Rumplestiltskin is my name...

H.O.M.E (Heart of Mary Educators) presented Rumplestiltskin last Sunday. They worked so hard!



Michael at his cheesiest

Animale Carnivale

What a great weekend!

The Symphony Orchestra had a free family concert featuring The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens on Saturday! They did this in conjunction with the library, who hosted a series of workshops featuring mask maker and dancer Jamie Peck. DH had to cancel the 30-Hour Famine due to snow, so he was able to stay home with Nicholas and Daniel, and Michael and Katie Grace were hard at work making masks.


And, voila, Zazu and Simba!


The concert was wonderful. It also featured Mendelsohn's A Midsummer's Night Dream (Katie Grace enjoyed listening for the donkey brays!) and a Chopin concerto. I was a little disturbed by the fact that Daniel was really digging the Chopin, LOL!

The masks and dancing was pretty incredible, even if the pictures weren't (no flashes in the concert hall!)




Finally, baby spam!


Some Carnival of the Animals Resources We've Been Enjoying
Ogden Nash's Poems
Coloring Pages
DVD featuring Radar from MASH
Bernstein's Young Person's Concert
Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids(Book with CD)
Carnival of the Animals: Poems Inspired by Saint-Saens's Music (Book with CD)

This is a post I had on another blog. I didn't want to lose it, so I'm transferring it here.

I'm going to get all theater geeky on you for a moment.

While we were in NYC, I was curious about just what shows I had seen and in what theater. So, I've been working on this little list ever since. So, without further ado...

Shows I saw on Broadway...
1989: Meet Me in St. Louis* (Gershwin Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in_St._Louis_%28musical%29

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4251

1989: Les Miserables* (Broadway Theater)

http://www.lesmis.com/index2.htm

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/broadwaytheater/history.html

1990: Les Miserables* (Imperial Theater)

http://www.lesmis.com/index2.htm

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/imperialtheater/history.html

1991: Aspects of Love* (Broadhurst Theater)—with Sarah Brightman

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4559

http://www.playbill.com/reference/theatre_info/2156.html

1991: Black and Blue (Minskoff Theater)

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4528

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/minskofftheater/history.html

1991: Once on This Island* (Booth Theater) with La Chanze

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/booththeater/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_On_This_Island

1991: Return to the Forbidden Planet (Variety Arts Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_the_Forbidden_Planet

http://www.heartofoffbroadway.org/theater.cfm?theaterid=188

1991: The Secret Garden* (St. James Theater) with Daisy Eagan, Rebecca Luker, Mandy Patinkin

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/imperialtheater/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden_%28musical%29

1992: Cats* (Winter Garden Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_%28musical%29#Production_History

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/wintergardentheater/history.html

1992: City of Angels* (Virginia Theater, now the August Wilson Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Angels_%28musical%29

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4261

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/augustwilsontheater/history.html

1992: Grand Hotel* (Martin Beck Theater, now the Al Hirschfeld Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_%28musical%29

http://www.jimsdeli.com/landmarks/42-51_w/martin-beck-theater.html

1992: Miss Saigon* (Broadway Theater) with Lea Salonga and Jonathan Price)

1997: 1776 Revival (Gershwin Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_%28musical%29#Revival

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/gershwintheater/history.html

2002: Thoroughly Modern Millie (Marquis Theater) with Sutton Foster

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=13138

http://www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1259

2006: Avenue Q* (John Golden Theater)

http://www.avenueq.com/

http://www.johngoldentheater.net/

2006: 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (Circle in the Square Theater)

http://www.spellingbeethemusical.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Annual_Putnam_County_Spelling_Bee

http://www.circle-in-the-square.com/

2006: Wicked* (George Gershwin Theater)

http://www.wickedthemusical.com/

2007: Mary Poppins* (New Amsterdam Theater)

http://disney.go.com/theatre/marypoppins/

Shows I Saw with a Touring Company

A Year with Frog and Toad

Big River*

Cabaret

Company*

Five Guys Named Moe*

Grease

Hairspray*

Hello Dolly

The King and I

Kiss Me Kate*

The Lion King*

Nunsense

Porgy and Bess

Ragtime*

Rent*

Showboat

The Sound of Music*

Sweeny Todd*

Shows I Saw with Decent Local Productions

Annie

Anything Goes

Assassins*

Baby*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_%28musical%29

http://www.mtishows.com/show_home.asp?ID=000087

Barnum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_%28musical%29

The Boys from Syracuse

Cinderella

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

Guys and Dolls*

Into the Woods*

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*

Little Shop of Horrors

Mame

Man of La Mancha

Once Upon a Mattress*

Pacific Overtures*

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown*

Shows I Saw With Mediocre Companies

Beauty and the Beast*

Brigadoon

Dames at Sea

Fiddler on the Roof

Godspell

The Wiz

Shows I Was In

42^nd Street (Chorus)

Bye Bye Birdie (May Peterson)

Leader of the Pack (Annie Golden/Ensemble)

The Music Man (Alma Hicks)*

Oklahoma (Chorus)

Shows I Want to See

110 in the Shade

Annie Get Your Gun*

Anyone Can Whistle*

Bells Are Ringing

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Big-The Musical

Blood Brothers

Bounce

Brooklyn

Cabin in the Sky

Camelot

Candide

The Capeman

Carrie

Carousel*

Chess*

Chicago*

Children of Eden

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

A Chorus Line

The Civil War

Clue

Crazy for You

Damn Yankees*

The Drowsy Chaperone*

Evening Primrose

Fame

The Fantastiks

Fiddler on the Roof

Follies

Footloose

The Full Monty

The Frogs

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*

Goblin Market

The Golden Apple

The Goodbye Girl*

Gypsy

Half a Sixpence

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Jane Eyre*

Jekyll and Hyde

A Little Night Music*

Marie Christine

Mary Poppins

Merrily We Roll Along*

Movin’ Out

Nine

Pal Joey*

Parade

Passion*

Peter Pan

The Pirate Queen

Plain and Fancy

The Producers*

Rags

Side by Side by Sondheim

Songs for a New World

Spamalot

Steel Pier

Street Scene

Sunday in the Park with George*

Sunset Boulevard

Sweet Charity

Tarzan

Urinetown

West Side Story

The Wild Party

Will Rogers Follies

The Woman in White

Working

* means I have the soundtrack. :)

A Week in Review

Three posts today, and no posts last week. It was a rough week, but we did get lots done.

Sunday was Michael's First Communion. Except it wasn't, because in the ELCA, children can technically receive Communion from the time their baptized, so Michael has been receiving since he was around a year old. This was a hard day for me actually, one of the hardest parts of raising Little Lutherans.

This is Michael and his buddy Lukey.


And cake! Everybody loves cake!


Monday was Rosa Parks birthday, and we talked about the life of this wonderful woman.

On Shrove Tuesday, we had pancakes for dinner.

Ash Wednesday was spent getting the house ready for Lent.

It was a rainy, dreary, cold day, and my four little ones and I went to Mater Delarosa to receive ashes at noon. When Father blessed Daniel, Daniel gave him the biggest baby grin, and both Father and Monsignor couldn't help but laugh out loud. By the time we got to the car, Daniel's ashes were pretty much gone. Michael said, "I guess Dust doesn't really stick to babies."

On Thursday, we changed out the Nature Table.

We'll definitely have fun adding more to King Winter's kingdom!

I also couldn't help but notice I had three matching children on Thursday, and I couldn't resist a picture.


On Friday, we traveled about three hours to stay with some college friends. They're also homeschoolers, as you may be able to tell by the great bookshelves. Here are their three girls with our crew.


We spent the night and made our way to our main destination on Saturday- the Benadum theater in Pittsburgh to see The Lion King. I'll blog a little about that separately, I think, but here are some pictures.

The opening curtain and beautiful stage.


And two happy children before the curtain went up. Daniel and Nicholas went with Daddy to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum.


And Katie Grace wanted me to take a picture of the chandelier, because it was pretty.

After the play, we stopped for dinner. A lady came up to us and said, "When I saw them seat a family with four little kids next to us, I almost cried. But your children are very well behaved!" I didn't quite know how to take that!

We left the restaurant around 7 and pulled up in front of our house at 11. We would have gotten home sooner, but we hit horrible fog. I prayed for the last hour of the trip!

The today, I caught Daniel doing this:


Time to dig out the baby gates!