It was a really good morning. She was very ready for this step in her life. Alison has had a wonderful teacher in Primary this year, who has beautifully supplemented (and enhanced) many of the lessons that we try to teach our children at home. Grandma and Grandpa Williams, and Aunt Valerie and Uncle James came to help us celebrate this special day (and Thanksgiving and Dan's birthday). We also had lots of friends and neighbors who came to support our girl. We love her.
Morgan and Malynn are in the process of trying out for the Jr High/Middle School production of "Beauty and the Beast".
It's not a surprise that Malynn is doing this. Drama is right up her alley. She loves to sing and understands voice inflection and timing. She spent the week working with Aunt Valerie, who is a voice teacher, and her hard work seems to be paying off. I heard her monologue through the door yesterday and she did a fantastic job. Today she did her singing audition and was asked to stay back and sing the piece of music by herself. (The auditions were in groups.) When I picked her up, her little friends were all squealing at her and tonight at the parent meeting, one of the dads we know came over and said that his daughter was really impressed with how well Malynn had done. Of course getting really excited is precipitous when there are probably 60 + girls in the audition process, but she did her best and feels confident. That's a good thing.
Morgan kind of surprised me when he said he wanted to try out. He doesn't sing with us. He has a very small circle of comfort and doing anything outside of it is unusual. This is WAY outside of his comfort zone. He was in a couple of Missoula Children's Theater plays and did the 5th Grade musical, but those were pretty low key, with the last thing he did 4 years ago. This is a much bigger deal and commitment. He worked with Aunt Valerie as well and he had a much harder time of it. He is in that awkward between voices phase of young manhood. He's not confident in his delivery, since he's always kind of stood back and let his sisters show off. That he stood up in front of a panel and did his monologue ("not the best I could do, because I was so nervous") and then sang today ("my friend said they were really smiling when I was singing")-- this is big. He is growing in to himself. That's also a good thing.
And here is a funny little Heidi story: Yesterday I came home from picking Morgan and Malynn up from auditions. Heidi was sitting at the table, looking a little morose. I came over to smooch her and talk to her. She quietly said, "I did something wrong and I put myself in punishment. I don't want to talk about it." She wouldn't, either. I let it go, because she did such a fine job of punishing herself in a constructive way.
Yesterday was Dan's birthday. I found out the best way to surprise someone is to not really plan anything big or at all. I'd been thinking about it and then on Friday, emailed a bunch of our friends and asked them to come over last night. We had cake. That was it. For not planning anything, there was a pretty good turn out and Dan was very surprised. The hardest part of it (besides ignoring any thought of planning) was stalling long enough until people came at 8 pm. We ended up singing to Dan and lighting the inferno before anyone got there, because I couldn't think of anymore things to do to wait. It was good. He is good. I love him.
1 comment:
Great stories, really great kids. We are so glad we got to be there for Alison's baptism. She was glowing!
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