Dress Rehearsal

 

Today's theme for Spirit Week was a "Throwback Thursday" day, where seniors were wearing outfits they wore from when they were younger.  Maddie wore this ladybug outfit that she wore a few times back in the day, and it still looks good on her!

Mom and I were working hard on the Easter production, but we did have a moment getting home where I set up Mom's Easter egg hunt and her basket too.

This clue was left by Moana in the refrigerator, where the eggs are kept.  Six different princesses left cause throughout the house, alongside eggs of course, and that all led up to the discovery of Mom's Easter basket, up by the bathtub.  Here are just a few of the hints...

The six Disney Princesses had a basket with a Crunchie Bar, chocolate bunny, and one Bath & Body Works for each of the Disney Princesses.  Mom liked it, and hopefully she'll have some down time to enjoy the bath gels.  

Meanwhile, Dress Rehearsal was here in full strength, with a lot of horsepower!  Always an unusual sight to see horses hanging around the lobby of the church.  

I was snapping a few pictures of Maddie and others beforehand the run-throughs of tonight's big dress rehearsal.

It all went well, and as always was a late night.  I dropped Maddie off over at taekwondo, so she was there for a good portion of the night. 

Tired, the three of us got home late - Mom was already doing laundry, which is the theme of the weekend with so much blood on garments.  But we made time to read a bit before bed, and after that we said our prayers.  Maddie gets to sleep in tomorrow a bit.  Mom will be up early with more laundry, and we'll get going tomorrow for Good Friday.  We said our prayers tonight, a good night, and had a good night's rest.

Senior Citizen Day

Today's theme for Maddie was dressing as a "senior senior."  She put on a good bit of make-up, and used that walker that I picked up from Goodwill some time ago for a costume.  I added the tennis balls last night, and I think we're in good shape!

Speaking of good shape, I'm still doing well with this treadmill, quite consistent on that.  I'm running a few miles each day - in fact, here's the latest challenge completed on the iFit today. 

Tonight we were practicing again for the Easter production, and all seems to be going well. We've got new elements, and new costuming, and new parts of the script that I helped write out.  It's a little different, but still with a lot of the same elements of before.  The dance team is here, although the acrobats are not.  The message is the same of course, the greatest message ever told.

Maddie was at FCY tonight, as there was still service for the youth there.  She had a great time as always, and got a ride back to the main campus to join us for the rest of our practice.  It's a busy season, and sometimes there's just so much going on you can't think or plan ahead so well.  We did manage to make reservations at the hotel in Port Canaveral.  I think you can see the cruise ships from there - that'll be nice, won't it?

We read tonight, and we said our prayers too.  It's been a busy day, a productive day.  Things are rolling along!

...Practicing

INSERT ANYTHING BUT BACKPACK PHOTOS HERE 

Anything but a Backpack Day was pretty fun for the seniors at East Forsyth High School, who brought all kinds of crazy items to lug around their books and school supplies.  Maddie brought a baby stroller, along with her friend, Buc-ee.  Other students brought around some oddball items.  There was one student who brought an actual kayak.  I think the favorite this year was a working butter churner.  It was super fun in any event.

Meanwhile, Mom and I are busy with the Easter production.  At one point I was guarding a door though - a sudden moment where I was letting someone important practice their saxophone, as this individual will be playing for the President of the United States at the White House tomorrow.  No big deal, right?  

Anyway, practice was going well tonight.  Just the usual Tech Week issues with props, make-up, blood - it's everywhere.  Actors, costumes, lighting, music cues... all kinds of stuff going on.  It's just part of the long week, but we got home late and certainly tired.  We read tonight though, reading for Maddie.  And we said our prayers together.  But sleep came easy and fast today, because we were pretty worn down.

Holy Week, Spirit Week, Tech Week

It's a busy week.  Yes, it's "Holy Week," or the week before Easter Sunday - but it's also "Spirit Week" at East Forsyth High School, so a big thank you for the Einstein who planned that one out with a Senior Prom on Good Friday.   Anyway, "Spirit Week" is a chance for seniors to dress up or do some crazy things over the course of the week.  For example, today was "no rhyme or reason" day, or something like that.  

Maddie came in dressed as a cowgirl, while her friend was a princess.  That's pretty fun!  She had a good day at school, and Mom and I were doing another sort of week:  "Tech Week."  That's the week before the production, where we're scrambling to get props and costumes and cast together for the massive production here this weekend.  

Today was somewhat of a smaller day in that regard, but tomorrow things really heat up with practices and so forth.  Tonight there was a lot of blocking, back-stage movement, musical performances and all sorts of pre-production madness and chaos that's part of the process.  It's coming along well though, and this Easter will be fantastic.

Tonight Maddie did have taekwondo, and that was fun.  She was playfully "interrogated" by Mrs. Edge, no doubt, about a certain "relationship" she might be involved in.  The rest of the night was fun too.  We got an early night tonight, because there's just so much going on.  We made sure we read from our book, and after that we said our prayers.  It's a busy week, but it's all looking pretty good so far!

Pharaoh said NO!

 

Great morning!  Our skit was really fun, and how awesome that towards the end, the kids were actually singing along to a song they'd never heard before.  We told the story of the Ten Plagues, and we did it with a matching game, plus some fun videos and then this musical skit too.  We had a great morning, one where Maddie was taking pictures, some you can see below:

It was a great morning, and of course it's Palm Sunday too!  We handed out palms to all the kids and families, and I was ready to make a whole lot of those palm crosses for everyone.  I've sort of gotten it memorized from all the years I've done it, so I was like a little one-man assembly line, making them for people in celebration of the day.

Maddie had lunch with Nate's family this afternoon, and pretty much stayed over there all day.  Mom and I went to Texas Roadhouse to grab a bite to eat, and then we all got home and rested for a bit, although I was on the treadmill again, running a few miles.  By few, I mean at least two.  I'm working back up to three again, plodding along as I watch various things on the television down there.  Lately, I've been rewatching all the Cirque du Soleil videos, cycling in some Perry Stone videos as well occasionally.  

When Maddie got home, she had some ELA homework to do, but after that we did an honest speck of pirating, back to work at the World's End with the LEGO game in Davy Jones' Locker.  None of that makes any sense unless you know Pirates lore and the movies.  Regardless, it was fun.  But there was one movie I said we were watching tonight, and that was "A Goofy Movie."  A-hyuck!  This was on my list for a while, but apparently this year is the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie - we just passed that date a week ago I think - and so it's been one of those mandatory things to see now.  On top of that, we started to watch the new documentary about the movie, "Not Just a Goof."  It was really good so far with some things never seen or known before - we'll finish that tomorrow, as it was so late when we started that.  

Maddie and I read more tonight from our Discworld book, revisiting the small kingdom of Lancre and its wonderful people.  It's been a good day.  We said our prayers, and soon after that, it was time for bed.  A-hyuck, hyuck!

Seder

So Maddie had a date today, and believe me that's weird for a dad to write for the first time.  But there it is, and she had a nice time.  Of course, there were other "get-togethers" before, including the Harlem Globetrotters day and dying eggs recently.  But this time they were on their own at Zaxby's, and then after that over at his house with his parents for a really long time this afternoon.  The two of them watched "Newsies," which she loves.  It's the stage musical version that she enjoys more.  Afterwards, they went for a walk, ending a good day together.

Mom was busy making costuming for the Easter production, and I was out shopping a good portion of the day, plus getting ready for Easter.  The weather is cooler - I got some lawn material, but I'll have to wait until later to use the weed n' feed.  But things are coming along.  Speaking of which, we have squirrel #99 transported.  Still have a few more to go.

 

As mentioned, Passover is here, and so tonight we had our Passover Seder, a meal where we honored the important tradition remembering the events found in the book of Exodus.  Mom had spent some time as always setting things up.  Of course, we had the proper plate and settings, but there's also this apple charoset that she made today.  There's that, the egg, the parsley and the salt water, the horseradish, the matzo bread, and the wing (we don't do a lamb).  We had a guide booklet, and and sort of went through things together, drinking from our grape juice the three times, leaving the fourth time for dipping our fingers in the juice and calling out the ten different plagues.  We read Psalms 113, 114, and later on Psalm 118 as well.  We told the story of the Exodus as part of the meal too, in addition to the explanations of all the symbology.

We left a place open for the Messiah, and we even opened the door at the right time, letting him know he was welcome in.  We ate our latkes that Mom and I prepared and cooked up earlier, and that was largely it when we agreed that we would do this again "next year in Jerusalem." 

It was all very nice.  No doubt we were far from perfect in our presentation, but I think our hearts were in the right place.  In fact, immediately afterwards, we watched "Prince of Egypt," which of course shows portions of the Exodus story with beautiful animation and music.  

Afterwards, it was time for bed. We read from our book, and said our prayers - and then it was time for sleep. We've got church tomorrow - it's Palm Sunday!  We'll have a good day, but first, it's time to sleep.

Moses and the Sandcrawler

We're looking ahead to June at KidPak, although Easter is right here now.  Moses is here above reminding us that we're still in the midst of our Exodus series, and Passover actually starts tonight.  We were at the grocery store picking up Passover items, including some potato latke mix.  But we got the main items for the plate, and we'll be sure to have a Passover meal tomorrow night before all the Easter practices start during the week.  One thing not on the menu:  squirrel.  We've been catching them left and right, the magic number right now at 98.  Yes, that's a lot of squirrels.  I managed some more mulch today, getting that lined up, but we've got a ways to go on the mulch.  But things are looking great.  I need some weed and feed for the lawn, and I want to get out there tomorrow and get the fire pit area looking nice because the weather is actually kind of cool outside.  It'll be chilly tonight, and a fire at the fire pit should be nice!

Maddie and I had an honest speck of pirating this evening, back in Singapore for that level of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, and we completed our five-movie series tonight with "Dead Men Tell No Tales."  It's Maddie's least-favorite, but at least it's no "Dial of Destiny."  

Maddie had a good day at school - she's been doing some work with threads, creating a larger piece that looks pretty cool.  The bowl at the bottom - I keep joking with her that it looks like a Jawa sand crawler, if you know what that is.  The Jawas have apparently located a ginormous lightbulb and are carrying it across a flowery planet on a massive red carpet.  But seriously, it's turning out well.  Maddie's other works are coming along too, including this interesting sculpture here:

She's super creative, and we're really proud of her.  Only a few more weeks of school left, and they'll be big ones.  We're looking into items for her for her Senior Spirit Week next week, where each day there's a different outfit to wear or item to bring along.  You'll see that soon enough.

We read tonight, more from "Carpe Jugulum," and now the story is moving along even more so.  I am remembering bits as we go along, as little hints are dropped and I have to refrain myself from going, "Oh, I know where this is going."  Anyway, it's another visit to the Discworld, and as such, the character DEATH has already made his appearance.  Maddie blurted out, "Oh, I love DEATH!"  And then she quickly added, "You know what I mean - the character."

Tonight we said our prayers and got some sleep knowing full well we don't have to set the alarms tomorrow.  That's good news for all of us... goodnight!

Dying Eggs

Tonight we had planned our Easter egg decorating night, and so we invited Maddie's friend Nate here for a fun evening together.  We stopped by the Race Trac because I had gotten a lot of points saved up and used some of them on a free pizza, and meanwhile, Mom and Maddie had made these really nice cupcakes for the night too.  We ate together, and then got to work on those eggs, which was pretty fun.  Lots of color and just a nice time with the egg spinner and the different cups of dye.  We've got some pics below here of the various eggs and our evening together.  Mom and I did a few eggs, but Maddie and Nate did the rest, and had a fun time.

Ah, the lovely ambience of the local gas station!

Free gas station pizza!

Mom and Maddie made these tasty cupcakes for tonight!

Interesting eggs tonight!  We used egg-wraps, the spiral tool, and traditional egg dips.

Mom did this interesting gold one with the bunny stickers.  
Fun fact:  those bunny stickers won't stick by themselves.  

Maddie did this one that looks like a sunset over the ocean.

This is the one I did, per Mom's request.  She always likes this one.

The dyes were cast

Maddie wrote some of her favorite scriptures on this egg. 

We had a decent night, and afterwards - or right at the end - there were some amazing storms rolling through.  We didn't get the hail that other places got - Oakwood got pummeled with lots of hail - but we did get some very heavy rain.  We got Nate home, and got back home after a bit of tense driving.

Maddie had some homework and a quiz to study for, and so beyond the storm and the fun with eggs, it wasn't a terribly eventful night here.  We got to bed early, and got ready for Friday.  Not too many days left of school now!