Emma is a techie!

Saturday Night, April 28:  Emma joined the drama team at her high school a few months ago. The spring play was chosen and it was going to be: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat" (Andrew Lloyd Weber). She was pretty pumped about it. I asked her if she was going to try out for any part in the play--but she said she was "too chicken" so she was going to do the LIGHTS.

 My personal opinion is that Emma could have tried out and done many of the parts in the play--she would have done a very good job! But I am still very pleased that she was part of this production and was the lighting person for the play. 

 I attended the performance Saturday night. Emma was SO excited about the whole thing. As usual, she was exceedingly uncooperative about my snapping her picture. PLUS, she would not let me anywhere NEAR the lighting booth. SO ... I found myself a very excellent seat up high in the middle section (Emma advised that this area would give me the best view for pictures).

 I'm going to have to narrate this at a later date ... and that is NOW ...

This is the first time I've ever seen this "musical" and I have to say how much I truly enjoyed it. The music was very fun. The performances were quite good, when you consider this is a high school drama team.

I'm struggling to remember each song these photos represent; but the musical does try to follow the Biblical account of the story of Joseph ... how his father favored him, bought him a beautiful many-colored coat, etc. Joseph's dreams were mentioned and the hatred/jealousy of his brothers, and then finally his pretend demise of death but actually being sold into slavery in Egypt, etc.

Below is Joseph in prison, after Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him, but Joseph refused ...

... and then the dreams of the butler and the baker ...

And then Pharoah's dream and Joseph interpreting it ...

Pharoah was patterned after Elvis ... it was a very funny song ...

And the brother's back in Canaan starving from the famine ...

And Joseph's brothers coming to Egypt where Joseph has been made #2 man in the country ...

And how Joseph tests the brothers by returning their grain money and hiding his silver cup in Benjamin's sack ...

And Joseph's reunion with Jacob ...

We folk in the audience were commanded NOT to use flash photography ... I was very careful to obey this rule and was sternly warned by Emma to NOT forget!

I was very skeptical that any of these photos would turn out ... but the lighting (thank you, Emma!) was so beautifully done, that the quality of these pictures are much better than I had anticipated.

This is the entire cast and all of the directors and musicians together ... very nice! Emma was super pumped about being part of this whole production. I am so glad for her! I love to see her this happy.

Lacrosse!?!?!?

Saturday Afternoon, April 28:  I guess there IS something new under the sun ... today was my very FIRST viewing of Lacrosse in my entire life!

 Christopher is on a league team that plays for Comstock Park, same colors, same name of Panthers but somehow NOT a school team but rather a league--kind of like rocket football (Diana explained this to me). Chris's best friend in the world, Tyler, also plays on this league. What an interesting game!

 Chris told me today that it is a mix of soccer, hockey and football! Who thinks this stuff up?!

 Chris's team pretty much killed Lowell's team--I think the final score was 15 to 6. They played very well--I was impressed with the team work and the all-around effort. I'm glad Chris is enjoying sports, and I'm glad he has a best friend to do sports with! What great memories these boys will have!

 It was 52 degrees and VERY windy. On the sidelines, we were super cold. I regretted not wearing my winter coat!

 Larry and Judy were there watching the game with Diana, and were better prepared for the cold. I'm so glad I went. It was nice to sit with Diana and her folks and just chat throughout the game.

 Good job, Panthers!

Brendan's Spring Program

Friday, April 27:  Due to a regrettable "senior moment" ... I have no pictures of this event. I THOUGHT I had uploaded my camera to my computer Friday night when I returned home after Brendan's program! But actually, I had just viewed them on my camera and was too tired to do one more thing ... so I went to bed and fell immediately to sleep. In the morning, I picked up my camera under the false assumption that I no longer needed the photos and promptly erased every last one of them.

The pictures would have illustrated Brendan singing with the K-2nd grades. Brendan is one of four in his Kingergarten class; and actually, most days there are only three because one of the children only attends one day per week. The children did a nice job--Brendan was a little "off" from his usual self due to an annoyance he found with a tiny piece of skin that was hanging off his upper lip (!!), so all the while he was singing, he was trying to yank it off of his lip with his hand (which makes singing rather difficult). 

The rest of the program was more of a "recital" with individual students playing piano numbers and then the other grades doing songs in between.

Baby Aidan sat with me during much of the program and then we passed him off between his mama, Dylan and back to me. He was super tired, but he is not one to miss out on any fun ...

I took some pictures of Brendan explaining his art work to us. All of the children had samples of their art work hanging in the hallways. One of Brendan's was of a starry night. Little Aidan walked around the hallways too. He is SO TINY! I had taken pictures of him walking beside Brendan, which made Brendan look HUGE by comparison. 

Sigh ... no pictures of the brothers walking together ... no pictures of Brendan's pictures ... or Brendan singing ... or Dylan holding Aidan ... or Kelly with the boys ... Sigh and double-sigh!

Four hours of completely FREE therapy ...

Monday, April 23:  It has become part of my weekly routine Monday mornings to come over to Dylan and Kelly's to take care and love on baby Aidan while Kelly goes to clients and Dylan goes to Acton. I usually arrive right about 9AM, the time this adorable little person is waking up. Dylan is home with him--Kelly's work day has already begun. So Dylan changes Aidan and hands him off to me.

 We usually play for a little while before it is time for Aidan to eat. He has a host of allergies: gluten, dairy, peanuts, eggs, etc. so it's not like I can just put any sort of food on his tray. He's a patient little person, though, so Dylan and I dug around in the kitchen to find something non-allergic for him to eat. He wasn't terribly pleased with what was put before him, but he did eat about a half piece of gluten-free toast with special allergy-free butter and 100% natural strawberry jam on it. He ate a few bites of his fruit bar, and he threw most of the meat bar off his tray in an instant. I decided he must not be terribly hungry, so we played instead.

 The most fun part of my morning I have no pictures of! Perhaps it is just this particular time of day, but for the last three weeks, Aidan will bring me one of his favorite books, sit on my lap, and we will read it over and over again while we laugh and play. I usually rock him while the reading is going on.

 This time, however, we were NOT sitting in the rocker--we were sitting in the middle of the room on the floor. We put down our "Animals in the Forest" book and Aidan turned around and laid his head near my heart. We sang some songs and rocked while I rubbed his back and his little legs, and his chubby arms, and his dimpled elbows and whispered little words of love to him.

 Aidan surprises me every week--I am always 100% SURE that after 5 minutes, he will scooch away and start playing again, but it happened exactly the same THIS week as it had the prior TWO weeks. This little child just melted into my embrace and fell soundly asleep.

 He makes the dearest little sighs while he sleeps. I rubbed his head (it is SO SOFT) and his elfish ears, kissed his little cheeks while he gave me sleepy smiles ... and he drifted off into dream land while I felt my heart just overflow with the JOY of this little person.

Aidan did not wake up until his mama came through the front door! He was happy to see her, but--and I say this cautiously--he was NOT desperate to leave me. I think I am loved by this tiny boy. I'm glad about that! Praise to the LORD, who gives us family to love.