Steel Magnolias

I just CAN NOT say enough good things about the girls' final high school theater production of the year- Steel Magnolias! After months of waiting to see the show, I finally got the opportunity to see Allie perform as Annelle. I must admit.....I was speechless :D It was incredible!!

When we first arrived at the theater last night, we were excited to see Emily manning her station as part of the tech crew.....

She was in charge of sound!! And, as always, she did an awesome job :D

The next thing we saw was the set, which Sophie and Emily both helped to build....

....and I helped to furnish!!

Allie was on stage for all but a few minutes of the show, and sometimes her "mannerisms" were even more enjoyable than her lines! She did an AWESOME job portraying Annelle- you might say she nailed it ;-)

After the show, the cast (6 incredibly talented young ladies!) came out to greet the audience, and we were able to get some pictures! Here is Allie with her director.....

And here are Allie and Mackie....aka Annelle and Ouiser Boudreaux!

The whole cast!
Cast and director!

One of the girls had t-shirts made that said I slapped Ouiser Boudreaux on the front....

.....and I can't help it if men find me desirable on the back! They were a big hit!!

And it's safe to say that Caleb was not a fan of Allie's 80's hair ;-)

We went to see the show last night (Friday), but tonight is the final night for the show. I can hardly believe my baby is done with her high school theater performances! I remember when she was first auditioning for shows as a freshman like it was yesterday.... where does the time go?!

Well, if it has to be over, this was the best way to go out! You did an amazing job Allie!! Dad and I are SO proud of you and we love you VERY much!!!!!!!

That's my girl!

With only 2 games left to play in the season, our girls' JV lacrosse team remains undefeated!! My mom and gramma were here Wednesday night to watch Sophie play.....

And despite the freezing cold temps, we stuck it out through the whole game......gramma included ;-)

Here's a shot of me carrying Caleb and about 50 blankets into the stadium....

It was another great game, with the girls keeping the lead throughout the game and finishing it off with a 2-point win! Sophie is #46.... right in the middle of the shot.....

Not only has Sophie managed to score in almost every game so far, she was also asked to play on the varsity team last week and she scored one for them as well!!

The girls' varsity team is undefeated too!!

Our lacrosse program has only been in existence for 4 years, so it's still a fairly new group of girls, making our status even more impressive!! Especially since we continue to beat all the catholic high school teams that have been playing since they were still in diapers ;-)

I LOVE to watch Sophie play- my husband loves to watch her too, but he doesn't love to sit by me cuz I'm so loud ;-)

I can't believe the season is almost over....

But that just means that basketball season is right around the corner :D

I love that too :D

Company's comin'

Besides the normal chaos around here, we're busy preparing for company! And not just any company, but both my mom AND my mom's mom (Gigi)!!

You'd think with 10 people in our immediate family, bed space would be hard to come by, but with the new addition to our house last year, we can now actually sleep several extra people pretty comfortably :D

This time, the plan is for Gigi to sleep in Caleb's room. In addition to the bed that Emily has in her own room, we also have a daybed with a trundle in there, allowing us to move the trundle around the house when we have company....

So, we set her up in Caleb's room for the next few days, complete with the quilt that she made several years ago for Noah!!

Isn't it cute?! We're so lucky to have a gramma and great-gramma that quilt!

My mom will be sleeping on the daybed in Emily's room in the basement.....

Emily and her gramma get along really well, so it works out perfectly :D

The reason my mom and gramma are coming to see us this week has to do with Allie. She's about to perform in her final high school show. Her rep class is doing Steel Magnolias, and the show opens this Thursday! We're really excited to see Allie play her character, Annelle :D (That's the role played by Darryl Hannah in the movie.)

Speaking of Allie's character, she's been using us ALL to prepare for this upcoming show. Anyone that can read (all the way down to Noah!) has read lines with her over the last few weeks, and this weekend she managed to bribe Emily into letting her practice fixing hair. In the show, the girls will actually have running water on stage (the entire show is set in the hair salon) and will be washing and styling hair during the scenes!

Emily doesn't normally like to fuss about her hair, but it was worth it this time.....

Allie gave her some left over I-Tunes money from her Easter basket ;-)

Speaking of Easter......

we had a good one!

The boys got bubble guns in their buckets, and then headed out on the deck to try them out....

The baby just got sticky hair ;-)

Resurrection Buns

Matthew brought home a fun recipe from school this week, and although I had seen these before, I had never had the actual recipe for them....

Since we finally had a recipe, we decided to make these yummy buns as a way to celebrate Easter and give the kids a little bible lesson in the process! So Saturday afternoon we got busy :D

They are fairly simple- you can see the ingredients in the picture above. The first step is to make dough balls....

The balls will have a marshmallow in the middle.

Sophie did it her own way! You're supposed to roll out the dough and flatten it into little circles and then wrap it around the marshmallow, but Sophie made balls first and then rolled them around the marshmallow, avoiding the rolling out process altogether.

We, of course, doubled the recipe.... so we had LOTS!!

I think we ended up with 45 rolls- we're still eating them and finding that they're really good if you microwave them a few seconds.

Jacob ate waaaaay too many marshmallows :D

And Caleb always seemed to be under foot...

Don't step on that baby Josh ;-)

The next step is to dip the dough balls in melted butter and then roll them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.....

Place them on a baking sheet....

And cover them for about a half hour to let them rise....

Bake at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes....

And YUM!!!!

The idea behind the buns is that the marshmallow represents Jesus in the tomb, and after you bake them, the marshmallow disappears.....

....the empty tomb! HE has risen!!!!!