Thespians, my Nativity Scene, and black n whites

Thespians! We have spent this past week running to and from play practice! Once a year the Missoula Children's Theater comes to town! Yeah! My kids always try out. {sidenote: I tried out each year as a child and the only time I got a "part" {as an assistant director}, I broke my ankle that same night! long story, I may some day share... So, I didn't even get to go to the performance :( } Well, so far, Cody has gotten a part every year since 2nd grade; Shantel has gotten a part every time she has tried out {she actually prefers the assistant director part}; Savanna has also gotten a part each time; Robby got a part the last 2 years, but was one of 26 kids who were without parts this year. :( {He was at first a bit miffed, but when the older kids started to pay him to do the dishes on their dish days... he was liking not having a part! :)}

This year they did an {interesting} rendition of The Little Mermaid. Cody was comic relief {perfect for him} as one of 12 Sea Scouts {He played a weird fish who ran Urcle style across the stage, was the head of a dragon, the general of the Sinister Soldiers and Charlie Tuna, who danced across the stage.}. Savanna was one of 14 Seasiders. Shantel was the assistant director over the Sea Scouts. After 6 days of intense practices, they gave a great performance! {you can tell the kids that have done it in the past as they are usually loud enough to be heard... unfortunately, there were some very quiet actors tonight ... but all in all it was fun to watch them all perform!}

The whole cast -- mostly!Cody the Sea Scout.Savanna the Seasider! Below we have the Scout, Seasider and the Assistant Director! They had a bag decorating contest {the paper bag to put your costume in and your street clothes when in costume} and I was just informed that Cody won! Sorry no picture, because Cody threw it away! He drew the set complete with dragon and General Cody! Savanna won the Over-do-it contest by being loud and expressive on stage and quiet backstage! Way to go my little Thespians! :)

In case you are unfamiliar with the Missoula Children's Theater, I will add the program notes here: Missoula Children's Theater was co-founded in 1970 by Jim Caron and Don Collins who currently serve as CEO and Senior Development Officer respectively. Jim and Executive Director, Micheal McGill, supervise the intense training period for the "tour teams" and have created the eight original musicals that are currently touring with 33 teams of MCT Tour Actor/Directors -including the ones you are enjoying today.

Your cast auditioned for this show at the beginning of the week and has been rehearsing for just a few short days. We are confident that you will be amazed by what they have accomplished. We are proud to say that more than 65,000 young people will participate as performers in the Missoula Children's Theater International Tour Project this season. More than 1,200 communities in all 50 states, 2 Canadian territories and 4 provinces and 16 countries will be visited - communities from Anacortes, Wa to Anderson, Guam!

Click here for information on the soon-to-be-released documentary film about the Missoula Children's Theater International tour.

Nativity Scene Here is my attempt at tole painting at Souper Saturday, where we also had classes on quilting, goal setting, eating healthy, card making, making gluten, recipe exchange, Internet safety, accessing the stake and ward web sites and the music page on the Church's site.

Black n Whites Please go here for some shots of the kids and I in black n white. There is so much to share with ya that I thought I'd put some on the kids page. {I secretly have a fear that if I post more than once in a day and they are both long, that I'll be the only one reading them.... and I love to get comments so ... I can't do 2 long posts a day.... so humor me and go have a look! :D}