July?? What Happened to You?

Yes, it's August 28th with everyone back in school, cross country and soccer seasons in full swing, and fall activities starting back up.  I guess that means it's time to get caught up on what happened to the rest of our summer.  The kids had weekly theater activities with the girls rehearsing for 3 different plays and all 3 kids participating in various weekly theater classes.  Staley had cross country practice 3 mornings/week while Adelie attended the HS Distance Camp 2 mornings/week.  But, of course, that's not all that filled our days...

We had a week of VBS.  Briggs attended (and had a lot of fun) while the girls helped on the evenings they were available.

The girls and I went to watch Sofia and McKinley (old NTA friends) perform at the Barn Theatre.

Staley ran with the some of the HS cross country team at Detweiller at Dark.

It was a wild night with crazy storms, sheltering on a random school bus, and long delays...but they ultimately got to run.

We were all wet, muddy, and cold...but lots of memories were made.

Briggs got to help his friend, Freddie, celebrate his birthday at an arcade.

Briggs had a great time playing games and hanging out with his friends.

The girls did lots of performing with their Rising Stars group at nursing homes, parks, festivals, and other community events.

Of course, my girls love all the opportunities to perform for an audience...

whether it's with their dancing...

or their singing.

But more than the performing, they just see it as another chance to hang out with NTA friends.

They enjoyed a State Farm pool day with NTA friends after a Bloomington performance

but also found other opportunities for play dates, hanging out, sleepovers, or just grabbing lunch or ice cream together.

Any opportunity to hang out with NTA friends is a good time!

Briggs participated in the Kids Muddy Madness race with his friend, George, for the second year in row.

The girls performed in the summer Shakespeare show "All the World's a Stage."  It was performing excerpts from some of Shakespeare's most famous plays.

Staley played the part of Juliet's nurse, Rosencrantz, and Narissa while Adelie played the part of Juliet and Quince.

Both girls had lots of Shakespearean lines to learn, and they both did a great job!  I realized that I'm not as cultured as I'd like to think because much of it was very hard to follow.

It is always fun seeing my girls perform on stage, whether or not I totally understand the dialogue or the plot.

The girls were very involved in their theater productions this summer, which primarily filled our last few weeks of July and first weeks of August.  They built sets, rehearsed, performed, teched backstage, and attended after-performance outings to Culvers with friends.

They will have their own posts, but Stage Kids Little Mermaid, Jr. filled many of our late summer evenings.

To increase the craziness, the girls were simultaneously (as in, often racing from a Little Mermaid show to a Frozen show in the same evening) performing in the adult cast Broadway version of Frozen at Eastlight Theater.

Briggs did a week of swim lessons with Ms. Lisa at her pool again this summer.  He made huge strides and moved on to her most advanced class for next summer.

Between the shows and classes and cross country and camps, we also made plenty of time for hanging out with friends...

and cousins (and sometimes both).

We made plenty of trips to State Farm pool...

 but also found time to have friends over to our house to hang out.

And even attending cross country practices and camp was just extra time for fun with friends...especially on slip and slide day!

July was full of fun times...theater and racing and performing and friends and swimming and running...and few relaxing days tossed in there to keep us sane.