Bugz the Musical

Corbin's PAL program at school put on a spring musical.  All the kids learned the songs and sang together and then a few kids auditioned and got to have speaking parts as well.  Corbin did a great job trying out and got a pretty good part, considering his class was the youngest ones.

He was the wise old praying mantis and appeared at the end of the play in a scene with all the 3rd graders, as he made sure to take note of :)

So he got to sing all the main songs, said his part and did a special number with all the boys in his class, who were fireflies.  The only video I got was from my phone while holding a wiggly baby, so the quality is horrible, but luckily it is easy to tell which one he is!

James, Corbin, Jayden and Emery.

They even found a sweet lady who sales make-up professionally that donated a bunch of supplies for them to use during their performance.  The boys probably weren't quite as excited as the girls about getting to wear make-up, but it was fun to see them all getting ready together and feel their excitement at doing something that 'real' actors do.  I helped backstage-aka in the classroom-and smeared gray and blue eyeshadow all over the 1st grade firefly boys while Corbin's teacher, Mrs. Qualls created fun green lines all over his face.

He was so excited and we worked to make him a fun costume and then the morning of his play he got super sick!  So he went in and did his part at the assembly and then we took him home to rest and brought him back for the evening performance.  It was sad because he had worked so hard to learn everything and he practiced saying his part with such enthusiasm and expression and then at one point I looked over at him and he was sitting down on the stage, completely exhausted and crappy feeling.

Heber, Eric, Corbin and Satchel... poor kid didn't look much better than he felt :(

But it was still a fun experience for him to get to be involved in and hopefully next year he'll be feeling better the day of!

Ballet Recital

Makelle had her first ballet recital on Saturday.  She got to get all dolled up and absolutely loved every aspect of it.  At one point she told Caleb she thought she should just wear make-up every day, because she looked so pretty!

They pair each of the younger girls up with one of the older girls to help take care of them while the parents watch the show, so we dropped her off at the front doors of the Browning Center at Weber State University and then met up with my parents to find our seats.  We then had to endure a two hour long ballet production in order to see the 60 seconds that Makelle was on stage.  She made it all worth it though, she was so cute.  They didn't allow cameras and I am too cheap to buy the professional production so I just have a little video I took on my phone during dress rehearsal, and you really can't tell what is going on, but it will have to do.


In the beginning she is the 5th one to run on stage and at the end she is the line leader going off stage.  During the middle part she is right in the center, 3rd from the left.

During their dress rehearsal she kept leading the girls off the stage to the wrong side, but the night of the actual performance she did just perfect... well as perfect as one in a group of five-year-olds can look anyway :)

After her single minute of fame they took her back to take some class pictures and then corralled all the girls into a smaller auditorium to wait for their parents.  When we walked in to get her there were strobe lights flashing all over the ceiling, remnants of a magic show on stage and 200 little girls blaring out "Let it Go" at the top of their lungs.  I think the after party she got to go to was the highlight of her life thus far!

Thanksgiving

We got to host Thanksgiving dinner this year.  We had Grandma Nash, Aunt Jan and Uncle Ken, Grandpa Lloyd, Grandma Lloyd, Matt and Cameron, Aunt Martha, Bryan and Celeste, Tyler, Tori, Rachel, Wesley and Edy over for lunch.

The night before we pulled out some hand-me-down cloth napkins and Caleb rolled his eyes profusely at me while we ironed them all.  Then we polished off Mama Rita's silverware.  Then we brined a turkey.  And by "we" I mean Caleb, because we only own one iron, so naturally there wasn't much I could do and there was just no way I was prepping that bird :)

Thanksgiving morning "we" got up and stuffed the turkey and got it going in the oven then went outside for some family football.

Corbin is getting better at being able to throw and catch a ball.  Whereas Makelle, throws like a girl, but sure does look cute doing it!

Then we came in and pulled everything together as our guests started to arrive with all the sides.  We ended up with an entire spread of yummy dishes!

Kids' table!

After dinner we played our traditional family Bingo game.  This year we decided to break it up into two different games and let the kids play first.

Jefferson was really into it :)

Seth had no idea what it took to get a Bingo, just that every once in while Grandma would yell Bingo for him and tell him he could pick another prize.  Needless to say, he decided he likes Bingo.

It is a sure sign that you went a little overboard with the prize pile when you have more toys in the middle than there were Bingos called.  Supposedly you play until the pile is gone, then you get to steal until someone gets a blackout, but Corbin was sort of bummed when someone got blackout long before the stealing started.  We'll have to not spoil them as much next year!  Although, I think we said the same thing last year too... hmmm.

Once we got the kids distracted with their new treats and toys we pulled out the good stuff and then in the name of family love, fought each other trying to be the last one to steal the best prizes.  Nothing says gratitude like shoving loved ones aside while greedily grabbing for nuts and candy :)