Abby ventured outside of her comfort zone and tried her hand at Theatre Camp this year. (Well, she may have been forced to do the camp, but it's just because we knew she would love it!!)
It took place June 18-29 from 8-12 pm, and it was held at a local community college, Shelton State. Groups were broken down by grade, and Abby's group was 2nd & 3rd graders. They had four 45 minute classes: Acting, Music, Dance, and Improv. Abby was most nervous about the acting class, because in her words "I don't know how to act!" I told her that's what camp was for! :) Luckily, a friend from school joined her at camp so that calmed her nerves a bit.
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| Jonesy came home with us one day after camp to play & spend the night. The girls were *so* excited to show me the dance studio, where all of their classes take place. |
When I picked Abby up the first day, she could *not* stop talking about her fun day! (As I pat myself on the back for knowing she would love this camp!) They played lots of fun games in Improv & Acting class, so it wasn't as scary as she thought.
On the 3rd day of camp, the Acting coach asked everyone to pick a monologue and start memorizing it. This terrified Abby, but I found a good one online that she could relate to. The character's name was Shonda, and it was so funny to see Abby really get into character & read with expression as the camp went on. She was able to memorize it in no time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Shonda
wants to help her mom bake in the kitchen. She wants to be a chef when she
grows up.)
Mom,
can I help? Why not? I’m good at baking. I do not make a mess! I do a good job.
Can we make cookies? Chocolate chip? Everybody likes cookies. I’m done with my
homework. So I can help you. Please? I want to be Rachel Ray when I grow up.
Can I use the rolling pin? I like the rolling pin. You want me to watch TV? I
never get to help. You told me you’d teach me to cook when I’m older, and I’m
older now. I know you told me that last week, so I’m a whole week older now. I
just want to help, Mommy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the last day of camp, each group had a Showcase in the theatre. Their teachers talked about each class, and they performed a little bit of everything.
For the Improv class, Abby participated in a game called "Anything Goes." The card she drew asked her to act out a turtle doing a dance routine. No one guessed it, but she was hilarious and I was proud of her for doing it in front of a large crowd on stage.
For
Acting class, some of the kids volunteered to do their monologues. I had hoped Abby would, but she decided not to. Instead she participated in a game where the teacher gave them a scene to act out and they had 1 minute to prepare. Hers was the "worst restaurant in the world" and they did a great job.
For
Music class, they sang the song "Step One."
For
Dance class, they did two things. First, a "Dance through the Decades." It was my favorite part of the whole showcase!! Click
here to watch that.
Then, their teacher choreographed a musical theater dance routine to "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." Abby was a stand-out in my (biased) opinion!!
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| Abby & Jonesy |
We were so proud of her for all her hard work at Theatre Camp! Which called for a celebratory donut, of course :)
Sunday
One great thing about our beach house this year was that it had 6 bedrooms & bathrooms! So, we were able to spread out and everyone could sleep comfortably. Somehow, Abby ended up sneaking in Gibson & Anderson's room Sunday morning to watch some cartoons before breakfast :)
Ready to boogie board! Poppy brought these and they were a *HUGE* hit with all the kids!
The Berlys came over for a cookout Sunday night. This was their first time meeting Charlie Kate! Uncle Bill wasted no time having an eating contest with her :)
Celebrating all of our July/August birthdays!
Monday
We had 6 events, and asked for a representative from each team for the first event, Jump the Creek.
Next was the jump rope contest, where Abby smoked both of her aunts!
Then it was time for the Forward/Backward running relay. Surprisingly, no one fell on their butt while running backwards!
The 4th event was the egg balancing relay...
The 5th event was the 3-legged race and probably the most hysterical thing I have ever witnessed. Gibson was dead set on doing this event with his dad, and so as you can see, Mike literally laid him on his leg and carried him the whole event. All you could hear was Gibson saying "ow, ow, ow, ow!" It was hysterical. It was so funny that we did a second round, where Bec joined Mike and the green team switched up their members as well. It didn't help.....the Blue Team took home the gold both rounds!!!
Someone had a bit of a fit when he was told he couldn't do the 3-legged race.....#timeout
The last event was the water balloon toss. This was the *only* event the blue team lost! Uncle Mike sealed the win in the last round against Nate.
The kids & I decided we wanted Poppy to get soaked at the end of the Olympics, so we had a cooler of water dumped on him!!!
It was a fun-filled, crazy morning.....just par for the course with my family :) I think the Olympics were a huge hit, and the kids are already making plan for new/harder events next year.
Since the new beach house brought us one block closer to the beach, we thought we could get away with not having a golf cart. Well, we were wrong. We got one Monday afternoon and the kids were thrilled to go for a joy ride!!!
Instead of going down on the beach for our usual family pictures, we took advantage of the gorgeous wraparound porch and did pictures there Monday night before dinner.
….until the little kids went to bed. Then Nate & Abby decided they wanted to play "Party Quirks" with all of the adults. (It was an improv game she learned at Theater Camp.) Let's just say I have a video of Nanny pretending to be a sloth, but it's not great quality because I was shaking/laughing so hard. And 2 family members - who shall not be named - actually peed in their pants.
