Defying Gravity

Phoebe, Sophie, and Topher got haircuts on Saturday. They all knew what they wanted, including Topher. He picked up one of the books that display haircut options and pointed his choice out to the stylist. Apparently a mohawk was his greatest wish. This was the closest he could get.

A Most Important Day

Our weekend was full of all kinds of activities, but the most important were focused on the Savior during our celebration of Easter. Nearly our entire family sang with the ward choir (Topher sat by himself on our bench and was mostly reverent) and we enjoyed the talks that were shared. When we were back home and ready to get out of our church clothes Sophie reminded us that we hadn't taken a picture. So we stayed fancy for a little longer and stood on our deck while Bryan took a family selfie.

We followed that with some backyard egg hunting and a delicious dinner.

Our final activity of the day was watching the recorded concert of Lamb of God on BYU TV. It was glorious and a wonderful way to finish our Easter. I highly recommend it!

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!