Pack It In

Day one of Spring Break weekend included playing at a friend's house, lunch at Wendy's, lots of backyard time for the kids, some chores, pizza for dinner, and a double feature movie night.

I figure if we only get Friday and Monday off we should make them count.

Red Eye

Now that Phoebe's show is done, Peter's show is in tech rehearsals. He's playing a sailor and the lone lobster in the high school's production of The Little Mermaid. Everyone has to wear stage makeup and the makeup for the sea creatures is pretty intense. Since he's a lobster, his eye makeup has to be red. I went to three different stores this week and still only found this much red makeup. Apparently red is not so easy to locate. Thankfully, it seems to be enough.

The Show Must Go On

Phoebe's show closed this weekend. We loved seeing it again on Friday night. On Saturday night I took Cooper and Sophie to the neighboring town and saw their version of Matilda Jr. I'm not sure why they chose the same show, but it was interesting to see a different interpretation. We went to support some of the kids from our children's choir that were in the play.

Shortly before both plays were set to begin I started getting texts from Phoebe. The power had gone out at her school! There had been a big wind and rain storm that day and a nearby power pole had been knocked out. The school was running on emergency power. It was enough to have lights in the theater, but not enough to run the lights and sound for the show. After delaying as long as they could in hopes that the full power would be restored, the decision was made to setup a Bluetooth speaker and have the kids perform their musical numbers without mics. Phoebe wasn't in the musical numbers (at least onstage, she sang from the wings), so that meant she wouldn't get to perform at all. The director realized this and decided to run one of Phoebe's funniest scenes in addition to the musical numbers. Phoebe realized that another actor wouldn't get any stage time and she advocated for him. That added one more scene for her as well.

It was a disappointing evening for all the kids. They were sent home after the truncated performance with the direction to check their school messages for a rescheduled show. They were already supposed to have a matinee the next day, perhaps they would also have an evening show.

By mid-morning the power was still off. The matinee was canceled and they (the actors and the audience from Saturday night) were all on standby to see if the evening show would happen. Around 4:30 the power came back on! She did her final show with lights and mics.

I picked her up that night. She kept saying, "I'm so sad. It's over. I'm so sad." That's how it feels when a show closes. They're so much fun to put together, but there's definitely a feeling of loss when it's over. Thankfully, the theatre director decided to add one more show. It's a student directed one act and Phoebe already has a part.

Full Speed Ahead

You know those days where you seem to be running at top speed and there's little time for anything else? I've had a few weeks like that. I'm looking forward to our Easter long weekend (our spring break was eaten up by snow days) and maybe a chance to rest. Maybe.

A Natural

We saw Phoebe's show again on Friday and she was even better than the first time.

Found Art

Topher has always been a builder. From a young age he would stack blocks and click train tracks together. His most recent building medium is cardboard. He often raids the recycling basket for materials. Yesterday morning before school I found him in a moment of creation, the recycling bin next to him. He told me it was a robot. I said it was cool and went on with my preparations. I was surprised he was able to find so many tissue box tops for his structure.

Then I walked into the bathroom and discovered the source of his materials. I guess if you can't find what you need in the recycling bin, you have to branch out a bit.

Headspace

"Mom! Take a picture so I can see how big my forehead is!"

Not Really An Old Lady

Last night we went to the Family Book Fair Night at the elementary school. Several of the teachers did story times and we got there just in time to hear Topher's teacher read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Worm. She was wonderful!

The Night Life

"Mom, I have a question. Why does it seem like the night is the best time to do anything?" -Sophie, my fellow night owl, an hour and a half past her bedtime.

Looks Over Books*

We saw Phoebe on opening night of Matilda Jr. She was amazing as Mrs. Wormwood! Her accent and timing and mannerisms were hilarious and spot on. Her wig was almost a character unto itself. 

The only negative was that her mic was turned down during Act 1. We could hear her, but not very well. I had a few kind, not-at-all-a-stage-mom words with the teacher running the mic board during intermission. She told me the mic was as high as they could turn it without feedback. Then she went backstage and adjusted Phoebe's mic. We could hear her during Act 2! It wasn't until after the show that Peter told us that he talked to his friend who was running the sound cues (who graduated last year and is working as the technical director at the middle school while he's in college) about the mic problem. The friend reached over and said her mic wasn't up all the way and he turned it up. Hopefully she'll continue to be heard during the run.

Here's the awesomeness of her wig/costume/makeup:

*This references one of Phoebe's lines in the play. She is definitely playing someone very unlike herself.

Grownups and Little Tables

Bryan and I got to visit Sophie's school this morning. They hosted a Donuts and Grownups event. The idea was to invite extended family, but our geographically closest extended family live 2 hours away. Sophie was so sad that no one would attend for her, so Bryan and I signed up. I was surprised to see many parents as well as the expected grandparents and aunts and uncles.

First we (they) had donuts and juice.

We got to see Sophie's cool mask that she made in art.

Then we all squeezed into her classroom (I kept wondering about fire code violations) and she interviewed us about what life was like when we were in fourth grade. That was the first year I homeschooled, so some of my answers were a little weird. When asked how many kids were in my class, I said one. I could have included my siblings, but I was the only fourth grader at the time.

After the interview Bryan had to slip out so he could get to work. The final activity of the event was a Kahoot. These are quizzes where the questions and multiple choice answers are up on one big screen while the individual players use their own electronic devices to participate. You're rewarded for both accuracy and speed. The kids were supposed to be on a team with their special people that had come to support them

Sophie and I won.

This is our post-win selfie. We were both pretty pleased.

Bryan and I were both so happy we could be with Sophie this morning!

Paparazzi

"When you're famous I'm going to take pictures of you and sell them." -Topher, to me, during dinner one night this week.

I have no idea.

Fancy Baubles

We've been trying to spring clean. Bryan did a great job clearing space in the garage on Saturday. Cooper folded and put away all his laundry so he no longer has to perch on the edge of his computer chair while the unfolded laundry takes up all the sitting space. And Sophie attacked a basket that has been full of random stuff and tucked under her desk for months. She's not done, but she did empty it enough to find these earrings. The last time she saw them she didn't have pierced ears yet. She wore them to church on Sunday, her first time wearing dangly earrings!

Following Jesus

We watched the latest Friend to Friend broadcast on Saturday. If you have any Primary age kids (11 and under) in your sphere, this is a great lesson about what it means to be a disciple of Christ. It's still available on YouTube!

Hi-Yah

Topher attended a birthday party at a karate studio on Saturday. He loved all the kicking and blocking and general roughhousing that went on. And now he's asking to take karate lessons. I'm pretty sure that's the reason the studio offers birthday parties: it brings in extra money and it provides advertising to all the guests.

Accidental Discovery

Bryan bought some new dish towels recently. He washed the new ones and tossed the old ones. The only problem was that we couldn't find the new towels after they were washed. We looked everywhere we could think of. Today I was in our laundry room/pantry loading the washing machine. I turned around and made a discovery. Then I took a picture and sent it to Bryan with a two word message: "Found them."

Of course. Why didn't we think to look there?

Behind Bars

Sophie is still having trouble breathing at night (at least she's still coughing), but during the day she's much better. She was well enough to go to swimming tonight. Phoebe had a rehearsal at the same time and in the same building. We dropped Phoebe off at the theatre door and drove around the building to park near the pool with the plan to meet Phoebe inside. That's how we discovered that the middle school lowers gates to block off the athletic side of the building (that gets used by the community in the evenings) from the rest of the school.

Sophie and Phoebe may have pretended they were both in jail for a moment.

Breathe In

Sophie finished her second round of antibiotics over a week ago. She seemed to be getting better. Then yesterday during dinner she started coughing again. It continued through the evening until she went to sleep. She woke us up around one in the morning because she was coughing and having trouble breathing and couldn't sleep. I gave her cough medicine and sent her back to bed. She came in again two hours later, this time wheezing and panicked that she couldn't breathe.

That's what prompted us to spend a few hours in the ER in the early hours of the morning. It was dark when we arrived. They took her back right away and put her in a room. A doctor came to look at her, they ordered a chest x-ray, then swabbed her for strep throat, RSV, the flu, and COVID. She said they would likely give her an inhaler to help her breathe.

Then we waited.

They did the x-ray.

And we waited.

And watched the Disney Channel.

And waited.

And waited.

The doctor finally came back and said she had tested negative for strep and the x-ray looked clear. I thought they would offer a breathing treatment. But they didn't. Other than running tests, they didn't do anything. They didn't treat her at all. In fact, they decided to send her home before any of the other tests were done, they would call with the results.

I was surprised and frustrated that they weren't going to help her at all. They said since the other possibilities were all viruses nothing could be done. I asked about the inhaler and was told that they didn't want to give her an inhaler because that would show up on her medical record. That might cause a doctor in the future to think she has asthma and misdiagnose her or misread her symptoms. I told the doctor that some of my other children had been given inhalers for isolated illnesses and hadn't had the problem she described. She was apologetic and I discovered that she had been overridden by her supervising doctor who had only seen Sophie for about a minute.

The sun was up when we drove home. She and I were both sad and frustrated at the lack of help.

They never called back with any test results.

We'll see how tonight goes.

In Focus

Sophie enjoyed having access to my camera while we played outside yesterday. I'm enjoying the fruits of her labors.

Sing!

It was a warm 62 degrees this afternoon. We walked home from the bus stop, then played in the backyard for almost an hour. At one point Topher expressed his joy about being outside by singing out "Ha-lay-yu-lah!"

Sophie got a few pictures of his happiness.

Ye Olde Chocolate Shoppe

Six out of seven members of our family went to a fun birthday party at a chocolate shop tonight. The owner couldn't be certain that the activity was peanut free, so Peter spent the evening at a friend's house. The party was for Topher's friend, so Peter was not attending. The other kids enjoyed painting chocolate molds, watching those molds get filled with chocolate, running Oreos and graham crackers through an enrober to cover them in chocolate, and dipping marshmallows and pretzels and fruit into a chocolate fountain. Their stomachs were ready to burst by the time we left.

They were all pleased with how their chocolate bars turned out.