Hooray for Hollywood

It has been a busy month of practicing and performing for the Brown girls. On June 9th, Ashley had her Salute to Hollywood Movies show. She performed in several group numbers, and also did a short scene from the Wizard of Oz. Her biggest accomplishment was her scene from Enchanted, which included her vocal solo! This song was pretty challenging, and she worked so hard on it. We are so proud of Ashley!!!



The following week, Morgan was invited to perform as a Flashdancer in the Salute to Hollywood vocal and dance showcase. We fashioned a quick 80's costume the night before and she did a GREAT job! (Who misses leg warmers? ME!) These pictures are stills that I extracted from a video, so they aren't the best quality, but check out her technique! We are so proud of Morgan!

So what's next? High School Musical!

We are in Week 2 of HSM rehearsals and the girls are LOVING it! They have practically been living at the theater for the last two weeks. Ashley is playing a cheerleader and Morgan is playing the part of a thespian. The show is really coming along, and it is going to be AMAZING!

Opening night is July 7th! The play will run nightly (except Sundays) at 7:00 until July 18th. We would love everyone to come...and bring a friend! ☺ You can view the girls' bios and buy tickets here . (Click on "Purchase Tickets Here.") You can also purchase tickets at the door. (Either way, ask me for a $2.00 off coupon!) Sneak peeks coming soon to the blog!

What team? Wildcats!

Getcha head in the game!

Awesome Video

What We've Been Up To...

Poetry Jammin...

Baby loving...

Hanging out with BIG cowboys...

...and little cowboys!

Slipping and sliding...

...and panning for gold!

Riding bulls...(Go Nic!)...

...and new bikes! (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!)


Auditioning for new shows... (We can't wait!!!)



Dancing the hula...

...and earning perfect 500's on our math CRTS!

Where does the time go???

Cat Scratch Fever

OH...MY... GOSH!!!

I promise I'm not embellishing this story [much]!

So we went out for a lovely family night tonight. First, we went to Subway to eat. Next, it was off to Golden Spoon for some frozen yogurt. (Complete with Easter sprinkles.) Finally, we hit the Kohl's sale for some cute Easter dresses; we even got a 30% off coupon! Everyone found outfits that they loved and were pleased as punch.

On the way home, we were chatting about the girls' clothes, when the radio told us to be caller 25 to win advance screening tickets to the Hannah Montana movie. Ashley and I insisted that everyone dial repeatedly to try to win the tickets. So we're calling, and calling, and calling. I keep driving and driving until Dave can't stand our silliness anymore and tells me to go home. (He was still dialing, however!)

So we're sitting in the car in our driveway...calling the radio station still.

Dave gets out of the car and says he's done...

Ashley starts getting out of the car....

Morgan and I are still sitting and dialing, and dialing, and dialing.

Ashley screams, "MORGAN! CAT!"

The next thing I know, everyone is screaming and running around in total pandemonium.

I'm still calling.

I start wondering what the heck is wrong with everyone. Dave screams at me, "Gretchen! There's a cat in the car."

I'm thinkin', "Huh?"

I keep dialing.

All of a sudden, I'm thinking, "That's a weird thing to say. I wonder what he means." (We don't own any pets, and all of us despise cats. *Sorry* Don't even make me tell you about the kitties in my crib! LOL!)

So I turn around...and there's a freakin' cat in my backseat!!

So I join the screaming meanies, which means that every female in the Brown family is running around the cul-de-sac screaming! (I called two more times.)

I look back at my car, and the darn cat is sitting on top of my seat looking at all of us, mocking us!!

We all screamed to our fearless leader to go get the cat out of the car. Dave heads over there and starts to yell "Shoo!" in his meanest dog-voice. The thing is looking at him like, "Bring it on, old man!"

Dave then decides that banging on windows is the best course of action. We decide that shrieking freakishly will help! Dave starts banging on my window, and the things keeps sitting there. Ashley notices that she's been scratched and starts yelling that the cat scratched her. Morgan breaks into a chorus of "Is she gonna die? Is she gonna die?"

Finally, the cat must've realized that this is way too much, and jumps out of the car...

...and starts chasing us around the cul-de-sac!!! (Okay, so maybe it wasn't chasing us. Maybe it was following us trying to play. It was uber-creepy, whatever it wanted!)

About this time, I decided it must be rabid, confused, disoriented, and completely deranged. I start screaming at Dave to get the rabid beast before it gets us.

Sorry, cat-lovers. My brave, heroic husband, picked up some pebbles...

aimed...

launched...

Missed!!

(Okay, he wasn't really trying to hit it, just scare it!)

The cat skeetered off just long enough for us to head towards the house, still screaming.

But then...it started running towards the house. Morgan starts getting hysterical again as I'm screaming at her to run. (I'm in the house, ready to shut the door if it tries to come in.)

When we get inside, I start freaking out that it sprayed my car. Dave says he'll go check. Morgan beat him to the door and threw herself across the door so he couldn't get out. I told him to stay in.

We then started the business of cleaning Ashley's scratches. (And searching the internet to see if she's going to survive. Apparently "cat scratch fever" is really a disease, and not just a song from the '80's!) While Dave poured the hydrogen peroxide, Morgan sprayed the Neosporin spray, and I called Uncle Matt. He assured us that she'll likely survive, and that he's only a phone call away. (Thanks, Matt!!! ♥)

Being highly-allergic to cats, Ashley started getting itchy, so she went and soaked in a tub. It seriously scared her to death...and there are three bears in my bed tonight.

I forgot to mention that Dave likes to use cats for target practice with his air-soft pistol. They only thought it was war before.

What now pussy-cat???

P!nk Hair

So Ashley has wanted p!nk hair forever!!! We got a little crazy this week and went to town with the fusia hair kit. What can I say? The girl's got a fashion sense all her own!

So we thought we were sneaky and mostly did the underneath sections. Since it is Spring Break, she's showing all her colors!! Look down below...

What hair color?

(When it's down, it just looks like a few red streaks....I hope!)

Have I ever mentioned I have too much fun with my girls?

Poetry Jammin'!!

So Morgan was born with some mad writing skills, but I didn't realize what an AMAZING poet she is. (Reminds me of her dad.) Last week she competed in her school's "Poetry Jam." Students were to write an original poem and perform it before an audience. The students and faculty then got to vote for the poem they thought would best represent them in a district-wide "jam." Twenty-three students competed, and two were chosen...I bet you can't guess who one of them was. Woo-Hoo! We are so proud of you, Morgan. Now it's on to the district wide Poetry Jam on April 20th. Her poem will also be published and distributed in a student anthology. I asked her if I could post her poem here, but she was a little worried about copyright. So...this poem belongs to my daughter, don't steal it!! I'll let you ponder the meaning, and I'll see if she'll post her explanation later. (You'll never guess the hidden B.O.M. references!)

The Still Time
by
Morgan Brown, age 13

To the dawn and forever on,
Beyond the horizon's face.
Off and on the starlight's song,
Until I drifted into lonely space.

And tears were hope and valiance fell,

Into the dark and stygian ocean.

No light, no sky, no God-saint's eye,

To seal the damned devotion?

So still and soft, too quiet, to breath,

to dance,

to lie,

to fly,

to see.

With whispered love and indifferent care,

To feel the aqualine classic stare.

Secrets slipping over the gentle, tender smiles.

Lovely lies, and dreams too wild.

No light to guide the youthful restless choice?

No light to shine on the shattered honor!

No light to still all time!

No way to still the chill creeping over the acquiescence of innocence?

Disarming with naivety, and charming deceit.

Faceless, but identified with a name,

I pressed my fingers to the frosted glass...

And as I looked...

And as I watched...

I saw as my integrity went floating past.

Yet dreams and reality aren't quite the same.

Oh, did I mention that she just wrote this during 1st period while her teacher was droning? Whatever!!!

Nevada Reading Week

Today was "Dress Up Like Your Favorite Character Day" at Ashley's school in celebration of Nevada Reading Week. Ashley decided to dress up like "Shay" from Scott Westerfields Specials. (3rd book in the Uglies trilogy.)

"Shay" is a special agent/Cutters Unit. We think we did a pretty good job with her costume.

"Specials" are extremely beautiful, surgically enhanced, and have special tattoos that identify their unit.

They have razor-sharp fingernails.

They wear "Sneak Suits" so they can go stealth whenever they want.

Okay, enough tuff-stuff, she's not as scary as her first grade reading buddies thought!

Just so Ashley! We think she's pretty "special" just the way she is!!

Later tonight, Nicole and I were laughing at how different our costumes were. Here's her little Coley on dress up day:

Oh well! Reading is fun for everyone!