Mom and Dad stayed for breakfast today, and we had Caeden's favorite: biscuits and gravy.  And Caeden finished the milk like the teenage boy that he is.

Sylvia and her friends Sarah, Isabella, and Kyle went to see the new Disney live action Aladdin movie today.  Sylv loved it!

Caeden's 8th Grade Promotion

All dressed up and ready for 8th grade promotion

processing in

The junior high choir sang Into the West.

Caeden has grown non-stop these last 3 years of junior high!

Caeden was asked to stand to be recognized as runner-up for the Outstanding Scholar award. 

Mr. Campbell, addressing the class, encouraged them to live life to the fullest.

Caeden is officially done with junior high school now!

And that means, he is in high school!

Gram caught him first!

They do love each other!?

Thank you, Krampa and Gram, for making the trip again 

and being here to support and celebrate Caeden!

Caeden's friend Evan is looking forward to being in high school with Caeden--and on the same wrestling team together again.  It was so nice of him to come to promotion to support Caeden!

They are good buddies...

And always have fun being goofy together!

We had strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and strawberry ice cream to celebrate at home!

Congratulations, Caeden!  We love you!

Last Day of School

Sylvia's last day of 10th grade

Caeden's last day of 8th grade

a.k.a. The Last Day of "The Worst Years of My Life"--although, he has actually enjoyed 8th grade much more than 6th and 7th!

Annah got her violin out today!  She tuned it up and practiced!

Gram and Krampa came over today, and Gram wanted to hear Caeden play his guitar.

I really need to get video. He plays so beautifully!

Power Outage

We had a huge storm just as school was letting out today, and the power went out for several hours.

I took Caeden to his guitar lesson and brought supper home from town since we couldn't really cook anything without power.

Later, Sylvia, Caeden, and I played FRIENDS trivia by flashlight.

I never knew there was a charades part of FRIENDS Trivia Game until tonight.  I always just played with the questions on the cards, but the kids said we had to play the full game by the rules.  It was fun.

Eventually, the power came back on, and it wasn't so bad having a few "disconnected hours.

Uncle Travis asked Annah to sing with him at church this morning!

Cousin fun at Krampa's and Gram's

Bryce doing sit-ups to get big muscle bumps

Lunch on the porch

The twins finally got to know whose present it was!

The big blow-up boxing gloves were a "big hit!"

A Tribute to Harold Norman: 45 Years of CHS Musical Theater

The whole cast

Before the show, we gathered in the choir room.

When I was in school, there was a wooden tunnel backstage that we could pass through behind the curtains and not be seen going from one side of the stage to the other.  After each show we would all sign it with the show, year, and our character name by our signatures. Apparently the tunnel was taken apart in 1997, and Justin May wrote on a piece of it that was saved backstage. Shane read it to us, and I managed to catch some of it...

There were lots of sweet mini-reunions happening in this big reunion.

A slideshow with photos of shows Mr. Normal directed scrolled above the Harold Norman Stage before the show and during intermission...

Cathy Petrie welcomed the audience and explained that this show was put together as the best way to thank Mr. Norman for everything he has done for the community of Churubusco.

Missy...what would we do without her?!  We love her!!!

The first song of the show was the first song in the first musical ever performed on this stage--Oklahoma!

The beautiful Cassandra Petrie

My very favorite song in this whole show was Just One Person from Snoopy the Musical.  I didn't realize I'd be part of this song until Wednesday night, and when I looked it up to learn it I was flooded with emotion.  I'm not sure what year Snoopy was performed at 'Busco. I was pretty little, I think, but I remember being in the audience and I remember being moved by this song then.

And every time we sang it on Friday and this morning in rehearsal, I had to pull myself together and keep the tears from streaming down my face. It was a crazy combination of remembering and nostalgia and tradition and legacy and message and music, and it filled my heart to overflowing.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

If I Were a Rich Man 

Together at Last, including the youngest cast member--a 3rd grader!

current New Era members joined Shawn and Adam for Greased Lightin'

"Doin' a-what-a-comes natchurly!"

Pick-a-little

Mr. Normal joined us on stage as we lined up by class year singing Hello, Harold!

I think we all loved the fact that he talked about how this wasn't really about him, but about COMMUNITY.

After the show, it was more overwhelming emotion as the audience greeted us and there were so many familiar faces and hugs!!! What a blessed and wonderful community! It really was too much for my mind and heart to take in, and I'm so incredibly grateful to have been a small part of such a celebration. 

I'm also impressed that Travis got Harold to take a selfie!!