Blogging again

I'm breaking my blog silence.  It's been long enough, right?  Not that it was intentional.  We had some technical difficulties (broken computer) that was the start of my blog neglect.  Then I got my iPhone.  Do you have one?  Does it make you feel like you almost never need to sit down at the computer ever again??  Well, that's how it is with me.  But no more.  I really like documenting what's going on with us this way so I am vowing to get back into it.

For starters, here are a couple pictures from Madeleine's and Ian's performance in The Sound of Music.  The YMCA has a Performing Arts program that put this on.  For a couple months they went to rehearsal 3 times a week to prepare for the show in May.  They had a good time, but I think they were ready for it to be over.  Three rehearsals a week got to be a lot.  It was for me, too.  I'm glad they got a taste of doing a play.  I'll be interested to see if they have any desire to do that sort of thing as they get older.



Madeleine had two roles: Sister Margaretta (obviously in this picture) and Romy, a made-up Von Trapp daughter who is just younger than Liesl.  They had to create parts to fit the children in the performance.  I think there were 12 or 13 Von Trapp children instead of the usual 7. :)

Ian played Kurt.  He was adorable.  We were originally just going to put Madeleine in the play.  As we discussed it more and more she was leaning toward not doing it at all (which would have been fine) but then Ian asked if he could do it.  He was adamant that he wanted to do it, so Madeleine came around and decided to do it too.

Here's what I liked about it: It got them involved in something cultural and exposed to a wonderful musical.  I love The Sound of Music!  We liked them being busy.  At times I hated how busy we were, but in general it was good for them to be out doing something productive than at home trying to watch too much tv.  Ian is very outgoing and comfortable in most settings, but this challenged Madeleine by getting her out of her comfort zone and they both were able to make new friends.  And the director had lots of good things to say about them.  You always think your kids are pretty great, but it's nice to hear it from an outside source from time to time.

What I didn't like as much was that the performance ended up being a glorified rehearsal.  The director was out on stage some and giving lines a lot.  But I completely understand.  There was one adult in charge, the director.  She had a couple teenage assistants and one mom who was very helpful (not me) and all the children in the play were under 12 years old.  A tough job, I'm sure.  Anyway, overall it was a good experience.

Keep this little blog on your radar because you know after six months not blogging, I've got loads to come!