Friday Night Lights - Lion King Style

Friday night was Hunt Elementary Night at Lion King Kids!  So many families came to see the show and support the girls.  In fact, it was this close to being a sold out show.  Impressive!

The littlest hyena was a little more reserved with so many of her friends in the audience.
She still did great, though.

I loved all of the scenes.  Here are the animals chasing Young Simba.

From left: Mufasa, Rafiki 1 and 2, Zazu, Nala and Big Simba.  They were all fantastic!

They ended the show that night to roaring applause.  Bravo!!!

Not only did our school friends come, but the Pointer girls were in the audience as well.
Love these girls and their mama!

The Bumblebees all brought their families too--we just adore this group of girls that Lila has become good friends with now.

Even sweet Lauren, who had just had a tonsillectomy the day before, was there.
She wasn't going to miss seeing her BFF in the show.

Madison was on Cloud 9, too, with Ms. Hardy and Mrs. Bogardus at the show.  Ms. Hardy was her teacher last year and Mrs. B is her teacher this year.  They both told me that they were so happy to see Maddie onstage because it's exactly where she belongs--so true!

Sydney brought Maddie flowers and told her that she did a great job--such a sweet girl.

We were also thankful that little Kate brought her mom and brother to the show.  They all loved it.

It was complete chaos all around, but these little cuties finally made their way over to the photo booth.  

Hakuna Matata!  This should be my new mantra.
Two shows down--only four more to go!

The Lion King Kids

Madison and Lila had been rehearsing twice a week for the past two months.  They ramped that up the week of the performance, and had mandatory rehearsal last Saturday from 12-4 and Sunday from 1-3.  Then the real work began!  Monday - Wednesday nights they were at the theater from 5-10pm.  Sheesh!  It was intense.  The first night was not a dress rehearsal, but the second two were.

Meet Rafiki and a Hyena.
All of the parents were responsible for doing their kids' hair and make-up. Oh my!  I had never done stage make-up in my life!  I bought the tools I thought were right, but it was pretty rough that first time.

At least I felt good about the big bun and the bun mohawk!

The second day was much better, but it still took me forever!  At least an hour and a half.

By opening night I was ready, though, and so were the girls!

 

The cutest hyena I ever did see.

Our neighbor, Olivia, is an old pro at these productions.
She and her mom were such a huge help this week, answering my 72 questions.

Showtime!  Rafiki narrated the show and was so good!
My heart just swelled with pride. She's so confident and just amazing on stage.

It's the Circle of Life!  There's my baby girl!!!  I seriously got tears in my eyes when she began singing and dancing in the first song.  I was so proud of her for being brave enough to get on that stage and perform.  She was the youngest in the cast and even though she said that she was nervous, no one could ever tell.

Young Simba holding court.  Briana was fantastic in this role.

The lighting was awesome, too!  All eyes were on Rafaki quite a bit.

"I just can't wait to be King!"  Our girls were on the front row!

Rafiki having a heart-to-heart with Old Simba.

The two funniest characters--Timon and Pumba, doing the hula. They were hilarious!

Bravo!  These kids just blew us away that first night.

Lila was so happy that her sweet teacher came to see the show.  We love Ms. Garner!

Cami was super proud of her sister and Madison.

Lila was given SO many pretty flowers--wow!

Finley and Brooklynn made the girls sweet cards, too.  We loved their support!

Our family showed up big time for opening night.
My girls were grinning from ear-to-ear because of all the love they felt.

One show down--only 5 more to go!

Say Cheese

Fall School Picture Days at School.  Baby bear had hers last week.

I was thrilled that she liked one of Lila's old outfits and agreed to wear it to school, with a smile, nonetheless.  Score for me!

So far this kid is totally rocking it at school.  She loves going to see her friends every day.  They get to paint almost daily, go to recess twice a day, visit the library and music class each week, and have story time every afternoon.  

Why, oh why, was picture day for these two the day after a three-day weekend?  It was so early, but we just had to curl Lila's hair.  I think they both cleaned up pretty well.

My big 4th grader and my sweet 1st grader.  We had conferences with their teachers this week, too, and they both got glowing reports.  They told us that they are helpful, attentive, focused, and always ready to learn.  All three teachers said that they are a joy to have in their classroom.  And doing well in all their subjects, too.  Go Hays kids!

This girl has really come out of her shell this year.  She is full of personality, but as angelic as they come.  My angel baby is growing up.  She is doing SO well in school.  She's become a big-time reader and can often be found in her room enjoying a good book.  She's an excellent writer and is doing very well in math, too.  From Ms. Garner - "Lila is a delight to have in class.  She is very studious.  She takes school, learning and behavior very seriously.  Her work is very well thought out.  She has very high expectations of herself and others around her.  A true leader in the classroom.  Her strengths are in both language and math.  I highly recommend testing her for the PACE program this spring."  Way to go, Lila!

This boy has always been a top student.  He's really been impressing us this year with his writing skills.  His ELA teacher couldn't say enough great things about his writing and believes that a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that he's an avid reader.  Yay!  He really does loves to read for enjoyment, which is such a blessing.  Ms. Fulbright wrote, "I am enjoying having Jackson in my class.  He is doing a phenomenal job...very focused and hardworking."  She also told us that he's one of the kids that "just makes coming to work every day a joy."  His math and science teacher said that she's really impressed with how kind and helpful he is to other students in the class.  She says he's self-motivated and gets very high grades, but it's the social aspect that we love hearing about the most.

Of course we want our kids to do well in school, but hearing that they are good people makes us so very proud.  I wonder a lot if we are too strict on them sometimes.  But then we leave these conferences, and I feel like maybe they really are soaking in a lot of what we are trying to teach them at home.  It's reassuring, and so nice to hear.  Raising three kids isn't easy, and you don't get too many pats on the back, but I'll take this as my blue ribbon for the month!

We've Got Spirit

TX-OU Gameday was finally here!  It's my very favorite game of the year.  

Get your Horns up!
Maddie and Lila did a few cheers with me, and got to watch the beginning of the game, but then had to bail to Lion King rehearsal.

That's ok--these two still had plenty of spirit!
I told Jackson that next year we will watch the TX-OU game in person.
In the Cotton Bowl.  And it will blow his mind.

We had to leave in the third quarter of the game to make it to Lila's soccer game on time.  This girly loved cheering for both teams.  Unfortunately, the Longhorns lost 45-40...

but the Bees won 18-0!  Wow!  Lila got two goals and 10 of 11 girls on the team scored goals as well.  They were passing the ball really well and everyone left that game feeling great.

Sunday morning began bright and very early.  The boys left the house well before dawn, and the girls and I followed suit around sunrise.  Jackson was the starting pitcher for the first game.  He had a great game, got some monster hits to left field, and fielded well at short stop and third base.  His team fell just short, losing the first one 9-8, though.  His next game was much less exciting and they lost 6-3.  Bummer.

It was a beautiful morning, though, and we loved being outside in the cool crisp air.
Silver lining, right?!

Jackson didn't stay down for long.  We raced home, he had a quick shower, and then his buddy came to pick him up for the Cowboys game.

These kids cheered hard for their team and got to see the Cowboys beat the Bengals 28-14.
How 'bout them Cowboys?!

We Are Family

Last Thursday at school was Grandparents Day.  We are so thankful to live close to all four of the kids' grandparents.  The kids look forward to this day every year.  Since Lila's lunch began at 10:45, Gigi and Memaw picked up pancakes at Whataburger.  Yum!

Lila loved having both of her grandmothers all to herself.

After lunch, the book fair, and then recess, Lila showed them her classroom and locker.
All of a sudden, my baby girl looks so grown up.  

After another run to Whataburger for Jackson, the grandmas were back at school.  He was so thankful and ate every bite of his bacon cheeseburger!  

The next day, Cameron and I went to Meme's to visit with lots more of our family.  Aunt Ruth got such a kick out of Cami!  She entertained her, as well as Aunt Nell, Greg, Gloria, Gigi and Meme, with her favorite songs and dances.  

After most had left, she then found Meme's old scarves and played dress-up with them.
Such a goose.  Gotta love her.