Errands for Ethan!

I can't believe that it has been another year.  Ethan William Ellsworth passed away 2 years ago today--March 26th.  Last year, I was GLUED to his family blog as his mother, Kim, posted daily on what exactly Ethan was doing on that very day the previous year.  Everything from what he ate, who he played with, etc...  She did this for every day for the month of March.  She posted everything she could remember and even told in detail about his last few days in the hospital before he passed away from complications that resulted from an AVM (similar to a brain aneurysm).  He was only 7 years old at his passing.  I still follow this blog and I absolutely LOVE the raw/honest emotions of Kim.  She inspires me to be grateful for every day that I have with my family.

His parents have started a whole "Errands for Ethan" foundation and they even have a website.  Click here to go to Errands for Ethan.

This year we were once again SOO excited to be a part of this!!!  My first errand again this year was for Kim--Ethan's Mom and his little sister Madilyn--this little girl brings tears to my eyes every time I read on their family blog about how she LOVES to wear her big brother's clothes.  So I thought a cute necklace for Madi with picture of her brother on it would be something she could wear everyday.

The big one for mom, the little one for little sis!

Since Ethan's dad, Marcus, is a co-founder of Actor's Youth Theater, I thought it would be SUPER fun to get some AYT kids involved!  Several of these youth actually knew Ethan Ellsworth and were in plays with him.  They were all MORE than excited and willing to participate!  This is what happens with a bunch of teenagers in your kitchen--FUN FUN FUN!!!

Tatum & Savvy 

I took this picture from the Ellsworth's blog--this is Ethan & Savvy in "Peter Pan & Wendy"

Carlie busy mixing

Fearless Kale & Thommy (CUTE aprons right?!)

Kale told me that he got to "kidnap" Ethan every night in "Peter Pan & Wendy"

Carlie, Kale, Kayleah, Lois, Thommy, Tate, Hayden, & Tatum

Afterwards they walked all over our neighborhood delivering plates of cookies!  This year the cookies were not ditched but were handed to the people with the cute Ethan card and an explanation from the kids.  I was home cleaning the kitchen (MY act of kindness:) but apparently everyone who received cookies were completely surprised and touched.

**And just for extra kindness in my day, I let all my piano students today pick 2 prizes from the piano prize box:)  It was fun showing all my students Ethan's picture and explaining why they were getting an extra prize.  They all thank Ethan:)

So my heart goes out to the Ellsworth family on this day.  I hope and pray that you find comfort and joy on this blessed day.  Thanks for letting us be a part of this fantastic event!

T-ball Girl!

Chris is convinced that this is his one true athletic child so we're trying out T-ball for Tatum Jane.  She is on the "Ladybugs" team with the Chandler Girl's Softball League (Carlie played 4 seasons with them and we LOVE them!)  Check out how CUTE this girl is!!!

Hard to see but she is #2!

Teammates:  Emily, Tatum, Juliana, & Madi

The whole Ladybug Gang!

They practiced all of March and Tatum has already had 2 games!  You can't get too into the games because the girls are all ages 4-6 and are working hard at learning this game.  It's gonna be a FUN season!!!  GO LADYBUGS!

The Mermaid Experience:)

Holy Cow!!!  We ALL made it through the week last week!!!  And NO ONE was sick!!!  WOO HOO!!!  That was my biggest worry of last week--I rubbed the "On Guard" oil on my kid's feet every night last week just to be sure:)

What an AMAZING experience this whole production was!  My kids had the best time.  Carlie was Queen Bee for 2 whole months and my boys actually enjoyed themselves and "may" try out for something else sometime soon:)  I could not have been more proud of these kids.  I was a nervous WRECK but these kids were cool and calm--especially Carlie.  For some reason, the stage-fright gene skipped out on her:)  Every night she gave a SOLID performance and every night I cried during "Part of Your World!"  UGH!!!  Couldn't help it!!!  She is a piece of my heart and soul up there on stage!!!  I just told her to NOT look at me EVER during the show:)

I took way too many pics but just couldn't help myself!!! So here they are in somewhat order:

If you came dressed up as a princess, you got your name entered into a drawing!  Tatum won the first night!!!

The Beehives in our ward came to see the show opening night!!!

The cutes Sailors ever!!!  (Except for the red-haired boy--my boys did NOT like him:)

Scuttle (Thommy), Ariel, & Flounder (Sydney)

Ethan's best friend Michael came to see the show!!!  He was SOOO excited to have him there!  It meant the world to Ethan!

Carlie was pretty much a celebrity as she was MOBBED after the shows with all the little girls wanting to meet her--this made for LATE nights:)

Ariel, Scuttle, & a Mersister (Savvy)

My kiddos:)

Ariel & Ursula (Skylar)--YES!  That is Ursula's REAL hair!!!

Ariel & Sebastian (Rhett)

CUTEST KIDS EVER!!!

So on Friday, they had a "school matinee performance" which meant that my kids got to miss school--well...technically they could have gone back at half-day BUT that would have meant that I would have had to take OFF my boys make-up and THEN put it ON again--NO THANK YOU!!!  That was definitely the hardest part of my day--make-up on squirmy boys.  Carlie asks me at 7:30 that morning (we were headed to the show at 7:45 am) 

"Can Thommy come over after the school performance?  His mom has to work and he has no way home."  

"Okay, that's fine." I say.  

5 minutes before the matinee starts I get a text:

"Can Kale & Annie come too???"

I text back:

Okay but no more, we don't have any more seats in our van.

After the show-- Carlie:  "Annie can't come so it's just Thommy and Kale."

Me:  "Okay, let's go then."

Driving home I see a car behind me honking and flashing me down--it was Tayte and his mom. 

"PULL OVER PLEASE!!!"

So I pull over...

Erica:  "Tayte wants to come too!!!  Is that okay?!"

Me:  "Alright so NOW it's a party:)"  

So I ended up with 3 extra kids at my house from 11:30-4:45 when we had to leave again for the evening performance!  Impromptu party for sure so we just grabbed some Little Ceaser's pizzas and Thirst Busters from Circle K and headed home.  Yes!  I took all these crazy kids with make-up and yellow tights INTO Circle K--good times!  I wanted Carlie to rest up her voice so that she would be ready for the show that night--YEAH RIGHT!!!  This kids LAUGHED and LAUGHED and played the entire afternoon.  They all had such a fabulous time being together--Carlie and 3 boys go figure!!!  Well, I wanted the hang-out house RIGHT?!  It was fun I have to admit:)  I fed them dinner and then loaded them up to take them back.  I did threatened then that night--"You guys better give the performance of a lifetime or you are NEVER coming back to my house!!!"  They delivered:)

Carlie, Thommy, Tayte, & Kale

And THEN after being together ALL day, it was the traditional AYT night at IHOP.  They always go to IHOP after the Friday night show.  It sure was LOUD and we didn't walk out of there until 11:30 pm.  The kids hung out with all their friends and I hung out with all the moms which was really fun too.  I was totally and completely exhausted on Friday night.  I was asleep before my head hit the pillow!

I know Carlie was not excited for the show to be over but I kinda was:)  Only because it was an exhausting schedule to upkeep.  The shows each night got better and better and just ran smoother.  The actors were always amazing, it was the tech issues (like mics and stuff) that had kinks to work out.  The last show was simply amazing.  Afterwards the theater sold "Photo Passes" to come and take pictures with the leads on stage--Chris and I like to joke that they "pimped" out our daughter to make a few more bucks:)  She LOVE it!  The line was long--just like Disneyland!!!  I of course bought a pass for Tatum:)

Carlie and her Prince (Kale)

I was going to delete this picture but didn't because it is SOOO Kale!  Such a ham!

This is all the leads with the director--Randy, and the choreographer--Rachel in the back

Fantastic show fantastic people!!!  We LOVED every exhausting minute of it!!!  I am sooo proud of my kiddos!  Love you guys SOOOOOO much!!!  I am one proud mama!