The Greatest Show on Earth

Jefferson auditioned for and was cast in his school’s performance of The Little Mermaid Jr. For 3 months we ate, drank, and slept the music and lines of the show. Literally! I actually still hear the tunes ringing in my head. Of 2nd through 5th graders, he was the only 3rd grader cast as a main character (proud Mommy moment). He played the role of Scuttle. This little bird is my favorite and not because he’s my son (although that helps). 
He had quite a few lines to memorize, and even a solo song. Yes, a song!
It was a small school play, but I may have blown up this production and talked-it-up into the greatest performance ever, which resulted in my mom flying 3,000 miles to come see it. I don’t think she regretted it though. It truly was awesome!

First of all, the costumes were AMAZING! The mother of Jefferson’s chorus teacher single-handedly sewed 120 costumes for each chorus member. And these were phenomenal, custom-made costumes. Even now when I look at the pictures I cannot believe she did this. It takes me forever just to make 4 Halloween costumes. I can’t wrap my mind around making 120. And she didn’t have any patterns. She is my hero, someday I want to be her…. but paid (yes, she did all this work for FREE!) Sebastian and the Mer-sisters….

Secondly, the set was equally awesome! There were some very talented parents who made the set, including Jefferson’s telescope (which he got to keep).
That draping fabric is what took up my dining room floor for a week!

And there are some really talented kids in this elementary school! I was impressed. Ariel’s voice was unbelievable for a 4th grader! I think all children have the potential for great talent, but that it takes the right environment to encourage it. I feel so blessed to have my son in a school where this is a value.

Okay, okay, on with the show……

Here are a couple pictures of Jefferson before the show. His smile is really cheesy, but I think he was pretty embarrassed. It’s funny to me that he can feel totally comfortable on stage in front of 500 people, but mortified to take a picture with his parents. Should I take this personal?
  

Shawn and I went to both nights of the performance. They had the entire auditorium decorated in fish, the ceiling had lights that looked like waves, and in the background was playing ocean sounds…. making us feel like we were under water. It was cute!
  

The 30 minutes before the show started, I was the most nervous I have ever been… ever, as in ever in my entire life! I was more nervous than when I’ve had to speak in public, and that is some serious nervousness. I knew Jefferson had his lines memorized forwards and backwards, but I just couldn’t relax. I calmed down a little after he said his first line and I realized how comfortable he is on stage…. he loves it up there.

“Mermaid off the port bow! Ariel, how ya doing kid?….”

“Wow, this is special, this is very very unusual….”

  “Sure thing kid, and I ain’t just blowin’ smoke…”

Here is a video of his song. It’s obviously not in the Disney movie, but it’s a darling song, and it should be. We had moves practiced, but for some reason he just seemed to walk around during the song. Silly boy!
I thought I may have beaten a world record for “holding breath” because I didn’t breath during this entire 2 minute song. I googled it, sadly I wasn’t anywhere close to the current 22 minute record.

I bet you held your breath a little too! You did, didn’t you?

Some more pictures of the show….

At times in the play the entire chorus would come out and sing….

Jefferson with his biggest fans!

I meant a lot to have his Nana here! 

My little Scuttle

Can you tell I’m a tad proud of this boy? I just love him to death!
Jefferson, you shined on that stage. You were “…fantabulous, absolutely indispensary…”!!

As of late….

I’ve been lame. I’m sorry. I should be better at updating.

I just realized something.
Every single one of my journal entries over the past few years begins with the same apology, “I’m sorry, I should be journaling more.”
Now I’m just as bad at blogging as journaling. My poor kids will have no family history. They will have no documentation of how awesome their mother was.
Kidding.

It’s mostly a time issue. I never sit down long enough to go through pictures, edit them, then type something up. If I’m going to continue with this, something’s got to give. So, I’ve made the decision to stop caring what my photos look like. I’m not going to flip through 8 million photos. From now on I’m just going to pick the first cute one I see and delete the rest. And I’m not going to sit on photoshop editing it. No more! (I take that back… knowing me, I will be editing some pictures)…. but not all of them for crying out loud.

Moving on. There have been a few things happening around here that need to get written down.
I numbered them so you wouldn’t get lost… it is a little overwhelming.

1. First of all, Shawn surprised me one day by suggesting the girls get their ears pierced. What? I asked him to repeat himself… twice actually. Shawn has been staunchly against piercing Reagan’s ears for 5 years, since I first asked (at her birth). I don’t know what snapped in him, but I wasn’t going to question it. We drove to Claire’s before he could change his mind. There was only 1 staff member there, so the girls had to have 1 ear pierced at a time. Reagan did really well. She flinched, but didn’t cry.
 
Kennedy cried. I felt a little cruel, but that feeling went away quickly when I saw how cute she looked.
A week after having them pierced, one of Reagan’s fell out. It hadn’t even been an hour and the hole closed up. I basically had to re-pierce her ear. It was traumatic, for both of us, and she never let me touch her ear again. Luckily, neither one of them got infected. Hooray!

2. Jefferson took Drama lessons through the local theater. He loved it! He performed on stage in front of  a full house (of parents) and did really well.

3.  After 9 months of waking up every 2 hours, I said “no more!”, and stopped getting Kennedy out of her crib, cold turkey. She cried for about 20 minutes the first night, and never woke up the second night. She sleeps until about 5 am now…. like an angel. I couldn’t choose just 1 cute sleeping picture, they’re equally adorable.
  

4. I sewed 19 yards of satin to make this for Jefferson’s upcoming play.
Isn’t it the most fabulous thing you’ve ever seen?
 
When I finished, the teacher had another request for help… this time with 55 yards of fabric!! This was the only time I was ever thankful we don’t have a dining table. I had plenty of room to lay out obnoxious amounts of fabric.
But, I wanted to shoot myself!
You can see the final product at Jefferson’s play. It’s tomorrow. You’re coming, right?

5. The boys both participated in basketball. We ate, drank, and slept basketball for about 10 weeks. Having 2 boys on different teams was a serious time commitment.
I took 5 million pictures of them playing, but notta-one turned out. I blame Kennedy… she’s a wiggle worm and made picture taking impossible.
Jefferson was lucky to be coached by a member of our church. She was amazing and his love for basketball tripled! Coach Stark told me that “in the beginning of the season, Jefferson was ranked as our lowest-skilled team member, but in the end, we had him paired against the opponents best player.” That compliment would make any mom proud of her son. It was fun to watch him improve so much.

Getting a pep talk by one of his coaches

Grant loved the game also. It was fun to watch him too…. but I just couldn’t take my eyes off his coach….

The picture on the left is pretty small, but maybe you can see Grant’s socks. He is obsessed with these candy cane striped socks. My aunt Lynn bought a pair for each of us for Christmas. He wears them almost daily. They must be good luck.

6. We drove to Georgia during Easter break to visit our friends, the Reeds. Would you believe me if I told you that I forgot to take a picture of all of us? Believe me. It was a crime, and I should drive back the 6 hours to their house for the sole purpose of taking that picture.
They were so kind to let us stay there, especially since we invited ourselves. Thank you Jen and Brandon. We just love your family.
The kids spent a lot of time playing with ipads.

Easter morning, the bunny hid about 300 eggs in their house! No one’s baskets were lacking in eggs…. except Kennedy’s. She was not interested in picking up eggs. Don’t mind my lovely morning hair.

She got a little more excited about playing with the empty eggs later in the day.
 

7. I shot a successful Easter picture of my kids. I’m blowing it up really really big because it is just too perfect. Those are genuine smiles, folks, and there was no bribing involved.

And Jen was able to get one of our family before a torrential downpour made us run inside.

9. We took a quick trip to Savannah, GA. We chose to take a bus tour around the city. The kids thought it was great to drive all around without seatbelts and no windows… it’s the little things. The bus would stop periodically at sites and we got out to check them out. We learned more about Savannah than we ever knew (which was basically nothing, besides it’s beauty)
 
It’s true what they say, Savannah is beautiful! We just sat for a while to look around at the park while the kids played.
Look at me, in deep thought. Actually, I think I’m trying to figure out those hieroglyphics on the park bench…. oh, and also enjoying having my girls climb all over me.

Mossy trees, Shawn and Grant in front of some sort of famous fountain, and the kid in front of some famous statue. That’s just how informative the tour was!

We took a peek inside the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was breathtaking.
  

Then we had dinner at The Pirate’s House. The kids were fascinated by our waiter’s tales of ghost sightings and hauntings. Yes, we believed him too.
The adjoining cottage is the original built in 1734, and it the oldest building in GA, fyi.  
  
There’s a lot of history at this sight. If you’re curious, just look up the Pirate House. I can’t write everything we learned about it (my excuse for just forgetting).

10. One morning I just snapped…. drove Reagan to the closest hairdresser, and had her hair chopped off.
I know, you’re questioning my my mental stability. But if you had to fight daily with this girl to 1. get dressed 2. brush her teeth 3. brush her hair 4. put on shoes, you would do the same thing! I’m even considering dentures for her. Maybe that’s extreme.
Anything to ease our battles.
But I actually think this one was a win win. I think she looks cute. It definitely fits her personality!
 

11. I’ve been doing a preschool co-op with some church friends. It’s been fun for the girls. It’s hit or miss with Reagan…. sometimes she likes it, sometimes she cries and clings to me. Who am I kidding…. she ALWAYS cries and clings to me.
Here are all the girls loaded up in my car to go on a walk. (don’t worry, we just drove down the street). Notice the other girls dressed appropriately in sweaters and hats? And my daughter has on a tank-top. Yep, she froze to death

12. Reagan participated in dance for a few months. Here she is in her dance costume that cost us an arm and a leg.
She wont be wearing it in the actual performance because she refused to go to dance anymore. And I refuse to pay for an extracurricular activity that my child doesn’t want to do. So, now she has a really fancy, really expensive, dress-up dress. Win Lose.

 

Is this turning into an outlet over my struggles with my daughter? Well, that is my life now, so I’m not too surprised. Reagan, if you are reading this, take note… you consume my entire life’s time and energy…. but I love you.

13. Grant’s been taking chess lessons, I know, I know, I mentioned that before. The big news is that now he can beat me. Not that I’m some sort of Bobby Fisher, but it was a sad day when he won the first time. I haven’t been able to redeem myself. He’s working up the nerve to compete in a few weeks.

14. I was asked to be the Primary President in my ward. I don’t doubt inspiration, but I do wonder whether they know the truth about me and my scatter brain.

15. Shawn is going to Vietnam.
I’ll let that sink in for a second before I tell you… it’s just for a week. I know, my heart dropped the first time too. But a week, that’s a piece of cake. He volunteered to do humanitarian service. I’m pretty stoked for him.

16. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on
not the best picture of Shawn, sorry honey. But you can see this awful, ugly record table that I’m gong to redo (somehow). In the background to the right is a secretary desk (that’s I’ve been meaning to get to for 12 months), and in the left background is the headboard that Shawn and I built that I am painting.

Whew, I’m done! I think I’m finally caught up on everything I needed to talk about, and I feel much better. This was basically 10 posts in 1, so if you’re still here reading this, you’re a die-hard, and a true friend (or you were just really bored).