The Three Little Peeeeeegs

Yesterday we took Sophie to her first puppet show! We saw Tangle of Tales at Children's Theatre of Charlotte. You might say I'm slightly familiar with the show. A little bit.


Before the show started I told her that the stories she would see were The Frog Prince, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and The Three Little Pigs. She was very excited about the pigs.


During the show, every time a new puppet character popped up she would ask me, "is that the three little peeeeegs?" The Three Little Pigs story actually comes last in the show, which was great since it definitely built her anticipation. Meanwhile, she really enjoyed the show. She laughed and clapped and was mesmerized by all the action.


After the show, we went out into the lobby where there was a puppet theater set up for the kids to play with. It was a big hit! It was cool to see all the kids really excited about trying out the puppets for themselves.


Sophie was in her element.


After the show, we rode the light rail train into SouthEnd. Sophie was ecstatic about getting to ride the train! This is the second time she's ridden the train, so she's an old pro.


Getting on board the train.


We got off the train and had lunch at the Phat Burrito. We had a great time!

Snow Day!

Last week we had a rare snow day in Charlotte. We only got a dusting at our house, but other parts of Charlotte got more.


My parents got about four inches at their house, as you can see from this picture my Mom sent. But even with our modest 1/2", Sophie was thrilled. I opened the blinds Tuesday morning and told her to come look outside. When she did, she said, "It's snowing! Does that mean it's Christmas?"


She couldn't wait to get bundled up and go play out in the snow. The very first thing she did was to grab a handful of snow...


And throw it at me.


She tried catching snowflakes on her tongue.


Then she played on the swingset for a while, until we were both so cold that we went inside for hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was Sophie's idea-- I think she probably got the idea from an episode of Max and Ruby. (That's where most of her inspiration comes from.)

By noon the snow was almost gone. But it was fun while it lasted!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Every year on Christmas Eve our church has a "Family" service where the kids do a pageant. Our pastor, Jim Kallam, calls this service "Organized Chaos." That about sums it up.

Her first year in the pageant was 2007. She was a sheep. This year, she was promoted (by virtue of the fact that she turned four) to angel.


Here we are in the dressing room before the show. She's practicing her angel moves. They will be non-existent by the time the pageant starts.


Here are Mary and Joseph. As you can see, they've arrived at the stable. Take a good look at them now-- soon they'll be obscured by approximately 3,500 angels, shepherds, and sheep, all clamoring for the spotlight.


And here are the shepherds and the sheep, obscuring the view of Mary and Joseph. This picture reminds me of the scene in "Charlie Brown Christmas" when the Peanuts gang surrounds the sad little Christmas tree and decorate it to within an inch of it's life. I sort of expected that when the shepherds and sheep stepped away, the manger would be strung with colored lights.


The angels arrive on the scene. Now it's time to play "Can You Spot Sophie in This Picture?" Take a good look.


How about now?


I'll give you a hint.


Ahh, that's better. And look how happy she is! She's smiling! She's "in the moment!" She's... she's...


Uh oh. This doesn't look good.


Aaaaaand... she's gone.


Now she's hiding behind the other children as they sing. I have it on good authority that while this song was going on, she was doing an Oobi puppet show that could only be seen from backstage.


This picture has nothing to do with my story. But how often do you get to see a group of angels doodling on a marker board?

Here's a video of the pageant. You can see Sophie at the 5:41 mark.

I Love a Parade

This is not the Big Update Post that I've been promising myself I was going to do, but I was going through my pictures from Christmas and found these. And I felt the need to share.


This is the stable for our nativity. You will notice that it is empty. Where is the rest of the nativity, you ask?


They're all here. Because nothing says Christmas quite like a parade.


Heading up our Christmas Nativity Parade is the baby Jesus. (Acting as Grand Marshal, I guess?) He is flanked by two sheep. Or perhaps they are pushing him along the parade route.


Following baby Jesus in our parade are the wise men. When I started collecting this nativity set (it's Fontanini, by the way), I loved these wise men because of the different animals they are riding. Little did I know how appropriate the horse, camel, and elephant would be down the road when the nativity turned into a parade.


Bringing up the rear in our parade are Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds. The DVD case that they're standing on is, appropriately, Santa Claus is Coming To Town. We accept all Christmas traditions here.


And here we have the parade designer. We feel like she has a future in the business. Can you imagine the Macy's Parade in her hands?

Summer: A Retrospective

June

We went to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher...


...where we were warned not to walk around in the wildlife habitats. Important safety tip.


July

Sophie turned four!


She opened presents. First she opened an apron we gave her, and promptly put it on.


Then, she opened a dress that Mimi and Pa Joe gave her, and promptly put it on.


Then, she got a Cinderella nightgown from Uncle Dan and Aunt Anna, and a doctor's kit from Aunt Megan, and promptly put them all on.


I made the most ridiculously large cake in the history of birthday cakes.


We ate it.


We took Sophie to see her first movie in a movie theater-- WALL-E! Her comment? "That's a big T.V.!"


We finally replaced our digital camera...


...and took random pictures using the macro setting.

August

We went to the pool.


Sophie kept trying to distract us so that she could go down the big slide. But we were too clever to fall for her little tricks.


We went to Mimi and Pa Joe's for Pa Joe's birthday party!


We went to Five Guys sometimes on Fridays after work.


We went to the Quartet concert at church...


... and presented Nana with some flowers after the concert. She arranged all the orchestra music and worked really hard! And of course, wowed everyone with her piano playing abilities!

And that's pretty much it! I'll try to be better about updating for Fall. (But don't hold your breath!)

The Beach

There's one thing you can always be sure of when going to the beach with Sophie: you'll get plenty of exercise. Most of our time was spent making sure she didn't drown, since she thought nothing of running headfirst into the crashing waves. So we started devising games for her to play that would keep her out of the surf, like shell hunting or making "mud surpise cakes" like the one in her bucket.


When we were kids, one of the things we always looked forward to when going to the beach was Dad making a sand shark. He was really good at it-- passersby would stop to admire it and sometimes even take pictures. So this year at the beach I turned to Paul and said, "we should continue the tradition!" So, with Sophie's enthusiastic help, we got to work.


And here it is, our masterpiece. It's an octopus, in case you can't tell (I realized after it was done that it looks a little more like a crab, but whatever). It didn't draw a crowd and nobody took pictures of it but us. But I'm already planning what to make next year. I hope you're proud, Dad.