Lifestyle of Learning Volume 30: It's All About the Theatre

It seems as if this past week (August 18-24) has been all about the theatre.

Maceo began rehearsals for The Little Mermaid Jr.

Already many hours have been logged at rehearsals.

Cast meeting!

Maceo also devoted a considerable amount of time at the beginning of the week preparing for his troupe audition - practicing his song and his monologue and writing his essay.

Troupe auditions happened in the middle of the week just prior to The Little Mermaid Jr. rehearsals.

Having a great time squeezing in some dinner between auditions and rehearsals!

And Maceo made it in to troupe!!!

Troupers devouring a quick dinner after doing a photo shoot for the theatre's playbill and before heading off to more rehearsals!

Maceo's spare time was spent researching musical theatre songs that are appropriate for his vocal range.  There is a lot of singing coming from his room!  I love it!

Although it was all about the theatre for Maceo it was not Bishop.  Admittedly, Bishop was left to his own devices for many hours as Maceo and I were attending to theatre business.  Bishop watched educational programming and VSauce videos.  He did a lot of sketching and constructing of stories.  (He has a very rich internal life).  He did some reading of Ender's Game and he went for some walks.

It's a good life!

Lifestyle of Learning Volumes 28 & 29

Living and learning for the dates August 4 - August 17.

Two very busy weeks.
Maceo went directly from completing the Summer Institute to another theatre endeavor, auditioning for Little Mermaid Jr.  He attended their audition workshop and then a week later he auditioned.  He then went to callbacks which lasted more then 4 1/2 hours.  He was cast as pilot and now rehearsals will consume a great deal of our time.  Maceo has also decided to audition for the acting troupe so he has been practicing his song, searching for a monologue and writing an essay. The auditions are tomorrow and I will let you know what the results are when they roll in.
The fair is completed, Bishop picked up his entries and his winnings.  He is thrilled to have an additional $44.50 in his wallet.  He is dreaming of saving for something big, like a laptop.  He is also dreaming of a restaurant.  He spent a lot of time researching grilling, actually grilling (ribs, chicken and veggies for my birthday and brisket for Maceo's birthday) and designing a restaurant for serving up his grilling.  I hope his dreams come true.

Bishop spent time reading (still working on Enders Game), sketching and playing games.

Tangoes - love this game but it is so hard.

He went to scouts and to a friends birthday party where he got to go bowling and swimming.
And we all went to see the DaVinci exhibit

and the St. Louis arch

and the St. Louis zoo.

Add on to this household chores and projects and the celebration of two birthdays and it makes for a very busy two weeks of life!

A Funny Thing Happened This Morning

Ok, a funny thing happened just this morning.  You know of John Goodman, right?  John Goodman - the man who played opposite Roseanne Barr on Roseanne, is the voice of Sully in Monsters Inc., was in several Coen brothers films, the Big Lebowski and Argo.  He is a big man, in regards to both his filmography and physical stature.  Well, this morning I was down the street at the bakery drinking some iced tea and working on this blog.  I was hunched over my computer, very engrossed in my work, cataloging photos and ideas and such, and apparently John Goodman was standing just three feet away ordering himself some coffee.  When I came up for some air and glanced around the shop I noticed that people had somewhat goofy smiles on their faces.  Moly, one of the bakey employees whom I am well-acquainted with, said, "Can you believe that John Goodman was here?"  I, confusedly, said "What?" and waited for the punchline.  She said, "John Goodman just came in for coffee, you didn't see him?"  No.  I was so engrossed in my work that I somehow missed John Goodman standing three feet away from me.  How does one miss John Goodman? 

Happy 14th Birthday, Maceo!

The year has passed so quickly.  It really doesn't seem that it was that long ago that we were celebrating Maceo's very important 13th birthday and now we have celebrated birthday number 14.  It was a simple at-home family affair, which is most common for our family.  Once again, Bishop's grilling graced our table.  He prepared, for the first time, a brisket.  It was really great.  Yum!

And Maceo had a simple but fun and funky birthday cake...

complete with candles for wish-making.

And maybe his wish came true.  

He, finally, got a cell phone!

 He seems thrilled with it, don't you think?

Happy Birthday, Maceo!!!

More on My Birthday and the Adventure!

It seems as if the only pictures that I have of my birthday are of food.  I assure you that I was present as were my boys, Maceo, Bishop and Christian.  We were all enjoying this most fabulous feast that was prepared by Bishop.  The meal consisted of ribs, two types of chicken (one was jerked), grilled veggies, and wild rice.  It was all so fantastic.  The ribs were unbelievable!  Thank you so much, Bishop!

For dessert I had cream cheese pie, using a recipe that my Granny gave me.  The candles do reveal my new age.  View the cherry cream cheese pie as the the tens place and the plain one as the ones place, I have just turned 46!  The tiger-striped candles are in honor of my favorite football team, the Cincinnati Bengals; however, there were not enough of them so Bishop also utilized the zebra-striped candles.  He said that the Bengal tigers were hunting down the zebras; nevermind that those animals live on different continents, things are different on the continent of cream cheese pie.  I love it - it makes me smile!

Now let me finish sharing our wonderful adventure in St. Louis...

On the second day in St. Louis we went to the zoo.  It is a really beautiful zoo and it was a wonderful day with my boys.  I will make this quick and just include some of my favorite photos and not include much in the way of narrative.

This ones for you Herb - its the polka dotted and pin-striped bird that I was looking at when on the phone with you!

PENGUINS!!!!!

Aren't they adorable?!?

We had such a fantastic time in St. Louis but, as evening approached, we were all looking forward to being home.  It was an adventurous drive home considering that the interstate was completely shut down and all interstate traffic was diverted on to a much smaller road.  But we were still in good spirits as we rolled in to town and enjoyed each others company at Chili's before rolling on home.
Ahhhh....it was such a good day!

My Birthday and an Adventure!

Well, today is my birthday and I sit at the bakery enjoying a pastry (a gift from the bakery) and a quiche and tea (both gifts from my sweet boy, Bishop) and thinking about the adventure the boys and I had.

We spent the last two days in St. Louis.  It had been nearly twelve years since we had last been tourists in St. Louis; Bishop and Maceo were wee ones then.

We began with lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe in Union Station.

The Union Station grounds were really beautiful.

My boys riding the escalator 'just because'.

Then we proceeded to the DaVinci exhibit which is what prompted us to take this trip at this point in time.  This is a temporary exhibit.  It is actually one of two DaVinci exhibits that tour internationally.

Models that had been constructed based off of DaVinci's sketches were on display.  Although many of the models were not to be touched many were intended to be interactive and there were many great lessons in physics and engineering.  It was very cool!

After exploring the exhibit we decided that we should explore the arch and en route we discovered how beautiful this part of the city is.  There was some really beautiful architecture and many wonderful sculptures and water features.

And then, of course, we visited the Arch.

 What a magnificent architectural feat.

Definitely worth looking up at!

After the Arch we then sought out a hotel, which was an adventure in and of itself due to many folks being in town for the Cardinals baseball game.  Then we had some really fantastic pizza while sitting on a patio with perfect evening temperatures watching some Cardinals baseball.  What a great day it was!  I will fill you in on day two tomorrow.  Now I must go home to spend my birthday with my boys!