April 30

The VBS invasion has begun! In the past, my house has been filled with all sorts of decorations and props as we have prepared for various VBS themes. My favorite was the year we had a hippo, several lions, giant elephant tusks and a huge amount of stuffed and spray painted paper bags camping out in our basement.

This year, the theme is Egypt. And I am in charge of creating an ancient Egyptian marketplace in our gym. I'm really excited about it, as the marketplace is a new addition to our VBS this year. But it is going to take a lot of work and a lot of people (if you go to South Side, we could use your help for VBS this year!!!). Today, I started searching for supplies at garage sales. And it was a lot of fun. It added a completely new strategy to my garage saling experience. I normally just drive by houses and look to see if they have kids stuff. But now, I'm starting to look for places that would have a lot of baskets and fabric and Egyptian looking stuff...which is generally not the same place that would have a lot of kids stuff.

I got all of the stuff pictured (and some more stuff that is inside the baskets and not pictured) for $4.50 today. There is just something about finding good bargains that is addicting. I'm planning to head out first thing in the morning for more garage sale fun!

April 29

Our theme at Sprouts today was ice cream. Baskin Robbins donated a bunch of bowls and spoons, and then Lindsey came up with the idea to use pom-poms to make ice cream. We had a little ice cream shop set up, and it was very cute.

Audrey was a bit confused by the pretend ice cream. I don't think her mind quite understands pretend games yet. Plus, last night we went to Baskin Robbins for 31 cent scoop night, and she had her very own dish of ice cream. So as soon as she saw the Baskin Robbin dishes this morning at Sprouts, she ran up to them, excitedly yelling "I Cree, I Cree". She was quite disappointed when she realized that the ice cream was fake. But no worries, she got to enjoy the real deal during snack time.

April 28

Several exciting things to talk about today!

#1: Audrey's new shoes finally arrived!! I am so, so excited about them. She has several outfits she has not been able to wear because she doesn't have shoes to match. I am pretty sure these silver shoes will work with just about every one of her outfits. We went to the park this afternoon and tried to have a little photo shoot. Pediped (the company that makes these shoes) has a contest on their website. You send in pictures of your kid wearing their shoes, and they pick a winner each month. The winner gets a free pair of pedipeds! You can send in as many pictures as you want, as often as you want. I wasn't too happy with any of the pictures from today as Audrey wasn't too cooperative. But I am going to send a couple in...and then I will keep sending pictures in until they give me a free pair of shoes! I am determined to win!

#2: Speaking of winning, one of the blogs I read (Better in Bulk) was giving away a set of Lightroom presets (Pretty Presets collections 1 and 2). And I won!!!!! I love using presets; they make editing pictures a lot quicker and more fun. It's so exciting that I actually won; I never win anything.

So anyway, this picture combines both of those exciting things: Audrey is wearing her new shoes, and I used one of my new presets to edit the picture!

April 27

Oh Little Miss Audrey...what a day we have had today!

There were moments when I felt like I was going insane (specifically during the major temper tanrum you threw at dinner!), and I just wanted to run away and scream and throw a temper tantrum of my own!

Then within seconds, you would have me smiling and laughing and wondering how I could ever live my life without you.

My dear little drama queen--you definitely keep me on my toes.

April 26

It's 9:06 pm, and I don't have a picture to post.

I was hoping to take a picture of the cute new pediped shoes that I ordered for Audrey. I ordered them on April 13, and I thought for sure they would be here by now. But they didn't come today.

I thought about posting a picture of the books I got at the libary today. But I've done that a lot, and I doubt that anyone who reads this cares about what books I'm reading.

Then I thought about taking a picture of the party favors I am working on for a friend. They are bright and fun and cute. But they are also in the basement, and I'm too lazy to walk all the way down there just to take a picture.

So I decided to take this worthless picture of the clock on the wall. Because I could take a picture of it without getting up from the couch. Yes, I am that lazy.

April 25

Audrey had so much fun with Adam after small group tonight. I don't think I have ever seen her so excited and hyper. She was squealing and laughing and running all over the place. Too bad Adam has two kids of his own, because I would totally hire him to come over and entertain Audrey!

April 24

Today I went with my friends Heather and Janessa to Ebertfest. Also known as the Roger Ebert Film Festival at the Virginia Theater in Champaign, IL. The festival actually runs for 4 days, so we didn't go to the whole thing. But we did drive over today to see two movies (and to go out to lunch and go shopping). Since going to a film festival (and seeing famous people!) is not something that I do on a regular basis, I think this post deserves more than one picture.

I like to watch movies. And I usually enjoy the independent, artsy movies often featured at these festivals. And sometimes I like to critique movies as well. So I would say I am an above average movie connoisseur. But the people at Ebertfest made me feel like I know nothing about movies. First of all, they are not called movies. They are films. I'm pretty sure the word movie was never once mentioned today. But everyone was talking about films! Every conversation I overheard...in line, in the bathroom, in our seats, all conversations were about films! So I felt a bit out of place and not smart at times, but it was still a very enjoyable day! Oh, and to prove that we are truly dedicated film fans, here we are waiting in the pouring rain to get into the theater!

The first film we saw was I Capture the Castle. It was really good; I think we all liked it a lot. It is a sweet and quirky English film about a somewhat disfunctional family. After each film, they have a panel discussion about the film. Bill Nighy (one of the stars of the film--notice how I have now learned to call it a film and not a movie!) was supposed to be there to discuss the film, but he was unable to get out of Europe due to the recent volcano eruption in Iceland. So that was a bit disappointing, but keep reading, because we did get to see some famous people later in the day.

The second film we saw was Trucker. Again we all really liked it. It was a much grittier, realistic film (with lots of bad language) about a female trucker and her relationship with her estranged 11 year old son. It starred Michele Monaghan, who has recently been in more mainstream movies like Eagle Eye and Made of Honor. And she was there today to participate in a discussion after the movie, along with the writer/director James Mottern. In this picture, Monaghan is on the far right in the red. (We were in the balcony for this film. I wish we could have been closer or I would have had a zoom lens with me to get a better picture of these famous people!). Interesting notes we learned about Michele Monaghan during the discusson: she is from Iowa (like me!) and she has a 17 month old daughter (like me!) and she got her CDL license to drive the truck for this film (not like me!)

And I can't end without a picture of Roger Ebert himself. He came out to introduce Trucker. He speaks through a computer. So he types, and then a computer version of his voice speaks. It was interesting. And as we were leaving after the movie, we walked directly past him in the lobby. But I couldn't get Heather and Janessa's attention, so I was the only one that got to see him up close in person.

So it was a long but fun day. And we got to watch two really good movies, I mean, films!