Is It Naptime Yet

1. The play to be over and done with. I am sad it’s over, but I’m happy to have my life back!
2. Friends who watch my girls just because their daughter wants to share her new movie with them.
3. Husbands who help clean the house on their day off.
4. A more together home. It’s not completely recovered from it’s 8 weeks of neglect but it’s so much nicer already.
5. Water fights with little squirt guns in the front yard, even if your daughter and husband gang up on you.

On Monday night my family, friends, and some of my sister’s and mother’s co-workers came to the play. My mom bought 20 tickets, and I had one free ticket and every seat was filled, with a couple kids on laps too. I think we had a sold out theater this night too. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the play.

Terri, my sister’s co-worker, dragged her husband to the play because he knew he wasn’t going to enjoy it and would have rather stayed home to catch up on work. He then apologized to her Tuesday night and said he really did enjoy the play and was happy she had made him come. She of course told Carolyn and then Carolyn told me. I’m happy he enjoyed himself. We had some amazing lead actors which always makes or breaks the play, especially with such a well known play.

Monday night was a pretty normal night. The one hiccup I experienced was losing my shoe as a Winkie. The girl behind me stepped on my shoe right as we came out and I tried for a second to put it back on but I would have had to stop so I marched on and no one in my family noticed. I thought it was very obvious because it was my left foot, or the one facing the audience, but I guess the boot cover covered my foot well enough that it wasn’t so obvious. This teaches me that I should have character shoes, which have a buckle over the top of them, and not just any black shoe. I think I’ll invest in some next year.

I got pictures afterwards with my little family and Jon was a doll and brought flowers for us. Terri also brought Lilah a rose. Ever since opening night Lilah had wanted flowers, but Jon wasn’t coming till Monday, so she had to wait and I made sure he knew to buy some flowers for Lilah and of course he bought some for me as well.

A fuzzy picture of the munchkins. Most of the pictures Jon took were slightly fuzzy. Lilah has her head slightly down.

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Lullaby League: Lilah, Lexie, Allison, Bonnie, Whitney, and Elizabeth.

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The snow fairies.

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Pat pat here, pat pat there and a couple of brand new straws!

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That’s how we keep you young and fair in the merry old land of Oz!

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This is very fuzzy, I know, but if you look closely you can see me without my shoe. I’m the second from the last.

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My foot, without the shoe. Thank goodness for boot covers, though I think you can slightly see my pink toenails.

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My family.

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Lilah took this picture of me with my flowers.

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Then she had me take this picture of her with her flowers. She looks so grown-up to me.

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Jon’s mother and two younger siblings came on Friday night. Jon was going to be driving them all to the play but unfortunately around 4 am Friday morning Lilah got sick, as in throwing up in the hall way sick. Some stomach flu circulated between the cast this year and unfortunately it hit Lilah on the day Jon’s family was coming. She threw up again at 10 am, and I was so hoping she could pull through and feel better for that night. I was so sad that my MIL would miss Lilah’s performance and was in tears over it. I thought Lilah might just need some attention and was milking the sickness but she proved me wrong when she threw up at 4 pm, right before I left. I felt better about leaving her home after that and luckily she felt better and was able to perform closing night.

Friday’s performance went well and we had a sold out theater. We  also sold out for Saturday night on Friday night because we only had 4 seats to sell at the door for Friday’s performance and then only 6 seats left for Saturday’s too.

Jon’s mom loved the play and Dara and Jason thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

Dara, she made sure to hold up the program, me, Jason, and Mom Blake.

I need someone to come clean my house. Any takers?

Jon’s home for the next two days, to use up leave once more, and I’m sure I won’t get more than dishes and laundry done and maybe the piles of stuff from my living room removed that are from the play. When he’s home I just don’t get much done, though he is cleaning as I type this. We’re also spending part of Tuesday with his niece and her boys, so no one judge me on my crazy house till the end of the week, since I’m probably going to not be home too much anyways. I have things I want to start doing now that our summer can finally begin.

I am happy the play is over, though kinda sad too. I met some wonderful people and amazingly two live close by me and hopefully we can get together before another play begins.;)

I loved performing every night. I was always too shy to do anything like this when I was younger, so I hope this helps my girls have some extra confidence by being in these plays. We were able to sell out the theater about 4 times, that I know of, and most nights we were pretty full so we think, or hope, that we can do one next year.

I have lots of pictures and stories of things that happened on the last night. Jon loved the show since there was more improv and more punch lines that were not in the movie, which he has seen a million times lately. Even though I’m sad Lilah was sick on Friday night, or the night my mother-in-law came with Dara and Jason, I’m happy Jon got to see the fun closing night play, and I think I’ll make sure to get him tickets for that night in the years to come.

I’m off to wash dishes and start making my taco salad for FHE. Life never stands still for long.

Tonight I had one of those proud parent moments. It’s one when you take pride in a decision your child makes, but know that it was completely them that made the decision and you’re just so happy to hear they did the right thing, or a nice thing.

There’s a little rivalry going on between the snow fairies and the poppies. (There are girls on stage dancing or sitting as poppies during the poppy scene and then snow fairies that sprinkle the stars with snow, instead of making it snow.) Anyways, some of the snow fairies decided to write mean notes to the poppies. Lilah told me she tried tried to tell them it wasn’t nice, but since they didn’t listen she wrote a nice note instead that said “I love poppies. Love Lilah.” she also tried to write ‘ignore them’ or ‘ignore the snow fairies’, but it was too hard so she scribbled it out.

When Lilah told me this in the car I admit I was very happy to hear that she was the one being nice, but she also knew that it might hurt other people’s feelings so that’s why she was nice. So many of the kids in the play like Lilah and are nice to her and I think it’s because she is nice to them.

Lilah is just such a sensitive spirit. Granted she’s not always the nicest sister, but hey, what sisters get along 24/7? Lilah is just so sensitive to other people and has always been empathetic beyond her years. This can be hard for me at times because her sweet spirit needs a lot of love and I know I don’t always give her all the love she needs. It’s not that I don’t show her love, it’s just hard when you think you’re giving someone enough love and attention, but when they need more love they show you in interesting ways and in Lilah’s case by showing me more love is how I know she needs more love and attention.

To tell the truth I’m happy I’m home schooling her because I think public school and the world of many impolite people would be hard on her. I don’t home school her only for this particular reason, but it’s definitely a benefit in keeping her sweet spirit sweet and I hope she always tries to be nice and makes other good choices as she gets older.  I know the notes were partially in fun and not just mean spirited, but I admire her ability to think about how others might feel and do the right thing and I learn so much from my precious daughter.

Jon got jealous that I did a five things centered around Lilah for her birthday but did not do that for his. Since it was Father’s Day yesterday, and since Jon is so low key and doesn’t expect anything too much from me, even though I like to be treated on Mother’s Day, I am centering today’s five things around Jon.

1. Jon is so patient with our children and I appreciate it, even though I’m not always patient with his patience. (As in I want him to be as impatient as I am.)
2. Jon wants to show and teach the girls everything he knows, and since he acts on this he gives them much of his time and the girls love this.
3. He takes each of his girls on a date every month. I know they will always appreciate this alone time with him and I appreciate the time I have with him too.
4. Since he’s been a home alone parent more often with the play practices Jon sympathizes with me and my role, and I finally feel he understands me and how I feel a little more because it’s been somewhat tough on him to be the only parent for the girls to turn to when I’m gone and even though he’ll be so happy when the play is over he is still happy to watch them because I’m enjoying the play so much.
5. Jon makes us his priority and tries to spend quality time with me and the girls. He has every Friday in June off to use some leave and he also has something planned for every Friday in June so we can do things as a family.

I love you Babe and I’m happy to have you as the father to my children.

This past week has been hectic. We had rehearsals or the play to perform almost every night, except Friday. The play totally wipes Lilah and me out and neither of us are very useful till 9 am. Then with needing to bathe her and get curlers in and then I shower in the afternoon before we leave, we have like 5 hours of the day to do something. Lets just say we haven’t done much of any house work because we’ve been to Chuck E Cheese for Lilah’s birthday, the mall twice to buy clothes or return clothes for Jon and my dad, Costco, and UNLV for some family time at the museums. Even if we were home there is so much to do that there’s never enough time to do it, but just play catch up so we actually have clean dishes to eat off of and clean clothes to wear. Jon  has also been home, which is both helpful and not. It was his vacation so I was trying to let him relax as much as possible. He wanted to be gone during the day, but didn’t have anywhere to go, so he was home but not required to do much unless he wanted to. The day I went to Costco he did some tidying around the house because I was torn between staying home to clean and going shopping, but we made a deal that I would take the girls with me and he would clean. He also creates so many more dishes when he’s home so I’ve yet to catch up on dishes, and I’m sure I’ll be behind for part of the week. So fun.

I admit I look forward to him going back to work and since there aren’t any pressing things to do this week besides the play I want to clean my house or at least get caught up on some of my chores. Speaking of chores, I need to wash dishes so I can make a nice Father’s Day meal and actually be able to serve it on regular plates and not paper tableware.

We had our first sold out show tonight! My sister-in-law Annie actually got the last three tickets at 6:50 pm, or 10 minutes before show time. She loved the show and mentioned how it was her favorite movie when she was little, but it was also the only thing my mother-in-law would let them watch because they weren’t allowed to watch TV! It was so nice to have family there and I can’t wait to perform on Monday for my family, even though it’s also a little nerve racking to know you know people in the audience.

Our previous two nights were also pretty full, but it’s great to sell out so early. We have six shows next week and really need the shows to be sold out because the foundation didn’t get some grants this year, so we have to do well in order to continue to do the plays, and I really want the girls to be a part of them, plus I think they’re fun too. So please help us sell out on more nights and come to the play. Buy your tickets in advance on-line so you can be sure to have a seat!

www.rsaf.net

Sorry, I know all I’ve blogged about is the play, even though I have a list of things I need to blog about, but this is what is on my mind and I want to encourage those who read my blog and live in Las Vegas to go to the play, though most who read my blog and live in Las Vegas are my family and they’re planning on going!

Opening night went fairly smoothly until the second half, but that’s when I come on so I don’t know what happened in the first half, though I think the Tinman did almost fall over because he did some move slightly different. Anyways, during intermission the Tinman switched his ice packs from his chest to his back, the ice packs are there in an effort to help him stay cool since he literally has a suit out of tin, or aluminum, or some sort of metal, and his front was freezing from the ice packs.  I was watching this go on because you only need so many cooks in the kitchen and I was encouraging one of the cooks to go get dressed, since I was already dressed and she was not and we go on in the beginning of the act, but I didn’t want to interfere too much since it might have just delayed things longer. Well, Tinman’s right arm piece was off a little at a connecting point so it wasn’t going on correctly, so they taped it to help the velcro because he needed to be on stage immediately since intermission was over. (The arm’s aren’t tin, just his main body piece.) During the Jitterbug dance sequence the top arm piece which wasn’t fastened correctly came off. I was dancing right behind him so he turned to me for help, but I couldn’t get it, so during the partner dance he and his partner went off, still no luck fixing it, and he danced the rest of it with his arm hanging off. Live theater, it’s different every night. Well, of course they decided to remove the arm pieces and he just finished the show without them. So, you live you learn. We learned to take off the costume piece if you can, rather than fix it.

Also, earlier that night after our Oz sequence I saw the Tin man moving his elbow towards me, or really anyone who might see who was exiting, because a bracelet had gotten caught in the hinge of his arm, so I removed it for him.

So fun, and I really mean so fun. I am really enjoying the play now that we’re performing it. What’s not fun is costume malfunctions and time restraints.

And for your viewing pleasure here is Lilah in her costumes.

Lullaby League girl.

Snow Fairy.

Isn’t she so beautiful? I just love my girls and I just liked this picture.

So Glinda/ Dena was kind enough to take pictures of the two costumes I made for myself, while I wasn’t out on stage,  except I made 15 of the Winkie skirts and hats. The boots were made by a stage mom and my friend Anna made the vests.  (I would put a link to what the costume I was trying to recreate, but apparently the design has changed and you’ll just have to like what you see.)

We have cast pictures tomorrow night so I should have time to take some of Lilah. I’m just so busy curling my hair, which takes an hour, that I don’t see her at all during the night. She’s cute though, so cute.

Well, the fateful day has finally arrived, at least by the time I write and post this it will be Tuesday, or family night of the play. It’s not opening night, but it is the first night we perform in front of a live audience.

I’m so excited and nervous at the same time. I brought my camera tonight so I could take pictures but it was mostly locked upped in the hall locker with my purse, so I will bring it again and eventually you can have some pictures of the costumes, it’s just tough because we have some pretty quick changes and I don’t have a lot of time to take them. Plus, Jon may or may not being going to family night, it’s depends on whether his parents can go, so it might not be until Monday that pictures will be taken since that’s when he’s going.

I did get pictures of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West, one of me in a mirror that’s a blurry one of my costume and one of me in my stage make-up and hair at home 3 hours after I did it. I guess you just have to come see the show if you want to see more of the costumes and the cutest munchkin in the show, Lilah.  (She’s wearing curlers in her hair during the day for the next two weeks so she can have her adorable ringlets each show. When we were paying at Mc Donald’s tonight the attendant smiled when she saw Lilah’s hair. I’m hoping to use them as a conversation starter so I can hand out flyers when we’re out and about.)

www.rsaf.net