Our small town has a Christmas parade very year on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. Since Jerry is a volunteer firefighter, the kids get to ride on the truck in the parade. This was Simon and Jed's first year to ride and they were beyond delighted!
Ariel's 21st birthday fell in the midst of The Civil War, a heart rending musical, where Everett and Jerry fought on opposite sides. The younger boys have asked me dozens of times which ones are the bad guys. I always mumble something about this being a war about brother against brother, not neccesarily bad guys against good guys (after all, I have lived in NC a very long time so I know the drill). However, after watching the show more than a dozen times they have determined that the guys with the American flag are the good guys and the ones who tore down the flag to make another are the bad guys. Children have an inate understanding of right and wrong that is not easily complicated by political correctness.
We all spend alot of time at the theater, with the kids often doing their schoolwork there, while I get to work on costumes. In the evenings, it looks like this : the boys hanging their heads over whatever computer game is being played by friends and the girls talking about or playing with their American girl dolls. In this picture, you may notice Jed sitting in the front row where he can encouraged to be quiet. lol.
We love Chick-fil-A. Once a year they have 'cow appreciation day'. All cows get a free meal. We had white t-shirts and old karate pants. The only black fabric I could find in my excessively large fabric stash was a beautiful velveteen. I had visions of adorable little girl dresses made out of it. I sacrificed it for seven cows.
It was totally worth it. 
Several times a year, our family gets the opportunity to play at the Smokey Mountain Center for Performing Arts. That means, for a month or so, the kids pack up their computers and school books to attend a wonderful sort of 'theater charter school'. While I am sewing costumes, they do their regular school work and also often get to help out a little (like painting sets) and learn about the magic of an amazing state of the art theater. This is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream of mine that I never, ever, expected to be realized ( but more onthat in another post)
Our most recent show was Peter Pan. The Wright family was well represented. Lindsay, played Tiger Lily, with Andy and Kathryn as members of her tribe. Dominic was initially delighted to be a pirate, until he saw he would be dressed as a chinaman with a pigtail. He is very easy going, though, so he didn't complain (much) and was happily compensated by getting to have a sword.
Everett was a lost boy and had his hair dyed pink for the role. (Which he had the sense to be embarrassed about when he had to make an unexpected visit to the emergency room.)
Travis worked onstage as a pirate and backstage as Wendy's chief flyer. It was a bit disappointing to discover that flying isn't as much fun as it looks. Everyone who has tried it has said that those harnesses hurt ! So now you know.
Several members of the Wright Company recently had the opportunity to visit Washington, DC. We were in Virginia to move Katrina (who has finished her pharmacy residency) back to NC. While there, Ariel herded her younger siblings to a photo op at the Smithsonians Air and Space Museum. 
On our third night at Katrina's, my cell phone started buzzing , with a warning that there was a tornado in the area and to urge us to take cover immediately. It was a first for us and we were pretty skeptical, particularily since we weren't seeing anything online about tornadoes and we weren't even sure it knew where I was. Since Katrina had a relatively clean basement, I persuaded everyone to join me down there for a game of UNO. After awhile we got bored and went back upstairs. It wasn't until we heard the news the next day that we realized that the warning was the real thing. 
Rosie and Nellie are God's gift to each other. They still love playing with their American girl dolls together and are hoping to earn enough money this summer to buy another one. 
Tomorrow we are taking the kids to their first trip to Dollywood. Although they have only a vague idea of what that is (Dominic told Andy we would see a cougar there), they have seen the video of the new Eagle ride and are wildly excited about it. I have minor worries about Simon's motion sickness and Jed's "episodes", so we would appreciate prayers that all will be well.
Okay, so this isn't exactly going to be a post, just a notice that a month after receiving my new camera I have figured out how to get pictures onto my compter. (I have been making dresses for Clara, and my camera has been in the box.) As you can see, I don't know how to use the camera to take decent pictures, yet. I have about 20 hours to learn how to use it before the final dress rehearsal of Lamb of God. Jerry, Rosie, Nellie, Dominic and Andy are in it. (and Everett, of course, who has my favorite song in the show) It has been so great to have a picture of Jesus's life portrayed on stage for Simon and Jed over the last several weeks. Tomorrow we have a pediatric neurologist appointment for Jed. Hopefully I will have some time to read the camera manual while I am waiting. 
