The Music Man

I love the Redlands Bowl! I love the spirit of it, the feel in the air, the people and definitely the sounds. My parents are great about taking the kids, alternating each week with a different kid all summer long. It's so much fun to picnic, play games and then listen or see what's playing. At least once a season we all go as a family and make a night of it. This year the Music Man was what we all chose to see.The night was fabulous! I made a yummy salad, chocolate chip bars and we had some wine (shared by friends-thanks Mercers) We saw lots of friends and even some family there too! Part of the fun is before the show. We got there about 6 and ate, played games, chatted with friends and the kids ran around after eating popsicles.
Nana and Gracie
Wesley's "cheese" face cracks me up! I love this kid!

I love this picture! The kids sat like this all on their own and made me laugh, each of them enjoying their popsicle and oblivious to me!Hope had to share her popsicle tongue with me
This is what you get when you add water to dirty hands and wipe them on your faceThe show was very well done and the kids really enjoyed it. Grady conked out about half way through, but Wesley sat on my Papa's lap and stayed awake the entire show!
We are looking forward to a few more summer nights spent at the bowl!

Jesus Christ Super Star

We went to the opera...hehe! We saw Jesus Christ Super Star, which is technically a "Rock Opera", but not really and opera. My sister works for a credit union in San Diego county and got free tickets to the show and offered them to us. James and I were glad to go and invited the Mercers and our friend Tiffy to go with us. We rarely get a chance to get dressed up and go out, so we got dressed up nice and planned to eat sushi in downtown San Diego.

The Oates

The Mercers, Jeff and Carmen + baby Mercer :)The girls, Carmen, Tiff and Faithy

We enjoyed the show, but the lead was a little interesting...he was the lead in the original movie back in the 70's, so needless to say he was an older (to put it nicely) "Jesus." There were all different kinds of people there and James and I both love to people watch! Some couples were dressed in fur and suits and others in jeans, I guess it was a show that appeals to all sorts of people. :)

I love this picture of us before the show...the best part is Tiffy in the background :)

One thing we didn't think about was it being Sunday night. The show got out about 8:30 and by the time we were out and walking around downtown, most of the restaurants closed at 9 :( So our plans for sushi didn't pan out, but we ate at Panera and enjoyed it just the same ;)

Thanks Heather for the tickets, we had a great time! Thanks Mercers and Tiff for coming with us!

Piano

We have been searching for a piano for months now and just haven't found one that was worth buying. I had mentioned it to my friend Jenn and her mom just so happened to be getting rid of her 100+ year old piano!James rented a trailer and drove to Yorba Linda with my brother-in-law to pick it up and now we are the proud owners of a 120 year old upright grand piano! It is beautiful and fits perfectly in the spot we had saved for it! The girls will be starting piano lessons soon and I am looking forward to hearing its sweet sound on a daily basis! (I'm sure I'll need a reminder of this in a few weeks :)

Thank you Stichter family!!