“The Adventures of Stewart Little”

Mrs. Little & Mr. Little, a.k.a. Rachel and Ashley

 This is Ashley’s 4th production with Studio East in their home school program, but her first with both Rachel and Katie Mansfield. It’s been a fun season. In addition to Ashley’s main role as Mr. Little, she also played a garbage collector and a dental patient and did a superb job at each of them! The next play will be “The Lost Half Hour”.

Snowbell the cat, played by Katie

The first performance... The younger attempts to convince Ashley it's time to exit the stage. It's not. To save the scene, Ashley obliged. Ahh, leadership.

Stewart Little

Ashley, the dental patient

The other Stewart, out and about, and Rachel the Storekeeper

The entire cast, in the classroom scene. Stewart is teaching out of the frame.

Ashley & Rachel's friends came for the 2nd performance: McKenna, Bekah & Kierstin

Mr. & Mrs. Little with their cat, Snowbell

Nice job, girls!

Sharing love – Valentine’s Day 2008

Bekah works on Valentines with friends Genna & Molly

Our Valentine’s celebration began with a party with our home schooling group on Friday the 13th. Jordan had the day off and attended the party with us as well! Being some of the oldest kids, Ashley and Rachel were helpers and had baby holding and general assistance duties. Activities included Valentine making, decorating cookies, eating snacks, matching the kids’ current photos with their baby ones, and games in the gym of Canyon Hills Community Church.

Jordan works on a Valentine for Mommy

A couple of the girls try to match photos. Katie and Rachel are H & C respectively and 9 & 5. Ashley, Bekah and Jordan are on other boards.

Jordan races in to participate in the 'pop the balloon' game

Bekah, the game too loud for her, sits it out with a smile on her face.

The next morning, Willie made pink, heart pancakes for all of us. The kids love these! Then we opened a few cards and gifts and went on with our day. Ashley had her first Stewart Little performance that night, so the highlight was dinner at Denny’s afterward with the Mansfield clan. Quite the romantic evening!

Tada!

Daddy and daughter early Saturday morning

Typical morning at the Bodgers! Bekah thanks Ashley for her V-day present.

Love for Jordan...

Bekah got a pink heart monkey

What did Ashley want as a $5 gift? A huge Costco box of gum!

We got a package later in the day from Gammy & Pa, and another on Monday from Wes & Kara. Once Stewart Little was done, my camera went away for awhile so I have no pics of those. Thanks, you guys, you’re all so sweet!

Gramma & Grampa Visit from Raleigh

 

 

Grand parents and kids (Ashley 13, Jordan 11, Bekah 7)

Although we don’t get to see G & G as often as we’d like, it sure is fun when we do! We keep crazy busy, I don’t know how they do it!

A rundown of our 3 days:
Thursday: Met us at gymnastics and watched a full hour and half of Bekah’s flipping and flopping; Ran to Target to get Jordan a b’day gift; Met Jordan at home and did the ‘present thing’; Attempted to go bowling – oops, Mommy messed that one up; Went to Spaghetti Factory instead.
Friday: Helped with some home schooling; Off to pick up Jordan at school; Jump Planet for another hour and a half; Bowling extravaganza; Dinner at Fat Burger; Girls shopping at Nordstrom Rack; Home for RockBand jam session.

Saturday: Movie: Paul Blart: Mall Cop; Lots of treats so we wandered around the mall until heading to Ruby’s Diner for lunch; Hangout time at home; Girls walk to Starbucks in a chilly 40 degrees; Little Caesar’s pizza at home; Farewells…

Always lots of fun and lots of memories packed into a short time.

Gramma & Grampa with Bekah

Gramma Kisses for Jordan

Rock Band -The last of flash photography during Bekahs set

 

G & G at Jump Planet with The Boy

Snuggling inside Jump Planet

Jump Planet

Every now and then a home schooling field trip falls on a date we can actually participate. Despite my folks being in town, I opted to sign the girls up for an hour and a half at Jump Planet. It was a tough decision to not include Jordan in something that could be, well… such great therapy, but knew it meant pulling him out of school and didn’t sign him up. Originally, the cost was $6/kid. The morning of the event, I learned that so many kids had signed up (50!) that the price had dropped to only $4/kid! In addition to this, one of the families had come down with the crud and that opened up two slots. One person jumped on the first slot, and I went for it and took the second. Yay! I was looking forward to taking all 3 of my kids on this adventure.

Homeschooling His Way at Jump Planet

Jordan disagreed. He was set on me picking him up so we could go bowling and didn’t appreciate me changing the plan to go to whatever this place was. He threw fits most of the way there, but ended up having fun. Here are some of the pictures from this massive room of inflatable toys.

Jordan crawling through the space station

If the hair isn't evidence enough, Bekah's having a blast!

Ashley and Rachel hold on tight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mommy & Jordan climb up to whizz down

Mommy & Bekah - Whee!!!

Bluh! Hi Rachel - sorry about the red eyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jordan leads the way up the big slide

Steph, Jordan and Gramma - 3-wide! (sorry it's dark)

Mommy and the little ones

Kids say…

When my folks were in town last week we enjoyed a little jam time with RockBand. During one of our sessions, Bekah was on vocals while Jordan, Grampa and I played the other instruments. Willie thought it was cute enough for a photo and grabbed the camera. No sooner had Willie snapped the shot than Bekah dropped her mic from her mouth and quickly said to Dad:

“No flash photography!”

Jordan’s ELEVEN!

What a miraculous day we celebrated on February 5th! The boy that doctors didn’t expect to see his 3rd birthday has turned eleven.

Yeah! Jordan got a strike at bowling!

Gramma and Grampa arrived from Raleigh while Jordan was at school and were here waiting when he walked in from the bus. They talked him into some hugs and kisses before hte present opening began. Thank you everyone for your amazing kindness!

Wii Fit from Grandma Yogi and Mom & Dad. Fun stuff!

Reading card from Gramma & Grampa

Jordan (and sisters) check out his new keyboard! Thanks G & G!

We tried to have a little party for Jordan at the bowling alley but neither of the kids he invited were able to attend. Turned out to be a really good thing, because I screwed up big time and didn’t check to make sure lanes would be available. We got there with Gramma & Grampa and league bowling had just started and no lanes would be available until 9 PM! Oh, dear! Sorry, my Jordan, who doesn’t like change. We headed to The Old Spaghetti Factory (to Jordan’s chagrin) and enjoyed some dinner before heading home.

The next day, we got Jordan out of school early and took him with us to the home school field trip to Jump Planet. Angry that we weren’t heading straight to bowling, he pounded the seat and yelled a good portion of the way there. After convincing him that we had to wait for Daddy to finish with work before we could bowl, and driving into the parking lot, Jordan was ready to head in and try it. See another post for this adventure.

Finally, it was time to head to bowling.

A spare!

Jordan's style of bowling - hold one hand and throw!

Nice strike, Ash!

Bekah style

Due to arm pain, Willie bowls lefty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My lack of style

Gramma style!

 

Waiting to roll

 

 

 

 

Had to throw some Wii Fit in before heads hit the pillow for the Birthday boy.

Time for some balance work for Jordan on the Wii Fit board

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

From all of us to you!
With love,
Willie, Stephanie, Ashley, Jordan & Bekah

Mariner’s Fanfest

Each year, the Mariners hold an event at Safeco Field called Fanfest. Willie and I have been interested in going for a couple years but each time the cost has been prohibitive. This year, we went! And on January 23 not only did we “go”, we went for free and to the ‘coveted’ Season Ticket holder event from 5-7 pm. The daytime event, open to the public, is attended by thousands and each activity within the park is accompanied by a considerable wait time. Thanks to our church friend, Kent Oliver, we had a blast with friends at this fan-oriented fest.

We had free hot dogs, cookies, pop, water, and Cracker Jacks prior to seeing Mike Blowers interview the new manager. Then we headed to the activities around the park: throwing in the bull-pen, hitting off the tee in the outfield, catching a pop-fly in the outfield, touring the visitor’s clubhouse and hitting in their batting cage, as well as a tour of the M’s clubhouse (posh!). Between the fun activities and the even more fun friends we attended with, it was a ‘date night’ to remember for Willie and I!

Willie & Steph in the dugout - Fun! The benches were heated!!

And thanks to Ede Fitch, our friend and Mariner employee, for numerous freebies for not only our family but the Johnsons and Williams’ as well. 

Fred and Brayden Williams with our new team manager!

Fred gets ready to deliver as a reliever

Willie - faster than the speed of light

Keith and Willie heading onto the field

The way they live in the Diamond Club

Mikayla Johnson

Brayden Williams

Keith, Willie, Fred, Kim

Kent Oliver

Guess who took her eye off the ball?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith hammers one

He put one up onto the concourse

pop-fly time

Yep, that's the dugout!

 

 

 

Brayden the peanut dude

Peanuts!

Locker for Beltre

Cool centerpiece

Moosy Mikayla

Ding Dong

My kids crack me up! Here’s a video I ran across today of Jordan. He made it sometime in the last couple weeks when he jumped onto the Mac. Nice way to remember the little guy’s sense of humor on his birthday. There’s a little story behind it.

Our church’s AWANA program is run at the local middle school. The kids are bussed there each Wednesday night and Jordan has a love-hate relationship with the bus. It’s too loud and he doesn’t usually have anyone to sit with – I guess it mostly just stinks.

Our friend, Kim Johnson, brings the only redemption to the bus ride for Jordan – she insists on quiet. Well, last week she suggested they play the ‘quiet game’ where being quiet the longest is the way to win the game. Every now and then you get a kid who is ‘above this’. One of these kids is a kid named Ethan. Ethan was much more content to make noise and draw attention to himself than play by the rules. So what’s Jordan do? Stands up on the moving bus, turns around, and yells to Ethan, “You’re a ding dong, Ethan!” Since then, this ‘ding dong’ thing has brought a chuckle from a number of us…

“Lying on beds” by Bekah

After morning,
I go lie on things.

I lie on my side
And look outside the window

I lie on my left side
And look at my books.

I always lie on things
After morning.

 

A poem by Bekah based on “Lying on Things” by Dennis Lee.