Get Your Tickets to Annie!

Last Summer Maddie developed a love for Theater as she enjoyed being in the cast of Beauty and the Beast. She learned so much and developed some great friendships. As you know she is obsessed with Annie lately so when a flyer came home from school for an Audition to be in "Annie" she was elated!

A few weeks ago she auditioned and got the part of an Orphanette. The group is called Karousel Kids and has been around since the early 80's. They are based out of Claremont and I've heard wonderful things about their shows. It is a non-profit group but due to the quality of the show they put on it isn't cheap to be a part of. One of the requirements is that we sell a certain number of tickets. So I'm officially hitting you up to buy tickets to the show! They are $15 each and you can choose one of 7 shows to attend. The show will be top notch and I guarantee it will be well worth your money. There is a live orchestra and professional costumes and sets. It is held at Gardiner Spring Auditorium in Ontario, California which seats over 3,000.

Here are the dates:
Friday, July 10 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 11 at 1:00pm
Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 12 at 1:00 pm

Friday, July 17 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 18 at 1:00 pm
Saturday, July 18 at 7:30 pm

We would love to have you come! It will be a great show to be enjoyed by all! I have to order all the tickets by May 15 so if you are interested in coming please email me katiejnielsen@gmail.com or leave a comment here. If you aren't sure which show you want to come to you can purchase now and there will be an opportunity for me to switch tickets so you can go to the date you want to.

The Comfort of Old Friends...

One of my friends (and now cousin-in-law), Carrie Reeves Warnick came into town last week. Whenever she comes into town Tiffany and I get all of our friends together so we can all see Carrie. It is sad but even though we all still live remotely close it is the only time we get together! So we planned a get together at Chili's in Monrovia, where we spent many get-togethers over the years. It was so great to see everyone and reminisce of old times. I thought we'd maybe be there for 2 hours but we ended up staying for almost 4! I can't wait until our next get together!

Christine, Jasmin and Me

Megan, Jasmin, and Tiffany

Me and Carrie

Christine, Megan, Carrie, Me, Jammie, Jasmin, and Tiffany
Sorry this one's blurry

The big 3-0!

So I have officially come of age. I finally joined club 30!

My birthday started out great. I woke up early and Chris and I headed down to Disneyland to get my FREE ticket. The rest of my family don't have passes and I didn't really want to go on a Saturday but as you may already know you get in FREE on your birthday this year... and you can apply the ticket price ($69) to an Annual pass! It was totally worth the drive just to get my annual pass and save 69 bucks! So Chris dropped Sawyer and I off (since he gets in free I took him along!) and I flashed my ID got my ticket and went in the park to get my annual pass. After we were done we took a quick ride on the train and then went back out to the car.

On our way home Chris told me that my mom had called and wanted to take us to lunch. I thought, "Cool, I'm hungry". We met my Mom at Mimi's. When I walked up to the Podium the host said, "Oh, you're here for the birthday" I thought that was a little strange then as we walked toward the patio area I saw balloons and I knew something was up. My mom and Chris had thrown me a surprise party with all my good friends from Duarte! It was so fun seeing every one and I was really surprised. My Mom made a gorgeous cake with pink tulips. Here are some fun pictures of the day. It was so nice to catch up with old friends and enjoy my birthday! Thank you so much for all those who came to celebrate with me, it meant so much to me.







Chris also took me out to Dinner and a movie that night. He had my family all write something special for me and he put it all together. It was the best gift I could have asked for. I cried as I read it, mostly it was hard to read because you never really look at yourself the way others see you. It is something I'll always treasure and read it when I need a pick me up.

More pictures of Maddie's talent show

I already posted the video of Maddie's Talent show but I wanted to post these other pictures as well.

Our little Orphan Annie

All the kids got up at the end to sing "We're all in this Together" from High School Musical. They each held a pom pom in the school color.

Maddie with her cousin Hannah after the show

Maddie was excited to get her own boquet of flowers from Grampy and Grammy.
Needless to say she was very sad when they died!

Go Lakers!

Carter starting playing Basketball in a PeeWee league through our city. Here are some pictures of his first practice. He was really excited to find out his team is the Lakers, which is Daddy's favorite. He is pretty good at shooting but needs help dribbling. His first game is in a couple weeks and he is excited for it!