Her First Professional Musical Theatre Performance!!!

Most of you probably already know....Mana got into the youth ensemble in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." She auditioned in the workshop for the performance group, "Joseph..." and "School House Rock, Jr". She did not make the performance group this year. I am sure there were around 80 or more children auditioning for about 22 places. They have not posted who made it into "School House Rock, Jr." yet.

Mana started rehearsals yesterday! She loved it!! She will go to rehearsals every day except for Mondays. Moms can not watch or be anywhere around. We droppy offy and we picky uppy only. That is a qoute. I am use to being involved with everything Mana does. This is hard for me. I had to drop her off at the curb, at the theatre door. Downtown. No walking her in. She is officially a big girl now. Even if I do not want her to be! She can do so much more than I give her credit for. I would have never walked in a place, not knowing what to expect, with out my mom. Much less go on an audition. They have already learned about three songs! I love to hear her enthusiasm when she gets in the car and tells me about her day.

If you are interested in going to see her in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" leave me a comment and I will get the website for you to order tickets. If possible, I would love for my family and friends to all go together one night. There will be 15 performances from July 16 through August 2. The tickets are $30 a piece. $15 for kids on the Saturday 2pm performances.

RMTC Youth Musical Theatre Workshop

Drama workshop is officially over. The showcase was wonderful. All the kids did a great job! Mana's group had to go in at 12:30 pm for rehearsals. We got home around 11:15 pm. She had to stay the whole time.

Pictures of the Showcase...

"Mana in the Showcase""The Whole Group""Mana & her Facilitator, Connor""Mana & her Dance teachers, Sam & Shannon"

Drama Workshop

Mana has had Drama Workshop for the past two weeks. Monday - Friday. 8:20 am - 4:10 pm. This is her second year in the workshop. She really enjoys it and learns a lot. They bring in very talented instructors that have worked on Broadway and in movies. One of the instructors is even an LA talent agent. They have dance, voice, and drama classes. Every day they get to dress up for a theme day. They have had red day, pajama day, favorite shirt day, Hawaiian day, western day, 70's day and others I do not remember. They have a showcase on the last day. It was three hours last year. Since the workshop is 45 minutes away from the house, I usually stay out on that side of town. The schedule is going to be a lot different tomorrow. Thank goodness the younger kids go in a lot later so their day will not be so long. They stayed from 9 am to 10:30 pm last year. I am glad they changed that.

This year, Mana was old enough to try out for two shows and the youngest all year performance group. She tried out on Saturday. We were there from 1 pm to 4:45 pm. She found out on Wednesday that she made the youth ensemble in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!" She is so excited!! There will be 15 performances. She said that people had to pay to come to the show, so it is a BIG deal!! Plus she has a dressing room. (Of course, she will be sharing with all the other little girls, but she doesn't care. It is still the best thing!) The performances start on July 16th and go through August 2nd. She will have a very busy rehearsal schedule. No parents allowed! Since the place they rehearse is close, I will get to come home during it. She will find out if she made it into the other two on Monday! Pray she did well and makes the performance group!!

Pictures of the weeks.....

"Mana on Hawaiian Day" "Mana on 70's Day" Dragon Fly at the gardens"
This is how I spend my days...taking pictures, etc. "Flowers" "Bumble Bee"

Playing in Photoshop

Today I got to sit down and play in Photoshop! The family I took pictures of not to long ago wanted to have some borders on the pictures. I t was so hard to chose which one to put in the proof book. They were such a precious family. Here are some that I worked with....

First Night of VBS

We set the VBS stage up last night after church. A lot of the youth in our church helped bring up all the pieces of the set. They were quick. Thank you to all that helped out!!

Tonight was our first night of VBS! Everything went well. We had a good number of kids come. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun! Shawn did a great job with our Worship Rally! We always do a money drop for missions. The girls won tonight!!! I walked around and took pictures all night. I usually help in crafts, but could not promise to be there every night. A man in our church build us a train. He did a great job! The tech crew even made smoke come out of it. My art students painted it. Heidi and I painted the wheels and I painted the logo. Mrs. Millie, Heidi, my art students, and Mana all worked on the background scene! I say every year that I am going to start earlier next time. I might as well face it....that will never happen! It was an enjoyable night!

Pictures of the day.....

"Money Drop" "Girls Won!""Crafts""Recreation""Train Depot""Stage Set"

Family of Five

Saturday morning, I had my first photo shoot with a family of five! I met them at the Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day! My friend, Sherry went with me for advice and support. I do have to say I was a little nervous. I am not the most social person. The morning went well. Sherry did a lot of the posing for me. I drew a blank at some points, but did ok. I only had Sherry check the camera once. I had knocked it to manual focus with out realizing it. They were the nicest family. The kids are beautiful. I really enjoyed taking their pictures! It was a fun morning!

Just a few
Pictures of the day....

Gulf World

Monday, June 1, we slept in. Got up and went to the beach until the middle of the day. Mana loves to build sand castles and hunt for shells. She does not care to go in the ocean. I did talk her in to going out in the water with me a few times. Afterward, we went up to the room and got ready to go to Gulf World. We went to the sea lion show first. Mana got to be kissed by the sea lion. Then we watched the sharks and turtles being feed. Then dive team show. That was really great. One of the divers dove from 80 feet. We then saw the reptile show and the bird show. The bird show was great also. They had birds that could speak, count, play basketball and roller skate. Mana liked the white one the most. It was the one that roller skated and rode a unicycle. Then we went to the dolphin show. It was the best. I have always wanted to swim with the dolphins. It was $150 to do that. I decided not to do that this trip. Mana did get to shake hands with a dolphin. The look on her face was priceless!!

Mana is not much of a fan of swimming. She hates to get her face wet or go under. She wears a life jacket every time we go swimming. She did practice swimming while we were there with out it on. I was holding on to her. At one point she took her life jacket off for me to take a picture out side of the pool. She forgot she did not have it on and got in the pool around the 4 ft mark. I was not in the pool and was going to take my camera to put it into my beach bag. Thank God Debbie was in the pool. Mana did not realize until she was half way across the pool. She turned around and swam back to the side all by herself. She did not freak out. She did try to, but I told her to go to the side. She also knew Debbie was coming her way. I am so proud of her. She was scared to death. The life jacket did not come off again after that.

We had the best time at the beach!! I am so ready to go back!!!

Pictures of the day.....

"Sand Castles""Mana holding a crab""Kissed by a sea lion""Petting a stingray""Penguins""The dive team""Petting a snake""Mana's favorite bird""Shaking hands with a dolphin"

Panama City Beach!!

Debbie, Maranda, Mana and I left for Panama City at 5:30 am Sunday morning! Maranda was staying with friends, so it would just be Debbie, Mana & I. My alarm was set for 4 am. I woke to Debbie knocking on my door at 5 am. My alarm did not go off. We finally got on the road. When we got down there, we dropped Maranda off at her hotel and we went to eat at Zaxby's for lunch. We checked in at our hotel and went to the beach and the pool. The beach was nice and clean. Not many shells to step on. No jellyfish. No sand spurs. The water was clear and beautiful! It was perfect!! We played shuffle board. Then we went to meet Damund, a college friend of mine, for dinner at Pier Park. He lives in PC and had just came back from Iraq. I had not seen him in 17 years. We ate at Guy Harvey Island Grill. I love Pier Park. It is the neatest shopping center. Love the atmosphere. We walked around to see all the stores they had. We went to the Candymaker and to the Marble Slab Ice Cream Co. for dessert. Can you say sugar high! Mana sure could!! We went back to the hotel and sat out on the balcony watching and listening to the waves.

Pictures of the day....

"Shuffle Board" "Guy Harvey Island Grill" "Debbie & Mana at Pier Park" Damund, Mana & I at Pier Park""Punch Buggy" "Beach Ball" "The Candymaker" "At Marble Slab"