Catchin' Up

School's out!  Scream and shout!

And although school is out I need to catch up on some things that I wanted to post. 

The last week of school was a busy one. Lots of stuff going on and one of those things was a performance day/night.  Apparently, the 1-3 grade classes at our school had been putting together dramatic mimes in their drama classes and they had a day to perform their acts for parents.  I have to admit I wasn't looking forward to these performances because I happen to be subbing one day for a 3rd grade class (not Ethan's) when they were practicing their mime and I have to say it was painful to watch.  I guess I should clarify that a dramatic mime is not a traditional mime.  There are storytellers (narrators), actors with a few lines, kids that are props and kids that are sound effects.  Anyway, we watched Emma's performance during the day.  Her class did the story "Tops and Bottoms."  It was absolutely adorable.  I couldn't believe how well done it was.  Everyone knew exactly what to do and say.  The prop kids did fantastic and I was especially impressed with the sound effects kids because they had all these great gadgets to make sound effects and they were completely responsible with them and did their effects flawlessly.   Emma was one of three storytellers.

She did so well.  She didn't miss one line.

Ethan's performance was later that night because they combined their mime with a musical performance.  His mime was called "Pig, Pigger and Piggest."  Ethan played the part of Pig.  It was a take on the classic "The Three Little Pigs."  I was actually completely surprised by how well Ethan did.  He usually shies away from the spotlight and gets really embarrassed when he's asked to do anything in front of others.  But not this night!  He rocked his part!  It was so fun to watch.  The best part of their mime was at the end, Pig, Pigger and Piggest have gone to find the three witches in their mime (Witch, Witcher and Witchest) and when they find them they ask them to marry them because these witches make the best mud they have ever seen.  When they propose, Hannah, who is sitting on the floor right at the front, gasps, covers her mouth and then starts giggling in delight and says "They're getting married!"  The entire audience was laughing hysterically at Hannah and not the show.  It was so funny. 

Here is Ethan as Pig.  

Sorry the lighting is so bad - my camera's flash really stinks - but if you look close you can see the pig nose.

Ethan's on the end of the front row rockin' the musical performance portion of the show.

As a mother it's nice to have short kids, they are always on the front row.  :)

All the kids wanted to have a moment on stage. . .so here they are!

And this is how I watched most of the show.  

Good thing I got there early to get a front row seat or I might not have seen any of it.

The last week of school brought even more fun right to our front door in the form of a backhoe.

JayDee decided that he would use some heavy machinery to take out our next door neighbor's quaky stumps instead of the old shovel and back muscle approach he's been using for years 

and it cause quite a ruckus with the kids.

Just check out the excitement.

Just look at those faces!

Just can't get enough.