happy halloween!

happy halloween!  we took noah to our first ever trunk-or-treat event this weekend at our town's civic center.  it didn’t take him long to get into it!  even though he didn’t eat any candy, he got a kick out of everyone putting something in his bag.

we dressed noah up as blippi and i dressed up as meekah since noah's obsessed!  he loved the costumes.

we're looking forward to seeing the trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood tonight, and we're really excited to dress up noah for his third halloween!

look at that little pineapple all dressed up for his first halloween two years ago and as an avocado for his second halloween last year . . .

happy halloween!

love, laurie

a tribute to kenny rogers and dolly parton

fall tribute season continued this weekend with a tribute to kenny rogers and dolly parton.  the audience loved it!

you can see more of my photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

an awesome award!

the theatre where we work was lucky enough to win the "best live entertainment" award in our newspaper's local readers' choice awards.  this is the fourth year in a row that we have won this award, but the first time we were available in person to go accept the award.  we're very grateful that the theatre was recognized and that so many people voted for us!

love, laurie

noah loves roba's

it's been a bit since we've had a chance to get back to roba's since we've been so busy in the theatres with shows, and any day that we haven't had a show, there has been bad weather.  so, we were happy to find a couple of hours last weekend to pop over to roba's for a little bit to let noah enjoy the farm.

other than the fact that we all came home smelling like campfire smoke and needed very good baths, he had fun!

love, laurie

the view out our window

we love the tree that grows in our back yard directly outside our bedroom window.  it is especially colorful in the fall.  it has been so nice to see the beautiful colors of the leaves recently on the tree every day!

love, laurie

a tribute to 80s hairbands

tribute band weekend continued on saturday with a tribute to 80s hairbands.  the band did a three-set show with tributes to poison, def leppard, and bon jovi.

you can see more of my photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

rockin' out to journey

it was a tribute band weekend with a tribute to journey on friday night.  this band has returned to our stage for the last several years and they are always a great time!

you can see more of my photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

one year

we've officially lived in our new house for one year now and i can't believe how the past year has flown by.  i love this photo that ryan snapped of me holding noah standing in his bedroom doorway back when we did a walkthrough of our new house before we even had walls.

love, laurie

big boy

i can't believe this dude is 2 years and 2 months old today.  it's nonstop craziness with this big boy!

love, laurie

happy anniversary, mom and dad!

this has always been one of my favorite pictures of my mom and dad (taken back in 1979, one year before they were married).  

today is their 44th wedding anniversary!  i'm blessed to have two amazing parents who are such wonderful role models, and i'm so grateful that noah has them as such incredible grandparents!

happy anniversary, mom and dad!

love, laurie

official crew member

we all wear name badges at the theatre and noah likes our badges.  i had one left over so i printed out his name to make him an official badge . . . cuteness.

love, laurie

another weekend, another show

it's the fall, which means it's tribute band season on stage.  this past weekend we had a "face-to-face" elton john and billy joel tribute band.  the music was great and the audience loved it!  you can see more photos from the show on the theatre's facebook page here.

love, laurie

an afternoon a quiet valley living historical farm

it has been 7 1/2 years since we've visited quiet valley living historical farm.  we used to love going there but haven't had a chance to go in so long.  this past weekend was their 50th anniversary of their harvest festival.  we headed down and spent some time stepping back in time on saturday.

it was a nice fall day (even though it ended up being very hot outside).  i didn't get a ton of photos because we were preoccupied chasing after noah, but i did snap a few photos . . . 

love, laurie

a day "off"

it's a rare day today where we don't have any shows, classes, meetings, etc.

there's no time to rest though, here's to getting caught up on loads of things!  maybe one day we'll get a real day off.

love, laurie

aurora borealis

my entire life i have wanted to see the northern lights.  i have always been fascinated with the aurora borealis and it's been one of those bucket list type things to see it.  i figured i never would because it's usually visible in places i don't travel, but low and behold, last night the northern lights gave a magical light show display right over our house.

it was late at night and i was in bed getting noah to sleep.  i was scrolling through facebook and saw person after person posting incredible photos of the aurora borealis over our area's skies.  i was beyond confused and told ryan to go look out the window to see if he could find anything.  at first he didn't see it and we figured we must have missed it.  then he went out on our back deck and found it.  we took turns looking at the sky from our back deck in our pajamas and quickly snapping photos on our phones before it was gone.  

it was absolutely beautiful!

love, laurie

blast from the past

i can't believe this photo is from exactly 2 years ago.  how is noah so big now?!

i have been enjoying dressing him in fall clothes since it's the season and i was reminiscing about when he was only a few weeks old and wearing this adorable pumpkin outfit!  too cute.

love, laurie

scootin'

our neighbor gave noah's their son's old scooter that he outgrew.  noah hasn't figured out how to ride it yet, but he does like to stand on it and have us push him around.

love, laurie

we survived "mad forest"

the fall main-stage show at the university where ryan and i both work was "mad forest" this year.  the three-part play took place in 1989 in romania during the romanian revolution.  

as usual, ryan wore many hats: production manager, technical director, lighting designer, and set builder.  i designed the costumes and noah helped with everything.

for my own sake, at the end of costuming designing every show i like to take a total count of all of the costumes in the production.  here's my tally for this production . . .

"mad forest" by the numbers:

80 full outfits

174 individual costume pieces including:

8 undershirts

52 shirts

11 sweaters

5 vests

2 capes

39 pairs of pants

7 skirts

2 wedding dresses

15 other dresses

1 nightgown

1 robe

2 jumpers

1 jumpsuit

2 boxers

1 slip

4 hospital gowns

21 jackets

95 accessories including:

12 belts

6 ties

11 hats

1 set of wings

10 scarfs

2 aprons

1 garter

2 headbands

3 crowns

10 pairs of glasses

3 watches

10 rings

20 pairs of earrings

2 necklaces 

2 bracelets 

along with:

8 stockings 

27 pairs of socks

41 pairs of shoes

bringing the grand tally of things in the show to 345!

here are some photos from the show taken by the university students for the school newspaper.

love, laurie