Performance Weekend!

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Had we packed any more performances into the last three days, we would have had to forgo sleep!  

Ah, May has arrived!  

Matthew was one of only two Pre-K kids in the Tuesday Pea Pod players class, which allowed him a leadership opportunity that this child rarely enjoys.  His teachers had forewarned me, "He makes the show!".  And he really did do great, if for no other reason than he actually did do the entire show (unlike most kids!).  He sang every word of every song, audibly, with all hand motions!  Ms. Melanie always does an amazing job and this spring was no different.

The Pea Pod Players present The Nanny Goats Gruff:

"Watch Out!  Watch Out!  There's a troll over there!"

Late that night, Happy Birthday, Daddy---Praising God a little extra for 44 after last year's cake mishap! 

 

Friday, Andrew enjoyed a LONG field trip to DC, focusing on several art museums.  Meanwhile, Margaret was downtown at the Paramount Theater for a 6 hour dress rehearsal!

Saturday morning was their annual piano recital at PVCC.  Not many this young have the opportunity to play a grand piano on stage in a college auditorium.

 

Ann Anderson and her son, Michael, have impressive students that are always ready to play.  These long time instructors certainly know how to prepare their students.  Two of Michael's are graduating seniors who played 6-7 pieces of true art.  Quite accomplished musicians, it was a joy to experience the both.

Thanks to Susan for the lovely corsages.

 Ms. Andrew with her Killians, Wayners and DeGoas.

Saturday night brought with it the arts for C'ville as Charlottesville Ballet Academy celebrated its Decade of Dance.   The last piece included the elementary classes from four local schools where CBA offers FREE classes during the year.  Additionally, they award lifetime scholarships to two students from each class at every school----incredibly generous of them!

It's a good thing the Paramount is captivating because Margaret was there for six hours both Friday and Saturday for dress rehearsals!  But while the real show was her third time watching, she was still captivated, and for good reason.  Each piece was stunning.  Several were introduced by videos from the choreographers explaining the heart behind them.  The family favorites were the dance done by the blind folded couple, the dance performed to a poem rather than music, and the trilogy depicting the wives of WWII---costumes and music all period pieces.  Not a leotard or ballet slipper to be found in the show, it was truly spectacular art...which also meant no pictures or videos to remember.

And the grand finale included 100 little girls on stage with the professionals all doing the same dance!

Can you see my girl?  In her white with her flowers??

After church, we had a double-header...cause why play just one game on a weekend like this??  The boys were down 4 goals to STAB, of all teams, and battled back to send us into OT with just 8 seconds left.  We thought OT was 4 minutes, but within another 8 seconds, we had secured victory in what turned out to sudden death in our league.  So proud of these young fellas (and the big one, too), but there was no time to celebrate....had to play again!

Off to an 0-3 start, these guys had to find it in themselves again, but they did.  And they pulled off another victory to end the regular season 8-0.  Always impressive to go undefeated, especially without a dedicated goalie!   (Little man always loves jumping in the huddle.) However, Andrew is coaching his teammates on the importance of taking every game as it comes.  He remembers well the crushing defeat in the first round of the VABA tourny after finishing the basketball season undefeated, too. 

Owen!  Finally, a friend at Woodbrook playing lax, too! 

Next stop = AWANA Awards Night.  These kids have all done incredible work this year memorizing verses and passages week in and week out.  

Matthew battled through a gushing bloody nose just in time to make it to stage for his award:-)  

Margaret was awarded her "SPARKS Plaque" for memorizing the 150 verses required for the K-2 age group. 

Margaret's lead teacher pulled me aside on the way in..."Have your camera ready.  Margaret's Clubber of the Year, again.  You're not supposed to be allowed to win two years in a row, but there was no one else in the class we felt genuinely deserving, so we lobbied for the rule to be changed for her."  

Oh, how a parent's heart melts!  And to think that she won the MLK, Jr. award in Kindergarten and Clubber of the Year for the first time both before she even went to Greystone and learned what being a G girl is all about!  There's something in that girl...she's something else.

 Clubber of the Year - Awarded not for number of verses memorized, but for effort, energy, engagement, enthusiasm and helpfulness with other clubbers.  

These TNT kids (Truth in Training) have memorized something like 500 verses at this point.  There's a reason they call it the Excellence Award.  Two more years to go---cannot wait to see what he accomplishes with his faithful work each week. 

And then, we collapsed.  It was such a busy weekend that we didn't even document that Grandma was here and Dody and Granddaddy made the recital and lunch!  Need to get better about that.  Afterall, the point of all of this is to provide memories for them someday when I cannot.