Audition for Narnia at the ACT Theatre

After a nice break, it is time to ramp back up and settle into our second home for the next couple of months at the ACT Theatre as we work on their upcoming performance - NARNIA!

In the fall, Stuart and Nicholas finished the 768 page book of the complete Chronicles of Narnia. It was one huge book that included all 7 novels in the ever popular series by C.S. Lewis. When Nicholas first considered auditioning at the ACT and we looked at their upcoming season, he was thrilled to see that they would be producing Narnia and he loved the thought of participating in it. We expect that the show will specifically be about the most popular book in the series, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Unlike his first audition in the fall for Willy Wonka Jr. (see it HERE), we actually knew what to expect this time around and helped him prepare. Well, sort of. We started practicing yesterday, the day before the audition!

Many years ago, Grandmother C. introduced Nicholas to the beautiful poem by Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. Nicholas enjoys watching this video of Robert Frost reading the poem himself. We looked at several ideas for a monologue for Nicholas to use for his audition but once he thought of this poem, he knew this is what he wanted to read. I'm sure Mr. Frost would have appreciated the Green Lantern pajamas.



Nicholas seemed stuck when it came to picking out a song for the audition so he picked his favorite song from the last show he was in, Willy Wonka, Jr. The song is called, "There's No Knowing" and it is from one of the crazier scenes in the show (but one of my favorites!)



At the previous audition for Willy Wonka, Jr., the kids were brought into the theatre in groups of 5 at a time and the parents were allowed to sit in the theater and watch. But there is a different guest director for Narnia and she asked that the parents not sit in on the audition to ensure that the kids are not distracted by mom and dad. Boo! But Stuart *ahem* coincidentally needed to go upstairs to find his buddy in the sound room just about the time that Nicholas was auditioning. Therefore, we have a bootlegged video of his audition. It is not a good quality but it's all we got.



He did great! He was so nervous and this was only his second audition, but we can see a dramatic improvement over his first audition!

Call backs will be Tuesday and the final cast list will be posted on the ACT's website Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. He has a few characters in mind that he would like to be but we are just hoping he at least gets a character that has a line or two.

Christmas Morning 2013

We were jolted awake this morning by little children bouncing around wanting to see what Santa had brought them!

The first thing they saw were their stockings.

Rachel dumped her stocking out and started going through it but Nicholas spied the tree and forgot all about his stocking.

He was so excited to find a Leatherman multi-tool under the tree for him.  He has been wanting one of these for several years.

Rachel got the Baby Alive doll she asked for in her letter to Santa.

Eventually they noticed that Santa ate the treats they left for him.  He even left a thank you note for them!

Next time Santa needs to be more careful though.  He left a messy sooty footprint on the hearth! 

 Rachel couldn't wait to change her new baby's diaper!  She gave it a drink of water in its bottle.

And sure enough, it drained right through the doll into the diaper.  Grandmother was ready with paper towels to help clean her up.

While Rachel was making a mess playing with her new doll, Nicholas was checking out his new night vision goggles!

A little bit more time to play then it is time to get ready to head over to my family's Christmas celebration.

Lunch at Walk Ons

We drove into Baton Rouge last night and went straight to Stuart's parents' house to crash.  Today we got to spend some time with my family.  I love seeing my kids have fun with their grandparents.  It just melts my heart!

We ended up going out for lunch at Walk-Ons Bistreaux and Bar.  One thing you can count on in Louisiana is good food.  I mean, where else could you get Krispy Kreme bread pudding?

Mom and Rachel spent some time together working on the coloring pages.  My mom is such a good artist.  She taught me to draw and color well.  I wish we could spend more time with our parents so our children could learn more from their grandparents.

We ordered an appetizer of fried alligator.  Everyone had some but Rachel ended up eating most of them!  Yum!

Dad was acting like a parent and kept reminding the kids (and the adults!) to move their drinks or plates away from the edge of the table.  Steve chuckled about it and put his drink and mine right on the edge of the table just to mess with him.  We love you Dad!

Nicholas had a burger but decided that he didn't like the bun it was on so he wasn't going to finish eating it.  Cool Uncle Steve showed him how to make his burger even better by replacing the boring bun with criss-cross french fries.  It's a fry burger!

Rachel brought Bitty Baby over to mom for her to hold.   I really love watching Mom play with Rachel.  

Sweet memories!

Mom is still recovering from her hip replacement but she is doing amazingly well considering she had the surgery just about 6 weeks ago.  She gets around fine with a walker and Rachel is always right there to help get her walker for her or help steady her as she walks.  She is such a natural nurturer.

Rachel Read Her First Book!

Rachel has been working through the Bob Jones K5 Beginnings program which focuses on phonics, reading, and writing.  She has learned enough to read her first book!  She couldn't wait to read her book to Daddy!

It's called Grandpa's Bible and it is one of the little readers that comes with the program.  It just contains a few of the simple words that she has learned but she is so happy to be able to read.  

It's so much fun watching our kids as they learn new things and meet new milestones!  I wouldn't want to trade these days for the world.

Letting Go of Books

During the Icepocalypse earlier this month, we were stuck in the house for many days.  We took advantage of that time and worked with the kids on cleaning out their rooms.  

One of the things that takes up the most space in Nicholas' room are his books.  He has multiple bookshelves that are overflowing with books.  He loves them all and has a hard time letting any of them go, even after he has long ago outgrown them.  But we were able to convince him to donate small stack to the library and a larger stack of a little over 100 books to Rachel.

It is much easier for him to pass them down to Rachel because he knows he can still read them anytime he wants to.  The only problem now is figuring out where to fit these on Rachel's bookshelves, which as you can imagine, already have hundreds of books.