today's Mulan handiwork

meet Corrine...my amazing partner!!!!

(professional clown for 20+ years...she has a little make up under her belt!)

 more playin' around....

 the final look!!!!!

 HUNS!!!!

RUN!!!!!!

 why hello there Mulan!

hair

all I'm gonna have for the next couple of weeks is Mulan stuff...

today was more make up, more 5 hrs of rehearsal, more cast party planning, more coffee

and...

hair....

Let the Mulan craziness begin.

All weekend:
Shopping for make up and practicing on my very willing subjects.

Elderly?

Almost....sorta...

Sunday night:
I was at the church helping set up the stage from 9pm 'til Midnight.
(that is dedication baby!)

Asian? 

Not quite....which is why we practice!

Monday:
Lydia at rehearsal for 5 hours.
Mommy in a make up meeting for 3 of that.
Little girls....havin' the most fun just getting to watch it all happen! (and they aren't complain' too much about all this make up!)

cute little dragon masks?

hm....almost, but no.

Home to email out information,
Order 200 people worth of pizza for an after party,
Make dinner, do laundry, kiss the kids, make crazy food plan for the next two weeks....'cause they'll look exactly like today and I'm not sure when we're gonna eat unless there is an elaborate plan.

And as if FIVE HOURS wasn't enough for Lydia, she came home and has been practicing her part, minus a 10 min break for dinner, for two more hours.

I think she likes it.
Wonder what she'll say after two weeks of this?
I'm so curious!

liking this shape better?

colors not as much?

getting there....

Today...all weekend really, I have been keeping myself in check.
I think I have reminded myself about 1,000 times that, "It's just make up".
Because it is.
I refuse to get to the end of my life, stand before Jesus and say, "But I was stressed out about the red wax crayon!"

I love theatre.
I love the arts in general.
I always leave saying how much I love that sense of GRANDEUR it gives.
That feeling of BIG.
It seems like it's one tiny glimpse of the grandeur we'll get to experience in Heaven every. single. day.

I get that sense about other things.
Fireworks, space shuttles, breath taking scenery, the beach.

I love the glimpses.
The fact that you and I are a part of something bigger.
That God is beautiful.
That He created beautiful, that beauty heals and that beautiful needs to spread.....

My brain is mush right now, I should not be articulating.

...now where DID I put that red wax crayon!?

roses

odd Holly fact:
I can't keep house plants alive.

shoot.

I think I've even killed Ivy before.

I kill everything green.

One year I grew an amazing tomato plant....it didn't produce ONE tomato.

Another year I attempted Lettuce...it grew straight up in the air and the leaves were bitter, little and...just weird.

Those fern looking house plants that are impossible to kill?
Three.

Thank you very much.

No one says 'impossible to kill' to me!

there is ONE exception to this 'kill all things green' rule.

and here they are:

 now roses.

Roses I can do.

What's with that?

Actually....I think I know what it is.

Those other house plants don't need enough of me.

They don't make me feel wanted or needed or necessary enough.

Roses.

Super needy.

They make me feel loved.

(can you take a WILD guess at my 'Love Language'? ;-)

where we have been....

Lydia auditioned for and got a part in Disney's Mulan Jr with NVPlayers a few months back.

Took us a little by surprise.

I wanted her to just have the auditioning experience and that was ALL...

we weren't expecting an actual call back!

She has blossomed.

She has worked so hard.

I haven't articulated what this has done for her but it's been cool to watch and when it's over I'll do some of that articulating stuff.

The show starts in just ONE short week and goes for two weekends.

A reporter was at yesterday's rehearsal so I snuck in an snapped a few of that process:

It is an all homeschool cast, all volunteer driven (meaning: all parents do all the work needed!)

The picture below is of just the military kids, the article was on homeschooling and military and Mulan.

good combo, no? ;-)

These two precious precious ladies are the directors.

LOVE.

love love love.

They do NOT play around.

They are serious about perfection but you can feel the love for the kids just oozing from their pores.

The kids love them, the parents love them.

So so great.

Keep that bar raised ladies!

These next two weeks we will be eating, sleeping, dreaming, playing, drinking, walking, talking...Mulan but we couldn't be more happy about it.

Even the little girls have enjoyed this process!

In addition to Lydia having a part 

(she is a Mini-Mushu...a Mini dragon...a special part written in just for the 10 little girls who auditioned!) 

I have gotten to live vicariously through the process by helping to paint back drops, plan the cast party and this week I will be elbow deep in stage makeup - making over dragons, making teenagers look elderly and turnin' white girls into Asian girls.

Local?

Wanna come see it?

$10

you can click on that link up top and buy the tickets online...we'd LOVE to see you!

gettin' crazy round here

lovin' time with amazing friends lately.

I leave with a sore belly from laughing

a full heart from deep conversation

and a lightness in my step from being loved so dear...

 it's all fun and games until your husband sticks his shoe in your face...er...ON your face.

(highly recommend the game "Quelf", by the way but not to be replaced with "Apples to Apples")

sheepish....

I feel sheepish...

I have a blog.

We are doing awesome.

Busy.

My babies are growing up and we are slowly entering that phase of life where there isn't a lot of down time...or time to blog...

I am determined though.

This is our family's log.

I will log.

I failed this week and am feeling sheepish about it but no time like the present to just get 'er done.

In the spirit of sheep...here is Nora at Mt Vernon last week sneaking up on some sheep she'd chased down earlier.

She was determined too!

If she can do it, so can I....

NYTimes article on Trafficking!!

It's a great one...

this is new, could be setting a precedence - I PRAY it's setting a precedence!

read and pray with me!!!??

disturbing.

heard of these before?

Digger Bees.

Ground Bees.

Stingless Bees.

yeah.

me neither.

These are the times when I am convinced God has a 12 yr old boy's sense of humor.

1. Let me create bees....they will sting and people will get honey from them but they are dangerous.

2.  Just for fun I'll create some bees (just enough that a lot of people won't know what they are) that look just as gnarly as stinging bees so that I can watch as moms FREAK OUT

while their 5 year old twins stand in swarms of them, 'catching' them, capturing them and wearing them around their necks in containers.

very. funny. God.

NOT!

ok.

you can't see it in this picture 'cause these girls LOVE their bug catchers so much that they get daily use but not necessarily daily cleanings so just trust me on this one:

Last night they had about 20 bees in this one container and today they dropped it down a little, I counted 12.

 Those bad boys (mostly girls) are LOUD.

that little container sounds like a machine.

weeby. geeby.

(but not as weeby geeby as seeing their little legs through the air holes trying to get out and watching as Nora and Sophie do 'tricks' with the legs to get the bees to drop back down)

according to wiki: they are generally large (up to 3 cm), very robust, hairy bees, with visibly protruding faces...The wings often appear disproportionately short compared to other bees, and their "buzz" is often a high-pitched whine

what I read:

these bees are nasty. huge. loud. and they eat your grass. kill them immediately.

what Nora and Sophie read:

YOU CAN PICK THEM UP! If you capture enough of them, they will fight each other and put on a good show in your catcher. GO GO GO!!!!

 there is something wrong with this picture, can you see it...them?

see those black little dots that look like dirt on the road? or the black dots on Sophie's pink shirt and little arm?

yep.

those aren't dirt or dots.

'em are swarming bees.

and they have my girls in a very happy place.

(you can see all their 'homes' in the grass...they look like ant mounds - minus the ants - add the bees)

weeby. geeby.