Charlie and the Nutcracker

Charlie was Fritz the little brother in the Nutcracker.  This was his first play where he had a speaking and singing roll.  He did a fantastic job.

Click on the link to see the video:  http://youtu.be/rkopNSgJHDE

Compound Word Day

Ok, so Charlie had compound word day.  This meant that you had to wear all the compound words, you could to school.  He also could bring a treat.  He brough pineapple and ate it with chopsticks.

Here is what he wore:   A reindeer headband, a BYU football baseball cap, a football bathrobe, spider-man tee-shirt, sweatpants, cowboy boots, a baseball glove and a necktie that has sailboats on it - haha). 

I can play the violin!!

Charlie and Tanner had a very special treat and got to go to the Chipman's home and have Sister Chipman help them play the violin. They did a great job (with a lot of help) and here is just a little of the video that they gave us from thier first attempt at the violin. Watch out Boston Pops' first chair violinist...here comes Charlie and Tanner!!

Halloween 2008

Fortunately Halloween has come and gone so the kids can go to bed at their regular time. We went to Connor Prairie for the "Headless Horseman" hay ride (twice), the Halloween party at the church, another hayride, and then Halloween itself.

Shawn decided that he wanted to be scary this year, thus a skeleton (my baby is growing up), Tanner wanted to be Bumblebee the Transformer (his outfit was kind of hard to tell what he was and he really got tired of telling people so he started to just tell people to go to www.transformers.com - which was fortunately really the toy site and not something else), Charlie was our Jersey Cow (sorry - Angus is just to hard to explain as a black suit), and Charlotte was a Chicken.




So with sleep deprivation and 10 pounds of candy each, the kids are now ready for just a good old Fall day (which we are now having 75 degree weather).

Night at the Museum

This last Friday night, we did our family's annual trip to the Indianapolis Children's Museum (best Children's Museum in the nation) for their Halloween costume party. We had a blast playing games, doing little crafts with the kids, and seeing the exhibits at the museum itself.











Charlotte did the best at the games, since they would let her kind of cheat and get right up to the holes for the bean bag tosses (they also let her do it time and time again...they just can't say no to a girl dressed up as a chicken).











The Carousel was also a big hit. Shawn had to be the big brother and decided to show off and go without holding on, while Charlie held on for his life. It was nice to see Charlie still be a little safe (since he has thrown caution to the wind at home now it seems). Charlotte thought it was a blast as well and liked the music on it as it went around.












As you know, last year the Horrocks family won the "Best Family Costume" with our Star Wars set up, so this year we went a little more down to earth as went as a farm. Dad was the farmer, Bec was the farmer wife holding the pumpkin (baby to come), Shawn was a scarecrow, Tanner was a cob of corn, Charlie was a cow, and Charlotte was a chicken.

Unfortunately, the museum staff decided to go ahead and judge 15 minutes earlier then they had said, so when we showed up even a few minutes early, they were announcing the winners. It was a bit of a bummer...so we went home, grabbed some Steak n' Shake burgers to overcome the blow of defeat.

Charlie's got wheels!

Charlie after a little coaxing figured out the bicycle the other day with help from his big brother and safety advisor (Tanner). You will see that it is much safer to have a knit cap under you helmet according to Tanner. Charlie went from needing Dad holding on to this for a few minutes to total "let go of me" in about 15 minutes!