Sweet Girls in the Audience

Sophie and I supported some of our kids choir members on Friday night by attending their middle school production of Mean Girls Jr. The kids did a great job and were happy to see us there. And it was fun for me to get some one on one time with Sophie.

Choir Kid

Saturday was, according to Phoebe, one of the best days of her life. She and her high school treble choir traveled an hour into New Jersey and competed at a choral competition. They performed around 3:00, then found out at 5:30 that they had made it into the evening showcase that started at 7:00! As soon as we got the text from Phoebe, we all jumped into the van and drove to see the performance!

They did a wonderful job and were named the first-runners-up to the Grand champions.

It was a very late night (we got home just after midnight), but I'm so glad we made the drive to support her! 

(Somehow we didn't get a picture of Bryan, but he was there too.)

The Book Zone

Today was library day at school. Topher walked in the door, dumped out his backpack, and plunked himself down to read. He spent the next hour like this.

Snowmen at Play

During art class, Sophie was given the assignment to finish a picture by practicing shading. I think it turned out well.

Oh Mr. Moon

On Saturday Sophie and I, along with our fellow ukulele orchestra members, got to perform two shows with Kate Micucci. She wrote a children's book and came to our library to do a reading and ukulele performance. It was such a fun experience!

Our first show was at 10:00 at a local church. There were 100 people at this performance and 50 people at the 2:00 show at the library. Apparently there were 300 people still on the waiting list.

We got seats for these guys! A local bookstore was selling signed copies of the book, so we bought one before our first show.

Kate was delightful and gracious. We learned one of her songs, Mr. Moon, and she played that plus three others songs with us. She read her book and taught all the kids how to draw their own puppet. She answered questions from the kids in the audience, then stood in line and talked with everyone that wanted to say hi. When it was our turn, Topher showed her his favorite page from her book, so she signed it!

Kate had come a few days before to practice with the ukulele orchestra. Unfortunately, neither Sophie nor I could be there. The rehearsal was recorded so we could watch it at home and be ready. It helped a lot. 

Before we started our first show, before the audience was allowed in, Kate came over to say hello to the ukulele players. She asked the names of those that hadn't been at the practice, including Sophie. But when she got to me, she said, "Wait, I've met you before." She was in town two years ago and attended a library function where the cast of The Little Mermaid was performing. She and I had chatted briefly (I wrote about it HERE) and that was it. I was SHOCKED that she remembered talking to me. She didn't know my name, but she remembered my face. I'm impressed with her memory!

I'm not sure who took this picture, but it was sent to me by another member of the ukulele orchestra.

Phoebe attended the morning show, but then she had to dash off to rehearsal, so she didn't get to talk to Kate afterward. Kate announced that she would be at a local coffeeshop at a specific time, in case anyone else wanted to come by and say hello. So I picked Phoebe up from rehearsal after our second show and we went to a coffeeshop to say hi to Kate. They had a nice chat about Phoebe's love for theatre and Doctor Who, then we took a picture with Kate and her son.

It was a very full, very fun day!

Art on Display

Last week was the art show at both the intermediate school and the elementary school. Topher and I got to pop in while Sophie was at rehearsal to see her sweet watercolor painting of a red panda. She happened to be backstage at the time, saw us walking down the hall, and ran over to meet us in the gallery (the school library).

Here's Topher's very fun bird, created with pastels. He wasn't with me when I saw his art, which is why I didn't get a picture of him with his work.

Welcome Spring

It warmed up enough to go on a walk over the weekend. It's cold again now, but for just a little bit, being outside was pleasant.

Not as Much Wisdom

This handsome kid got his wisdom teeth out today. This is the before picture. I also took a video of him saying that he gave his permission to film him after the surgery.

And this is the after picture. He iced his face on and off for a few hours and took ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and an antibiotic. He's finally able to eat and has consumed pudding and ice cream. He's feeling so much better that we're currently watching the 25-minute video I took of him while we were driving home. He was pretty silly and his head was much heavier than normal.

We're hoping for a smooth recovery.

Em Jay

Speaking of Broadway, these two went to New York on Saturday with the high school choirs and saw MJ! They loved it as much as I did when I saw it last summer. Cooper has been listening to the soundtrack and singing Michael Jackson songs all week.

I asked them to take pictures while they were there and these are some that Phoebe sent me.

And here are some that Cooper sent me. He and Phoebe were in two different chaperone groups, so they ate lunch at different places. Phoebe's group went to Los Tacos and Cooper's went to Junior's. I've eaten at both places, they're both delicious, and they have seriously different price points. Cooper told us he had buyers remorse before he'd actually spent any money, just from looking at the prices on the menu.

I love living close enough to New York that my kids can go there on a field trip!

Mystery Guest

Topher woke up this morning to find that his leprechaun trap had been sprung. He found this note and these gifts. And no, I had nothing to do with it.

Green Day

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by wearing green, eating good food, and having fun church activities. I spent most of the day in the car shuttling the four younger kids between seminary and school and rehearsals and church. That's what happens when Bryan needs to go to work in person and Peter needs to drive an hour away for Zone Conference. The van became the sole method of transportation.

In between the driving, we had food prep,

a picture to prove that we were both wearing green,

a Leprechaun trap courtesy of Topher

that even had a pot of gold inside,

a delicious and festive dinner that was made even better by the green Jell-o that Topher contributed,

and an exceptionally fun Valiant Activity. According to the leader who planned and carried out the activity, they did "shenanigans." Every child came home with glitter on their face and many sweet treats. This activity saved Topher's St. Patrick's Day fun. Due to a severe wind storm last night, his elementary school was without power and was canceled for today. He had a good day hanging out with me at home, but the only celebrating I did was in the form of a festive dinner. This awesome hour at church made up for not getting to do fun stuff at school.

Cooper walked in while I was writing this post and asked what I was doing. I told him I was writing about St. Patrick's Day and that there weren't any pictures of him since he was showering after track practice when I took the picture of the other kids at dinner. He quickly fixed his hair and posed so that he could be included.

Two Strangers and Juliet

A few months ago a friend from church sent out a group message that she wanted to put together a group for a Broadway excursion. Amazingly, I was free that Saturday and added my name to the list of people going. About a month ago, six of us drove to a park and ride in New Jersey (I was the driver!), then took a short bus ride into the city. We were blessed with a surprisingly warm February day!

There was standing room only by the time we got on the bus.

Here we are at Port Authority, just after our bus ride into the city. I guess this was our "before" picture.

 

My friend Laura saw this sign and called for me to go stand by it so she could take my picture, which was an excellent suggestion.

We got into the city early enough to eat lunch. After some wandering and waffling, we decided on a sandwich shop. They didn't have anything I could eat. Thankfully, this pizza shop was next door and they had the best gluten-free pizza I've ever had! I had to get a whole pizza to get the gluten-free crust, but I was happy to share.

Look! It's a marquee for the show we were on our way to see!

I love the interiors of the old Broadway theaters!

The set for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) was so creative and clever. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't get a Tony nomination for set design.

We waited after and got pictures with both of the actors in the show. They were fantastically talented. His character had golden retriever energy and her character was more like a cat. The juxtaposition of the two was very interesting. 

We had planned to see the one matinee and then head back home. But we all enjoyed the show so much that we decided to see if we could get tickets to another one. We all called our husbands to make sure everyone was holding up at home and to let them know our plan. Then we ran over to the TKTS office to see what was available. Amazingly, there were six seats in a row for &Juliet, the first choice show for the day that had been too expensive originally. But these new tickets were a screaming deal and roughly $120 less per ticket than they would have been if we hadn't bought them last minute.

Instead of getting on a bus and heading out of the city, we stood in line for an hour so our servers could sing to us while we ate at Ellen's Stardust Diner! I was the only one that had eaten there before (or even heard of it), so I was happy to introduce them to this Broadway tourist highlight.

We speed walked over to the theater for our second show and got there three minutes before it started. It was such a fun, energetic show! I loved all the Shakespearean dialogue woven throughout.

We skipped the stage door this time and caught our bus back to New Jersey. I made it home after one o'clock in the morning. Staying awake through church the next day was tough for all of us and a Sunday afternoon nap was required. But I'm so glad I was included in the Broadway fun!