Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving we head to South Dakota to visit Uncle Tim, Aunt Rebecca and their two dogs, Lola and Chance. We have lots of fun too!

We almost ALWAYS take in a hockey game.

We get a bit goofy...

Enjoy those dogs...(this is Chance)

Play at the park...

Enjoyed the Wii with Uncle Tim...

Hadleigh's First TV Commercial!

Hadleigh headed to the K.C. area to film her very first TV commerical!

All went well. We arrived on set at about 2:30 and the crew was on break from filming the mom and dad part all morning. They brought the 3 kids in the house for wardrobe and decked them out in winter coats, ear muffs, mittens, hats, etc. and sent them back outside to keep comfortable. Filming was ready to go at about 3:30 and they shot until about 5:30.

The storyline is a mom and dad shopping online. The dad walks to the window and sees the kids all sitting bundled on the bench in the snow (fake snow) and goes back to the mom to ask what they are doing. She mentions that she told them she was going shopping. They become absorbed w/ the online shopping and the kids come to the door knocking and ringing the doorbell. Hadleigh yells, “It’s really cold out here!”. The boys shout, “I thought we were going to the mall?!”, etc. There’s different scenes of the kids acting bored, sleeping, etc….they don’t know which scenes will make the commercial just yet. Originally the kids had no speaking parts but they were being so good that they decided to give it a try. Seemed like everyone was happy with their performance so it should make the commercial.

The commercial is for a grocery store chain (Giant Eagle) in the Ohio, Pennsylvania areas so we won’t be seeing it on our TV, however, we are supposed to get a link to a streaming feed so we can save to the computer.

This was a pretty big gig for her first round…it’s a union job with SAG (screen actor’s guild) and she’ll receive her base pay and then residuals on it. The producers had flown in from L.A. for the shoot so that was exciting. They set up “house” in a model home in Lee's Summit, blanketed the yard with white sheets and used a snow machine for the flurries. There were caterers with tables of food (kids liked the bowls of candy) and stylists who made sure the hair and makeup was in place and as a bonus we got to keep the wardrobe.

It was all pretty exciting! We can’t wait to see it all put together.

**All this happened about a week after she got "cut" for a Colgate web commercial. She was picked for the gig as the favorite (over 100 tried out) and then cut at the last minute because they changed the dad out and Hadleigh no longer matched. She was devastated so Giant Eagle saved the day in our eyes! She's off to meet Hallmark reps next week so we hope that all goes well.

Time Flies! Let's Start Back at Halloween

Where did we ever leave off? It's been a while....

Halloween was a fun time! Hadleigh dressed up as Dorothy (yes, we're STILL on the Wizard of Oz kick) and Ryker was Scarecrow. We even involved Mr. Higley this year and he received wonderful reviews as Toto!

The Wizard of Oz...Is OVER

Mom is very excited that she now has scheduling control back for our weekends. I'm a bit bummed that the shows are over and look forward to being part of OZ again next year.

'D' is for...

Every week for Kindergarten homework we get to cut out and find photos of items begnning with the letter of the week. Hadleigh really enjoys the challenge and tries really hard to make everything she wants to start with the letter needed.

DADDY

DOG

DESK

DRESS

DOLL

Children's Museum of Omaha

Dad tried out face painting...

Mom fixed it up a bit... Then we got a bit goofy...

Face Impressions of Mom, Dad & Hadleigh

There were lots of costumes to try out!
Performances to put on...
and Puppet Shows!

Farm Animals...probably not intended for riding. Even a kid sized grocery store.
What fun it was being in charge.
There was a cool light room that we spent gobs of time in. That's Hadleigh making angel wings.

It's PURPLE Season!

At Purple Power Play on Poyntz Hadleigh go to try out a real fireman hose, got her face painted, hair colored, played some games, got some goodies....all in 1 hour so she could rush home to her first Wizard of Oz practice. Whew!