Heroes Viewing Party

Here is an "award ceremony" we did tonight for Josh Miller, who did so much to make this amazing Summer Xtreme movie series happen.  We had three years of this series, with seven heroes, battling villains like this one below here, Lord Titan.

As you can see, it was also a viewing party.  We watched all three of the movies back-to-back, all of us heading down to the Gwinnett Campus to enjoy the movie, enjoy each other's company, and yes, enjoy a little food afterwards.  Here below are the Super Seven (plus one of our villains there), all lined up at the end.

Each got a t-shirt with their character name on it - and as a surprise, Daddy got one with his character's name on it too:  "Soundwave."  I was a sub-villain with a bit part at the beginning, and a secret cameo at the end.  Nobody knew in all the viewings of this movie that this cameo would take place - we filmed it back in March, and just three of us kept it secret all this time.  It didn't get seen throughout the Summer Xtreme movies, and was something we did just for this viewing party here.  Even Pastor Lance didn't see it coming - that's how secretive it was, although I did mention it here on the blog back in March.

Anyway, it was a great night.  You can see these two had a hilarious awards presentation just before we showed the final movie (Camille is seen holding a huge list of awards that Josh has earned for this series).  It was very much appreciated, and quite a surprise for Josh!  And with that, having just seen parts one and two back-to-back, we started to watch the third and final installment.

A lot of people showed up, friends and family of the participants.  Basically anyone who had anything to do with the movie over the past few years.  Madison has a part in the crowd scenes, running in terror with all the other extras - she still talks about how much fun that day was.

Daniel was here, a villain who patiently waited through a pretty extensive make-up process each time we filmed.  He's been in with this series since the beginning, always coming back to go up against the Super Seven, our main heroes.

But as you can see here, he's anything but a villain.  His family has been at the church quite some time, really solid volunteers.  They're here with Mommy, about to enjoy the dinner we had planned tonight.

And here's Madison eating some of that dinner.  Pastor Lance is here in the picture too - the two of them had a great night.  It was just a relaxing time, enjoying a movie and honoring all those involved in the process.  It was a lot of hard work, and the end product is something we're pretty happy with.

One of the neat things is that Nana and Ba-Ba were up here, so the two of them came along with us anyway.  After all, there was a free meal and a chance to meet up with our friends at the church.  They love Pastor Lance, and all the others here, and enjoyed themselves tonight.  It was a little bit of a drive down here, but the weather was fine, and the time they had here was just fine.

Ah, here's Camille as Firestar.  She's cut her hair shortly after this, but she and all the others were celebrated tonight as the credits rolled.  Each got their own little screen like this, and all the crowd cheered for each actor.  It was a lot of work for the actors, a lot of commitment and time and effort.

But here's the guy here, Mr. Josh Miller.  He and his family above did a lot to help.  His dad at the left there put on make-up, and Josh's sister was of course Thunderbolt, the superhero that represents the fifth graders.  And of course, there's Josh, who was completely surprised at this award segment that was put together:

It was a great night, in any event.  And it was a longer one too, for obvious reasons.  The movies were shorter, but there were three of them.  And there was dinner as well.  But it was one of those evening where we didn't really feel pressed to leave so quickly, one of those evening where it was just very pleasant to be together as a family at KidPak.

Here's Pastor Lance's family above, and here's our family below:

Daddy was a little more dressed up than this earlier, but we needed someone in that t-shirt, and I happened to be wearing one underneath.

Obviously, this was a bit part of the day, but there were other things going on as well.  Nana had a good doctor's visit with good results, and we're thankful for that.  It was basically the reason she came up here, so it was good to go home on a good note there.  Madison was at school, and Daddy was setting up for this weekend, and doing a few other things as well, all related to work.  Florence is shifting towards us some, but no longer a hurricane.  Rain is coming, more than likely tomorrow.  The weather is profoundly humid, quite uncomfortable, in fact.

But the air conditioning works, and we're fine with a little rain tomorrow.  Hopefully the people in South Carolina will be okay soon - tonight before bed, we said our prayers for those, and for Nana and Ba-Ba who are riding home tomorrow, and for a great weekend here.