• May. 20, 2009
The musical

What fun!  The Acorns to Oaks musical was fantastic!  The kids did such a great job.  They worked so hard and it all paid off.  I must admit my first thought when the lights came up was, "Who are these kids and what happened to the kids I have been working with for the past several months?"  I had never seen them stand so still before!  But they were fantastic!  Here are a couple pictures and you can view the rest at THIS LINK.

She's a rumor weed!

Singing "Rain" by Sara Groves

Singing "In The Garden"

Timothy's choir also performed and he did fantastic.  He was not nervous like he had been at Christmas.  He sang every song and even did all the hand motions.  And he was one of the few that was not dancing around the stage and pulling on the microphones!  Here are some pics.

Shannon

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• Dec. 17, 2008
The Christmas County Spelling Bee

Well, the night of the musical finally came and it was a huge success!  The kids always amaze me at how they can pull off a production without a hitch.  I had even forgotten to tell them, until just before they went on stage, to be sure to wait for things like laughter and applause to die down before going on with their lines and they did it perfectly, like it was rehearsed or something!  Sarah, of course, did a fantastic job.  She had a 'deer in the headlights' moment.  But unlike Timmy's, hers was written into the script!

Sarah was one of the two 'winners' of the spelling bee so she had several lines and solos.  Here are some still shots.  Hopefully I will figure out how to get some video loaded in the future.

Shannon

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• Dec. 11, 2008
It's Time!

Well, the time has come.  After 3 months of preparation the weekend has finally arrived!  This Sunday night the children's choir will preform 'The Christmas County Spelling Bee' and I will once again be able to sleep!

No, seriously, I love this time of year.  I tend to get a little frantic in the final week before the program but I love it at the same time.  It is so much fun to watch the kids finally get to do what they have worked so hard on.  This year every kid in the program has their own special part.  This may not seem like a big deal to you, but we have 21 kids in our choir from 1st to 6th grade.  3 of those kids have special needs (2 with Down's Syndrome and 1 with autism) so this is a big deal!  I am so excited for each one of them to be able to have a special part to play.

So...3 days and counting.  Okay, Now the panic attack is setting in!

Shannon

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• Jun. 3, 2008
Livin' Inside Out!

Well the musical was a fantastic success!  The kids did a marvelous job!  It is so fun to see the result of all their hard work.  (And to see them stand still for the first time...ever!  It is a supernatural phenomenon I think, but kids who have never before been able to stand in one spot for more than 10 seconds at a time can suddenly stand still and even smile for 30 minutes when they have an audience!)

Our musical was titled Livin' Inside Out In An Upside Down World.  The message was about what it means to follow Christ in a fallen world, the fact that what God calls us to looks inside out and upside down compared to the ways of the world.  I just love it when you can find a program with fun kids music that can even convict the hearts of the adults who listen.  It was an excellent message.

And of course, it was made extra special to our family because of Sarah's part.  She had kept it a virtual secret from her dad.  He knew that she had a part and was singing but he didn't know what songs (except one small part she had in a song that we had done in church before).  How we kept him from ever hearing her sing for 5 months is beyond me but we did, and he was surprised.

It was a great time.  Everyone Sarah had invited got to come so that made it even sweeter.  Then we took all of yesterday off to veg' out!  Somehow I managed to read The Hobbit in its entirety and Sarah got over 100 pages into The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring.  Actually, I guess she didn't veg' out all that much because this is a whole new level of reading for her.  Tolkein wrote a little more heady stuff than most children's authors of today so she is using lots of brain power to read it!  She has decided she wants to watch the movies.  I have always told her that she has to read the books before she can watch the movies so she dug in.  She needed a little encouragement through the first two chapters (and we are talking long chapters, she is used to 8-10 page chapters, not 18-30 page chapters!) but once the story grabbed her she started chugging along.  It looks like we will have to find a 3 hour block to watch the first movie this weekend!

Enjoy you day and remember to "live upright in this upside down world!"

Shannon

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• May. 31, 2008
Musical Weekend

Well, after 5 months of hard work the big weekend is finally here.  I am currently sitting in a local bread shop trying to regroup after a night of very little sleep before our final practice. 

The children's choir musical is Sunday night.  The kids have worked long and hard and despite many nights when I thought we wouldn't all make it to this day alive, here we are!

I am so excited to see it finally come to fruition!  There is this excitement  at the beginning when you first find the music and it has the perfect combination of fun and a great message.  Then comes the work...and you begin to forget what a great program it is.  Now that the time has finally come I am so happy that others are finally going to get to see and hear the words to the wonderful songs the kids will be singing!

Then of course there is the parental pride issue!   Sarah is making her big debut this time.  She of course has participated in our musicals in the past but this time she has a major role and several solos!  Needless to say we are really excited about that!

Well, I am beginning to wake up now so I had better seize the moment and go set up our practice.

Enjoy your weekend!

Shannon

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