dear brutus

Here is the flyer with all the information for my upcoming play, Dear Brutus. Obviously, I didn't design it myself because my name is spelled wrong on it and they forgot to put that it is written by J.M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame). Call (480) 732-7343 for tickets. I would love the support and hopefully it will be a good show.

peter pan

Jimmy's very favorite movie is Peter Pan. I am sure I let him watch it way too often. I have the whole movie memorized now. He also loves to read his Peter Pan books and on nights when he is taking a long time to fall asleep I tell him my own version which is usually very detailed so that I don't ever actually get to the end before he falls asleep (if I do, then I move on to Dumbo). Jimmy loves to pretend like he is flying and my dad says he is going to have a warped view of reality. Zach or I will fly him around the room while singing "You Can Fly" and he tells us that he is either Peter Pan or Michael Darling (his current favorite... probably due to some similarities in appearance to himself). When I push him on the swings at the playground he says, "I flying! I Peter Pan!" So basically he loves it. We don't have any actual Peter Pan toys, but since all our old Playmobile toys are at my dad's house we have picked out all the important characters and we set up the whole story. Well... I set it up and Jimmy helps. He doesn't quite play actual stories yet, but he does like to make Peter and Captain Hook fight and he loves when I set the toys up and tell him what is happening. Fortunately, I think that this is a game that will remain fun for him for a long time and eventually he won't need mom to do all the set-up. Until that day, I will have some fun of my own.

Peter at the window.

(Yes, our Tinker Bell is a little Indian Baby,

but she is wearing green so close enough.)

The Nursery

Wendy meets Peter.

Trying to Fly

Flying with Peter Pan... sort of.

(We actually make them fly, but close enough for the sake of a picture.)

In the clouds over Neverland.

Smee and Hook taking Princess Tiger Lily to Skull Rock.

"Squaw gettem firewood!"

Hook and Peter fight on the ship.

The Children and Lost Boys hold back the pirates.

Mr. Smee tries to escape.

The Croc chases Hook.

I kind of want to make a whole story book with pictures of Playmobiles, but alas that is a project for another year.

nano and nana

Two of Jimmy's favorite people in the world came to visit recently--Nano and Nana. We hadn't seen Zach's dad since Christmas time seeing as he has been in Iraq since February. It was so good to finally hug him. Jimmy ran and gave them both huge hugs at the airport, but was slightly disappointed that he didn't get to go on a airplane to Nana's house. He felt a little better when I told him he could show them his house this time. He was literally bouncing off of the walls when they got here. And I do not use the word literally lightly. He wanted to show them his "Pooh Bed" and then continued to jump on it and run into the wall numerous times. Who can blame him-- he does get a lot of attention from them. We took them to some fun places; pretty much everywhere had a pool or fountain for Jimmy to run around in which is good since it is still pretty hot here right now.

Scottsdale Civic Center

Postino

The Phoenix Zoo

Find the Lizard Below

This is how close you can get to the monkeys. You walk inside their habitat and they are literally running all around you. Jimmy tried to reach out and grab this one.

The splash-pad at the Zoo complete with caves, a waterfall, and water-slides--pretty awesome.

I am not saying the kids didn't have fun with the rest of the Zoo, but after we sat down for lunch they played in the dirt and leaves for a really long time and were completely happy.

Hope to see you again soon Nana and Nano!

aunt lala

Jimmy calls Zach's sister Angela, "Aunt Lala." This used to be because it was all he could say, but we thought it was cute so now we just refer to her as that. Lala briefly came to visit us with her friend Eileen on their way on a cross-country road trip from Louisianna to California to Wisconsin to West Virginia (with a bunch of other places in between). They only stayed one night with us, so we didn't take a lot of pictures. Here are a few from Camelback Mountain:

The mission church in Old Town Scottsdale

And we did get to eat at Los Olivos, which is my favorite Mexican Restaurant in the world. Jimmy was excited because we sat by the fish tank.

(When we don't we just end up spending most of our time walking back to see it a million times).

Love You Angie! Come visit when it isn't so hot sometime!

babes in toyland

We used to have a Disney book that had a Babes in Toyland story in it and I always loved the pictures.  Maybe it was the novelty of seeing a live action movie in illustrations, but even now I think these pictures are cool.  The one we used to have was really short and only had a few pictures so I always wanted there to be more.  When I bought the collection of Disney books, I was excited to find so many more pictures with the story.... so excited in fact, that I decided to include them all on my blog.  Most people probably won't care, but at least my sisters probably will, so it is not just in vain.  Plus, I think Babes in Toyland is a great and under appreciated movie.

Toyland

disney books

These are the Disney books I got awhile ago at a garage sale.  I took a bunch of pictures of the illustrations in the books because I thought they were so cool  (Babes In Toyland is my favorite and therefore it is getting its own post). 

You have to love the traditional stuff.... 

But what I really love is the stylized stuff like this:

I loved this Nursery Rhyme one with all the Disney character playing different parts.  I think we used to have a book with these in it growing up.  I definitely remember it. 

Don't you kind of want to live in the house from "Lady and the Tramp"?

The ones from live action movies are pretty cool too. 

This was one of the most exciting parts for me.  There was a whole section on the history of Disneyland.  Being as obsessed with Disneyland as I am, I loved seeing all the old pictures of how it used to look. 

I don't remember going on the skyride, but I do remember it being there. The pirate ship in the background was before my time though.  I remember Dad telling me about it and how you could walk on it and how he thought it was really cool.  I wonder if it is the one that lives in the "river" now?

Collage of Diversity

easy toys

So I have been feeling as though I am neglecting my blog since I got my new job teaching Acting.  I have been pretty busy making lesson plans and having auditions.  I haven't been too crafty lately, with the one exception of making a model of my set for Dear Brutus.  I "made" these things a while ago and had been meaning to post them for awhile, but just couldn't make it a priority.  Today, I needed a break from my real job, so I decided to finally post them while Jimmy is taking a nap.  These are just a few cheap toy ideas I came up with that Jimmy loves, so I thought I would share.  

GROCERIES:  

All you need is some old containers you were going to throw away anyways and one spiffy reusable grocery bag.  Jimmy lines them all up on the couch and then goes shopping.  

Hours of fun... or at least minutes.

$1 section at Michael's.  

Ketchup and Mustard were already two of his favorite food.  He used to just hold something invisible in his hand and tell me he was putting Ketchup on my invisible food.  I hate to stiffle his imagination, but I couldn't resist.  His favorite part of these is recreating the noise that real bottles make (imagine a fart noise from your mouth).

BACON AND EGGS

So this is probably one of Jimmy's current favorite toys.  I was actually quite proud of myself for coming up with it, but at the same time, it just seems so obvious.  Jimmy loved playing with his Easter Eggs after Easter.  He would put tiny little toys in them and try to close them (which I usually had to help with).  I got kind of sick of having his basket in our living room around June, so I put them in an old egg carton and decided to make felt eggs to put inside each one. And well, if you are going to make eggs, you need bacon too.  Everyone needs bacon.  For more details on how I made the bacon and eggs, go to All Gussied Up.

Here is Jimbo playing with them.

This is how our floor usually looks.