Shrek the Musical

So after a month of daily rehearsals and constant singing and dancing at home by Ashley, Paige and Riley it was finally showtime for Shrek! the Musical.  There were 6 total shows from Wednesday to Saturday.  Ashley's main roll was Mama Bear, she played this every other show.  On the off shows she was a Du Loc dancer.

I watched 4 of shows and got to see Ashley in both roles.  She had a great time and they put on a quite a good show.

Ashley and her friends in make-up and ready to go!

Mama Bear with Papa Bear

Ashley's friends fro church came to see her show

Ashley in her DuLoc costume, with her friend Miranda

backstage shenanigans

IHOP cast party

Paige and I volunteered to sell concessions during some of the shows.  Here are some gingerbread men I made for the bake sale.

I also have to give a BIG shout out to Paige who helped Ashley learn the choreography for the dances she had to do.  Paige watched videos of the dances and then coached Ashley on the steps.  Ashley had zero dancing experience so Paige really was a big help.

Anyway, it looks like Ashley is really starting to like the theater.  I know she had a great time and is hoping to have more shows in her future.

Liverpool FC at Soldier Field

Dave's a big fan of the English Premier soccer league.  His favorite team is Liverpool and so when he learned that they were coming to Chicago this summer he was super excited to get tickets.

Ya, we got jerseys.

A bunch of English Premier and European teams were in the US this summer to play in the International Champions Cup.  Liverpool played the Greek Olympiakos team at Soldier Field.  When we bought the tickets, one of the stars of Liverpool was Louis Suarez.  You know the guy from Uruguay who bit another player in the World Cup, got suspended and was subsequently traded by Liverpool.  So we obviously didn't get to see him play but we got to see all our other favorite players including Stephen Gerrard.  Soccer superstar, handsome, elder statesman that he is.

Gerrard - you have to say it with an English accent!

Okay, so back to reality.  Dave bought us tickets in the Liverpool fan section which made me a little nervous because I didn't want to have to stand the whole game with a bunch of crazy soccer fans spilling beer on me.  Fortunately, my fears were unfounded and it was so fun to be sitting with serious hardcore fans.  English soccer fans have all kinds of songs and cheers for their teams.  Seriously, it is so hilarious.  They put about everything to song.  One of my favorites was some song about Liverpool soccer being "poetry in motion."

We had some friends who also bought tickets, but we didn't have seats together.  We did however drive into the city together have dinner and walk with the crowd of pre-game pub crawling fans to the stadium.  I loved the atmosphere.  We had a great time and Liverpool won the game!

Magritte

Well you can't let summer pass by without a little culture and an educational field trip.  I think the last time we went to the Art Insitute of Chicago Paige was a baby.  It's just one of the those places we haven't made repeat visits to.  However, I have had it on my list to do again and when I saw that there was a Magritte exhibit in town and they were having a free night, I was all over it.

Magritte is a Belgian surrealist artist.  I admit, I didn't know much about him and wasn't familiar with all his work, but I still wanted to go see the exhibit.  Besides if you are going to an art exhibit you might as well go see a surrealist.  At least you know the artwork is going to be interesting and unique.

The girls and I decided to ride the train and spend the afternoon in downtown Chicago beginning at the art museum.  We started with the Magritte exhibit which did not disappoint.  No pictures were allowed but there was some pretty awesome and pretty odd pieces.  At first Paige was a little confused about what was going on in these pictures but by the end she started to understand the point of view of surrealism.  I am really glad we got to see the exhibit before it left town.

After Magritte, we spent a little extra time in the museum looking at some of the more famous pieces in the permanent collection.  We saw Van Gogh, Seurat, Rembrandt and lots of Monet.  Chicago also has American Gothic by Grant Wood so we had to stop and see that.  It was a great art history lesson for the girls.  I didn't push them too hard but I think exposure is important.

Water Lilies, by Monet

After the museum we walked over to Millennium park to see the Bean and faces fountain.  It was a beautiful evening in the city and was fun to just hang out.

selfies at the Bean

After this we called Dave who was at work.  He came over and picked us up so we could ride home together.  We also made a stop at Wow Bao for some Chinese steamed buns to eat for a snack in the car.   AND that's it for our field trip.

Limelight Theater Company

Some of Ashley's friends from school, encouraged her to join their community theater company.  She agreed and auditioned and was cast in Limelight Theater Company's summer production of Shrek the Musical.

Shrek is a huge production with a large cast.  It's honestly pretty amazing how quickly they can put a show together.  For about a month she had rehearsal everyday for 4 hours as they prepared for the show.  She was a pretty busy girl doing this and bowling at the same time.  She even had to miss a week of rehearsal for Girls' Camp, but somehow it all worked out.

Fortunately, there were 4 girls who lived near us so we all split driving in a carpool.  This turned out to be very fortunate because due to a huge storm 2 weeks before the show the high school they were scheduled to perform at had the roof of their auditorium ripped off.  This resulted in a mad scramble and a change of venue.  Luckily they found another high school that was available but it was far away, so it was a good thing I didn't have to drive back and forth every day.  And like true professionals the show went on.

Ashley really enjoyed the whole process and spending time with friends.  You had to be 11 to audition for the this particular musical, which meant Paige was too young this year, but she has already decided she wants to audition next year too.  This is our first experience with community theater but I am very impressed.  They include everyone, the kids learn so much and it's very affordable.  Can't wait for showtime!

Girls Camp

It's time for Girls' Camp.  Get the van ready!

Last year I skipped going, but I did go this year and boy howdy, am I glad I did!  This year was by far, the best camp experience.  Mainly, because of the weather.  Camping in the middle of July in the midwest is a little crazy because it gets to hot and humid.  This year, however, it was a truly blessing to have camp coincide with a week of cool temperatures with no humidity.  Seriously, it was in 70s during the day and the evenings were cool in the 50s.  We even had one night drop into the 40s.  We actually wore sweatshirts and built fires.  Usually, no one wants to build a fire because it is so hot, this year, we built fires every night and if you have a fire you might as well make dutch oven cobbler.

Honestly, with no girls suffering from heat stroke or lethargic and grumpy because they were so hot, camp was downright pleasant and very low on drama.  It's just so much easier to love one another when you are physically comfortable!!

I also LOVED the camp theme for this year: "Come Unto Christ and Be BRAVE".  BRAVE was an anagram for B= believe, R= repent, A= act, V= valiant, E= endure.  Our stake leaders were fabulous and really helped to keep the Young Women mindful of the theme, unified and happy.  

This is the Stake YW president all dressed up to catch
and reward YW for being "BRAVE"

As for me personally, instead of working in the kitchen like I have before, this year I went camping with the girls.  I was with the 4th years.  Ashley is a 4th year so I got to spend the whole time with her, which was fun.  Her group of YW are so low key, that they were very easy to be with.  The 4th year is a special year at our camp.  The girls get to go canoeing and we also have a special ceremony called "yellow feather."

The 4th year campers and leaders

Ashley getting her hair braided for "Yellow Feather"

Anyways, camp was great.  Ashley got a little stomach bug on the last night and ended up sleeping in the lodge so she could be close to the bathroom but otherwise it was good times for all.

On the way home, we stopped at a dairy for some ice cream and to buy some delicious cheese.  And the YW just had to climb on the cow.

The tricky part of me going to camp is what to do with Paige while I am gone.  This year Dave had to work so I had to get a little creative with Paige.  She ended up going with her friend (our neighbor) to Vacation Bible School (VBS) at their Lutheran Church.  Her friend goes to Activity Days with Paige regularly so when they invited Paige to VBS we thought it would be nice for her to do something with them at their church.  Conveniently, VBS was during Girls' Camp, so that pretty much took care of Paige for most of the time I was gone.  I had a couple other awesome friends who agreed to a playdate here and there to cover the gaps while Dave was at work.  

It was great week, everyone was taken care of and I really feel like we were all blessed, which is no surprise---when you try to do good, the blessings always come.

Summer activities

We've been doing lots of bowling so far this summer.  The girls are getting better and better.  Paige's score her first game was 21.  She just bowled a 117!  Ashley bowled her game high too.  She got 199 - oh so close to 200!

Paige, Riley, Samantha, and Ashley

Swimming at the Clubhouse with friends has been something else we've been doing a lot.  Paige had a friend who moved away last December and they came back to town for a visit.  They called us and we had a friend reunion at the pool.  

Ariana, Carly and Paige

We also went swimming at Centennial Beach in Naperville.  It's unique public pool.  It's made from an old rock quarry and has a sand bottom.

Paige and Jenny

Simi and Ashley

Paige and some soft serve ice cream!

Besides playing, we have been doing a little work.  Paige and Riley planned and prepared dinner for us.    Paige did this as one of her Faith In God requirements at church.  (Ashley also finished the Virtue Value for Young Women's Personal Progress this summer.)

Knife skills!

Hawaiian Haystacks.  Thanks for dinner gals!

We went to a balloon festival as well, but unfortunately we got rained out, but Paige still got her face painted!

There has also been a HUGE number of summertime selfies:

World Cup Mania

Oh my gosh!   I confess!  For the last few weeks, I have spent the majority of my time watching soccer.  I am not getting anything done.  I even plan my day around the morning and afternoon World Cup games so I don't miss anything.

We were in Thailand during the last World Cup and the games, when we had a chance to watch them, were on in the middle of the night so I basically hardly watched anything.  This time, I was all in.  I love the World Cup!  And the US Men's Team had such a great run.

We even a had Sunday dinner party with some friends who were soccer fans.  Good Times.

art work by Paige