Skit Night

I mentioned a few posts earlier that I was co-leading our co-op and teaching drama.  We were preparing the kids for their first ever skit night to present to a live audience!!  It was a huge under taking!!  I put so much work, time & research into this.  As the performance day slowly inched closer the more nervous I got.  I was so nervous that I didn't even invite the grandparents to come!  I thought for sure it was going to be a flop.  From what I had seen at practices and rehearsals I had no idea how we were going to pull this off. 

Then!  We had dress rehearsal and it was the cutest thing I ever did see!  I quickly came home and sent both grandparents an apology for not inviting them and officially invited them to come. 

Up first were the preschoolers with a song.

I had to be with the skit kids and run around and move mics and set up props.  Get kids ready to go on stage so I couldn't be with Melanie.  She had to sit with the preschoolers and be with her "Other Momma, Jenn" and she did so good.  She was brave and walked up onto the stage and sang her songs so proudly.  I caught her sitting on Momma Jenn's lap and quick snapped a picture from where I was and they saw me. 

Mallory was in the skit Little Women.  She is dressed in the pink dress with the white bonnet.  She only had one line in this skit.

This was the skit, The Very Cranky Bear.  It is a book that I have and read to the kids all the time.  During one of our drama classes we did puppets to this book.  It was huge hit so I decided to turn it into a play.  I typed up a script and we had a play!!  Since Mallory only had one line in her other skit she was the narrator for the skit.  Max was the moose.   

The preschoolers had 4 songs they sang.  Here is Melanie and she has her very good friend, JoJo on the left and her other friend, Emmy, on her right.  She also talks a lot about the little boy on the far right.  : )

The last skit of the night was a military skit and it involved all the kids.  The kids loved this one.  We had our oldest boy be the captain and he is trying to command his solders who are doing the opposite of what he says.  The kids loved it!! 

At the end the captain gets fed up with his soldiers and says "at ease" and the all fall down. 

The end!

It was a huge hit!  The kids did way better then I ever imagined.  I saw them in rehearsal... I was scared!  ; )  They nailed it!!  Lots of moms came up and said thank you to me.  One Mom even said she can see this becoming a yearly thing.  It is so good for the kids and it was pretty fun to show off our kids to an audience.  The grandparents were super thankful for the official invite even though they were coming anyways.

I had to get a picture with my fearless co-director, Andrea.  We made a perfect team.

I mentioned how nervous I was about this performance.  Before the show I already had my resignation letter to hand into the Moms that I was not going to ever do this again.  I was not cut out to lead kids in drama.  Then the night ended and they really pulled it off.  It wasn't perfect by any means (I forgot to turn on a mic once and some preschoolers ran wild during their songs) but it was good for me to experience.  I don't need perfect as much as I want perfect.

I tucked Mallory into bed that night and she says, "Thanks for helping me with my play.  It was really fun."  My momma heart melted into a giant puddle and I decided I would certainly do it again.  And I am going to convince Andrea to do it again too.

"It had to be done!"

On Wednesday the kids were outside playing and I was inside getting ready to make lunch.  I seen all these nuks (nunu) all over the floor and had it.  I had just read my bible study book (Me & You Forever) that morning and the chapter was on parenting.  Seeing the nuks on the floor and knowing that they belonged to my almost 3-year old... I need to take care of it.  And now felt like the right moment.  I was all amped up from reading my parenting chapter.  So I grabbed them, cut the tips off and threw them in her bed.  Then I emailed Jesse and told him what I did... because I was starting to have regret already. 

I take her in for nap and I am watching her putting all these nuks in her mouth and she is taking them out and looking at them funny.  Tries another one, takes it out.  I am holding back the laughter.  She looks at me and says "These nunus don't taste good."  Then her eyes fill up with her tears and her bottom lip sticks out and she is about to cry.  I start telling her how she is getting to be a big girl and big girls don't need nunus.  She is full on crying now and says, "There has to be more around here somewhere." 

Nap didn't go well.  She cried.  She cried for awhile.  She cried herself right to sleep.  I had told Max & Mally why she was crying and they were so supportive of me.  It was comical.  Max told me good job and that it would be okay.  Mallory told me it had to be done.  Which I actually needed to hear because I knew where there was another one and was about to go get it for her. 

We are 5 days into this and she still has no clue how to fall asleep.  It has been rough.  She doesn't nap.  It takes her over an hour to fall asleep.  She fights it.  She sneaks out and plays toys or reads books.  She can't fall asleep.

On Saturday I needed her to take a nap because we had an event that night.  She needed the rest.  With no naps the days before and late nights because she can't fall asleep... girl was becoming a beast!  She needed sleep.  She cried herself to sleep again (it was shorter this time) and when I went to check on her I found her sucking her thumb!!!

I clearly let her have this nuk way too long.  The other two didn't care when they got theirs taken away.  Melanie doesn't ask for it anymore or want it to be new, but she just can't get herself to sleep.  She wants me to rock her... and I did the first night... but we can't get in that habit either.  So hard.  I have to trust that she will figure it out and get it.  Just going to take longer with her. 

Ice Skating!

I am loving being part of the RVA for our schooling this year.  The RVA does so many fun things that I just didn't have time to plan when I was doing school on my own.  So far we have painted clay, joined Lego Club, Cooking Classes, Indoor Waterparks... and now Ice Skating!  We have a play coming up in March that we are super excited about too.

Mallory has had some interest in ice skating but I wasn't able to get her to a place to try it out.  When I saw that the RVA was hosting an ice skating  & Valentine swap I was all over it!!  It was thankfully pretty warm a few days before so Mallory got out her roller blades and thought she would start practicing.  The neighbor directly across the street seen this so she runs over a pair of roller skates for Melanie.  Then comes back again with a pair of roller skates for Max. 

Max and roller skates was hilarious!!  He couldn't move he just sat and spun in one spot with his feet going back & forth but he was going no where. 

The day of skating came and Mallory quickly caught on and she was a huge fan!  Loved it!  Wouldn't come off the ice for nothing!  Max would get a little ways then fall and was unable to get himself back up so he would have to crawl to the edge to pull himself back up.  He was soaked by the time we left from all the crawling on the ice he did.  He eventually took his skates off and scooted around in his shoes. 

Melanie wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.  I put her in skates and then we set her on the ice and she grabbed onto me and quickly started sending her feet in a million directions.  I haven't been on skates since I was a teen so I started reaching for the wall to stable myself and her.  I was laughing so hard.  I ended up handing her back out to my mom, who was spending her lunch hour with us.  Melanie was done.  She was back in her boots.  We tried her on her boots and she still didn't like it.  Once Grandma left I was done skating too and we sat and drank hot chocolate until it was time to go.