High Five for Friday (11.11.22)

 

One

Last week Tom traveled to California for work, so my sister-in-law and I joined him for a couple of days. (More on the trip in a coming post!) Preparing to leave, even for just a few days, felt like a herculean feat - and catching up after returning home was no small task either - but we had a good time.

Two

So we could both leave town, Tom's parents came to visit. They did a great job holding down the fort, and we were so grateful for their help! (Thanks also to my friends who covered me for a PTO Board meeting, a Ballet Brazos Board meeting, Nutcracker responsibilities, and Saturday rehearsal shuttling!)

Three

Sweet, sweet Standard Time...oh, how I love you. 

I know Standard Time is on its way out (I'm SO bitter about this, but that's another post for another time), so I'm going to enjoy this last cycle as much as I possibly can. Cheers to sleeping in an extra hour last weekend, and getting up with the sun - instead of in what feels like the dead of night - for the next few months.

Four

We've had so many fun pieces of Nutcracker publicity circulating on social media recently:

Here's "news story" #1...

...and here's "news story" #2. (Don't miss this one, as you might recognize Mandy Marzipan. Also worth noting, almost everyone in these videos is wearing clothing from a Ferris family member's closet. Who knew my very first suit - Banana Republic circa 2002 - would come in so handy! 😂 )

Here are our friends on the news:

Get your tickets now (through the MSC Box Office) - show weekend will be here before we know it!

December 2nd at 7pm and December 3rd at 2pm and 6:30pm

Five

Happiness Highlights

Love this pic of my sis-in-law and her puppy baby, Fabio. 

Swapping out ketchups - to find the fullest one - at
IHOP. Sweet boy knows the way to his mama's heart.

I hate selfies, but wanted to show my new Love Like Morgan
sweatshirt in honor of what would have been her 12th birthday
this past Monday. All of the money raised is going to the
Houston Zoo, her absolute favorite place.

It's possible I've shared this before, but I'm sharing it
again because he is such a buddy. And he has no shame.

Western/Cowboy Day at school. Lucky for these
girls, Tom was willing to share two of his light hats.

Will's school newspaper did an article on students who
coach and/or referee youth sports. They included a photo
of and a few great quotes by him. (They also called him
a "senior", but thank goodness that's not true.)

Kind of silly, but Hallie's Red Ribbon Week coloring
won first prize. I used to be TERRIBLE at coloring
inside and cutting on the lines (my mom has the report
cards to prove it) so it makes me proud that she has
passed my skills in these areas.

Back home in time to watch my boy work!

Popeye LOVED watching cats on television.

A slight resemblance? (Also, this is how he sits
with Hallie every morning while she eats breakfast.)

Happy weekend, friends!

The Adventures of Plié and Popeye, Episode 3

Episode 3: These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Plié's Loves:

• Rubber bands. She comes running as soon as she hears me bustling around the bathroom, because she knows that at some point I'll have to open the drawer where I keep the rubber bands. Once she pulls out the rubber band of her choosing, she plays with it for a bit and then "hides" it in her water dish. 

• Pill container tops. She comes running as soon as she hears Tom bustling around the bathroom, because she know that at some point he'll have to take his daily medicines and might leave a pill top unattended. What she doesn't know is that he now saves empty pill bottles and tops, and every morning he sets one on on the corner of the counter for her to "find". Once she knocks her pill bottle top to the floor, she plays with it for a bit and then "hides" it in her water dish. She keeps a lot of stuff in her water dish.
• Ice cubes. She comes running as soon as we start filling our cups or water bottles from the refrigerator dispenser because she's hoping an ice cube will fall. We've started "accidentally" dropping an ice cube for her - ice cubes make her so happy...but when she's done playing with them I have to mop that area of the kitchen.

Popeye's Loves:

• Watching us shower and then watching (and possibly drinking) the water droplets as they drip slowly off the open shower door. He comes running as soon as he hears the shower turn on, and then waits patiently* on the rug until we get out. 
• *He waits patiently now...after learning the hard way that if he runs full speed toward the shower door, he can't actually penetrate the glass. Poor baby...

• Riding in the car. Will and I took Popeye with us on a parallel parking practice drive, and while he was nervous at first, he eventually settled in and enjoyed the ride. Safety note: because we were only parallel parking, we were driving under 5mph in an empty parking lot. When actually driving with animals, I put them in a cage and buckle the cage in.

• Playing dead. Enough said.

Love our babes.

Episode 2

Episode 1

High Five for Friday (11.4.22)

 

This week's HFFF post encompasses a couple of weeks, since I went Halloween-themed with last week's HFFF post. So much to cover!

One

All things Encore...

1a - The amazingly talented Ari Jones took these photos of Hallie and her entire ballet company at this year's Encore photo shoot.

1b - Hallie was honored to have been chosen to participate in one of the dances Encore showcased in its audition video for Regional Dance America. After multiple incredibly difficult rehearsals and one very long day of filming, the audition videos were submitted...and a week later we found out that Encore was accepted!

1c - Encore's first ever fall show - Encore En Motion - went so well!

Yes, it's blurry, but I love this pic of
Hallie and her friend Abby mid-jump.

Two

Another year of photos at the pumpkin patch (in dance attire) for these three!

Three

I voted (early), and it felt incredibly good to check some of those boxes. I did my research this year, more so than ever before, and I HIGHLY encourage those of you who live in College Station to do the same.  (I'm happy to chat elections and candidates and proposals in real life if anyone is interested in learning about what I and others unearthed during this research...feel free to send me an email at erinlferris@yahoo.com.)

Four

My girl just picked up her fourth pair of pointe shoes! While her third pair isn't dead yet, she doesn't love them so they'll be retired a little earlier than we expected. 

She'd want me to ask that you please excuse the
pajama pants and old-tights-turned-socks - she was up
sewing her elastics and ribbons late into the night!

Five

All things Halloween...

5a. On Saturday night, after a full day of Nutcracker and Christmas at the Lake rehearsals, we went to the middle school haunted house. The wait to get in was almost an hour and a half (see the pics below of us passing the time), but it was worth it to see the girls' bestie Kara as Samara from The Ring and a few other friends in equally creepy roles. We had lots of fun, and I was impressed with how scary they made the entire experience!

Waiting...

Still waiting...

We started to go a little crazy...

And then we went a lot crazy.

We grabbed Kara - on her way in, pre-Samara wig - for a photo.

There's was no turning back
once we reached the scary clown! 

5b. On Halloween we had friends over for pizza, cupcakes, trick-or-treating (the candy canon made its third annual appearance), and candy sorting and trading. Though our numbers continue to decline as our older kids have started making plans that don't involve trick-or-treating with their parents and younger siblings, we still have lots of fun!

Popeye loves all people, and all people love him.

Popeye also loves costumes.

Plie, not so much.

Another year, another four dozen cupcakes!

This is Will running away from me trying to take
a picture of him as he left for a friend's house.

We actually reached 175 - five more kids came up the driveway
in search of candy after we had retired the Candy Canon.

Happy belated Halloween!