Aubrey Explores Her Possibilities With Courtney Watkins

Hey, you forgot your pearl necklace, Courtney!

Aubrey and I attended a special event at the Jim Henson Studios in Los Angeles with Courtney Watkins from Disney's Family.com webisode show, The Possibility Shop. 


Courtney Watkins is a teacher, crafter, writer, hostess and super mom with the mostest. From what I can tell she's kind of the Martha Stewart of family activities (aka the polar opposite of me). She even writes, creates and executive produces this webisode which leads kids and parents through creative activities, projects, games and more all fueled by your child's imagination. No gimmicks, no game consoles or apps involved. Amazing, huh? 

Aubrey and her flaming flashlight!

Aubrey really enjoyed the activities that evening which included making shadow puppets and putting on a show, creativity exercises that were as simple as coming up with different uses for a lemon and playing the "Get To Know Me" game. She also got to make a flashlight into a pretend campfire with tissue papers, cellophane and rubberbands and then the kids set up a pretend camp ground! (Today at preschool, she brought her special flashlight for "share day".)

Jar O S'mores

I think her favorite part of the night was getting to make a take-home S'mores snack jar, which I'm doling out to her in small portions at a time. Anything involving marshmallows is a hit with Aubrey.


You can check out The Possibility Shop webisodes on www.Family.com/PossibilityShop and follow the show on Twitter.com/PossibilityShop too!

So Proud To Be A Modern Family!!

It's already old news that:


1) Modern Family swept the Emmys on Sunday night. Like rolled it with a Hoover and then dust bustered the crumbs people. Amazing.
2) My super awesome and snuggly Aubrey is the new "Lily" on said hit show:





Most moms/parents would be proud of their kid scoring the sweetest job for a 4-yr old in prime time television and I'm no different. I'm so proud that I can hardly contain myself from telling complete strangers at the gas station, the grocery store, public restrooms... but I'm also aware that there is a stereotype of the Hollywood-Showbiz mom and it's not a pretty one so I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you my feelings about this recent life changer and dispel any celebrity gossip. HA!


I have been in this business for over 14 years as a stand up and improv comedian, an actress and writer (...and waitress, dog walker, temp worker...) and I know the ups and downs of this business, the pitfalls and the pleasures. Show business is not for the faint of heart and it is not for most, but there is a special breed of freak who just can't resist the spotlight. I truly believe you are born with this freak gene and my kid seems to have inherited it from me. 


Am I proud? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. Am I a little scared? Of course. But I feel equipped to guide and coach her in her career and be a real mom to her as well. 


So before the rumor mill begins swirling after this initial night of worldwide exposure, here are some tidbits that I have already been asked about a lot already:


1) Aubrey wanted to try out for the show and she was NOT a child actress before this. This was her first time memorizing lines and acting. I had no desire to get her into this business, mainly because I'm pretty busy driving myself to auditions and feeding myself snacks in the car.


2) We are not rich now. As soon as I posted the news that Aubrey had booked the role back in July (?) FB "friends" started making comments about us going on vacations and buying expensive rides, etc. We are still living in our rented town home, driving a 10 yr old mid-sized luxury sedan with lots of scrapes on the bumper (previous owner, thank you very much), clipping coupons and accepting clothing hand-me-downs. Aubrey is making decent money for a four year old, but Ed O'Neill's salary it is not. We are VERY fortunate to be able to plan for her future and right now we are focusing on her well-being, happiness and education. She does attend regular pre-school on days she's not on set.


3) Aubrey's dad and I are not together. We were a couple for several years, but never married and split when she was an infant. We are both involved in her daily life and share responsibility of raising her. We are both very happy about her success but mostly both love being her parents. She's an amazing girl.


4) I am a Korean born adoptee which means Aubrey is half Korean and half caucasian. The Hiller twins (they played Lily seasons 1 & 2) are Filipino and caucasian. So, no one is actually Vietnamese... get over it and there are tons of Asian adoptees who are mixed race. So get over that too.  :)


5) Most importantly, Aubrey loves her work with Modern Family. She truly enjoys the time she spends with the cast and crew and even begs to go see her "tv friends" on days she's not scheduled to work. We have hit the jack pot, not just in the monetary sense (see #2) but with this show. My boyfriend, Lee, and I were devoted fans long before Aubrey booked this role. The show is brilliantly funny with the best writers and I can honestly say that every person we have worked with on the show - cast, crew, admin, execs - kind and wonderful people with good hearts. I think it shows in the product they put out each week, does it not?


We are thrilled to be a part of this amazing show. BEYOND THRILLED and I am so touched by our friends and family who have gotten excited for us, telling everyone they know to tune in! Tonight is the night and life will never be the same for us. I'm not sure that we are ready, but we are grateful. Thanks for coming along on the ride!


MODERN FAMILY
1-Hour Season 3 Premiere
ABC 9/8c
September 21, 2011

MOM Ticket Discount for Phineas and Ferb!

Remember I told you I would have a special discount deal for Disney's Phineas and Ferb: BEST Live Show Ever? Well here it is. For all my SoCal friends, there are two venues for the show and you can use the discount at either one: 

THOUSAND OAKS
Fred Kavli Theatre at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza (2100 E. Thousand Oaks, 91362)
Friday, September 23 – 4:00pm & 7:00pm

LONG BEACH
Long Beach Terrace Theater (300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802-4825)
Saturday, September 24 – 4:00pm & 7:00pm
Sunday, September 25 – 1:00pm

Ticket Prices:                                     $65.00 / $35.00 / $25.00 / $20.00
To order tickets by phone:          800-745-3000

See your favorite characters - Phineas, Ferb, Candace, Isabella, Baljeet, Buford and Perry The Platypus (or as Aubrey calls him, the "Ploctypus") live on stage in a high energy, musical adventure!

THREE Ways To Get The $5 Discount:

1) Print this flyer and redeem in person at the box office

2) Buy tickets on www.TicketMaster.com and use promotional code MOM

3) Call 1-800-745-3000 and use promotional code MOM

Here is the flyer! Hope to see you at the show and have a GREAT week!

SoCal Life The Aubrey Way

OK - So I started writing this last week and am just now getting around to posting it... so imagine it's Monday, September 5...

Stacy and I have been friends since 7th grade. Like over 20 years. Wild. Through umpteen moves and life changes, we have managed to remain friends. This weekend, she and her two boys (Brendan, 9 and Keenan, soon to be 5) made the mini van trek all the way from Tucson to visit. Being true Southern Californians, we took them to the beach on Saturday and The Happiest Place On Earth on Sunday.


Malibu was beautiful with impressive surf rolling in all the way from New Zealand, putting on a fantastic water show. The weather was perfect and the kids would have frolicked in the sand all day if we had let them. Grilled burgers and dogs on our patio that night for dinner.


The next morning took us down to Anaheim. Our visitors had never been to Disneyland, so it was a real treat to see them experience "Disney Magic" for the first time. Aubrey, now 4 years old and having been to Disneyland exactly three other times, is an old pro. She told me this morning she would like to go every day. Ha! Better book another tv show then, kid.

I've been to Disneyland 5 other times before yesterday (Excluding the time my family drove there circa 1976 and it was closed. Couldn't make that shit up.) and each time I experience something new. There is so much to do and see, and depending on who you are with, it can be totally different each time.


Firsts for me this time were:
- Mr Toad's Wild Ride
- Ariel's Undersea Adventure
- Ate at the new Paradise Garden quick serve restaurant - surprisingly AWESOME! The chicken kabobs were delicious!
- Saw Captain EO - shamon! Hee hee!


The main crazy of the day was that the Disneyland Half Marathon was that morning and many of the roads into the park, resort, etc were closed off, so it took us about an hour of driving around and around and around the park in bumper to bumper traffic before we were able to get to where we were supposed to be. But it was smooth sailing after that.

All day, Stacy and I kept freaking out about the fact that were were at Disneyland...with our KIDS! WHAT?! How did that happen? It feels like it was just yesterday that we were wearing stirrup pants, forgetting our locker combinations and taking off our shirts for that awkward scoliosis test. OK, maybe not YESTERDAY, but where do the days, the years go? And how did we turn into adults with children tall enough to ride most of the rides at Disneyland? Yikes!


Time certainly does fly, but it sure is fun with good friends and having Aubrey allows me to experience life and SoCal in a whole different way. I probably wouldn't have built a sand castle and caught sand crabs at the beach and I definitely wouldn't have bought and tasted cotton candy at Disneyland. She reminds me to enjoy the simple things and to savor the sweetness that is all around us. Lucky me.

I was recently talking to a good friend about balance in life. Career, relationships, parenting, health. There are only so many hours in the day and in the past, most of my hours were spent on career. I said I felt that Aubrey came into my life to give me better balance. I'm not sure I've figured out the balance yet - or really, I'm not sure I ever will - it's more like I just try to squeeze more into each day so I can do it all, but this weekend with friends, with family, with children, with Mickey Mouse... it was a good step back from our busy lives and a nice break for fun together. I hope you all find the time to let fun and joy in your lives. If you're not sure how to do it, just ask yourself, "What would Aubrey do?"