Wild West Tales Part 2 (2nd show)

 My favorite family shot.

 Ma Griggs & Emily Jane

 The gossip girls with the town drunk (in character).

 The leads in The ransom of Emily Jane (in character):

Ma,Sonny,Emily Jane, & Miss Pruitt the governess.

 The whole cast (above)

Four of the flamenco dancers (below)

 Another family shot.

Flamenco dancers in character.

Here's the rest of the Wild West Tales pictures. In a few months I'll have the action shots from the play since we weren't allowed to take pictures during the performances. 

Hannah had a lead in The Ransom of Emily Jane. She was Ma Griggs, a kind hearted kidnapper. She and her son, Sonny, kidnap Emily Jane Dorset. Emily Jane is the daughter of the richest man in the county so she should fetch about $2000 easy. Well, Emily Jane is pretty excited about being kidnapped & has no intention of going home. She's pretty hard on Sonny. Notice the bruise she gave him on his leg in one of the pictures. Emily Jane's governess finds them at the hideout so she ends up kidnapped too. After some more time with Emily Jane, the kidnappers decide $2000 is a bit much and the ransom gets dropped down to $500 for the lively child. Some time after Mr. Dorset gets the ransom letter, he arrives with a counter proposition. He thinks $500 is too high. He thinks that Ma & Sonny should pay HIM $250 to take his daughter off their hands. Also, he suggests they never show their faces in town again lest the townspeople find out that they're the ones who returned Emily Jane to town. They gladly pay him & run out of town.

Hannah was a "live set" person for Slim & Miss Primm. That's hard to explain but she was in all black & held up grass & signs. 

She was also a flamenco dancer in The Feud of Paradise, Texas. 

 She had tons of fun & is sad it's over, of course.

Wild West Tales part -Opening Night

 Hannah as Ma Griggs in The Ransom of Emily Jane.

 Pics before the show. Everyone is in costume for the 1st play: The Ransom of Emily Jane.

Below are some gossip ladies, Ma-the kidnapper, & Emily Jane.

 Below is Ma with 2 of the town gossips, Mrs. Chatterley & Mrs. Pryor. The other gossip lady is Mrs. Tattler. Get it?

 Me & our star-above.

Below is the incredibly amazing cast poster made by one of Hannah's friends/cast mates. It was sooooo cool. Everyone's picture was a wanted poster & it listed what they were wanted for. Too cute!

 Here's a close up of Hannah's wanted poster (aka her Bio).

 Below is Hannah & friends after The Feud of Paradise, TX. She was a flamenco dancer in that one.

 The picture below has 4 actors plus a friend who came to watch. All these girls were last season's JBQ God's Girlz who went to Nationals:)

 Below is the brotherly support.

 The picture above is with cast mates that are this year's TBQ God's Girlz team.

Here's the pictures from Wild West Tales on opening night. I have some more from the 2nd show that I'll post later. Enjoy!

God's Girlz TBQ Meet #2

 The picture above is before the first match. 

The picture below is when they were all done quizzing & ready to move on to their next part of their day/night.

God's Girlz competed yesterday at their 2nd meet of the season. Remember, Hannah has moved up to Teen Bible Quiz (aka TBQ). She still participates with the Junior Bible Quiz (aka JBQ) God's Girlz team as an official (not quizzing anymore). That means she judges whether a child said the answers right or maybe be the timekeeper. Got it?

The girls had a very busy week of rehearsals for their play. The days leading up to the play is called "tech week". It's exhausting. So on Monday-Wednesday they had 3-4 hour practices each night for Wild West Tales. Then they had their 1st performance on Thursday. They had Friday off of drama but they still got together for quiz practice for a couple hours. It was early to bed Friday night because we had to be up at 6:30 Saturday to get to the TBQ meet. They were done quizzing at 2pm.

They won 7 out of 8 matches!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! AND Hannah had 5 quiz outs!! Quiz outs are when a quizzer answer 5 questions correctly & earns bonus points. She leaves the table & a sub usually comes in-unless 2 of the girls quiz out. There's only 4 on the team and only 3 can be at the table at one time.  This is incredible considering the week these girls had. They had lines to remember for the play AND know chapters 1-8 of Matthew. Yes, I said 8 whole chapters-word for word-not just the gist. Amazing girlz!

So after getting done with THAT, we had an early dinner before heading over to the church where Hannah & her cast mates would perform for the 2nd (& last) show. They need to be at the venue 2 hours before show time for hair & makeup.  At 7pm the cast put on a fantastic performance. After helping clean up the church, we finally got home at 11pm. Hannah is sore and more than a little tired!

Wild West Tales pictures coming soon.....

Hannah's Crocheted Scarves

Here's info on the scarves Hannah makes for those of you not in AZ. There's more colors but this gives you an idea of what they look like and a few of the colors. Pretty, huh?

Hannah has officially sold 11 scarves at $10 each. Wow! She also has special orders to fill for 8 more & possibly another 2 but that person hasn't emailed me back yet. 

She sold 9 of those 11 on consignment at a church craft fair this past weekend. We didn't need to be there & she had to share 10% of her proceeds but it was an easy $81. She also sold 2 to a lady at church. We're trying to take advantage of the holidays & cooler weather while we can since I'm not sure if these will sell well in the spring.

I have a feeling she might get a few more orders after one of her customers shows hers off. She's making more money than me!

Hannah's 13th Improv B-day Party

 The drama themed cake.

A few of the guests. Don't worry, that plunger prop was not used for it's intended purpose-it's specifically a prop box item:) One guest left early so she's not in the picture but I adore all these girls. You may recognize some of them from JBQ,TBQ, and/or most of Hannah's plays.

Hannah chose to repeat last year's theme for her 13th birthday party. Last year's cake was made to look like a ticket to a show so I needed to do something different. I found a drama mask mold on ebay complete with little musical notes. We had pizza, the girls played improv games, had cake, & opened presents. Hannah got a lot of yarn for crocheting and gift cards to buy more. We even made candy grams for everyone. If you are familiar with MoezArt's productions then you know what that's about. Hannah had a ton of fun & I hope the girls did too.

State Fair

 Hannah with her dragon puppet.

 Hannah's melted pony bead bowl. Joshua did one with a cool American Flag look to it but the picture I took doesn't do it justice. Ask to see it next time you come over;)

 Joshua's shell art.

 Hannah's "cherry pie" cupcakes.

 Hannah's chocolate mint bark (tasted like Andes mints) & Joshua's molded candy suckers.

 In the butterfly pavilion.

We went on our annual State Fair field trip last week. The kids were so excited to see what ribbons they won. I admit it, I was excited too. I am not posting pictures of everything they entered as there was so much but I am including a few. I will tell you the ribbon count in the student art section (that's the art you can enter for free):

Hannah-

3 Honorable Mention

4 First Place

1 Third Place 

Joshua-

2 First Place

2 Second Place

1 Fourth Place

While they did enter a bit more art than they placed in, they did do very well in the Home Arts & the Culinary entries-those are the areas it cost $1 per entry to enter. Then when you place, you win cash. $5 for 1st place, $3 for 2nd place, & $2 for 3rd place. 

Here's the ribbon count for those categories (you can do the math on their cash winnings):

Hannah-

4 First Place

1 Second Place

1 Third Place

Joshua-

3 First Place

1 Second Place

1 Third Place

Very exciting stuff. We also checked out the butterfly pavilion,the animals & petting zoo, the behemoth bug area, the body display, an NFL experience, and a couple rides. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the body display but it was sufficiently gross to the kids.  The kids got their 3 free rides through the reading program & went on the Tilt-A-Whirl together while Todd & I watched. Rides were just too expensive so with their leftover ride credits we went on one ride together as a family before heading home. We stopped for pizza on the way home. 

I took Hannah to her crochet class at the library that afternoon. She's making some pretty scarves that I think she should sell. I just need to figure out where. We were all exhausted .

I know I'm going backwards in pictures but I really wanted to post the TBQ stuff before these. 

Upcoming events include the kids & I seeing The Little Mermaid play, Hannah & I watching the Phoenix Moezart cast perform in Wild West Tales this Friday,  and volunteering with Feed My Starving Children. After these things we'll have a small lull so pictures will not be very often. BUT, when Hannah performs I'll be back in full swing:)

Hannah's "shot" at Archery

 Hannah at archery class.

 One of the days she did hit the center target.

 Here's a few pictures from her b-day.

 Us with our 13 year old!!!

Earlier in October, Hannah took an introductory class at the AFB for 4 days. She did pretty good & liked it. We're trying to figure out how to get a good but inexpensive bow & a place to practice. Joshua chose not to do it. 

The other pictures are from her 13th birthday before I took her to her friend's birthday party. Yep, she has a friend (2 years younger) who was born on Oct. 20th too. That's why we had her party yesterday-to plan around having the same guests.

God's Girlz TBQ 1st meet of the season

 The girls before the matches started.

 Waiting for announcements in the sanctuary before quizzing. Ready to go!

 Me & Joshua

 Lunchtime with a couple JBQ siblings.

 Being silly before the afternoon quizzing.

Me & Hannah

Yesterday God's Girlz (TBQ version) quizzed in their 1st meet of the season AND it was their first time in TEEN Bible Quiz. Hannah & a friend were no longer eligible for Junior Bible Quiz and one other friend is borderline in age so she can quiz in either JBQ or TBQ so she is actually doing both this season. Then we had one friend join who is completely new to Bible Quiz. Two of these girls have siblings in JBQ and Hannah has chosen to volunteer as an official for the JBQ version of God's Girlz so we still have ties to JBQ this season.

Anyway, the big news is that the team went undefeated yesterday!!! They won all 6 of their matches. I had to officiate in the A league so I didn't get to see them quiz this time but I heard all about it. Because this is their 1st year & they are 7th/8th grade they are in the B (or novice) league. They are memorizing half of the book of Matthew. They had to know chapters 1-5 for yesterday. Their next meet will cover 1-5 as well as chapters 6-8. 

Hannah is too humble to put this info out there but since I'm a proud mama, I'll let you know how well she did. She had 3 quiz outs. If you remember from JBQ info, quiz outs are when you answer a certain number of questions right & get bonus points. JBQ was 6 questions & 10 bonus points but TBQ is 5 questions right & 20 bonus points. After you get your quiz out you leave the table for the rest of the match. Hannah had 3!!! Her friend who is doing both JBQ & TBQ had 5!! Her coach told me that Hannah saved the day in their very last match. It all came down to the last question. IF the other team got it right then their opponent would win. IF any girl other than Hannah got it right from our team, we would have tied. BUT because Hannah buzzed in & got it right, she quizzed out (as it was her 5th question right), and those extra bonus points earned them the win!! This is all fantastic for the competition but what it really means is God's word is being hidden in her heart. I love that she enjoys it and the friends she has made are all wonderful girls. The other teams are fun to be around too. 

JBQ first match is Nov. 17 so Hannah will be going to officiate. I'll go with the first time or two as her back up if she doesn't do well then I can step in to help her out. 

The next TBQ meet is also the day of Hannah's performance in Wild West Tales so it will be an exhausting day. Well, it will actually be an exhausting week being production week. Hannah and the other TBQ girls (& a couple JBQ girls)will have practice for drama M-W,a show on Thursday,TBQ practice on Friday to prepare for the meet, TBQ meet on Saturday morning, & have a call time of 5pm that Saturday night for their 7pm show. Phew! Makes me tired just thinking about that week! Dec 2nd will be the ultimate day of rest:)