Maverick is 5 years old!

This is a post for you, Marissa ;)

Maverick is 5 years old today!

Maverick likes to eat any people food he's not allowed, be chased by sister Goose and cousin Murphy at the ranch, and be permitted to doze on the chair curled next to mommy. It's a simple but happy life. If he could get a few more ways a day out of us I'm sure that would be the icing on the cake - pun intended :)

Happy Birthday, Maverick!

Oh, and he still runs around with a shoe in his mouth whenever he hasn't seen me in more than 30 seconds. I suppose that's not going to be outgrown after all, haha. 

Honk! Jr. Coming to LPCA!

On a scale of 1-10, I am easily a 13 on the ecstatic end. 

Most of you already know that I work at Legacy teaching 9th grade English. Some of you know that last year I created a theatre program at Legacy named FOIL: Fellowship of Inspired Lions. We are official! We put on a one-act version of Alice in Wonderland in April last year, and then a WWII Radio Christmas program this year in December. They have been wonderful and fun and a HUGE learning curve for me. I participated in plays and musicals in high school, and I've been involved in choirs since I was little through adulthood, but I have ZERO directing or stage managing experience. It turns out that it meant I was worse off than ever since I thought I might know something from my experience which may have put me at a negative degree when I started. It's ok, though! Live and learn. 

Now that I DO know a little something, and am willing to ask beg for help, we are partnering with a local theater group called CYT - Christian Youth Theater. It's their mission to ensure that kids who want to get experience on stage do AND to help fledgling programs such as our own to get off the ground. AND, as fabulous as that is, even more wondrous is that one of my co-workers is stepping up to be the Stage Manager which means I don't have to keep up with PAPERWORK! Do I hear any "amens"?! She is a rock star and is organizing parent committees (brilliant idea by the way), handling the rights paperwork for the musical, and basically anything else that I really stink at. She told me to go be creative and make the show happen and she'll do everything else. It's a deal!!

Anyway, we decided to put on a full length musical this year since I'm not running it solo. The kids will be performing "Honk! Jr." which is a musical take on "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Anderson. It has a beautiful message: God made each and every one of us special, unique and perfect in His eyes. It's also British, which the kids are rather excited about :)

We are allowed to use the "usual" images and make one for our own use, which I'm rather stoked about. I wasn't sure what all we would be allowed to do with the rights. 

This is the image that most productions use (it's what we used when we announced auditions):

And this is the one I made for our own use (which we will use on everything else from now on. I used it when I announced the cast list, for example):

Hannah (the Assistant Director and Choreographer from CYT I'm working with) worked with me during Auditions. We had each kid learn a 45 second choreography number to a song in the show, and then they needed to deliver a 30-60 second self-selected monologue that they memorized, as well as a 60 second song of their choice. The auditions went so well! They were on Wednesday. After I prayed over each child and their audition form, Hannah and I got together for several hours on Thursday to figure out exactly where each kid will shine. Then Diane (our fabulous stage manager) and I met with the students at lunch on Friday and  explained the casting process. They were giddy and desperate to know the results, but I told them I would post it Friday evening once they were home. I told them to celebrate like crazy and/or grieve if it wasn't the role they wanted over the weekend, but come to school on Monday humble and ready to rock their part(s) for the show. I actually ended up seeing most of the kids on Friday evening after the announcement at the basketball game, and all but one told me how happy they were, which is great. 

So since I'm still on hyper-productivity mode, I've created spreadsheets for each scene that include the sets/props/characters needed for each one. It's been extremely helpful so far - especially with casting because several students need to play more than one role and we need to make sure that they can change costumes in time. 

And THEN, and I have a big grin even typing about it, I drew up the set design that I have in my head. It's a little unconventional but I think it'll be amazing. Rather than a large backdrop, I want 4 columns. Think refrigerator sized box for the size of the largest 2, and the. 2/3 and then 1/3. It'll make more sense when you see the drawings below. For each of the different sets, it'll be really simple to just rotate the columns around. So one set will have all of the columns on side 1, and then the next scene we will rotate them and have them all on side 2, etc. 

I will be meeting with the art teacher, Di, who will head up the set construction and design committee. She's going to take my ideas and make them happen, with obvious tweaks because she's an artist and I'm not. (Keep that in mind when you see my brainstorming pages below.)

The first set is the Barnyard. I ADORE the fence that gives perspective for the animals being small, even though they will be human sized in our production. 

And here's the set with the primary prop we will need, a nest for Ida, the mother duck, and all of her eggs:

Then the second side is the Cat's Lair:

With her props:

Third will be a set that will double for the Goose Squad in the Marsh and the Bullfrog/Froglet number in the pond:

With props for the frogs, not sure exactly what I want to do with the Goose Squad yet:

There's also going to be a simple and small side set a little off to the side for Jaybird & Maggie Pie, the newscasters:

Finally, there is a fourth set for the blizzard scene. I think this is the one I did the worst with. How the heck do you draw snow?!?

And a goofy looking prop we need:

It's meant to be a snowman cat/duck combo. I'm guessing the art team will do a better job, haha. 

Anyway, it's really coming along!! Hannah is taking care of a little over half of the choreography (including the really complicated opening barnyard number) and I'm doing the other half. We will teach the songs that we are choreographing, and then I'll handle the directing from there. It should go really well!! I hope you are feeling excited as well. Mark your calendars for Friday, April 15th at 6pm or Saturday, April 16 at 3pm to see one of our shows! It'll be quack-tacular!

Sorry if I just majorly over-shared. I'm just excited :)

Back in Swim!

I'll have more photos and video in the future, no doubt, but for now this is a collage of us back in swim lessons! 

"Baseball Show" Date

Our mother/daughter basketball date turned into me watching basketball and watching Clara make a new friend. When if was all over she said "I like baseball shows! I love my new friend and goldfish." It sums up the evening nicely :)

Go Lions!

CB draws our family

For a while it seemed as though Clara wasn't really into art, but the last month she's really been interested. People are her new favorite things to draw, but today's drawing was SPECIFICALLY Mommy which made me really happy because we've been having a difficult time together.

I'm totally digging my yoda ears, pegleg and fro. And that's genuine.

I've done a lot of crying lately, but this was the good kind :)

Updated later to include the whole family:

Clara, Mommy, Emma Lou, Daddy, and a banana for breakfast

I asked her if it was okay if I labeled it and she was excited about the idea. 

Yay Clara!

A Couple of Space Cadets - an idiom skit

As a teacher I frequently find myself completing the assignments I give to students so that I will know (A) how long it will take them, (B) how difficult or easy it will probably seem to them, (C) anticipate the questions they may ask, and (D) provide them with an example of what the assignment should look like when they are finished.

Right now we are exploring literary devices, both in the literature we are reading as well as incorporating them in their writing. The focus for Wednesday's lesson will be idioms.

Idiom → A figure of speech a phrase that cannot be interpreted literally

I'm going requiring my students to write a short skit (~1-2 pages long) utilizing idioms. Bonus points for including puns or allusions (devices we practiced today) as well. I wrote a short skit to give them as an example, and will actually have a few volunteers act it out for me, emphasizing the use of idioms. Because it made me laugh, I thought I'd share it with you (idioms are in blue, allusions are in red, and the pun is in green).

A Couple of Space Cadets

(Two aliens wait in Command Center to journey to Earth.)

Galileo: (Waving his hands in front of Cosmos’ face) Hey Cosmos, hello? Are you spacing out over there or what?

Cosmos: Sorry Galileo, I was thinking about our trip to earth. It should be out of this world!

Galileo: No kidding. Ready to go?

Cosmos: I am! Beam me up Scotty! We don’t want to miss the boat, so let’s hit the road.

Galileo: The Galaxy awaits us.

(They climb into the rocket ship, fiddle with some buttons, and stare blankly at the sign that reads “Ready to Rock” that should be lit up, but is still dark.)

Galileo: Huh. I guess we really do need a rocket scientist to make this ship work.

(Sign suddenly lights up without them doing anything to make it happen)

Cosmos: Weird. Oh well. 5...4...3...2...1… BLAST OFF!

(Thrown back into their seats, space ship rumbling along)

Galileo: Reach for the stars, man! Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.

Cosmos: Stop backseat driving! I’m over the moon about this visit. Do you think the little Earthlings will like us?

Galileo: Sure they will. Why wouldn’t they, with our sunny personalities? It’s only once in a blue moon that they get to meet superior beings like ourselves, after all.

Cosmos: Okay, man. Cool your jets, it’s almost time to land.

Galileo: Hold your horses, I have to wait until we’re within 300 light years before I can hit the brakes.

Cosmos: Earth, get ready for us! We’re about to land with a bang!

THE END.

I know it's really random, but I thought you might enjoy excessive idioms today :)

Grandparents & Productivity!

Today I must first confess that we skipped church :-/ We slept in, and then the kiddos let us keep snoozing, occupied with Daniel Tiger for a little while, and before we knew it there was no way to get there on time. Oh well. Though we should have gone, I also think God understands our desperate bid for extra sleep. I hope so.

Then Emma found an infant hat that was too tiny and wanted to model it for me. She kept turning around and striking various poses saying "cheeeeese!" :) Enjoy the following series of Emma modeling:

Silly girl child :)

And then while I put away laundry I heard Emma singing a hilarious version of "Wheels on the Bus" and when I finally thought to go video it she was dancing a little bit with it. So cute! 

Video of Emma singing and dancing in the bathroom:

Today's outfit by Clara consists of tights, leggings, a skirt, a tutu, a dress, a necklace, 7 different hair accessories, and ballet slippers:

:)

Then we met Lulu and Papa for lunch at Freebirds, yumm!

Then Lulu and Papa did us a HUGE favor and took the girls home with them for naps and a little playtime.

Meanwhile Bryan & I got a ton done with the old house and the new one! Our garage was one giant mess but now we have hanging storage and a whole lot more free space! Plus while Bryan did a few things I couldn't help with in the garage, I finished putting away the laundry and going through all of the girls clothes. 

wahooooo! we can almost park in there!

Then Lulu brought the girlies home and we fed them dinner and watched Tangled. 

It's been a good weekend! 

Saturday Bidness

Our Saturdays always seem to be such

an odd juxtaposition of boring and exciting. I'm not sure how it happens!

This morning, in an unusual twist of events, found Emma Lou wanting to dress up as a "pitty pin-cess" instead of Clara. That truly made me realize that you never can tell what kids are going to do!

Elsa Emma & her blueberry banana breakfast:

Lately we've been doing a ton of work around the house, hanging blinds, photos, fixing things, organizing, etc. One of the changes we made was to move all of Bryan's music stuff into our room. Clara adores "makin' moozac".

She even kind of looks like a rocked chick! Haha

While Clara played the drums, Emma had a heart to heart pillow talk with a puppy. 

For some reason seeing her in the Elsa dress really reminded me of the student who played the Caterpillar in "Alice" last year, wearing a modified blue sleeping bag that drug the ground behind him :)

Updating frames around the house led this this photo:

This girl was cracking herself up by having a conversation with herself but at us. Her babbling/real word combos were hilarious - and I think she knew it too ;)

We planned to get ready to go to the park and meet friends, but they were rather delayed. The result was a family play date at the park!

It took a few reminders of slides & swings to get Em dressed. 

But eventually they both were and off we went!

Emma is a little jealous that Clara is big enough to ride the tricycle but she she can't make it move. Poor girl. 

Clara is getting to be a pro though! She's even stealing!!

In case you were wondering how Clara's hair turned out from the damp twisted buns, here you go!:

Although our plans were delayed, the Evans still joined us for dinner and play time. At first we were bummed that it was too dark to go to the park, but the kids had no trouble finding entertainment for themselves inside while the adults enjoyed tacos and margaritas. 

A LATE bedtime completed the day and we are going to get some sleep!