Once Upon a Mattress

I have been involved in the school musical since Scarlet was in Kindergarten.  That first year, Scarlet had an amazing audition and got one of the lead roles.  But it wasn't the role that Scarlet wanted.  She went from the boisterous energetic kindergartener that stole auditions to the shy girl that cowered in the back.  They gave her role to the understudy and Scarlet became part of the ensemble.

The next year she did a little better but was still hesitant a lot of the time.  She would get nervous when called to do things in front of the group and really didn't seem to want the limelight.  But when auditions came around for Once Upon a Mattress Jr. she gave it her whole heart.  

She even got a call back to audition for the queen.  She did so well at her audition, but, partly because of her previous nervousness, they double cast the role of queen.  But Scarlet was so excited to get to play the queen in one of the shows.  She had several lines, was in a ton of scenes and had a full solo.  

As they play got closer and closer, I was nervous that she wasn't ready.  She rarely wanted to rehearse her lines with me and I was trying not to push her.  I did most of the choreography for the play so I was there a lot after school but I wasn't really involved with her scenes.  

I did make a dress for her that I thought turned out really well.   The other queen wore it as well and Scarlet was a good bit taller than she was.  It was an interesting hem job but both girls looked adorable.

Here's her queen hair:

This is the dress she wore during the matinee show when she was in the chorus.  The double casting was perfect for her.  She loved being a lead but didn't have to miss learning all of the fun ensemble numbers.

And the dress with crown at dress rehearsal.

And then it was performance night.  I was running sound in the back and it was pretty hard to pay attention to my sound cues when all I wanted to do was watch her every move.  Don't worry, I still nailed my cues.

Scarlet was awesome.  She nailed every line.  She was sassy and dramatic.  She spoke clearly and was easily understood.  She used her staging and body language beautifully.  And her solo was spot on tune and beautifully executed.  I was the most glowing, beaming stage mom in the history of time.  As I walked through the crowd to the front of the stage, I could hear voices on all sides of me saying, "Can you believe that queen?  She was fantastic!  Did you hear she is only in second grade?  Second grade, no way!"  I could have died a happy mom right at that moment.

Rhode was a knight in the play.  He happily participated since his mom and sister spent so much time involved.  But, I would not say we have discovered any latent acting talent from this dude.  He sure is cute though!

School wrap ups

The kids finished out their school year strong.  Scarlet and Rhode got to join the kickball league.  It was one of the funnest extracurriculars we have ever done.  

Kickball is awesome because you get to learn the rules of baseball without having to suffer through the bore that is teaching kids how to hit a baseball.  

It took a few practices to learn things like tagging the base instead of lobbing the balls at the kids and kicking the ball towards third so you don't trip on the ball on your way to first, but once they got it they got it.  They were the kickball champions.  It was a blast.  

Rhode's class had a theme class contest day.  Each class had their own theme.  All of the kids in Rhode's class dressed up as 101 dalmations and their teacher dresssed up as cruella deville.  Talk about adorable.

 

And before I could blink an eye, my oldest son was graduating from kindergarten.

Rhode makes schooling and parenting seem easy.  He is such a great student and an even better kid.  He has a sweet heart and a sharp mind.  

Here's Ms. Ayala.  I would ask her all the time how Rhode was doing and she would say, "He's perfect.  Don't change a thing."

A collection of short stories

Asher is many things, but helpful is not one of them.  If I am not watching his every move, he will not finish a single assignment given to him.  And, he's a third child.  So he has gotten away with more than his fair share of undone housework.

But the one day Asher decided that he loved vacuuming.  He is about as talented as you would expect a 4 year old to be with a vacuum, but I am a believer that any vacuuming is better than no vacuuming.

Here's hoping we can build on his cleaning repertoire one day

And one day, we dog sat for our friends, the Rosenlofs.  The Rosenlofs own three English Mastiffs.  These are called dogs, but really they are small ponies.  They are such massive dudes.  We watched Sampson for a weekend while his other puppy friends stayed elsewhere.

My kids were extremely wary at first, excited about the idea of having a pet in the backyard but equally parts terrified as well.

Then we took him for a walk or two.  They warmed right up to him.  They even though it would be a good idea to have Jude take a hold of the leash for a bit.  Thank goodness Sampson is the sweetest big dog on the planet or Jude could have been dragged halfway across the park.  Instead he fondly remembers his "doggy".