At the end of the school year, Allie brought home a flyer for this play. She wanted to try out because Mr. Davis (her choir teacher) invited her. Mason thought it would be fun so he went too. They both did great at their auditions, and were given parts in the play. Mason was to play Dan, one of Joseph’s brothers, and Allie would be part of the children’s chorus.

This was a pretty professional production for a little local theater. The people who run the theater have done stuff on Broadway, and were able to make this look great. They even got the actual coat that Joseph wore in the original Broadway production.

The kids had to practice a lot. There was only about a month of practice before the play started. But they both worked hard and did a great job. They did 11 performances! The director was delighted with our kids. She remarked how willing Mason was to help with anything, how hard he worked, and what a good job he did for never having done this before. So naturally we were proud of him. He also rearranged his summer to do this.

Unfortunately, we can’t show any video or pictures from the play due to licensing restrictions. But we do have some pictures of the kids and the cast. I think they’ll be doing more – Mason wants to sign up with the fall production. You can find out more about the theater group at http://www.justoffbwy.com.

Sarah’s play from last year, “The Best Little Theater in Town”

Click here for videos from the “Music in our schools” concert at the elementary school from last March.  Both Sarah and Allie performed – Sarah in the 5th grade band, and Allie in the 3rd grade chorus.

Click here for videos from the spring jazz band concert at the high school. It’s fun to see Jr. getting into the jazz band.

We wrapped up our very busy week by going to see Sarah in the middle school’s production of “Into The Woods”.  Sarah played the part of Florinda, Cinderella’s ugly step sister.  She named the buns in her hair squirrel, cat and rat.  It took the a good amount of time to do her hair.  They all did a great job in the play.  Her friend Olivia was a tree and I was amazed at the amount of time they stood still in one place.  Sarah is so talented and we enjoy watching her sing and act.   (I am so glad she is nothing like me,  I was never that good in front of a crowd.)

Chris Jr. had his first date, made it into NYSBDA All State Band, participated in Area All State Orchestra and is so excited that he will be attending two Junior Proms.  (We like him more – he is so much happier after talking to this girl )  He did much better on the swim team this year.  No more belly flops into the pool and even made it to Sectionals.  He will be making a visit to West Point in April.  He is working on becoming a candidate so he can apply there next year.  I can’t believe he is old enough to be looking at colleges.  I don’t know that I am ready for that yet.  Well most days anyway.

Alexandra got the lead in the school play, and turned 10 yesterday.  She is very excited about being in the play.  She is getting so good at the piano.  I have to admit I am living my dream through her.  She is my alarm clock every morning when she starts her practice.  She loves to play all the time.  I love it.

Sarah made All County Band.  Out of 60 some odd flutes that tried out she ranked #6.  We are so proud of her. The concert will be in April.  She is practicing her solo for NYSSMA on her flute as well as the piano.  We just got her a cell phone.  She has been having a blast texting and calling.  It drives her brothers crazy but we think it is pretty funny.  She will be playing one of Cinderella’s steps sister in the middle school’s production of  Into The Woods in April.

Mason will be turning 15 next week.  He is excited he is finally taller then me even if I am wearing shoes.  He joined the swim team this year and had a small part in one of the high school plays (4th mushroom on the right side at least that is his chris’s joke) as well as helping with the costume crew on another.  He is now a Star scout and a Den Chief with one of the local Cub Scout Packs.  They really like him he has a good time helping out.

Kate and Claire are our two partners in crime.  Claire climbs up everything and Kate eggs her on.  They are the best of buds most of the time.  They are so cute and such a joy.  We love having them around.  Kate loves pre-k and just cracks us up on a regular occasion with her comments.  It has finally warmed up enough for them to play outside it is so cute to watch them play.  I do miss just being able to put Claire on a blanket in the grass, she wouldn’t leave it.  She would only crawl to the edge because she didn’t like the feel of the grass and wouldn’t crawl on it.  That all ended when she learned to walk.  Now we have to chase her all over the place.  Claire is so much trouble, her new thing is taking off her diaper.  That creates all sorts of fun for me.  We have to check her every night after she goes to sleep because she will strip and fall asleep naked.  She keeps us on our toes.

Chris took me to see Mary Poppins in NY in February for our anniversary.  It was excellent.  We also ate at a Brazilian restaurant, the food was really tasty.  Now we can check seeing a broadway show off our list of things to do while we live in NY.  (Though I hope not our last)  Other then that we keep plugging along.  Glad winter is over and hopefully I will be better at keeping up.

Sarah decided earlier this school year to try out for the school play. She’s never tried anything like this before, including singing or acting in front of anyone, so we were surprised but encouraged her. She made it through all of the auditions and callbacks to find out she had won one of the lead parts in the play! Very exciting.

This was at the first part of the school year. She had weekly rehearsals and she spent a lot of time learning her lines and songs. Well, last week it all paid off. She performed for two nights and did a great job. She played the part of Gillian, who is supposed to marry the prince. This meant she had to sing a solo in addition to lines and singing with the rest of the group. She did a great job (and that’s not even a biased Dad’s-eye view!) and it was very exciting to see this side of Sarah. She is a talented girl and we’re very proud of her.

Unfortunately, this also reinforces the fact that she’s growing up. I may have to get my rocking chair for the front porch, and the companion shotgun, earlier than I thought.

Click here to see a set of photos from the play.

The full video of the play is still uploading – I will update this post with a link in the morning. Unfortunately the HD was too large to put online, so we made it as big as we could.

UPDATED:  Here’s the video.  It’s about 35 minutes long, so grab some popcorn! You can also click here to go to the Vimeo page for more options.  Also, the Vimeo page has larger video, and the correct aspect ratio.