Julie's B-day

We've had a great day today. It started early when I heard the cat meowing constantly. It worried me because her usual waking-up-the-people meows are spaced a few seconds apart to allow for the grogginess of the human awakening process. I got up, a little alarmed and followed my ears to the laundry room, where I saw Caleb petting a meowing Gray Cat. Mystery solved. She's happiest when petted. It was in the neighborhood of 6 a.m., so I told Caleb to go back to his room and read for a while.

Over the next hour or so the girls woke up and the kids ate a little snack breakfast while we drifted in and out of sleep.

At 9, we were at the local coffee shop, The Coffee Booth, for Julie's requested b-day breakfast of a cinnamon roll and Sprite. We stuck candles in the cinnamon roll and she was thrilled. Terry & Gwen and their girls met us there for breakfast. Here's a picture of all the kids after Jules opened her gifts:
We spent the afternoon just goofing off around the house. The kids have been saving money to buy new handheld gaming systems. They wanted Nintendo DSs, but we figured that, at $150+ each, it was too much electronics for them. So we compromised and let them shop ebay for Gameboy Advances. Audrey found a pink one and Caleb found one with extra games. I see the beginning of an ebay trend with these 2.

Because we got in late last night, we made all the kids lay down for naps. C & A slept, but J just wallered around for a while. She's going to bed early tonight.

But during naptime a new toy arrived - a digital camera! No, it's not for Julie. It's for me. And it's sweet. I think it's way more camera than we will ever need, but at least I have something to learn when I use it. I'll start taking more pics and uploading them.

So last night - here's the scoop. We got to Glorieta at 5 p.m. and went straight to rehearsal in Holcomb Hall (the BIG one). After working out a few minor not-so-minor kinks, we felt confident. We ate a quick pizza dinner, met the composer of the music (who signed everybody's VBS t-shirts), and took the stage.

The kids were awesome! They rocked! The drama and choir were equally strong. We watched a video today of the performance, and it was awesome. Another family videoed it, so we're going to try to get hold of their tape because Julie was shaking the camera pretty much the whole time trying to watch us through it. A bit distracting. The audience was a good one - full of energy and very vocal. I'm glad we made it through the last 4 months of working on this. There were times I wasn't sure how it would come together, but it was super. I can say it was truly God.

I'm signing off now. Time to play with my camera some more.