Pumpkin's First Birthday

Our little Pumpkin turned one this week!

She's come a long way since her beginnings in a barn....

In late August we saw her advertised as a "friendly barn kitten" and brought her home.

 

Since then, she's been cuddled,

pampered,

dressed up, and used as dress up.

 

She has discovered her favorite places:

Ben's chair and blanket,

 

the couch by the windowsill,

 

and the windowsill itself--it's fun to look up and see where she is when we pull into the driveway.

She loves to roll around 

to explore all the rooms (including closets and dresser drawers),

and to camouflage on Janae's bed.

And when she doesn't love something--like hearing Eric play the kazoo, going to the vet, or seeing Jason in his rain gear--she shows it with her very expressive ears.

She definitely gets her picture taken a lot and is on her way to becoming fully domesticated....

although she's still a little wild.

We made some calico-inspired cupcakes on Wednesday to celebrate her special day . . . she couldn't actually have one, but we showed them to her! :)

Happy birthday, Pumpkin! We're glad you're our cat.

Honk! 2024

This weekend we finally got to see the play we'd been hearing about for the past year: Honk!

When Janae and Alaina heard this was their school's upcoming musical, they were pretty disappointed. Most people hadn't heard of it, but when we looked it up, we saw that it was the well-known story of the ugly duckling.

One of the directors asked Janae if she was interested in playing a villain ... and, of course, she was. So, she tried out for the part of the tom cat--who pursues the duckling throughout the musical.

Janae made a perfect cat, singing songs like "You Can Play with Your Food Before You Eat It" and "Together" (this one while tangoing with another cat). She had some great lines and was very entertaining!

 

Alaina was also perfectly cast as a beautiful swan named Penny. She was the ugly duckling's "love interest" and had a duet with him at the end of the play. She looked and sounded so beautiful.

Instead of dressing up as animals, the cast wore 50s-style costumes and portrayed their characters through their actions and voices. Unfortunately, the only pictures I have were taken from backstage or after the play, since photos/videos were not allowed.

Here are a couple of recordings, also from backstage ... the performances looked and sounded a lot better from the audience (you can't even see Alaina while she's singing in the video, and you can only see Janae for part of her song!), but these capture a tiny bit of what they were like.

Play With Your Food

Penny's Solo

Jason and I got to see both casts (Janae's part was double cast, so she was a farm kid in the ensemble on Friday night, but Alaina played Penny both nights), and we were happy to have family and friends come out to see Janae's cast on Saturday night. 

I'm so proud of these two--they have incredible talents and did an amazing job of developing their characters over the past year, not to mention learning all the songs, lines and choreography. 

I'm not sure how they are actually my kids, but I'm so happy that they are :)