Shrek Jr.

 Hannah & I (along with a few other theater friends) went to see two cast mates perform in Shrek Jr. last night. I think you can pick out the two sisters we went to see-Dragon & Pinocchio. I know it may be hard to recognize them but they have been in many pictures from acting with Hannah since Godspell. Shrek Jr. was with the same company Hannah performed Beauty & the Beats Jr. with. 

Our plans for next week involve more Oliver rehearsals & going to Out of Africa as a belated gift to Joshua. He can feed giraffes there and you get in free in your b-day month. Plus we have a bogo coupon. Hannah had one free day next week but they just gave the cast an extra day off so woo hoo for two days off!

Bye Bye Birdie ~ Shows 3 & 4

 Two family shots because lighting was slightly better if we moved to a different spot.

 Top picture is "Conrad" photo bombing & the next two we let him be in the pics.

The last two shows were both on Saturday-2pm & 7pm. This makes for a super long day especially since every family has to stay & tear down the set,pack up costumes,and clean the venue. Hannah woke up that Saturday feeling like she was getting sick but she kept up her vitamins,eating throughout the busyness,staying hydrated, and ate Airborne tablets. She never did get fully sick which is a great thing because the ending of this show spills right into the super busyness of extra Oliver rehearsals. 

Anyway, the boys went to the closing show & Todd was "volunteered" by me to videotape the two shows he attended because that has now become a parent job. Usually I did box office. If no one signed up for it then we'd have no video to buy. So he used Moezart's camera at the back of the venue to record all the big scenes where there are lots of people in the scene (there were 39 cast members) and he borrowed the director's camera to record close up scenes of just a few people. Now he gets to mesh them together.  

Now she's down to one show up has a rehearsal almost every day for the rest of May and 8 shows in June. 

My next post would be a picture or two from Joshua's 13th b-day as we planned to see Captain America Civil War and then go out to eat BUT he caught whatever Hannah felt like she was coming down with so I didn't force him to have his picture taken on his b-day. He was fine on Monday night but Tuesday morning he woke up sick. He was tired, warm, and felt like he was getting a sore throat. He still wanted to see the movie so we went but he needed to take a rest on a bench outside a theater before continuing on to our theater. Sad. He wouldn't eat popcorn so you know he's not well. On a side note, seeing a movie at 1:10 on a Tuesday afternoon during school hours is wonderful-except for the sick part. We postponed dinner until he can enjoy it. We probably owe him another cake too. But by Wednesday he felt fine & is back to normal (whatever that is around here). Good thing we went to Knott's in April!

Bye Bye Birdie ~ Night 2

 Hannah's Bio

 There was a Penguins game going on at the same time....

Second show after pictures. As you can see, this was the boys' first show. So if you are unfamiliar with Bye Bye Birdie, here's the plot:

A record producer's (Albert) big star (Conrad Birdie) is about to be drafted into the Army & his long time secretary (Rose) who does everything for him & is tired of waiting for him to propose & threatens to quit. She has a plan to be able to payoff Conrad's $50,000 guarantee AND get Albert to settle down as an English teacher. He just needs to write one last big hit for Conrad to sing before he leaves for the Army AND Conrad will bestow one last kiss on one of his biggest fans (Kim) on the Ed Sullivan Show. Well, Kim just got pinned to Hugo & Hugo is not fond of his girl kissing Conrad. Then there's a lot of fangirls not happy about their beloved Conrad leaving for two years. Yes, there was a lot of screaming in this show. Oh, and Albert's overbearing mother who doesn't like Rose & not happy about losing her sonny boy.  I'll skip to then end & say Albert & Rose do have their happy ending.

Bye Bye Birdie ~ Night 1

Here is the first batch of Bye Bye Birdie pictures (from after the 1st show). The show was fabulous & ranks in my top 3. Honk was always my favorite until Godspell. I think Bye Bye Birdie & Honk are tied for second. Great costumes,terrific voices,teamwork of two casts coming together to pull it off, & sold out performances as well. After this show we went to Culvers with a group of cast mates. More pictures from after the other 3 shows coming up. Staff action pictures will come later.

Robin Hood

 Joshua with King Richard & another friend.

 Hannah & the sheriff's wife.

 Hannah & a friend with the sheriff's wife & Maid Marian.

 Hannah & a friend with the sheriff's wife & daughter and Maid Marian

We went to see friends perform on Robin Hood last week. Here are a few pictures with friends. 

Bye Bye Birdie is almost upon us. I'm caught up on pics now.

Oh, the doves came back and there are 2 babies. We noticed them today.

Knott's Berry Farm Surprise B-day trip for Joshua Day 2

 Snoopy comes to the lobby 3 times per day. These pics are from the hotel lobby on the 2nd morning because my camera's SD card decided to go "bad" the day before as I found out after I asked Snoopy's helper to take our picture. Todd had to swap it out with an extra one he had for the Go Pro and he had the girl take a picture with his phone which is below.

 When we went on the carousel on the 1st day, some one else took the giraffe but he got it on the 2nd try!

 Todd & Hannah about to go on this thing.

 Hannah is on the far right of this pic with Todd next to her, of course.

 Our last ride of the day was on the Sierra Sidewinder.

 Joshua's birthday treats from the Knott's Bakery.

 We bought the treats to go. This pic is at Shakey's because I knew when we ate our desserts at the truck stop later that it would be too dark for pictures. Todd & I shared a piece of chocolate cake & Joshua shared the huge cookie with Hannah.

These are the pictures from Day 2. I don't have as many pictures as I would normally like because almost every ride requires you to leave all purses,backpack,cameras,hats,and all glasses in a cubby hole. That's also why we sometimes have strange looks on our face as we try to smile with the sun in our eyes. So this catches us up on the trip. 

Joshua is still getting a trip to Out of Africa and going to see Captain America Civil War this month. Both of these need to be planned around Oliver rehearsals. We only have about 6 days in May that she doesn't have a rehearsal. She has 8 shows over the first two weekends in June. That's when we have an actual break from all activities. Unless something fun comes up:)

Knott's Berry Farm Day One (Joshua's 13th B-day Surprise)

 On our first day in California, we stopped at Downtown Disney to eat at Jazz Kitchen Express & shop before heading to our Knott's hotel.

 Joshua enjoyed the pool while the rest of us used the hot tub. Todd went in the pool too.

 After lunch,shopping,pool,& dinner, we had Cold Stone for dessert.

 Waiting in line on Monday. Day one of two in the park.

 Goofy boy.

 Todd & Hannah on the Boomerang

 Todd & the kids are at the bottom right. This ride is too fast to get a good shot.

 Joshua on Linus' blanket ride.

Joshua's birthday is May 17th so the only way we thought we could surprise him for his b-day with a trip to California was if we went one month early. It certainly was a surprise! Who expects a surprise trip one month early? The main reason we didn't do it on his b-day was that Hannah has far too many rehearsals for Oliver in May so we went when she didn't have practices. And we figured the weather would only get warmer. April was pretty warm there already. Anyway, he had no clue. April 17th was a Sunday so we all went into his bedroom to wake him up saying "Happy Birthday" at 4:30am. He was very tired but accepted his Snoopy water bottle present with the tickets inside. 

Once we got to California, we went to Downtown Disney to eat & shop. I bought a 60th anniversary puzzle and Mickey food shaped post-it notes. Then we went to the Knott's Berry Farm Hotel to check in,use the pool & hot tub,browse the Knott's Store, have dinner, and have dessert at Cold Stone before getting to bed for our first day in the park. We had bought 2 days for each of us through the base which were slightly cheaper than an annual pass. 

All these pictures are from the first day. Our 2nd day (Tues) we planned on checking out in the morning,going to the park for most of the day,having dinner, and heading home after rush hour traffic. Things didn't go exactly as planned as the hotel fire alarm went off at 1:50 am. And this apparently wasn't the first time that day that it went off. We found out later that a "guest" (aka as an idiot) decided to see what would happen if they pulled the fire alarm. Hotel workers tried to fix it but  a switch inside broke & they'd need the fire dept to fix it so they duct taped it so the alarm would not go off anymore. This happened while we were out & we knew something happened because when we got back to the hotel, an announcement came through speakers in our room that everything was ok & the alarm was false. That was dinner time. 

So what happened many hours later when everyone is sleeping peacefully? Well, that's what dozens of guests wanted to know from the front desk but only one worker (not a manger) was there & one security guard who simply told everyone they'd have to check back in the "morning" & talk to a manager then. The front desk girl was only taking phone calls from angry guests. People were upset. I had actually been sleeping so I was frustrated since I don't sleep well at home let alone in a hotel. We tried to get back to sleep but it was tough after having been jolted awake & not knowing if or when it was going to go off again. So we were slightly tired for day 2. We complained nicely to the manager when we checked out  but all she wanted to offer was either a free breakfast (we already ate) or a late check-out which would do us no good since we just check out & all our stuff was in the van. What good would a late check out do for us when we still had one more day in the park? Were we supposed to go back to sleep & skip our second day? So we were not thrilled with their choices of "fixing" the problem nor could she say what happened or why. So we went to the park when they opened but we were tired by 2pm so we left to beat traffic & stopped at a Shakey's for dinner somewhere a couple hours away. We were home by 9:15ish. 

Todd complained on Trip Advisor & Yelp which did garner the attention of someone higher up the hotel chain of command. Basically that security guard was not informed of the duct tape "fix" & wondered why it was there on his rounds & tore it off. He never owned up to it when people were complaining though. And no one thought bunches of angry guests was worthy of waking a manager up to deal with us all. Todd was nice in his conversation with the higher up manager & we were mailed a certificate for a free night & 4 park tickets for next time. 

More day 2 pics coming up.