A Day In My Life

Battle Of The Bands

 

The battle Of The Bands was held in Bucksport this past Saturday.  My son Nate is the guitarist in a band they call TBA (To Be Announced).  This was their second Battle that they have competed at...and guess what!   They WON!!!!!!

Nate aslo recieved the award for best guitarist of the evening.  And one of his fellow band members (Justin) recived the best bass player award.

How completely awesome is this?  I am so proud of these guys.  They work hard, AND play hard.

TBA all the way! (yup, I am a proud mom:)

 

Dancingly, Denise

A Dancer and a Musician

I have the best of both worlds, and I just feel like saying that tonight!  When I was young, I was a musician...I played clarinet...a little trumpet...and I sang.  When I was young and still now...I am a dancer.  Both music and dance have been so important to me in my life, sometimes when I felt all alone...I had those to keep me company.  And still to this day they are important to me and they are a big part of this household.

There is my dancer:

 

and my musician:

 
 I truly have the best of both worlds...because what they talk about MAKES SENSE to me:)  I can count the measures for Nate while he is working on a solo...I can discuss the best dancers on a dance show with Lauren.  It is the greatest feeling to have this much in common with my kids!

I have the best...

Dancingly and Musically,

denise

My son the musician!

Last night Nate and his friend Cody were a part of a guitar concert put on by their instructor.  They did such a great job, I am so proud of my kid, he has turned in to quite the guitarist and it is truly opening up new worlds for him.

A few pictures:

 
 

I love this one:

 

 
 He did two solos and was fantastic!

And Cody:

 
 

ah, I am so over craft fairs!  I so need a break from the constant go go go...but more on that plan later!

Have a great evening!

Dancingly, Denise

Pep Band- Go Bucks!

Last Friday Night's football game.  The trumpet player in front is the director...the trumpet player way up on the right , black sweatshirt close to the fence.  They sounded great!

he's pretty blurry, but he is the trumpet player in the red plaid shirt:)  Go Bucks! 

I have been busy today, but I feel like I have just been spinning my wheels.  Do you have days like that?  So very frustrating cuz I have so many things to get done.  Plus I am tired as i have two pomeranians and they both have collapsing tracheas.  Simba's has been acting up, at exactly 3:00 a.m. until 5:30 a.m. for the last two mornings:(

But here's a quiz for you...I have been making something with THIS:

First do you know what it is?  and second can you guess what I made from it?  It's easy to find out just go here:

 Maine PURSEnalities(and more)

have fun!

Dancingly, Denise

It's time for a MUSICAL!

That's right folks, it is time to dive into the drama clubs musical for the year!  Last night we had our first set of auditions, and tonight will be our last set of auditions.  What are we doing you might ask?

Well five weeks ago I heard we were doing CATS

NOPE...four weeks ago I heard we weren't doing a musical at all cuz Peter (the director) would be away

NOPE

THREE weeks ago I heard we might do NUNSENSE

NOPE then last week we thought we might do CHICAGO

 and then this weekend we read the script for CHICAGO...sigh...much to much for the audiences we  have, especially because we get alot of young kids and older adults.  Too much...it is a great musical...awesome music and choreography, but the story line just isn't going to work...soooo Sunday Peter, Mark and I spend HOURS trying to decide what to do...we finally chose a newer musical, but after ready the script and listening to the music...i think it is going to be fun!  We are doing:

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!

so Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!  Woohoo!  As you know, this musical stuff sort of takes over my life for a bit during the next 8 weeks.  So hold on while I jump in...between this and the need to build my business life will be a tad bit CRAZY!

Dancingly,Denise

So, What about the boy?

I have written about Lauren alot lately, and you might wonder what Nate has been up to!  He started his summer vacation last Tuesday and has been pretty busy ever since.  Yesterday was the first day he didn't need to be somewhere...so he went grocery shopping.  I learned that HUGE bucket of cheese balls and a can of cheese wiz are staples for a summer vacation!

Last week Nate had his first band practise...they are hoping to meet on a regular basis and pull this thing together.  They sounded pretty good in my opinion!

AND the boy started actually DRIVING last Wednesday...when I asked him how he did he said 'Well, I only went off the road once:)

And he's off...

 
 and this same boy...who is helping me clean the garage...found THIS duck raincoat in it on Friday and decided to "try it on".  We all found it hard to believe he used to wear it!  I will have to dig up a picture of him in it...(when he was little)

 Hmmmm...makes me laugh!  he even had Karen laughing when we tried to get him out of it!

That's all for now...working on some purses...I can't wait to show you!

Dancingly, denise
 

Universal Studios Day 3-May 3, 2010

Our third day in Florida we headed to Universal Studios.  We really like the studio parks...but they are very different than the Disney parks!  We went two different days to Universal Studios...this was our first day...enjoy the pictures!

I love the walk into Universal Studios.  We usually end up in King Kong parking and so it is quite a distnace, but they have the moving sidewalks and great music playing...and it was about the only breeze we got all day!

Our first stop at US is always the SpiderMan ride.  It is a simulated 3-D and our very favorite.  (Although we loved the new Simpsons ride too).  BUT as we were getting to the Spiderman Ride...we ran into this:

We always love their inpromtu ride through the superhero part of the park!  Three years ago, when we went, we had breakfast with Spiderman, as well as cat In the Hat, and Spidey was great.  he had so much fun with Nate, telling him he was just the right kid to take over for him in a few years, etc.  So I am always happy to see spidey;)

We got to the ride...loved it as usual amd then lo and behold Spiderman was waiting for us;)

and yup...that's me in the crazy floppy hat, messing up the new haircut I had just gotten a few days before leaving home.  But it was so hot...95 and above...and the hat did help keep the sun out a little.  

By the way...THIS is the ride we did not, and never will go on...THE HULK...we are just not a wild rollercoasting family!

One of our favorite parts of Universal is Seuseville.  BUT before we went there we had to check out the new Simpson ride.  i don't even LIKE the Simpsons...but i LOVED the ride!  More about that on our second visit.  But Nate did decide to take a picture with HOMER:)

  We ate, both days, at the Circus McGircus Cafe.  I LOVE that my kids still like Seuss.  And...look who was checking out trash cans:)  We got great pictures of him with us three years ago, so we didn't do that again...but he was fun to watch!

Sadly, Harry potter was not open yet.  I am a big Harry Potter fan, my kids like him and my husband would say "Who?".  But we were all hoping we would be able to get in to see things at Hogwarts, but no luck.

 One of the kids favorite things at Universal is DIP N DOTS.  It was hard to find a vendor open that was selling them...but they finally did!  Plus check out Nate's hat...he ended up with three hats as souveniers this trip!

While Lauren did a little shopping, and Nate and Scott went into Nate's favorite shop...THE MAGIC SHOP.  I sat out side in the "sort of shade" and watched things go by!  Fiona posed for me...the Madagascar crew went by and so did Scooby Do!  (By the way nate DID get the flaming wallet and several other magic tricks this time!  He has been wanting the wallet since he saw it three years ago!)

One of the things we were celebrating while we were in Florida is Nate's 15th birthday.  We had made reservations at Hard Rock Cafe...we had never been there before...and Nate being the musician he is LOVED it.  He took tons of pictures of memorabilia all around the cafe!

When you first go in they take pictures of you with a guitar...so we had them take one of just Nate and then all of us together.  Later, while you are eating they bring them around for you to purchase.  We really had a nice meal...it was cool in there so that made it even better!  At the end of our meal, Nate took the camera around and took pictures of all the guitars and such he wanted to.  The waitress had given him a book to look at and he wrote the numbers down, then she told him where in the place the items were.  I also got a few pictures...Elvis' room, peter Frampton's guitar.  After we were done eating the ewaitress brought Nate and ice cream sundae with a candle in it...had him stand up on the stair case...and everyone in the area shouted Happy Birthday!

We ended our evening by seeing The BLUEMAN GROUP.  Lauren had suggested we see it, so I bought tickets ahead of time on line.  It was an awesome...nothing I had ever seen sort of show.  The three guys were truly amazing and pretty darn funny!

We were exhausted after the show, and headed back to the resort.  All of us were pretty thrilled that we would be able to sleep in in the morning and not rush off to a park!  We were going to Downtown Disney and La Nouba.  more on that in the next post!

Dancingly, Denise



 

Nutcracker Season

 
After watching TWO performances of the Robinson Ballet's NUTCRACKER...I am starting to feel like the Christmas Spirit MIGHT have pinched me:)  This post is HEAVY on picture of Lauren in the Nutcracker...enjoy:)

 

 That was lauren as one of the "domestic staff"

Now...Lauren the Soldier

This one is funny...as Lauren has come full circle...when she was about 4 she was one of the "mice" and she was up on one of the soldiers backs:)

Lauren the attendant.

Now lauren the Chinese Tea

Mother Ginger:)

Usually the dancers don't have so many roles, but Lauren was in the right place at the right time:)  She started out as a soldier, attendant and Chinese...the domestic staff was a fill in when one of the dancers quit...and Mother Ginger was a "fluke".

Hope you enjoyed the pictures...

Dancingly, Denise

More Fairies...and GODSPELL

Tomorrow is the last craft show that I will do this season.  Next weekend starts the Nutcracker performances...every weekend from then until Christmas...so no time for Craft shows.  I finished up FIFTEEN fairies today...all but one of them is Christmas/Holiday/Winter...here are a few of them:

First of...this is a NURSE... and she is the Maine Healing Fairy:

here is Gracie...she is Maine's Nativity Fairy:

and here is Maine's NICE List Fairy (are YOU on it?):

Maine's Nutcraker fairy and her name is CLARA:

Maine's Mistletoe Fairy:

and so that folks is a few of the fifteen I finished up.  Everything is packed up and ready to fo...mittens, stockings, purses, fairy jars...and MORE.  Hope I see you there Bucksport High School tomorrow at 9:00-2:00.

Godspell is almost over...we have one more show this Sunday.  Me?  Tired...very tired...but pleased with how well the kids did.  Still missing that Lauren chose not to be on stage...but happy that she helped choreograph and hope she does more of it with me.  Nate has a little trumpet part at the beginning...on stage...in the dark so he can't be seen:)

here are a few pictures from the show:

And for tonight...that is all...

Goodnight

Dancingly, Denise

Grease Lightnin'

We did it!  I got 7 highschool guys to look KEWL...dancing with a car!  Even had one of them leap off the car into the other guys arms...KEWL.

Over and out...

Dancingly, Denise