Show Week

One week from right now, the show will be over.  The last week is like a rollercoaster with a LOT of 'hurry up and wait' built in.  The kids get closer with their fellow actors, the directors go a little loopy (or a LOT loopy, we have had it go both ways) and the last little bits fall into place.

This has been the first play I have not waffled about a half dozen times.  In the past, I have been so sure it was going to be horrible to have everything work out just fine and the production be better than I ever hoped.  And I have thought it was going to be awesome and ended up counting the hours until I could collect my kids and burn their scripts to expedite the cleansing process.

From the minute I saw Emily dancing, I knew THIS was going to be a good play.  They had a music director in at the start and she grouped the kids by voice and WOW, what a difference.  Kind of like in Sister Act, hahaha!

The person doing head shots this time around rocks.  Yeah, it's me.  But, I rock.  If there is ONE thing I can do, it is aim a camera, so I was glad when the director asked me to take care of it.  I am also doing production shots during the performance.  And make-up.  Oh, and bathroom duty in the girls dressing room. I actually volunteered for that one, they were gross today after the high schoolers used them for their play.  I don't want that level of ick again, so my plan is to wipe them after each show and dump the trash.

I dread Wednesday.  Out of the whole thing, THAT will be the worst.  We have to leave the house by 6 and that's with both boys done with their make-up-minor but necessary and a PITA at that time of day.  Get there at 6:30 and start on Chan's make-up then at 7, start on Britney.  There's a play at 8, 10 and 12.  And it's a fasting day.  We will be home around 3 and not have to be back at the theater until 'opening night' which is crazy talk for 'the 5th performance with an audience'.

 I found these in the camera today, they are shots Chan took after the snow last week!

Down in the orchard

The house from the cedar tree.  No, we have not finished painting the side!  

After we finished with a VERY fast paced 2 hours of wood cutting this morning, I took a few shots while we walked back up to the house.

Veronica flower

Tomorrow is another marathon of wood chopping in the morning and a 4 hour rehearsal in the afternoon.
The chainsaw would not start last weekend and we are trying to get our stash built back up before the next cold snap.  And trying to be able to take off until next Sunday, since Matt works Friday and Saturday is another 8+ hour theater day.  Long week ahead!

Rack and Tweak and Shoot

Guess what 2 things happened this week!  If you guessed, "The van went up on a rack and one or more children had their teeth looked at" not ONLY have you been reading this blog BUT you are right!  The 2 most frequent reasons for leaving the house happened IN THE SAME WEEK.

On Tuesday, Chandler went in for her final records appointment and lo and behold a chorus of angels sang because he cleared her from needing oral surgery for now, recheck in 2 years.  When she's EIGHTEEN. Holy crow.  I asked him to look at Jake's teeth too and he's going back in next month to see what can be done about that one tooth...

On Tuesday night, I dropped the van and the chainsaw off and left the keys in the drop box.  The mechanic walked the chainsaw next door to her brother's shop while Nettlevan got some fresh oil and a little safety check and a new o-ring.  He got the chainsaw going again and walked it back over and put it back in the van.  No charge on that and only $40 on the latest AC repair.  woot woot.  A few more breaks like that and we might just break even!

Also between Monday and Tuesday night, I got most of the head shots done for the theater.  Let me just say that while there were a few surprising stunners in the batch, a few of the kids in the play are not attractive. Yet.  It's a phase.  I forget how scary a snaggle-toothed child can be, which is likely super mean of me, but GAH.  I loved mine through that awful time, I don't have to extend that to cover anyone else's kid. Combined with the gappy teeth, kids of that age often 'smile' as if they are being poked in the back-that look of pained shock crossing their faces as the shutter snaps.  Or as if they are in the midst of falling off something, awaiting impact.  I have a list of kids I WILL be retaking photos for, every kid should have a nice head shot to take home.

awwwww

Tuesday night (are you getting the feeling that everything all week happened on Tuesday and nothing since?) we messed with make-up ideas.  Unlike some other areas of potential creative input that were kiboshed, The Powers That Be are open to make-up ideas.  To a degree.

seriously

Matt took this one of me painting our baddie.
See her badass hair?
We tried yellow eyes the first round, but agreed white would be better for the next time.

Emilbastian is SO adorable, she does an amazing job as Head Crab.

Don't be jealous, you can print out a headcrab of your own here.

Tonight is More Theater and tomorrow is Cutting More Wood,
then from Saturday on it's daily theater until the very end.
We have no other plans until after next week, so be prepared to see and hear all about the play for a while.

It's Really Bright Out Because it's SUNday

We got up and headed to Birmingham today to get hair dyed for upcoming events

Chan and I sat and waited while Brit got her hair trimmed.

She checks it out while Chan photobombs
Brit yelled at her.  Talk about DOUBLE STANDARDS.

Chan got her ends bleached and then Brit got her whole head stripped, eep!

Chandler just wanted some purple tips, so she went first.

What we thought at the time would be our only shot of blonde Britney...

She got 3 colors, a teal, mint and purple pastel layered event.  It took 2 hours and had to sit another hour to set.

Chan's came out the way we expected, dark purple ends, you can't even see them unless the light hits them.

Brit's hair decided to stay blonde-though it looks REALLY cool with the chunks of dye, the roots are all kinds of colors.  Jake said she had cotton candy hair, but it's actually really close to a mermaid hair dye...thing.
She warmed up to it really quickly-it's not at ALL what we set out to get, but like she said, "no one anywhere is going to have THIS hair!"

She can go back in a few weeks and get it done darker, but I think she's pretty happy with it for the time being.  It's a HUGE change, I am still alarmed when I see her.  hahaha!

A Dairy Happy Birthday

Today was supposed to be an actual road trip, but it was chilly and rainy and we opted to postpone the trip, but still had Brit and Emily for the day, so we went back up to Belle Chevre!  We had a cheese plate and a pot of fondue, it was enough for the 4 of us and then some.

Afterward the girls wanted to go to Sugar Creek, so off we went:

After we left the creek, we flipped a coin at each intersection and drove around another hour looking at the houses and farms and occasional donkey and the girls talked non-stop.

We had to head back to get Emily home, so we finally turned South again and stopped at Athens for ice cream and a cookie.  Nestle Tollhouse did NOT need a drive-thru cookie place.  I am glad it's an hour away!

Back at Suzette's, we hung out another hour.  Ben had been there to play with Zachary all day, so they were glad for the extra time to hang out, as were the girls. 

I'd do a Girl Day every single month, just have to get Suzette on board.  That was a blast just driving around and the girls jabbering like crazy about book plots and favorite memories and fun trips and future plans.  I'd like to freeze things sometimes and just let them be girls with nothing more pressing than what to talk about next and hear their endless peals of giggles a little longer.

I know I can't do that, so I hope the future finds them just as close and just as easy together.
Best friends for life.

Snow Too

 It snowed again overnight!  6.5 inches this time.  At this rate, we should get 8 inches by Saturday!  :)

We were all up at 6 to go see it, it was too magical to wait a second longer!

The back steps again!  More than Tuesday!!


See: Tuesday

Compared to Tuesday:

Another thing off his bucket list.