Easter Sunday Joy

Pancake breakfast; dressing in our Sunday best; egg hunting.

Bible reading; Church with friends.

Decorating the bare branches to make our Easter Tree.

Lunch in the park with the brass band playing; a ride on the model steam trains; Toy Story 3 in the afternoon; another church service in the evening.

Lots of Easter Sunday Joy. :)

Easter Trip to the Animal Farm

Our family Christmas Gift from my parents last year was 2 nights at a beautiful farm in the mountains. We claimed it this Easter break.

It rained and rained and rained........ did I mention it rained?

But we were (fairly) prepared with umbrellas, gum boots and jumpers, and we still ventured out of doors to explore and enjoy the land and the animals.

The mist in the valley lingered day and night.

There were endless cups of tea and coffee (it was cold...), chocolate to share and a nice bottle of red wine for me. Warm socks, a fireplace, and feet up on the coffee table.

A lovely Easter break.

A Holiday Escape

Well, our little family is heading away for a holiday tomorrow. We will be spending time in the city with family for a few days, then escaping to the mountains for two nights at a farm stay (thanks to my parents' Christmas gift to us!), then having a night at the beach with family before heading home again. I'm sure I'll have lots of photos to share next week. :)

Blessings to you all as we head towards the Easter season. xx

Catch-Up Post

I'm sorry everyone - I said I was back on the blog, but have remained a rather non-existent blogger! Here is a catch-up type post on what's happening here in our lives.

* It is Easter Holidays. We are at the end of the first of two weeks holiday. This week we have been at home, and next week we will be away. It has been nice to be all together again (though the big two children are missing school!)

* I am still recovering from The Music Man. It has been a genuine time of grief for me - hard to explain unless you have been through this yourself. But I am working through this time with lots of prayer, good friends, and chocolate...

* The Music Man was a huge success! It covered the newspapers and headlines these past weeks, and the Theatre is already discussing what next year's musical may be. "My Fair Lady" seems to be the current favourite.

* We have a very positive lead on our house - a couple came through last weekend, and loved it. We are hoping to receive an offer tomorrow - please pray! It has been a long, difficult six months waiting for a buyer and I am praying these are the people we've been waiting for.

* We are house hunting again, after losing the last two homes we had under contract.

* The children, chickens and kittens are all well, thriving and happy. :) The garden, however, is sorely neglected.

* I had a very successful night on Tuesday - participating in a vocal 'Master Class', in which I had to sing "Think of Me" (Phantom) and "Show Me" (My Fair Lady) - in front of about 40 people at the theatre, and be critiqued by the current Adjudicator of the QLD Eisteddfod. It was daunting to say the least!! However, her critique was helpful and very positive. I came away feeling empowered and inspired to further pursue my singing more seriously.

* Tonight we fed the children early, and I'm about to sing and pray with Saraya then make Stuart and I a "grown up" dinner. We rarely do this and I thought it would be nice to sit together and chat.

* I received a Photo CD from The Music Man with about 200 professional photos on it, yesterday. Seeing them all brought all the memories pouring back! Here are a few for your interest....

'Harold' and 'Marian' - this one was used as the full page promotional photo in our regional newspaper.

Program head shots...

This one was also in the paper - myself with 'Mrs Paroo' and younger brother 'Winthrop'.

Full cast photo.

More to come, and I'm looking forward to catching up on all your blogs soon too!

It's All Over

Farewell script...

.... and farewell beautiful costumes.

The season of my life which was "The Music Man" is over.

My children came to see the final performance on Sunday afternoon. They made this sign weeks ago - and held it up, cheering, when I came out for my curtain call! Beautiful, patient children they are. I'm mega blessed.

And my house is filled with flowers!

The above from 'Harold', my male lead.

And these beautiful white lillies from Stuart :)

And these ones were presented to me on stage after the final performance, by 'Harold' - on behalf of the Production Team. It was so special. The whole house smells wonderful.

After the final show, in the theatre foyer - Stuart "Marcellus", and me "Marian" - this is the sweet vintage dress I worked so hard to fit into! ;)

I have SO many more things to share with you - newspaper articles, backstage photos, the program shots, professional photos from the shoot, etc. etc.

But for now, let me just share that this has been the most wonderful stage experience of my entire life. Absolute bliss. I have been very blue these past two days, and depressed it's all over, but trying to relish the memories, thank the Lord for this opportunity, and delight in the afterglow of such a successful production.

And I'm back on the blog, by the way. :) Thanks for waiting for me!

A Video to Share

Hi all! Things are getting very very exciting at my house!

We have our full dress rehearsal tonight, and Opening Night is tomorrow night! By Sunday night The Music Man part of my life will be over. And there will inevitably be tears. :) But for now, excitement. I wanted to share with you this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vpqsmGaSvM&feature=channel_video_title

It is a little video a friend put together of some footage taken in the park of the cast. We were fully costumed (minus hair-do's, makeup and hats, for some...), for our official photo shoot. It's a great little glimpse of everyone, and of the era (1912). :) The music is all from the show.

Hope you enjoy it!

The Final Countdown!

We are in the thick of the final week of rehearsals and I couldn't be happier.

Sets are being finalised....

My counter for the Library Scene

The Footbridge for the romance scene in Act 2 - how clever are our crew?!

And the cast are rehearsing nightly, polishing and working hard and just loving every minute. Here are a few rehearsal shots from last week - one of the production team took them and they're a little blurry - but there will be some professional photos available to us following dress rehearsals. I'll be sure to share them!

Barbershop Quartet

'Mama' and I doing our porch scene

'Harold' and I during one of our many dialogue scenes. Marian is fobbing him off here as she so often does....

The whole cast getting our notes from the director after rehearsal.

Last night we had our Sitz Probe, our first rehearsal with the orchestra. They were sublime. They make us sound so good!! ;) We have a great orchestra, a talented and amazing cast, a phenomenal crew, a wonderful director - what more could we ask for? I couldn't be happier (or more tired) this week. Thanks for your prayers and patience while my blog remains ever so quiet. It will pick up again once The Music Man is over.

Opening Night in 7 more sleeps!!!!

Winter Nightgowns for Saraya

She knows what she likes to wear, my girl. She always has. And it's dresses by day, and nighties by night. She simply doesn't like shorts or jeans or pyjama pants.

And so I gave myself the challenge many months back to find her some cosy warm nightgowns for winter. This was even harder than I thought it would be. Were I a sewer, I would make them myself - but I am not. This is a reality I've had to come to face! So I began to look in big shops, small shops, market stalls..... and eventually, online. After months of searching, success! Thank you Etsy.

They are perfect. Handmade. Soft. Warm. And they both meet their owner's approval nicely.

She prefers the white one with dots, but she wanted to save that one for tonight because Nanna will be here. :) I'm so happy to have found them!