Stake Broadway Musical

Here are the videos (and some pictures) of the Stake Broadway Musical, performed November 4th and 5th. It was free and fun to watch Elisa perform. I was a little worried when the very first scene was botched the first night, but it actually turned out not to be too bad overall. Some kids were more talented than others, and there were some quite talented adults, but everyone put in a lot of work and seemed to have fun! There's a lot of videos so I thought it would be easier to upload to Youtube and provide a link here.

The full cast

Elisa and her broadway buddy, Eliza

Friday Night:

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think click here

It's a Hard Knock Life click here

Hero is My Middle Name click here

The Prince is Giving a Ball pt. 1 click here

The Prince is Giving a Ball pt. 2 click here 

Saturday Night:

Oh, The Thinks You Can Think click here

It's a Hard Knock Life click here

Hero is My Middle Name click here

We had better seats the first night, even though the performances were better the second night.

Erik forced Elisa to take this picture with him and smile haha.

Halloweening, Part II

And the last post for October, as you can see we had so much Halloween fun this year!

Oct. 25

Elisa had a fun activity with her activity days girl squad. She's the oldest by far, but she didn't seem to mind. They dressed in costumes and came home with bags of candy popcorn. I'm not exactly sure what they did, probably play games and eat sugar.

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Oct. 30. Erik and I helped the kids carve pumpkins. I helped Ian carve out a Boo Ghost from Super Mario, and I helped Gabe make a face on his pumpkin. Erik helped Elisa carve a Freddy Fazbear on her pumpkin. 

So much squishy guts inside of a pumpkin! I saved some seeds to roast and eat.

Then Erik put some lights in the pumpkins and displayed them outside:

 

The pumpkins displayed outside the house.

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Finally, it was time for Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night! Erik passed out candy in the driveway and I took Ian around the neighborhood. Elisa went around with her friend Jayde and Jayde's family, and Gabe went off by himself but met up with his friend Max along the way. Ian was a trooper and trick-or-treated until the batteries died in his fan and Yoshi was as droopy as Ian's eyelids. Ian did get the most candy of all though!

Some neighbors down the street have had a taco bar for the adults on Trick-or-Treating night.

We found Elisa! Wearing no shoes. I had to throw away her tights, needless to say.

Elisa and her current BFF, Jayde

Ian helped pass out candy when he finished his Trick-or-Treating.

Organizing Gabe's candy. 

I helped Ian organize his candy, too. He had double the amount that Gabe did!

Erik trying a Warhead Extreme. It didn't bother him very much. I couldn't hardly tolerate a regular Warhead!

Halloween Piano Recital

October 21st

It has been such a fun yet busy post-covid year! It's almost as if everyone is trying to make up for the lost activities. This year, the piano store Riverton Pianos hosted a free Halloween recital. I signed up my students that were willing to play, which was most of them. We chose Halloween-themed songs when we could. A few students, like Gabe, chose a song they liked instead of a Halloween one, and Ian chose a song to match his costume. Elisa chose "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas, and she worked really hard on it and pretty much nailed it for the recital.  This was a nice recital for me because I did pretty much nothing, aside from prepping the kids for it. I ordered a piano dress and scarf off Amazon for this recital just for fun, but it was so dark in there I don't think anyone noticed at all. No matter--I'll likely use it for future recitals.
The recital was fun. It started out with a fun interactive activity and then the kids just went up when their name showed up on the screen. I didn't have a chair, so I sat on the ground. It was a little long, I think there were at least 20 kids that played. There were even a few singers, but they were not fun to hear, at least when we could actually hear them. Yikes. I think my students played the best, but maybe I'm just biased. At least, they seemed more prepared than the other students. Here are some videos:

The interactive activity

Silly Elisa played in her gloves. She did really well. 

For Ian's Bowser Theme song, click here

Ian messed up a little bit, but overall, he did a good job. I think people liked that his costume matched his song.

For Gabe's solo, "The Piano Player's Chocolate Eatin' Blues" click here

Gabe did a good job playing his song!

We took some pictures after the recital was over:

Here are the pictures that I stole off of the Riverton Pianos Facebook page. There was a contest going that whoever had the most likes on their picture would win a cauldron of candy. I had no interest in more candy and I certainly wasn't going to get more than 2 likes so I didn't bother sharing the pictures on my FB page, but I'm happy they took these pictures anyway!

Overall, a fun and low-stress recital. I might have my students play again next year!

Halloweening, Part I

Here are pictures of some fun things we did to celebrate Halloween:

For the first time, we went to the Hot Air Balloon festival in Scottsdale, October 28. I saw an ad on Facebook and it looked like it would be a good time, so I clicked the link and decided to order us some tickets. Ian, Elisa, and Erik wore their costumes and Gabe and I just wore a Halloween shirt. Ian was Mario-riding-Yoshi, Elisa was something from Five Nights at Freddy's (Circus Baby), and Erik went as Van Helsing. At the event, there were food stands, tons of rides, even more hot air balloons, and way, way too many people. The kids got to slide down the inflatable slides a couple of times before we all got hungry. Erik ordered me some steak bites and potatoes from one stand, Ian and Gabe pizza from another stand, himself a loaded hotdog (or sausage?) from a different stand, and Elisa some nachos from yet another stand. By the time we were done eating, it was dark and the hot air balloons were all filled. At each balloon, someone was passing out candy. The candy was all the same crap (Tootsie Roll type stuff) and nothing good, with the exception of the Chick-fil-a balloon station that handed out free dessert gift cards. Needless to say, the Chick-fil-a balloon had the longest line, but thankfully it went fast. I thought the balloons were neat to see, but I don't think we'll be back next year. The tickets were too pricey, and the crowds were too huge. Oh, and the food was pretty darn expensive for what it was too. The kids had fun but didn't protest when it was time to go:

  

Ian posing in his silly Mario-riding-Yoshi costume while we waited in line to get in.

A family photo. One of several that I put on our Christmas card.

Sliding down the slide! Good thing Elisa wore something under that skirt! Yeesh.

Setting up the hot air balloon. It was neat to watch!

This was our favorite hot air balloon

This was another really cool balloon! We thought it was Mr. Potato Head at first, but then decided it had to be a Beaver.

Cuties in line for Elisa's nachos. There was also a bee balloon that was pretty neat.

Having fun and being cute!

The pizza was finally ready! We sat down to eat. Gabe and Ian got a personal pizza but shared a piece with everyone else. 

Each hot air balloon had it's own Trick or treating station, but unfortunately gave out the same gross candy.

A far-away picture taken from the van as we drove away. A neat view, even from the road.

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Oct. 258

Erik decided to be Van Helsing for Halloween this year. He ordered a steam punk jacket, new hat, and garlic strands from Amazon.

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Oct. 29

The ward Trunk-or-treat was sparsely attended this year, I'm not sure why. Elisa had fun galivanting around with her pack of girlfriends. Ian went around with me once, and then went off on his own. Gabe claimed he didn't want any candy, so he sat with Erik and I and passed out candy.

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Random October Happenings, Part II

Here are pictures of more fun things we did in October:

Oct. 22

Ian went to a fun birthday party at the park for his friend, James. He enjoyed goofing around and getting yellow cupcake frosting all over his face. He also had fun smacking that pinata!

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Oct. 12

Erik took these pictures of Elisa of her silly costume for Spirit Week that she wore to school

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Oct. 14

Ian and Elisa went with Grandma and Grandpa to the Grandparent's tea. They had fun eating pumpkin pie and all manner of treats. After the event, Grandma and Grandpa spoiled Ian and Elisa by letting them pick out things from the bookfair. Ian brought home a locking journal/notebook. I can't remember what Elisa got.

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Oct. 14

Daddy Daughter Dance that the Stake put on. The theme was matching costumes, so Erik ordered a "milk and cookie" costume from Amazon. It arrived 5 minutes after they left for the dance, so he turned around and went home to get the costumes so they could wear them. It looks like they had lots of fun!

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Oct. 14

That same night as the Grandparent's Tea and Stake Daddy Daughter Dance, Gabe went to a band event at the local high school where he ate pizza and then played in the band with the highschoolers. He even got a free shirt! Gabe told me he had fun. At this point, he has enrolled himself in band for his freshman year of high school!

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Oct. 22

Elisa and her friend, Eliza, went to many practices for the Stake Broadway show. They didn't always enjoy going, but I think for the most part they liked being in the show. Elisa wasn't feeling very well at this rehearsal, so she left after this scene. The kids didn't seem to know what they were doing very well, but they pulled it all together in the end.

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Oct. 24-28

I had fun bringing out my bead loom and making myself a few bracelets! Except the Mario bracelet is for Ian. Bracelet making gets kind of addicting if I'm being honest!

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