I'm 2 Today!

Hudson's birthday was this past Saturday. Since that was the same day my show opened and Daniel and I were involved with another Christmas program at church, we decided to have a little party next weekend. But I did make him a t-shirt that said "I'm 2 today!" so that he'd get lots of attention on his birthday. When people asked him how old he was he'd hold up an arbitrary number of fingers and say "2!". Here's a couple pics of him trying on hats while we did some shopping at Marshall's





Since it was his birthday, we let him eat as many cookies as he wanted at church, hence the crumb drool down the front of his shirt. Thanks Don and Karen for the sit-n-spin, mom for the book and the blow-up dumbells (Hudson loves to "struggle" to lift them, grunt, and say "heeeavy"), and dad and Lisa for the remote-control dump truck. And thanks to everyone for the cute birthday cards too!

Coffee, Licorice, and Little Jazz Hands

Hey, I'm sorry for the long break between blog entries. I have been lost in the enchanted world of childrens' theatre. I just came back from striking my first full-fledge set design since college, a children's musical called "Into the Magic" at Marblehead Little Theatre (http://www.m-l-t.org). It was so fun and so rediculously exhausting. I pulled two all-nighters there this week (another first since college) and my diet for the past two weeks has consisted mainly of the occasional cup of coffee and the saltines, licorice, and Capri Suns I scavenged from the attic at the theatre. It's been awesome. What is it about theatre that makes it so addictive? I mean, there are long, late nights of labor-intensive, low-paying work when you count down the days till the show is over. Then when it's all done you spend two hours tearing down the set that took two months of planning, designing, building, and painting to make. Yet amidst the sound of screw guns, breaking wood, and ripping fabric, you starting counting down the days till the next show. It's sick.

Well, here are some pics! By the way, you can click on any pictures in our blog and see a bigger version.


The Cast--characters from all the major fairy tales.


This is the bedroom set. Two sisters--one a young girl who still believes in fairy tales and make-believe and the other a 13-year-old who's growing out of that phase.


Here's how the set transitioned from one scene to the other.


And this is Studio A of "Make-Believe World" which is actually a movie studio lot where all fairy tales get re-enacted 24/7 as children in the real world are hearing the stories. So the show was kind of like "Shrek" in that sense-- a mix of all the fairy tales. There were other little set pieces and props that moved on and off stage during the show but these pics represent the majority of the set.

It was a great show and all four performances were sold out. And now I am kind of the resident set designer for the Marblehead Little Theatre's Children's program. It's good to see my college degree hasn't gone to waste : )

ROOAAARRRR!

Last night was Halloween! Daniel organized a trick-or-treat canned food drive at our church like the ones his fraternity did every year in college. A group of about 12 of us went around Marblehead during trick-or-treat hours and collected food to donate to the Marblehead Food Bank. We filled the church van about 1 1/2' with food!

Hudson was hauled around all evening in a little red wagon and by the end of the night the fur of his mane was glued to his chin and checks with candy and chocolate residue. But he was quite proud of his costume and would even make little growling noises when he didn't think anyone was listening. He'd say. "lion...roooar, lion...roooar". Afterwards we all went to the Zetes' house for cookies and when Daniel picked Hudson up to bring him in the house, he noticed he was soaking wet. His little lion tail was dripping with...something. When he sat him down I pulled up the leg of his lion suit and there his diaper was around his ankle. Who knows how it got there or how long it had been there.

But we've filed this photo away into the "Pictures to pull out and show his first girlfriend" folder.

Hudson-ese

Just wanted to share with you all some more Hudson-ese for those of you who have not been able to purchase your "Hudson to English" dictionaries yet...
Hudson is actually starting to pick up some of the "a. b's." (ABC's). But he has a bit of trouble pronouncing a few of the sounds. Like, the hard "c" sound comes out as a "p" sound. Cousin Cooper is "Pooper" (true, it's probably an accurate description but still, it's just not proper). And it's always a bit unsettling when Hudson cries out from the dinner table, "More porn! More porn!" Here are a few more:
"mermain" (airplane)
"bi-truh" (firetruck)
"Why-she" (Elisha)
"in-nair" (in there)
"a-PEE-juz" (apple juice)
"i-TARR" (guitar)
"drum" (hammer dulcimer)
He used to call the slide at the park a "wide" so Daniel was trying to correct him by emphasizing the "sl" sound. "Sssssss...LIDE, sssss....LIDE" Daniel repeated. So now Hudson refers to slides as, "ssssss...WIDE".

The Longest Birthday Ever!

It's been busy but I'll try to catch up. My birthday celebrations seemed to span over a 9 day period beginning with a surprise Regina Spektor concert with Daniel in Cambridge and ending with a fun-filled weekend in the 'Nati. Scattered inbetween there were dinners out, free babysitting, birthday e-mails, several relaxing spells at Starbucks, thriftstore shopping sprees, cake, a call from Thailand, and other good things. Thanks to all of you!

You know, I don't mind turning 27 because life is good and I feel like I've been able to have so many great life experiences already--living abroad, having a super happy marriage and a great kid, starting my own little business, living on the east coast just a short walk from the ocean, great family, great friends, loving church. I think it's been 27 years well-spent and I hope to be a better steward of the next 27 years too.

I was so great being with family last weekend. Pictures are often more interesting than words so I'll share some pics.


By the way, it was such a blessing to be able to watch Tye lead worship at the Cincinnati Vineyard. You can watch the video at http://www.vccproductions.com . Actually, I've got Hudson in my lap right now watching it so that I can finish this post. Every time the camera moves off Tye, Hudson cries and protests "more tye, more tye" and when it moves back to Tye he claps and says "Yeah!" He keeps saying "Uh! Where's Tye? Where's Tye?" then "Uh! There it is"

Here are some other pics from the trip!


Hanging with the Hudster and Coop-dawg (my first and only nephew!) at the happiest place on earth--Skyline






Hudson's "I'm too cool to even acknowledge the camera" face.





I got a lot more video that you'll just have to wait until Christmas to see!

But this Vineyard video is becoming too emotional for Hudson so I'm going to have to sign off here. He's like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" trying to snap and clap to the beat of Tye and the band rocking out. I'm afraid it's too much for him. : )

E-I-E-I-O

Sunday we went to Rockport, MA and Halibut State Park with Tye, Andrea, Jared, and Leah. It was beautiful! Rockport is a small, artsy town on the coast with lots of shops, cafes, and art studios. Halibut State Park, just up the road, has an old rock quarry turned lake that overlooks the ocean. The shoreline is made up of these HUGE boulders the we climbed around. The wind was blowing off the ocean, the waves were crashing against the rocks, and the sun was setting through the clouds. Here are a few pics as well as a video of Daniel, Tye, Andrea, and Hudson singing "Old McDonald" on the car ride home.

The VonAllmen's Come to Town

Tye and Andrea are here this weekend. So far we've kinda just been hanging out. They played a show last night at Front Street Coffeehouse in Salem. Today I think we might head to the Farmers Market here in Marblehead and then to downtown Boston for some Boston Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. mmmmm.


Here we are--the Cincinnati crowd representin' all up in Salem M.A.


After being shocked when he slide down the plastic slide at the park, Hudson was a bit unsettled. Andrea and Tye try to comfort him.

Fun with Mary Kay

Hudson gave us both a makeover. Don't we look pretty? I feel he was going for a more subtle, natural look for me with just the light purple eyeshadow on my cheeks. But for himself he wanted something that said "Hey, I'm here and I'm beautiful."


Hudson loves bikes so much that we finally decided to get him one. After getting it out of the box we realized his feet didn't reach the pedals. But he doesn't seem to mind. He's quite proud.


What a ham! He calls cameras "cheese" and loves to have his picture taken.

Jumpin, on the blog bandwagon!

Hey family and friends-
I've decided to start a blog for several reasons: 1. so that whenever you find yourself up at 4:00am wondering, "Hmm, wonder what those crazy Armstrongs are up to these days?" you can log on and find out! 2. to have a kind of family journal that we can keep and refer back to for years to come, 3. to hopefully share more frequently and more deeply what's going on in our lives than I usually do in my occasional mass e-mails, and 4. Lisa Whechel, former 80's tv star from "The Facts of Life" told me to...in a book someone gave me....not in real life or just in my head.

So, just to catch you all up to speed, we're doing great! Daniel is still enjoying Tool and is always working on a wide range of projects from helmets to chair mats. And he's busy in the evenings working on illustrations for books he and his brother are working on. Hopefully you'll be able to see them in a bookstore near you someday in the not too distant future.

Hudson is awesome. I put him to bed about a half hour ago and since then he's been quietly talking and singing to his stuffed animals in his crib. He learns new words every day. I can't even count how many he knows now. All day long he points and labels everything he sees--"i" (ice cream), "moor" (mower), "chuak" (truck), "muk"(milk), "cha" (chocolate), "trailer" (trailer)...he loves watching movie trailers so he says that one perfectly.

He loves all things "boy" like trucks, construction equipment, motorcycles, and tools....and scratching himself. He's got so much of Daniel's personality in him--he's super expressive, excitable, and a bit crazy.

I'm doing great too. I've got more freelance work than I can handle right now which is a good problem to have. Check out my portfolio at http://www.arianarmstrong.com if you'd like. Hopefully I'll have the "website design" page updated in the next couple weeks. I'm also working with Marblehead Little Theatre designing the set for their December children's play so it's good to see my tuition dollars are paying off : )

I miss all of you who are scattered all over the world now. I hope that we can come your way or you can come ours soon. Our futon is always available for any of you who can make your way to the Boston area. Til then, please keep checking back here and give us call or an e-mail to let us know what's up with you too.