sevierville and Pigeon Forge shopping at The Incredible Christmas Place and Tanger Outlet, and we stayed the Inn at the Christmas Place. Oh, how that got me in the mood to decorate for Christmas! I didn't put up any fall decorations this year, so I'm excited to start putting up Christmas decorations a little earlier than normal (usually after Thanksgiving). I need to re-do my wreath and garland on the mantle this year, and I've decided to do gold, red, and lime green for a change.

Last week we had a playdate with Rebekah's friend Maggie. Her birthday party was held the day we left for the beach, so we had to miss it. So, we invited Maggie and LeeAnne to visit so Rebekah could give Maggie her gift as well as to give the girls time to play and us moms to chat. On Saturday we met at the English Rose Tea Room to celebrate our girls being big girls now that they are five years old. Jessica was supposed to join us along with her daughter Heidi who also turned five in October, but they were sick and unable to come.

Well, that catches you up on the latest of where we have been. It's been a busy last few weeks, and tomorrow is Darrin's birthday. One of these days I'll be back with photos from all our adventures of the past few weeks.

The Big Announcement

And the result is......

Check back...

...at 6:00! Sorry for the delay! Very important things had to take place before I could make this post happen.

The Results Are In!!!

So, we went to see Dr. Brody this morning. I ended up taking Joshua too since he's over his fever. Rebekah, being the oldest, was particularly interested in the ultrasound machine. Dr. Brody got a great look at our baby who looks wonderful! The baby's spine and brain look great and the heart rate was really strong.



Stay tuned for more! :-)

Our weekend

Rebekah was supposed to have her birthday party with her friends on Saturday, but we ran into a roadblock. Friday evening my parents came to the house to give Rebekah her gift. It was already getting late for dinner, and neither of the kids were eager to eat. They finally did eat, but not much. Rebekah looked rather peaked by the time my parents left. I figured she was just really tired from all the birthday celebrations and adrenaline from the past couple of days.

The next morning Rebekah acted really tired. She laid down on the couch to watch cartoons with Joshua and ended up falling asleep. Wow! She must be really tired! Not long after she started vomiting. We spent that morning getting Rebekah and everything around her cleaned up, taking care of her, calling the location of the party for reschedule, and calling parents of our guests.

Rebekah felt much better by the afternoon, but we opted to keep her home on Sunday morning from church as well even though she never had a fever. My mom offered to keep Rebekah for us so Darrin and I could attend church together. When Joshua woke up he was acting rather abnormal, unlike himself. He was more testy than usual, and he just didn't seem right. Since my mom was already keeping Rebekah we decided to let Joshua stay home as well. After church my mom informed us that he had diarrhea, and when Darrin check his temperature he discovered Joshua had a low-grade fever. We were so thankful we had kept him home!

Rebekah was tired most of Sunday, but by the time she got a fair amount of food on her stomach she was feeling back to normal. We decided to let her attend Cubbies while my mom kept Joshua again that night. Rebekah attended preschool yesterday while Joshua stayed home with me. He was still sick with a low-grade fever and not eating as much as normal. However, he wasn't thrilled about missing preschool after I dropped Rebekah off through the car line, but he calmed down quickly on the way home.

As of last night, Joshua still had a low-grade fever. If he is still sick this morning I will call the doctor. I'm thinking it is probably just a little bug he has, but today will make it day 3, so I want to be pre-cautious as well.

Good news, however!!! Today at nearly 17 weeks we are going to see the OB and should find out if the kids are having a little brother or a little sister! Be watching for the big announcement! I had accidentally scheduled for last Monday when the kids were in preschool and then remembered I wanted them to go with us and find out when we do, especially Rebekah. When I was pregnant with Joshua Rebekah went with us to see the ultrasound and see that we were having a baby, so I wanted Joshua to have this experience as well, but since he's been sick he won't be going with us this time. However, I'm really glad that Rebekah will go with us to find out what her little sibling will be.

So, what do you think? Do you think it will be a boy or a girl? I really don't have an inkling this time other than that Rebekah had prayed for a baby sister before we even got pregnant. I will be happy with either another daughter or another son. I love having both a girl and a boy, and they each have their special advantages. So, I leave you guessing until next time.

Preschool Party and Family Party

In celebration of Rebekah's birthday I took cupcakes for her preschool class on Wednesday. Since they were recognizing Fire Safety week and exploring a fire truck before snack I decided to join the class early to participate with Rebekah. Of course, this gave me a great photo op since I normally would not get to be part of this event.

Rebekah did not like the alarms and sirens as you can see her on the front row holding her hands over her ears.


Listening to a fireman talk about fire safety and learning from Sparky the (electronic) dog.



Rebekah's class with Sparky


Rebekah and Sparky


Touring the front of the fire truck



Rebekah's class poses by the fire truck


We then went back to the classroom for snack. Rebekah was the snack helper for the day, and she handed out the cupcakes to her classmates.


She felt pretty special when her friends sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She even made a big deal about it that night over dinner.





This evening we celebrated Rebekah's birthday as a family. She had been itching to open her gifts from Aunt Donise and Uncle Mark. She actually wanted to open them early, but I told her she could open them on her birthday. So this morning she was ready to tear into the box first thing this morning. Knowing me, I have to get pictures of these special events, and I wanted the rest of our family to take part, so I encouraged her to wait. Well, I finally started to give in by late this afternoon, but she managed to get distracted and did wait until we had our intimate family celebration.

When Darrin arrived home from work he entered the house with a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. Rebekah's face lit up when she saw them, and she was so proud that I put them in a vase and in her room. It made her feel grown up.

Rebekah had asked for tacos for her birthday dinner, and afterwards we sang "Happy Birthday" and ate leftover cupcakes from her preschool party.



Joshua's taco face :-)





Rebekah then opened her presents. Joshua gave her a tutu and matching head band.


Darrin and I gave her Monopoly Jr. and an orange shimmery leotard. Her main gift from us will be her birthday party on Saturday. She is so excited!

Rebekah and I played Monopoly Jr. while Joshua took his bath. This is such a great game for this age! Rebekah can do simple math, but this takes it to a new level since they learn how to form different dollar amounts with what they have or to make change. It was just the right length of time for a game at this age. It kept Rebekah's attention, so it wasn't too long, and the game is simple enough and fun too. I loved that they made it in the theme of an amusement park to relate to children as well. There is some light reading, but I just read what was too difficult for her, which is fine since she will only be playing this with me and/or Darrin anyway.



Rebekah got a Madeline set from Aunt Donise and Uncle Mark. I'm not familiar with this character, but she looks really cute. Rebekah got a book, DVD, and matching doll. Donise had also introduced us to Angelina Ballerina about a year ago, and now she's pretty popular in our house, so I'm sure Madeline will soon become a favorite as well.


After her bath Rebekah was excited to try on her leotard, tutu and head band. The leotard doesn't match the tutu set, but Rebekah didn't care. She had a blast dancing away!