December 12, 2013 - Lights, Camera, Action! and Happy (early) Birthday Anderson

(click here for today's pictures)

More filming!

• So it was commercial day again and when my alarm went off, I hit snooze, snooze and snooze again.  I knew that it was well past time to get up and start getting ready but I planned to just wait until Robby was out of the shower.  But Whitman had other plans and started fussing so his bed was the first place I went this morning.
• Soon I was ready and the kids were coming down to get themselves ready.  When I pick out the kids clothes (rarely) I am always met with complaints.  But today it was a lot easier-"you have to wear that, Aunt Dana picked it out."  My kids will wonder for the next few months why Aunt Dana is picking out their clothes every day because I am going to use that line for months to come.  
• The first stop this morning was the Rice Depot.  The camera crew was there waiting on us to drive up so they could film a bit.  My kids think they are such celebrities-ha!  That will have to change tomorrow when we welcome them back to the real world where the only person who wants to take their pictures is their momma and the only people that want to see their pictures are their grandparents!
• One thing that this little gig has reminded me is that I need to take more pictures of my kids.  I know that we take many, many more pictures than most since I can probably count on one hand the number of days that Reagan (8) has not had her picture made.  But I need to capture more of our everyday life-it seems just like yesterday that Anderson was born and he will be 7 tomorrow.
• Another thing that I have learned is that the show business life isn't for me.  Now I did like the lunches so maybe I could get a part time job for the kids holding lights and hauling apple boxes (so many new words that we have learned!)  That way we could always have lunch planned out for us.  But seriously the filming stuff is pretty tiring.  Maybe when our reality tv show starts we will need a trailer so we can take a nap.  (Kidding, there will never be a reality show-we look exciting but we are really some boring folks!)
• Back to the Rice Depot this morning.  The first thing that the kids did was to follow the camera guy as he was rolling across the floor filming them.  I think pretty much all day, my Reagan could not keep her eyes off of the camera-she is after all practicing to be a Price is Right model.  
• Next up was an interview (again! ugh!) for me at the Rice Depot.  And that little interview is going to haunt me!  The question was what one word would you use to describe yourself and how you want for your kids to remember you by?  Quick, quick, think of an answer while imagining at least 20 people staring at you with cameras, lights and microphones everywhere.  
• So my answer was "teacher."  I went on to say (I will go ahead and tell you because I know that that whole interview will probably be cut!) that I wanted to be remembered as a teacher-not their math and phonics teacher but as someone who could teach them how to live their life.  (Goodness knows, I am not the best example though of how to live your life.) Blah, gag, eek-I'm a bumbling fool!  Man, I wish that I was more articulate.  I still have no answer for that question even after thinking about it-Christ-like? friend? mom? fun?  When I think of my perfect answer, I will add it to this blog (don't hold your breath!)  That part of the day, still makes my stomach turn.
• (update-a few days later) I think I might have figured out that one word elusive word that I was searching for: ARROW.  Okay, I know that sounds a bit odd but I think that might just be the word.  Years from now, when my kids look back and think of me I want for the word "arrow" to come to their mind.  I want to be an arrow that points them to Jesus Christ.  Yep, I think that is what I want to be.
• But soon we had moved on to the next, more fun, task. Filling up a shopping cart with cans and then putting them in to boxes.  This part made the kids happy, happy.  Of course I was more worried about the poor folks at the Rice Depot having to put all of those cans back where they really went.  Now the next part made me happy, happy.  While they were filming, we got to fill up some bags of rice.  It was a huge, huge bag-well, more like a pallet of rice and we had scoops to fill up gallon zip lock bags.  The kids really enjoyed this and after we had finished filming, the Rice Depot man told my kids that our 10 bags that we filled will provide 500 meals for hungry Arkansans.  Seriously, that was cool-maybe the coolest part of the day.  
• Soon we along with all 25 of our closest friends were headed to the Museum of Discovery.  Oh, yes we did put on our summer clothes first-and I did get more than one "you're a bad mom" look from others at the Museum of Discovery for having my kids in shorts.  Robby parked the van and minutes later we were having pictures made and they were filming us walk through the lobby.  The kids did good here but by now they were getting a bit excited about playing.  
• Thankfully, Dana and Grannymom were there again today.  Grannymom was the baby wrangler and Dana was the food service gal handing out candy at the end of every take.  We could not have done it the last few days without their help.  
• After they did a few takes in the lobby and some pictures (imagine seeing the Dennies on a big billboard-please don't wreck your car as you gawk at us!)  Then it was time for the kids to get to play and the cameras pretty much followed them around which was nice and gave them a break.  
• Next up was some filming downstairs with the scarfs and the smoke machine.  I really hope that these folks got everything that the needed.  Usually during every take (I felt like at least) there was at least one Dennie kids doing something "special."-picking nose, staring at the camera, walking like a robot, snot running down their face, yelling at/pushing a sibling and the list could go on.  
• At one point, they called me upstairs with Whitman so they could do a few shots with him.  The child spit up all over everything while they were filming and then continued to drool spit up as they filmed him-lovely!  We finally got him all clean and he turned on his charm.  Seriously, that child has learned early to grin and smile at my camera so when he saw multiple cameras pointed at him, he really turned on the charm.  
• Then they wanted him to crawl on a bench toward the cameras.  I had been putting him on the floor so he could crawl-I would normally never do that but today was going to be a long day and he needed to get out of the stroller a bit.  (Yes, more bad mom looks were received.)  Anyway, so when I put him on the bench, he decided he wanted to just sit and grin at everyone.  Seriously, he didn't crawl a bit for us-well, he did try to only crawl off of the bench but I don't think that is what they were looking for!  
• Soon it was lunch time-Tazikis today.  It was really good-the chicken and rice were excellent.  But the kids really loved the huge cookies.  They were from a bakery downtown and those cookies were bigger than the kids heads.  And saying that the cookies were bigger than a Dennie kids head is really saying a lot.
• After that we all headed to Pinnacle Mountain.  They had thought about filming more of us with the mounted dashboard camera (imagine amazing race) but the "other Campbell" (what the kids called him) was going to ride with us.  He ended up not filming but snoozing on the ride to Pinnacle.  My Campbell saw that the "other Campbell" was sleeping and she thought it was hysterical.  She kept asking him "why are you asleep?"  
• When we drove up to Pinnacle, Graham saw the paddle boats in the water.  He was looking at them when I mentioned all of the paddle boats.  And then he added "and they have missiles too."  It had been a while since we had been to the visitor's center at Pinnacle so Robby and quickly started scanning for the missiles.  Thankfully, Pinnacle hasn't changed that much and the "missiles" were only the bottom of the paddle boats.
• At Pinnacle, we changed our clothes again (8 people who have worn 3 outfits each today plus last nights pajamas means that we have worn at least 150 articles of clothing TODAY, if you do count socks.)  I have been reading the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker and maybe I should just give away our laundry.  That way I wouldn't have to do it all.  Though that would mean giving away both pairs of my pants and Robby's pants as well-and since those are the only ones that we wear (not have, only ones that we wear-too small, too big, too old, etc.) then we would end up naked on the bottom half.  That might not be too good...I will just do my laundry without complaints!
• We did some takes with the kids holding binoculars, camera and wearing backpacks as we walked down a few trails.  As we would walk, my Keaton would be shouting "action, action"-see, I told you we all learned many new things.  My new word was "settle."  The folks say that right before they shoot something when they want everyone quiet and still.  When it is said everyone within ear shot stops moving and is immediately quiet.  I tried that on my crew yesterday and it didn't work at all!
• At one point, they had Reagan and Graham standing on the edge of a cliff (well, not really a cliff but a tall rock) They then asked me to come over there to be in the shot.  One guy asked if I was okay with that and I did see my 5 year old 6 inches from the edge.  So I asked if he could just scoot back one step.  He did and then I saw the "other Campbell" had climbed up the side so he would be right there in case the kids got too close.  (That is how nice all of those folks were during the last two days.)  Thankfully though, no one needed to be caught!
• The kids did love walking up and down the trails and I really think they wished they could stay longer.  But our little shoot wrapped up and my feet were frozen.  It is probably not a good idea to walk around on ice and the wet ground with shoes that have holes.  Maybe I should put that on my Christmas list!  
• Once the shoot was over, we headed down the hill to the van.  I had Keaton and Whitman with me because Robby and the boys were filming one last scene.  Poor Whitman was done, done with the cameras, the cold and the lack of naps.  I put him in the car with his milk but that didn't even calm him down-we were all outside of the van happily talking while the poor baby was screaming his little head off.  He finally calmed down and we soon had said our goodbyes and were headed home. 
• Well, we really didn't head straight home.  First we had to stop at Grannymom's house because I had forgotten candles and then we stopped at Krispy Kreme-tomorrow is Anderson's birthday after all.  I can not believe that boy is 7 years old-amazing.  The kids all eat every single bit of their hot doughnuts but the ones with frosting-they just lick it off.  Robby suggested that next time, we just buY them a can of icing at the grocery store.  (Speaking of icing, I do need a snack tonight.)
• We had sang Happy Birthday, ate our doughnuts and then headed home.  It was around 5 when we got home and we showered the kids, put in the first of 3 loads of laundry and then let the kids watch some tv.  
• Whitman spent some time crawling around the kitchen happily-that is until Keaton started pulling on his pajamas calling him "puppy."  That is when he fell down on his head and now has a big knot.  He soon calmed and had his supper.  The others ate and then finished one movie and then bedtime.  We didn't have any complaints about bedtime tonight-being famous is tough!  Now what am I going to get for a snack?