Thrill the World!!!!!!

We did it!  On Saturday, October 29th, 2011 Jim and I Thrilled the World with about 160-something other zombies in front of Boise's City Hall.  It was SOOOOO fun!  I decided towards the end of September that I wanted to do this, so to actually follow through with something (I'm pretty good at starting things and not completing them) felt pretty darn great!  I was surprised when Jim got on board because he hates to dance!  He later told me he thought I wouldn't follow through, so why not sign up for something that probably wouldn't happen.  Haha to him! 

Jim and I spent the month of October learning the dance from the Thrill the World tutorials on youtube, and by going to the free dance classes downtown Boise.  When Saturday night came around, we were ready!  Saturday was busy, so I didn't really have time to think about performing too much.  I made our zombie costumes, took Tralee to The Wizard of Oz, ran some errands, and by the time I got home, it was time to zombie-up and leave.

We dropped the littles off at Jim's Aunt's, and Jim's Uncle Roman, cousin Mason, and Mason's friends volunteered to come downtown, watch us perform, and video the dance.  That was very nice of them!  Also, Mason and his friends said they want to learn the dance and perform it next year.  They didn't even know what the Thriller dance was before this.  I'm thrilled (teehee) Jim and I introduced it to the next generation.

Anyways, here are some pics from our experience and the video Roman took for us.  

Watch out or I'll eat your brains!

I guess this zombie needed to get her drink on.  Kidding.  Jim was taking pictures, I saw an empty bottle sitting on the ledge in the parking complex, and this is what happened.

Well, isn't he cute?

I like this picture of my hunchback-zombie-hunky-hubby

Outside City Hall waiting to perform

Just trying to zombify my hair.

The undead who were performing went inside City Hall for a few minutes to practice and get the rundown.

I stole a few picture from the Idaho Statesmen:

This zombie and her friend stayed in character throughout the night.  They were really fun.

Cool picture.

Everyone dancing

 Now for the video.  Roman got as close to us as he could (the place was packed!), the only thing is, as close to us as he could get was behind us.  The video turned about pretty great though, thanks again Roman!  Also, thanks Michelle for watching the wee ones for us!  Here's the vid:



When we walked away from the performance that night Jim said, "You're probably going to want to do this every year, huh?"  I wasn't sure until we got home and Tralee saw the video.  She said, "Hey!  Next time you have to take me to that dance party!"  So. . . I think next year Tralee will probably be old enough to performs it (she knows half of the dance already from watching Jim and me practice, and she came to a few of the dance classes with us), so it looks like we'll be there with an extra Zombie next year!  I can't wait!

We're Off to See the Wizard

A few weeks ago I saw in our local newspaper that The Musical Theater of Idaho was performing The Wizard of Oz.  I thought it would be the perfect thing to take Tralee to.  She's never seen a full live performance, and I thought The Wizard of Oz would be the perfect introduction into the world of stage.

We went into the box office on Friday to buy our tickets for Saturday's show, only to be told they were SOLD OUT!  Oh no!  That was the only performance we could make it too.  The nice lady at the ticket office told us, "If you come to the performance on Saturday, we'll put you on a waiting list and if somebody doesn't show up, you can buy their tickets."  As we were leaving the box office Tralee asked, "Did we get our tickets?"  When I told her they sold out her little face looked awfully forlorn.  I kept my fingers crossed that two seats would open for us on Saturday, because I promised my little girl we would go to OZ!

Yesterday Tralee and I left Jim and Hunter at home to do guy stuff, while we made our way to the civic center.  Before we left, Tralee and I said a little prayer that we would be able to see The Wizard of Oz.  I know it was kind of a trivial thing to pray for, but after promising Tralee for weeks I would take her to see The Wizard of Oz, I needed a little help from upstairs.  When we arrived at the civic center Tralee and I walked in hand-in-hand.  We found the same lady that helped us at the ticket booth and asked if we could be put on the waiting list.  She informed us, "Give me about five minutes, but getting you some seats shouldn't be a problem."  HOORAY!  Tralee swiftly turned to me and asked, "So, we're going to see The Wizard of Oz?"  When I answered, "Yes!"  Tralee shouted for joy and jumped up an down.  I might have too.

About five minutes later Ticket Booth Lady waved us over.  She whispered in my ear, "I have a season ticket holder who can't make it today.  She's stuck at a wedding, and would like to donate her tickets to you."  Ok, I might be a little bit of a dork, but I totally welled up!  I thanked Ticket Booth Lady, and Tralee and I made our way, tickets in hand, to the AWESOMEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE!  We were in row E, right smack-dab in the middle.  Maybe it was just luck, but I believe our prayer was answered.  So did Tralee, because when she prayed before bedtime she said, ". . .and thank you for letting us see The Wizard of Oz."

Overall the local cast ensemble did a really wonderful job!  Dorthy was great, The Wicked Witch of the West was amazing, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion were also awesome!  Glenda the Good Witch was fun too.  I liked it when she floated by on her bubble.  My favorite part was the jitterbug number, which I guess was taken out of the motion picture.  I'm not sure why, because it's super fun!  The real live Toto and miniature horse were also a hit!  Tralee really liked Toto, she thought he was "so cute!"  The highlight for me was, after every number Tralee clapped and shouted, "Bravo!  Bravo!"  Where did she learn that?  At intermission we bought some cookies to share.  I thought Tralee would get a kick out of the green witch cookie, but she wouldn't eat it because she said the witch is too scary.  Silly girl!  She did, however, munch on a chocolate covered Oreo without difficulty.  At one point during the show Tralee climbed into my lap, and whispered in my ear, "Mom.  I love you."  The feeling is mutual!  I'm so happy my little munchkin and I were able to get lost in Oz together!

1980's Racing Night

Yesterday while Tralee was at a friend's house, Hunter and I were building with blocks.  We made a road for our cars, and were having a lot of fun driving our cars around on the block road.  After a while I remembered that last year Jim picked up an old 80's racing set at a thrift store for $6, and we hadn't played with it in a while.  So, away went our block road and out came our totally narly TYCO Lamborghini Championship race set.  Hunter and I started putting it together, but after a few minutes of figuring out the best way to build the track I thought to myself, "Ug!  Gag me with a spoon!"  I continued my train of thought with, "Self, didn't Jim say he had one of these rad car racing sets -- although not as fancy -- when he was little?  Yes.  Yes he did.  I bet he would be able to put together a wicked cool road in no time.  Let's wait for Jim to come home with Tralee and have him help put our track together."  Not a few minutes went by when, who should walk through the door?  JIM!!!  He picked Tralee up from her playdate, and after eating some dinner, our family went back upstairs and put together a totally tubular race track.  We spent a good portion of the evening racing cars, and saying stuff like, "don't have a cow man" when one zoomed off the track.  Jim and I eventually got kicked off of the track, because the kid-os wanted to take over.  The race track kept the munchkins occupied for a good portion of the night.  It was radical!

Our super fancy race track!  

Hunty watchin the cars zoom by

The yellow Lamborghini going to fast you can hardly see it!

Everyone watching the red car zoom up the ramp!  Do you see the blur of red!  So excited!  Hey Nascar fans, your Indie 500 whatevers don't hold a flame to our track!

Tralee found some stickers and decided to decorate her red car (of course).  While we were taking a break, Jim and Hunter were snuggling.

The newly decorated car, back on the track

I think Tralee had the most fun racing cars.  Hunter's interest in the whole operation came and went.

See what I mean?  One minute he'd be into the race track, and the next minute he'd come up to me and said, "Look at my egg hat!"

Our 80's racing night was like, totally bomdigity!

Pumpkin Night

We had the other Jacobs family over last night, and Jim announced that he wanted to carve pumpkins together, so off he went to buy a few orange orbs.  When he came back he let each kid pick a face for their pumpkin, then they all got their hands dirty cleaning and carving.  I made roasted pumpkin seeds (yum!) while Jim lit the pumpkins, turned off the lights, and chased the kids around with the lit pumpkin heads (I think I've mentioned in previous pumpkin-y posts that the pumpkin-head-chasing-thing is a tradition Jim's dad started when Jim was growing up -- so it continues in our house).  All the kids ran around hiding while the glowing pumpkin heads chased after them.  After a while, as all good nights do, it came to an end.  Our little evening with friends must have tired my kids out, because they fell fast asleep shortly after our company left.  We had a fun night with friends.  

Now. . . pictures!  

Cleaning out the guts.  Also, I like Jovie's face in this picture.  In fact, her face in a lot of the pictures to follow is awesome!

Jim kept pretending to eat the pumpkin guts, so then all the kids thought they should try to eat the guts too.  I don't think they were all that impressed with the flavor.

Check out Jovie's face again!

Cute little Oaks.

Oakley tasted the pumpkin, and after a minute decided that it wasn't as good as Jim made it out to be.

Tralee and Jovie worked as a team cleaning out the big pumpkin.

Jim took off Hunter's shirt because he thought he would get really dirty with all the pumpkin guts.  I don't think Hunter even touched a pumpkin the whole night.  He watched the action go down though.

He's kinda cute, huh?

Another classic Jovie face.  Jim was showing the girls different ways they could carve their pumpkins.  Also, I gave Tralee an 80's hair-do because her hair kept getting in her eyes, and the closest thing I could find to put it up was one of my hair-things that's a little too big for her fine hair.  This was the best hair-do I could come up with in a moment.  She rocked it though!

Jim was smart and used his big-boy-tools to carve the pumpkins.  It went a lot faster than using knives.

Tralee with her pumpkin

Jovie and her pumpkin

Oakley and her pumpkin

Here they are all lit up

Jovie posing by her pumpkin

I like this picture

The lights went off, and the pumpkin chasing was about to begin!!

Here's Jim chasing around the girls, Hunter wanted no part in the pumpkin chasing.

The girls after they were captured

Tralee got to hold baby Anson, the newest member of the (other) Jacobs family. 

This was Jim's little project.  This was Hunter's pumpkin, but Jim wanted to do a little more intricate job with it, so he worked on it after everyone left.  Can you tell who the pumpkin is supposed to be?  I'll give you a clue. . . "Hey you guys!"  Did you guess it yet?

I was cleaning up pumpkin guts when I heard Jim say, "Hey Leslie, come check this out."  Hunter fell asleep on Tralee, and she was busy patting and tickling his back.  So cute!

Tralee took one final yawn, then I picked Hunter up, got him in some jammies, and put his little self to bed.  On my way back down the stairs I met Tralee who was falling asleep on her way up.  She was laying down on the middle of the stairs, so, I scooped her up, got her ready for bed, and tucked her in.

We were all tired from our night of Halloween fun.