Cinderella

 Earlier this week, we enjoyed the opportunity to see the play "Cinderella" at E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg. Our friend, JD, who is a long time friend of Brent's from college, teaches in the theater department and is Technical Director of the theater there. When we visited with him and Sarah back in September, they told us to put the end of February on our calendar as the the theater would be performing Cinderella.
It was an excellent production! The cast and crew and musicians did an awesome job with the whole show. Here are our 3 little princesses with my handsome Prince Charming preparing to enjoy the show!

 Here is Cinderella preparing to enter the carriage. They did an excellent job making the carriage grow actually very similarly to the movie. More on this later...

 Here is the scene where Cinderella meets the prince for the first time.

Here is the Prince finding Cinderella

Here is the wedding scene of the play.

 

 Because JD is Technical Director, he offered to take the girls backstage after the show to see how everything happened. Here they are getting ready to go backstage.

 They got a full tour. We got to walk through the whole set including across the giant dance floor that was built on a precise angle so that the actors and dancers feet could be seen during the performance. The girls got to go into "Cinderella's house" and walk "upstairs."

 More about the carriage here. This was one of the neatest things Brent and I had ever seen in a play. The carriage came from a ball the size of a large pumpkin that shed its skin and expanded as this ball. The ball  expanded up in the air and was placed on the carriage so that Cinderella can go inside. Here is JD showing us the beginning of how it would expand and then further into the expansion.

 Here are Brent and the girls with JD during our backstage tour. We missed getting to see Ms. Sarah this time but are looking forward to seeing them both again soon. For any of our Lynchburg friends or those fairly local, they still have shows Friday and Saturday evening. It is a great show and you would enjoy it a lot! The girls are still talking all about the show now. We hope to be able to attend a show again soon!

Snowy Surprise

 We had about 6-7 inches of snow on Monday and as the week went on, the forecast looked more and more like we would be getting more snow. Based on all the different forecasts I saw that we were predicted to get anything from 3 up to 10 inches. The snow began Saturday morning and it snowed all day! We did not even leave home yesterday or today.
 We got close to 20 inches of NEW snow!! Yes, on top of the 6 to 7 inches we already had! The pictures above are on the back deck before the rain began and packed the snow down a bit. The pictures below were when Brent went out in the yard for just a few minutes yesterday. The snow actually came up to his knees and it snowed for at least 3-4 hours more after this picture!

 The girls and I ventured out for a little while today when it warmed up around lunch. I had Brent get a couple pictures of the girls just so we could remember how big they were when we had this much snow and how deep this snow was. This is the biggest snow any of them have been a part of in their lives! This is all that could be seen of their toy car from the grandparents and it wasn't going anywhere today!

February 23. 2015

 The big girls are standing as close to the ground as we could get with the snow and ice crusted underneath. You can see how deep it would be on each of them after it had been packed down by the rain some. Yes, Bethany is sound asleep. I bundled her up and took her outside and within 10 to 15 minutes she was sound asleep again. Brent made her a little opening in the snow for this picture with her sisters and I held her up and she slept through it all! Yes, I laid her down in the sled and she slept on! I couldn't believe it!

 This snow was definitely the packing type that you could build with so the girls wanted to build a "gigantic" snowman. This is the base of the snowman.

 Here is Brent and the big girls midway through the building.

 Here is the completed project. Meet Emma Olaf! Bekah contributed Emma and Rachel contributed Olaf to the name.

 I am thinking it might be awhile before we see the ground without snow again as temperatures are supposed to plummet again and all this is supposed to refreeze. I have also seen a couple of forecasts saying there might be more coming later this week! Oh my!

Sitting Up...and a Snowstorm

 Bethany turned 7 and 1/2 months old yesterday and so I guess she decided it was time for a new milestone to celebrate. This morning the girls were opening their Valentine's gifts and cards from the grandparents. Mimi's package just got here yesterday so they opened the package and cards together. Brent sat Bethany down beside her sisters so she could watch as they opened the package. He stayed right beside her so he could hold her up but she stayed in place on her own!

 Here she is sitting with her sisters as they are all opening their cards from Nana and Papa. Of course, she doesn't decide to begin to sit on any ordinary day either. We have a snowstorm going on outside as well! Brent is estimating we have gotten 12 inches (closer to 15 inches at the newest measurement) of snow today (and it is still falling) on top of the 6-7 inches we got on Monday!!

 

 So we officially have a "sitter" and she is very proud of herself! Can't believe how fast our little "snow bunny" is growing!

Snowy Days

Well, we finally got our first bigger (more than an inch or two) snow here this week! Actually, it was our first sizeable winter snow as our last snow of more than an inch or two was the day before Thanksgiving!
 Here are our 3 lovely snow angels!

and here is Bethany's first snow angel...she wasn't so sure about this idea! This was her and I before the snow angel and the next picture was her idea of what to do on a snow day. She was watching her sisters sled and the next time I peeked down at her in my arms she was sound asleep!

Here are the big girls on their sledding adventures! Rachel sledded on her own the entire time and made it to the bottom of the hill on her first run. Bekah tried the circular sled by herself but it did not go very far, so she sledded a few times with her Daddy. We did convince her to try the sled Rachel was using one time by herself and she made it all the way down the sledding run too.

Bekah getting a ride back up the hill from her Daddy!

I have two favorite pictures of the big girls from this snow. Each picture just shine their personalities. My favorite here of Bekah shows her sweet and fun personality. Rachel's picture is below. Rachel is highly creative and makes things fun and exciting wherever she goes. I was getting ready to take Bethany inside because we only took her out for just a little while when I looked over to the area beside our house. Just in time to see Rachel begin to turn somersaults in the SNOW!

Family Snowy Day February 2015

                                     We are watching the weather again. It sounds like we may be getting some more February snow headed our way!

A Valentine's Day Visit

                                         

This past weekend we enjoyed having Brent's brothers and their wives come up to visit us. They arrived on Valentine's Day around lunch. This is actually our picture of our family candlelight Valentine's Day supper.

Before supper time, the girls opened their cards from Uncle Jason and Aunt Brittany and gave their pictures and ornaments to the aunts and uncles.

Rachel took turns reading to the Aunts and Uncles and then they would read to her.

Here is Bekah hanging out with Uncle Jason and Bethany getting some baby exercise with Uncle Jared.

They also had fun reading with Uncle Jared and Aunt Brooke and playing with Aunt Brooke too.

Here is some grilling dedication. Yes, that is snow falling around him as he grilled our Valentine's Day supper.

After supper we made Valentine's Day cupcakes and had a Valentine's Day dance.

All my wonderful Valentines!

Bethany's First Valentine's Day 2015

 
Sunday, we had some more family time since we were unable to have church Sunday morning due to ice and snow in parts of the county.
Later on Sunday after the weather cleared up and warmed up a few degrees, we headed up to Staunton for a couple of games of bowling.
Here is Aunt Brittany helping Bekah bowl. Uncle Jared also helped Rachel bowl.

If you look closely at the back on the picture here, you can see Rachel about to get a spare. I couldn't believe I managed to catch it on the camera! Here is Bekah getting ready to bowl also.

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 Bethany helped me bowl a little as well.
 

 We finished the evening with McGuirt family Lasagna because, truly, what McGuirt gathering is complete without lasagna!!
We followed this up with a fondue party, of sorts. Rachel had read in one of her books about Valentine's Day and one of the characters was going to have chocolate covered strawberries. So, of course, she says "Mommy can we do this while the aunts and uncles are here?" I said yes and so for dessert we gathered around and had chocolate covered strawberries, marshmallows, bananas and pretzels. It was so very yummy! Great idea, Rachel!

Can you tell how much fun Rachel and Rebekah had doing this?

  We did get one group picture from the weekend on Sunday. The aunts and uncles had to head out a bit earlier today than originally planned due to the coming snow. We are thankful for the time we had to see them and glad they are home safely now!
Thanks for coming to see us and for a great Valentine's visit! We love you all and were blessed to get to spend time with each of you! Looking forward to getting to see you all again and the rest of the family too when we visit NC in the spring!