Let's Go Smoke a Big Cigar!

WAAAYYYY back in January a flyer came home from school announcing that the Albion Youth Theatre was again bringing the Missoula Children's Theatre to town to do a production of Pinnochio. Kendall, who absolutely loved his experience last year in King Arthur's Quest was ecstatic and put the date on the calendar. The problem was that it was an eternal 3 1/2 months away! The countdown began. And so did Lynnsey's long period of indecision. She knew how much fun Kendall had last year and some of her friends participated last year too. She wanted to do it, but was afraid she'd be too shy. We actually had the same fear and might have tried to dissuade her just a tiny little bit. But about three days before auditions she made up her mind that she was going to try it. We told her that if she did, she had to commit to it for that entire week of rehearsals and not back out at the last minute even if she got nervous.

The rehearsal day came at last. Kendall was up at the crack of dawn, he was so excited. Nevermind that he had to get through an entire day of school first! Lynnsey was sticking to her decision nervously. But they both went. Lynnsey's nerves got the best of her at the audition and she could barely even whisper her name to the tour directors. But they went ahead and cast her anyway as a "Pleasure Island Kid". Kendall was very relaxed and had so much fun. He was cast as "Candlewick", Pinnochio's "cool" and "rebellious" friend. He was so excited about the chance to play another role so different from his own personality (the rebellious part, not the cool part).

Rehearsals began the next day and every day after that until Saturday. The day of the performance. I had heard, in talking with some of the people involved, that Lynnsey had seemed to get over her nerves at her first practice and that one of the tour directors had remarked that she never would have believed that Lynnsey was the same kid as the one at the audition. The two stars just before leaving for their dress rehearsal on the day of their performances.

It is so amazing to me still that this group is able to pull together a full scale production in just a few short days. But they do. The play was fantastic and the kids did a marvelous job. Kendall shined as we knew he would as Candlewick and had the audience totally laughing several times. He's really such a talented peformer and you can just see how much he enjoys it when he's on stage.

And Lynnsey. Holy moly! Kalen leaned over during the first show and said, "Can you believe that's our Lynnsey up there?" She recited her lines loudly and expressively ("Let's go smoke a big cigar!") and was singing and dancing with the rest of her group. She didn't seem even a tiny bit nervous. We were so proud of her. She's already talking about continuing next year. And we are SO hoping that the Missoula Children's Theatre can come back again.
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The Pleasure Island kids.

Candlewick and his gang in the front row with the rest of the main characters.

The entire cast of Pinnochio!

Kendall and Lynnsey with one of the directors, Alison.

Kendall and Lynnsey with the other director, Adam.

If your kids ever have a chance to participate or you ever have an opportunity to see a performance of the Missoula Children's Theatre, do it! It is such a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Easter

Early in the year when I checked the date of Easter this year and realized that it was going to be at the end of April, I was so excited. By then, I figured it would be nice and warm with all the spring flowers blooming and trees budding. Yeah, not exactly. I don't know what the deal is this year, but we just cannot seem to get Spring sprung! It has been so cold and rainy and dreary. We'll have a day or two of gorgeous weather that makes us think spring has finally arrived but it all turns out to be a cruel joke when we wake up the next day and have to put on a coat again. Even today, MAY 4th, I took Spencer over to catch his bus and we had to wait inside of the building because it was too cold out. I was remembering last year when we were complaining that the schools have no air conditioning and it was just so unbearable for the kids. Today Spencer was wearing his winter cap and mittens. Crazy.

However we did get a somewhat miraculous reprieve on Easter weekend. It warmed up a bit and the grass got a little greener and some of the leaves on the trees began opening slightly. And the rain finally let up for just a bit.

We went to a fun Easter party on Saturday morning at the home of our friends and we had a great time there. Then we came home and did our annual backyard egg hunt that afternoon. Taylor still participates but the hiding places for him get more and more difficult every year.

Kaya was SO excited about all the festivities and was eating her candy as she was hunting for more eggs.

Kendall's eggs are getting trickier to find every year too. But Kaya managed to locate a few before he did and made sure to point them out to him--which I think took away some of the fun for him.

"On my car???" she asked incredulously.

This one took Lynnsey awhile to locate. And awhile longer to get down.

Spencer's green eggs sort of blend in with the grass and plants.

Later that evening we took advantage of the non-wet weather and had our first campfire of the season, complete with s'mores.

No s'mores for Spencer but he can still enjoy the gooey marshmellows.

On Sunday, we went to church and got to hear a great talk by Taylor who was the youth speaker but since he was also passing off a public speaking requirement for a merit badge, he actually had to give a fairly full-length talk. He did a great job and wrote it all on his own. Lynnsey and Kaya got new Easter dresses from the Easter Bunny this year and were so excited for church the next day to get to wear them.

I love this photo--it's a rare moment in history when these two will actually be within a foot of each other without fighting.

So much for the perfect picture of all the kids. Taylor won't go near a camera anymore and refused to pose for a picture and Kaya was overtired and done with pictures too. And Spencer is such a goofball for pictures these days--this one just cracks me up!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well!

Vistors

Yet again I've managed to get way behind in blogging. The next few days I'll be trying to post a few things to get caught up again.

In March we had a fun visit from my sister Susannah and her darling daughter Rebecca. Susannah came to help Mom with her broken leg for a couple of weeks which ended up being really nice for us because I was able to catch up on a few things while I let her take over Mom duties for a bit and we also got the benefit of getting to visit with them. Our kids absolutely adore "Baby Becca". And Rebecca seemed to really have fun with all of the attention that they lavished upon her the minute she came in the door. Rebecca became a big fan of "Down By the Banks".

Love that cute smile! It was really a fun visit and went SO fast.

Then a couple of weeks later we got to have my dad and brothers Timothy and David come for a few days. The kids were so excited to have their fun uncles come to play with them and as usual we had a project for Dad to work on. This time he made a doorway to Taylor's room. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do the project but now that it's done, it has made a huge difference. For those who haven't been here before (which is way to many of you by the way!), Taylor has the downstairs bedroom. As you walk into the doorway, the downstairs bath is on the right just before you enter Taylor's room. His room is quite small and so I was afraid adding an extra doorway would make it even worse. But he was really wanting it because we all use that bathroom so someone was always coming in to his room at all hours of the day. Now that it's done, we absolutely love it. I never have to worry that I'm going to walk in on him changing anymore and also it keeps the kids out of his stuff during the day.

We did find time for some fun and games as well, although Dad's not a huge game player so he usually opted out and watched a movie with the younger kids or took a nap. We got to play Mexican Train and of course Tripoly.

You can't see it here because of the sunshine but Kalen has an 8-9-10 and was about to clear the board and win the game by a landslide!

We also made a trip to The Sweet Tooth for dinner and ice cream.

And an intense game of Chess:

Very fun visit! And here is the finished project:

Great job Dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So True...

INSTALLING SPRING...
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Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found. Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again.

I saw this on a friend's Facebook status and couldn't resist. Where are you spring???

This is What Keeps Me Couponing

I am not what you would call an extreme couponer. Even if it were possible, I think I would burn out SO fast if that was all I did in my day. However, I do use coupons A LOT and sometimes remember the days fondly when I would just go into the store and buy what I needed and not have to take the time to make an extensive list before hand, find the coupons that go with the sales, and then spend extra time in the store to make sure I'm getting all the deals I had planned for. It does take a reasonable amount of work. But when I can come out of a store with all of these items for a total of $4.21, yeah, that's pretty amazing.

(Just for the record, my total without coupons/sales, etc. would have been $31.29. And that is why I will continue to use coupons!)

Book Report

I just finished reading such a beautiful book! I love to read but there are only a handful of books that I will read again and again (and again). A friend loaned this one to me after we got into a discussion about historical fiction. I hadn't ever even heard of A Lantern In Her Hand before, even though it is actually a classic. I LOVED it! It struck such a chord with me and I was moved to tears more than once. It covers the life of a character named Abbie from her childhood to her death. I related to her so much as a woman who has dreams for her life and as a mother who has dreams for her children, and as someone whose fierce love of family helps to overcome the bitterest disappointments. The rapid passing of time and wishing it could just slow down a little bit is a theme that I seem to be relating to these days as well. I thought several times of my great grandma Lang while reading this book--the old Abbie reminded me of her greatly. I was just profoundly moved by this work. This is a book that I would most definitely read again!

What are you reading these days?

Next up for me is a re-reading of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows for book group. Another great read!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

I love blogging. I really, really do. So what the heck is wrong with me these days??? I just can't seem to make myself upload the photos and keep up to date on things like I wish I would. I need to do better because as long as I go between blogging episodes, it's been even longer since I wrote an actual entry in my journal. This blog is pretty much the only documentation of my existence at this point. I have to do better!

Well, as is the case often in Michigan, March came in like a lion and it looks like it's heading out that way too! Both in weather and in the craziness of life. Mom had surgery about 10 days after her accident and so it was kind of like starting all over again. But within a couple of weeks she was doing tons better and had rented a cute little scooter contraption that makes getting around on her own so much easier. So she decided she was ready to move back home. We decided it's too bad she couldn't have a happy medium. Our house is just so loud and chaotic most of the time but over there it's lonely and quiet with her all by herself. Kaya and I usually visit for a couple of hours everyday. Although now we have Susannah and Rebecca visiting so until next week at least, she won't be lonely.

In the meantime, our lives here sure haven't slowed down much. Kalen has been SO busy with work the past few weeks that we barely see him. And when we do, he has work that he's brought home with him or he's so exhausted that he falls asleep in the recliner as soon as he sits down. Thankfully, his summer vacation isn't too far away.

I am still babysitting for one boy everyday after school and another on Mondays plus trying to keep up with my church callings, the kid's schedules and the Etsy shop. Crocheting for that is my therapy though. The more I create, the more I love it. I've had to start writing down ideas in a notebook so that I can keep track of all the new ideas for projects that I want to do. Now if only I could actually sell something...

Taylor has had several major school projects that he's been working on lately, plus Scouts, plus his online Seminary class every day and playing in the band at all the home basketball games. On Saturday the band competed with other schools from all over the region and Albion High School did such a fantastic job. We have a little high school that has so many serious issues, but our band is something else! They have a great teacher who inspires the kids and challenges them to be the best. And they definitely were on Saturday. They played three performance pieces which were amazing--like beyond typical high school abilities. Then they had to play two pieces in the the sight reading room. They were given two unfamiliar songs and seven minutes to learn each song WITHOUT playing a single note on their instruments. It was fascinating to watch the teacher talk them through it with them tapping, singing, chanting along. Then they played each piece and a judge talked to them afterward with only great things to say. They earned straight ones for all their performances that day and qualified to go to the state competition. Unfortunately, though I had remembered the camera, I didn't get any photos. They didn't allow flash photography and the lighting was just too dim to get anything without it. Oh well. Even if I had been able to get a shot, it most likely would have been something like this: That kid hates to be in photos!!!

I mentioned last time that Kendall and Lynnsey were both participating in the Destination Imagination tournament this year. Their competitions went great. In the weeks leading up to the performance, Kendall's group had to research mythology and mythological creatures for many different countries. They didn't know which country they would be assigned until 5 minutes before they were to perform a skit about it. They ended up with Greece and their monster was a Hydra. They had a box with several props in it but they were only allowed to use a couple of them, one of which was a bungee cord. They also were given an envelope with an Unexpected Event in it that they would have to work into the skit right in the middle. (Their event was that someone gets his hands stuck. That would be Kendall). It is so much fun to see how they put it all together on the spot. They did a great job.

Kendall also recently won second place for his Black History Month Essay "I Have a Dream". He was given two gift cards to Subway and McDonald's.

We recently got to visit the Art Center of Battle Creek where a handmade decorative gift box that Kendall made had been selected to be on display with other area school students. Kendall was pretty excited to have something of his chosen, especially by his notoriously tough to please art teacher. Speaking of art, he absolutely LOVED his pottery class. And they loved him. They called us recently and invited him to come back for another session. Unfortunately this one we'd have to pay for, and it was a bit pricey so we told them we'd have to take a rain check. Hopefully we can get him into another session soon.

Lynnsey's little D.I. group did great too. It was the first year for a lot of them. Their group had to perform an original play called "Big Bug's Bad Day." The interesting thing about Destination Imagination is that even though they have a coach, the responsibility is all on the students. They had to write the skit all by themselves and make their own costumes. In fact, when Lynnsey's bumblebee wings tore right before the performance, the coach handed her some tape but no adults were allowed to help her fix it. I think it really gives these kids so much confidence in their own abilities and improves their problem solving skills enormously.

Lynnsey is still my little hat model. She just cracks me up the way she poses for me sometimes--like shes such a professional.

And here's another cute model. Spencer has been learning to read really well lately. He loves to try to figure out what a word is and practice spelling things. He's also very into arts and crafts and is constantly drawing or cutting up paper and giving us all sorts of pictures. Lately he can think of nothing else but the birthday party he his having when he turns six--in 4 months. It might be a long 4 months...

And then there is Kaya. She's still very much two:

I discovered her up on the bathroom counter the other day where she had used my lipstick to draw a masterpiece on the bathroom mirror before washing her hair in the sink and beautifying herself. And she's so cute about it that it's hard to get mad at her. As soon as I walked in she blurted out: "I'm really, really sorry Mommy!" Little stinker. She's such a handful sometimes but just so darn loveable. Every once in awhile she climbs up on mine or Kalen's lap and she'll say: "I yuv you. You my best fwend ever!" How can you resist that I ask you? We sure can't.