March/Musical

What a month!!!  I felt like this month revolved a lot around Kimball, but it was still a good month for everyone!  

We had a few good snow falls in March.  This was the amount of snow we had at the beginning of the month.  By March 31st it was all gone.  Once it starts to melt it goes quickly.  Mother Nature wasn't quite finished for the year though.  We woke up today, April 1st to 2 inches of snow...a fitting April Fool's joke. Here are a few pictures of the snow fun.

Joseph built a little sledding track on the roof of the snow fort so the kids could play in the fort or on top of the fort.  They had a lot of fun sledding on it.

Joseph got home from work on day and brought in this really long icicle from above our garage.  It had already started to melt by the time we thought to take a picture.  

We have decided to remodel/update our kitchen.  We had corian counter tops and oak colored cabinets and we are going to upgrade to granite counter tops, new back splash, and off white cabinets.  We (mostly Joseph) are sanding and painting the cabinets.  Joseph has done a lot of research on painting cabinets and they are turning out really well.  Hopefully next month we will have the finished project pictures.  The below picture is Eden comparing some wood samples with the granite.

I had a friend over for lunch to celebrate her birthday.  I made this Chocolate Lover's Cheesecake and it was probably the best cheesecake I have ever made.  It came out of the pan well, didn't crack and was so yummy.  I loved the layers so I had to document it.

Bath Buddies!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  I tried to make Shamrock shaped sugar cookies.

Eden is sure fun to have as company while the other kids are at school.  She loves to look at books and she absolutely adores dolls and babies.  She is very good about sharing her babies with me so I never go long without holding and feeding a doll.

A kind-hearted person gifted Eden a copy of a Daniel Tiger story collection that she loves.  She loves Baby Margaret from the stories/TV show.  Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is the cartoon spin-off of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  

Kimball had a String Fest concert.  All of the orchestras for the district get together and have a concert.  There were 2 middle school orchestras, 2 for the Junior High and 2 for the High School.  I missed the concert, but I am determined to go next year.  Joseph said Kimball's orchestra sounded very good.  Kimball is transitioning to the Bass from the cello.  In the picture below he is the bass player farthest from the front of the stage.  I believe this picture is both middle schools playing together since there are 4 basses in the picture.

Kimball was very glad to have his name under the bass section.  Since he is a 6th grader he wasn't sure his name would make it on the 7th grade orchestra roster.  He is the only 6th grader in the 7th grade orchestra.

Middle School Musical: Newsies

The highlight of our month was the middle school production of Newsies.  Kimball was Tommy-Boy one of the main newsies.  The cast started practicing the first full week in January and as the weeks progressed the practices got longer.  In January, Kimball probably rehearsed roughly 12 hours a week M-F.  Once March hit Kimball and cast practiced 20 hours each week M-F.  It was intense, but the show was AMAZING!  I never thought I would say that a middle school production would be so outstanding, but it really was.  Last year I took Kimball to the school musical and I was impressed with the quality of the show.  This year's show was even better.  This production was better than any high school performance I have ever seen...not that I have seen too many, but it was very well done.  Kimball loved every minute of the musical--practice and performance.  He made some new friends, improved his singing voice and realized that he can learn to dance and still be cool!

The musical ran 3 nights and I went to the Opening night performance by myself, we went as a family the second night and closing night I helped back stage.  I was glad I could enjoy it without kids one night.  I did my best to take good pictures, but it was hard getting good shots working around people in front of me.  It made my heart soar to see Kimball singing and dance with all of his might!  He really seemed to have so much fun.  It was nice to have so many people come up to me and tell me how much they enjoyed watching Kimball perform.  Being in the musical is something we never thought Kimball would do.  He has always complained about singing and dancing, but it just took some encouragement from a few kids at school and seeing the musical last year to really bring out a new talented side of Kimball.  

My newsie--Tommy-Boy.  Each night I got better with his make-up.

The lighting director used 6 remote controlled projector screens to make such nice effects for the musical.  Not just these two shots, but a scrolling effect of sky scrapers in NYC.  I really thought the screens "made" the show.  In the Broadway production screens are also used.  The school director tried his very best to match the Broadway production as best as possible.

Kimball jumped onto this table.  I was so impressed.  

King of New York

Once and For All

After the curtain call. 

Closing night I volunteered to help back stage.  If I had known how much I would have enjoyed the show I would have just bought a ticket and not helped!  As it was Joseph was disappointed he only saw it once.  At first Kimball didn't want me helping back stage because he didn't want the kids to know I was his mom.  By intermission he was willing to claim me when he saw I had a bottle of water and was willing to share with him!  I took him to the cast party after the show and on the way out one of the female cast members asked if I was Kimball's older sister!  That was a great moment for me!  Here I am almost 40 and a 7th grader mistook me for Kimball's older sister...I'll take it!!  We are all a little deflated after the adrenaline high of watching Kimball perform.  We ordered the DVD of the performance so we are eager to watch the recording once it arrives.

On March 26th Joseph and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  Joseph got home from work late so I fed the kids early and waited for Joseph so we could eat together.  Our raspberry white chocolate cheesecake was divine!

The last two summers Kimball, Rebecah and I have watched the "Great British Baking Show" on PBS and it has inspired Kimball to want to help more in the kitchen.  He is getting pretty comfortable in the kitchen and it is nice to tell him to mix something up for me.  Here he is mixing up a batter bread to go with our dinner.