Albuquerque Turkeys

June 29, 2012

Albuquerque Zoo

ZooMusic with "The Elders"

Dallin & Daphne have had lots of opportunities this past month to perform around the community with their Irish Step Dance School, Coleman Academy.  But this one was by far their favorite.  A Celtic Rock band called "The Elders" was playing a concert at the zoo, and when our school found out about them, we asked if we could dance with them for a couple of songs.  And they said, Yes!  The kids practiced and practiced to their music.  Of course when it was live, there were some changes, so even though Dallin knew his dances like the back of his hand, he got thrown off, and spent a good chunk of the last song looking at his teacher to figure out what step they were on.  Daphne wasn't as polished to begin with so she just went with the flow.  

Anyway, it was a super fun concert--we brought a picnic dinner and camped out on the grass enjoying the music and the dancing and our greasy Church's Chicken.  :)  And Dallin and Daphne were super stoked that they got to fist-bump the fiddler of the "The Elders" band.  They are a very fun band, by the way, so look them up on itunes and check out some of their music.

Dallin and Daphne in front of the amphitheater at the zoo before their performance.

Sydney and her daddy.

Sydney relaxing on the camping chair.  Just the right size.

Sydney again.  Just can't get enough of her . . .

All lined up and ready to go.  You can pick Dallin out of the line-up because he was the only boy performer that day.  Daphne is the one in the purple dress.  (ha, ha . . . the purple dress two behind Dallin with a gold ribbon in her hair.)

Sean & Hayden

Daphne with a few of her friends who came to support her.

(thanks friends!)

Hayden took this

Here is some video of the concert--it's a little on the long side, but I wasn't sure what to cut out, and I'm already SUPER behind in the happenings of our lives, so . . . whatever.  Before the zoo footage is a special feature:  Hayden in his debut Irish Step Dance performance.  He hasn't taken any lessons yet so you will see him do a pretty good imitation of what he sees Dallin & Daphne do.  Makes me smile.

For Sydney's Birthday Celebration, Daphne dressed her and cousin Lily up in Princess clothes and even pulled Sydney's hair back into a little Cinderella bun.  (It's not staying very well, but now you can tell what it was supposed to look like . . . )

Opening presents.  On the right, Sean is helping her hold a box of 4 princess puzzles she got from Nona and Papa.  Sydney LOVES puzzles and is very good at them.  We do puzzles every day because she will take my hand and say, "Come on, Mom!  Puzzles!" 

Here is her cake.  I usually make them, but I just didn't have time.  So we got her name put on it, and put a Cinderella candle on that she loved, and it worked!  Although, I have to say that the leftovers didn't disappear as quickly as they normally do.

The Gariety kids and cousin Lily

The following pictures are not birthday pictures, but I wanted to include them anyway, because this is typical Sydney.  She is a monkey, so she can climb pretty much anywhere she wants to.  She frequently climbs onto the counter and gets into the cupboard where I store the chocolate chips.  She then proceeds to help herself to her daily chocolate fix.  (See how they are almost gone?) 

Can you believe all those curls?  I can't help myself, but give them a little tug and say "boing" whenever I walk by her.

We just love having this little "sweet pea" in our family.  

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

Children's Music Theater

June 18-23, 2012

The Emperor's New Clothes

This was my 5th year in a row of doing Children's Music Theater, what has turned into a 1 week summer camp in which we rehearse and perform a musical, and in which every child has at least 1 speaking line.  (that is a huge job!) This is the 3rd year I've gotten to work with my friend, Sarah, and it's SO much better than when I used to do it alone.  In fact, I don't think I would ever do it alone again.

For this year's CMT, Sarah and I went back to one cast and one play.  (So much more manageable.)  And we attempted our hardest play yet with this age group, "The Emperor's New Clothes."  It was tricky because there was a lot more staging than in years past when we could mostly have the cast all stay on stage the whole time.  This time there was definitely more on and off stage movement, and smaller groups of characters that required more break-out rehearsal time.  

This year we had over 60 kids in the cast.  (yowsa!) Thank goodness we had a couple of very responsible teenagers who were our assistant directors, (thanks Rachel and Beckah!)--they were amazing.  And another pair of sisters who just helped out with all kinds of other stuff.  (Thanks Hannah and Rachel!)  It was great to have so many extra hands to help with stuff.

We practiced from 9:30-12:30 for 5 days and performed on Saturday.  Friday's dress rehearsal was a complete disaster.  After the first run-through, I honestly considered not showing up for the performance the next day to save myself the embarrassment . . .  But the second run-through was more promising and I reminded myself that the beauty of Children's Theater is that NO ONE expects perfection, and pretty much no matter what the kids do, the parents will probably think it's pretty cute.

Well, Saturday's performance was BY FAR the best they'd ever done, and we were so proud!  And also very relieved to have it done.  And wouldn't you know it, Dallin asked me on the way home from the performance what play we are doing next year!!!   

Below, enjoy a bajillion pictures from this year's CMT performance, "The Emperor's New Clothes!"

The set

Sarah and I welcoming everyone to the performance.  I never know what to say for those things.

Sarah, that's all you if we do it next year. 

Hayden saying, "Thith ith the betht thoup I ever tathted!"  

(Is it wrong that I purposefully gave him lines that had lots of s's in them?)

Sean playing his wooden spoon trumpet in "Soup from a Stone"

We had the youngest kids in the cast do a 5 minute version of Stone Soup so that they could each have a line to say.  That way we didn't have to split up the older kids lines quite as much . . .

The Jr. CMT kids

Daphne and some friends during dress rehearsal

"Just an Average Fairy Tale Kingdom"

The Royal family.  Dallin was one of the mischievous princes.

(We turned 1 prince and 1 princess into 3 princes and 6 princesses to give more kids parts.

Kind of a large royal family, but it worked out just fine!)

The Farabutto Brothers--Daphne was Mario Farabutto.

Again, we split these parts.  There were originally 2 Farabutto brothers in the script, 

but we did 6 instead.  They were darling and basically stole the show.

me saying, "DO NOT CROth THIth LINE!"

(name the movie.)

"Raise your right arm above your head!  Lean to the left till you're turning red!"

Sarah in front of most of the cast.

I realized as I was looking through my pictures that we never got a shot of the whole cast!

Maybe just as well--they probably wouldn't have all fit!

Brooklyn:  "These are your majesty's trousers"

(remember, only the WISE can see them . . .)

Dallin, being mischievous

 

 

Enjoying refreshments after the performance

Sydney

Sarah and I sitting in our thrones that Sarah repurposed for the set.  

They looked pretty amazing.  And we are smiling very big because we finished another year!

Me and all my little performers after the show.

(Let me explain what's going on with Daphne's costume.  After the Farabutto Brothers sneak out of town, they open a swimsuit manufacturing company where they can charge large amounts of money for very little fabric.  And apparently they all retired in the islands or something because they took their bows in Hawaiian shirts.)

Dallin and Daphne and Sean are swimming on the Eisenhower City Swim Team this summer.  I did swim team when I was growing up and it's the BEST thing for learning how to really swim.  This is the first year I've put my kids on swim team.  I figured that having 3 kids on the team made it worth the daily trip to the pool at 8 a.m.  (Earlier than we have to have the kids to school during the school year!) It has been an adjustment, but I'm really glad we're doing it if for no other reason we get up and moving everyday.  In past summers--we really sleep in and sometimes don't even breakfast until 10 a.m.  Well now they eat breakfast in the car on the way, half the time, so we knock that meal out pretty early.

Anyway, here are pictures from the kids' first meet.  I was really nervous for Sean.  On the first day of practice the coach said, "Hop in the water and give me 25 freestyle."  Sean just stared at him for awhile and then asked, "What's a freestyle?"

All lined up for their first event, the 8 & under 25 Freestyle

Here is Sean racing his first 25 Free event.  He stopped and hung on the lane rope every few strokes, and you can see in his face, that he thinks he'll probably drown on the way over.  Poor guy.  He told me he thought that pool was definitely longer than the pool we practice in.  (It's not, but I'm sure it felt like it!)  I was so proud of him for finishing!!!  

(As a side note, he just completed his second meet yesterday, and only held on a couple of times in freestyle, and NOT AT ALL in his breaststroke race.  

And that is why I LOVE swim team--very fast results!)

Christian, Bobby, and Dallin

There were two races where Christian came in first, and Bobby and Dallin tied for second.

funny!

Kirra, Daphne and Loralyn came in one right after the other.

Here are the Schmutz swimmers and my swimmers with their ribbons for the day.

Go Hammerheads!

One day in June, I heard Sean and Hayden outside talking about a baby bird, and heard a lot of squawking from some not-baby birds.  When I went out to see what was going on, I saw Sean and Hayden taking refuge on our porch from a couple of protective dive-bombing robins.  They told me they'd seen a baby bird under the trampoline, and although I couldn't find it, I told them maybe they'd better stay inside so we didn't anger the parents.

Well later that day, we had some friends over who are nature-catchers-extraordinaire.  Kaitlyn caught that baby bird in no time and the kids began to make a nest for it, and dig for insects to feed it.  I was a little worried that the parents would abandon it once the kids touched it, but they continued to keep watch from their perch in our sycamore tree and feed that little bird for a couple of days in our yard.    Then one day, the bird became strong enough to hop right out of our yard, and I had to explain to a heartbroken Daphne that it was a wild thing and wouldn't stay in our yard forever.  But it sure was cute to see him hopping around our yard for those few days.  Hopefully he eventually figured out how to fly.