The Many Faces of Carroll at TPT

We had many options during TPT . . . family Carroll, serious working Carroll, disco Carroll, tired Carroll, bad hair day Carroll, Segway Carroll, rock climbing Carroll, chesty Carroll. Quite a few wardrobe changes!

A Moment in History

I told Jess she won't realize until she's older, but she was a part of history today.

Family Night Takes on a Whole New Meaning

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So just before Halloween (and no, these posts are not in order), we had a family night at Jessica's school. Somehow Carroll was stupid enough, errr, lucky enough to volunteer to babysit Lucy and Charlie for an overnighter so Bren and Jerri could wing off to Vegas for a quick jaunt. Amazing kizmet that the overnighter was the same day as Jessica's school family-night show. So, off we all went to the show. The kids had an amazing time. Charlie played some manly basketball, and then worked his way into the crowd until he was hanging out with some 'older women' - first grade triplets. Go Charlie! Lucky he left his princess skirts at home.

Jess sang two songs with her class and then all three kids mostly sat and watched the show. An exhausted Carroll then took the kids home to a dinner-of-champions - McDonalds. Big shock that Adrian had to 'work late' and arrived just as the kids were all down for bed.

The next day Lucy did some gardening duty and we all had a dance party starting around 6am. It was a hugely long 24-hours, but the kids were fab and a good time was had by all.

Vampire Jessica

Jess goes all out this year as an evil Vampire. GREAT fun trick-or-treating and wearing the vamp ensemble to the school carnival day.

Halloween Preparations 2008

After the traditional big gap that starts before TPT and extends until several weeks after - we have finally returned with some Nash photos. Getting the house ready for Halloween was good fun with our standard webs, rats, giant spiders and Skeleton Steve.

Adrian in New York for the Week

So mom and Jess have to find fun things to do after school. Last night we decided to stage our own Nash version of Project Runway. We used toilet paper as our challenge and got to work. Carroll made Jess a supermodel dress only suitable for a magazine fashion shoot. Jess decided to make mom a more 'covered' cocktail dress since mom 'is not built like those fashion ladies on the show.' We had many huge laughs and now Jess wants to do it again with something other than TP!!!

Well duh!

FIRST DAY OF THIRD GRADE

Oh just rip my heart out and show it to me as I die!! Jessica started third grade this week and I cannot believe she is this old. I pretty much got a lot of 'DON'T bring your camera into school and embarrass me.' And 'DON'T start crying until you get out to the car.' Big sigh. Isn't this what all moms do?! Jess was very excited to start 3rd grade this year and we're hoping for another great academic year. I'm already thinking of ideas for our, I mean HER, science project. Two years at second place . . . this year we CRUSH the opposition and go for NUMBER ONE. I mean, hopefully we can do well, and have a good learning experience in the process. (And Ali wonders why we Americans like the Olympics.)

Last Week Before School Starts

Summer finally had to end and for our last week off we had a great day out with the Heffernan clan (sans Bren) to see the Peacocks at the Pasadena Arboretum. VERY hot, but great fun with the kids. I've got some peacock shots around here somewhere, so I'll dig those out and get them up shortly. Trying to get this blog updated a bit before Adrian beats me for doing something other than TPT work. (Only where the bruises won't show!!)

What a Summer!!

So it started with bees making a huge hive in the crawl space above our living room. Then inside plumbing issues made us finally face our mostly collapsed sewage line from the house to the street. We've had a great summer of home improvements that cost a ton of money, but can't actually be SEEN. The sewage line was fun and I snapped a nice pic of a chunk of pipe that was so filled with tree roots they could not even cut through it until they dug 6 feet down. Part of the pipe was so eaten away by tree roots it had just collapsed. No big surprise to us, the sewage pipes were the original from when the house was built, so now we're set for another 20-30 years. If only we could redo the damn bathrooms!!!

Filming on the iCarly Set

Adrian managed to pull a few strings to get Jess and I into a taping of iCarly over at the Nickelodeon studios up on Sunset Blvd. Such a fun afternoon and we couldn't have had a better time. Not sure who had more fun, Carroll or Jess, but it was a close race. I was able to bring my camera and when we first arrived I admitted to Jess I felt a bit lame pulling out the camera for silly photo-ops, but my genius daughter used my own wisdom back at me 'Mom, no one her knows you, so who cares if they think you are weird.' She knows me so well, and I broke out the camera. I think we were the only one in the small group who had one, but I got some great shots - so WHO CARES!

The Green Room

So before the show started, we got to hang out in the Green Room with some of the cast running lines, and many crew members coming in and out for the eats. The eats were IMPRESSIVE. They pretty much had some of everything you could imagine - salad, fruit, chicken carnitas!, chips, donuts, candy, cheesecake, chocolates, sour gummies. Jessica and I forced ourselves to have a bit of everything - really seemed rude not to!

Here are Some of the Sets

Jess Meets the Cast

So after the show 'Freddy' and 'Sam' signed autographs, and as we were leaving Sam commented on Jessica's cool mismatched shoes and we got a solo photo op. The kids on the show were really nice to all the younger kids who came to watch, I was very impressed with them all.

Jess Around the iCarly Set

So after the shoot was over, we got to wander around the sets and shoot some pics. Jess felt a bit silly, but was a trooper. I wanted a bit more ACTION, but Jess said I was lucky to get her to pose at all!

Lucy's Third Birthday

So Jerri and Bren refused to join the 'arms race' (as Brendan phrased it) of kid's parties with puppies, ponies, clowns, petting zoos, and more. So Lucy had the most fabulous Arial Mermaid party EVER this past weekend. Fish cupcakes, a craft table, fishing with magnet fishing poles, and a great dance mix. Lucy received the most gorgeous miniature violin as her main gift from B&J and we can't wait for the recitals to begin.

Cool Shots Taken During Class

And here are a few shots we took in class in groups out around and on Venice beach around 9pm during our last class. We did some portraits near the beach cottages using about 12 seconds and a flashlight. The cool thing about this shot (with me in it looking quite serious) is that the background lighting is quite cool. The other shots were on one of the lifeguard towers. Imagine it's pitch black! The shot with the girl was taken over about 30 seconds - and the girl and front of the tower were lit with a flashlight - then the tower itself was lit all round with multiple manual hits with a standard flash unit. Gave it a cool 3D effect to walk around the tower shooting off the flash. The one with the guy coming out of the light - same thing - he's lit by a flashlight - then we used a tiny flashlight with a gel to draw the lines around him. The exposure is so long, that the person drawing the lines does not show.