Mean Girls

 What a show! Brylliant's spring musical this year was Mean Girls. We knew this would be a fun one. Mia was cast in all four shows as Janis, an artistic girl with a snarky attitude who is one of the outsiders in the school. She's often seen with her best friend, Damian. This musical is one of Lily's favorites, so she auditioned and was cast to be the witty and mentoring math teacher, Ms. Norbury, in two of the shows. She was also an ensemble performer in all four shows. I loved being able to watch them both perform in the same show!

The show begins with Janis and Damian singing "A Cautionary Tale" about corruption and betrayal and being hit by a bus (they confirm no one dies after being hit by a bus). Ah, the things high school girls will do to be popular.

We are soon introduced to Caty, a new girl who has moved from Africa. She knows all about the jungles where animals lives, but now it's time to learn about the jungle of high school. Caty was played by Lily's long-time friend Avery for two of the shows. She starts out in math class, a subject she is quite good at, and meets Ms. Norbury. 

Soon she meets Janis and Damian who warn her about "The Plastics," a group of three girls who rule the school. The Plastics start to welcome Caty into their group which makes Janis angry. The leader of The Plastics, Regina George, was at one time Janis' best friend. Janis devised a plan to have Caty infiltrate their group to learn all about them.

Caty meets and falls for Aaron Samuels while in Ms. Norbury's class. Unbeknownst to her, he's the ex-boyfriend of Regina.

A Halloween party comes up and everyone, except Cady, comes dressed in a sexy costume. Lily (as ensemble, not as the teacher!) dances as "sexy shark" in this one.

Small break from the show, but I had to put this in. Lauren came to watch one evening. She sat in the front row with other friends, and as this song was playing, she held this sign right in front of her. No one in the audience could see it, but Lily could. I'm impressed she didn't start laughing when she realized it said "That's My Sexy Shark!" I love good friends like Lauren!

Back to the show. Caty had dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein for the party. That's where she sees her supposed friend, Regina, kiss Aaron right in front of her. At this betrayal, she decides to go along with Janis' plan to bring down The Plastics through sabotage. It's time for a Revenge Party as you can see here: https://youtu.be/nx33WGbOyBA

 

Caty is also trying to win over Aaron. She pretends to be dumb so Aaron can tutor her. Ms. Norbury is on to the plan, and she does not like it.

The plan seems to be working as Regina seems to be losing some of her power. At one point, Caty has to stand up to Regina, and she does. This leads to a great song called "Fearless." Since this takes place in a crowded school cafeteria, almost the whole cast was in this particular song. It was so fun to have one scene where Mia and Lily (in ensamble) on stage dancing together!

Soon though, Caty fully immerses herself as a Plastic and even steps in as their leader. She still talks with Janis and Damian but in a completely different way.

This leads to a fun song called "Stop" where everyone is encouraged to just stop for a minute to think about it before doing something stupid, like continuing to text a boy who isn't responding or pretending to be stupid at math (hint hint Caty). Ensemble Lily gets to perform in a very fun tap routine for this.

A house party at Caty's comes up, and all the kids had fun dancing with this one.

Janis isn't at the party though because she was at her art show. She had invited Caty who lied about being out of town and instead threw the party. Janis of course finds out about it and confronts her. Mia did a fantastic job of conveying the hurt and anger Janis feels here. You can see the scene here: https://youtu.be/kqq4fDOQIZY

It come to light that there's a "burn book" filled with awful things about lots of individuals. It even says Ms. Norbury is a drug pusher. Pages are flung all over the stage as the book is shared with others. Caty is framed as the author even though it was Regina. 

This outburst forces the principle to call a meeting for all the girls (and Damian) which Ms. Norbury ends up leading. She wants to help them see that all the girls have been mean to one another. See how she leads here: https://youtu.be/YZq4tYU4hdo

She is the first to perform a trust fall and others begin to follow as they begin to confess and apologize.

Janis finally gets up and says she needs to apologize to herself because she's been burned twice by good friends. She then has a fantastic song called "I'd Rather Be Me" where she reveals her secret strategy to deal with this is to raise her right finger and solemnly swear not to care because "I'd rather be me than be with you." This might have been my favorite performance of the night. This can be viewed at https://youtu.be/uzNVMD4FMeA

Caty is suspended after she admits that she lies, and Ms. Norbury is restored to her teaching job. Ms. Norbury says she'll let Caty make it up to her by competing as a mathlete in the upcoming math competition.

Caty ends up winning the competition for her team as she sings "Do This Thing" with Ms. Norbury and team.

Caty leaves the math competition and arrives at school to find out she's won homecoming queen. As she stands on the podium in front of everyone, she leads a song called "I See Stars" which wraps up the show with a final dance scene. Watch the finale here: https://youtu.be/CaXp3kVEawY

All the leads come together as the show is close to ending.

During this song, the cast comes together for a selfie as part of the song. Liam took it each evening; I love this one!

Time for bows after a fantastic show!

Way to go Ms. Norbury! You led your students well!

You're awesome Janis! Never change!

I'm so incredibly proud of these two girls. What a fun weekend watching them perform!

Logic School Graduation - Mia

It's hard to believe that Mia has now completed the second phase of the Trivium at Stonehaven! The school held a lovely convocation service for the 9th graders as they are finishing with the Logic School and moving into the Rhetoric School, the third and final phase of the Trivium. 

All the students sat at the front of the stage while their families were spread out around the room. We enjoyed a delicious dinner together, and the ceremony began. In the weeks leading up to this, the teachers decide on which virtue exemplifies the student now and can challenge them to grow in the coming years. Then, during the ceremony, a teacher will get up to explain the word, describe the student, and then finally reveal who the student is. The virtue is written into a stone, and after the ceremony, the stone is put into a box which the student will receive again at graduation. It's a big surprise on which teacher will present each student and what the word will be. It seemed all the boys were hoping Ryan would be the one to present them, but he was only given one (there's a lot of teachers who want to take part in this!). He was thankful that he was able to present the word Prudence to Carson Hoffman, and he gave such a thoughtful speech to him.

We were thrilled that Susan Corely was chosen to present Mia with her word: Brave. Susan wrote the most beautiful speech for Mia. She noted how Mia is already brave with her ability to get in front of so many and act. She reminded her to continue to stand up for what she believes in, much like Enid Hoops and Janis do (two characters Mia has played), and encouraged her to remember Psalm 56:3-4. She reminded Mia that like Patrice (another character she's played) and Beetlejuice (one she loves), she is unique, and it can take bravery to be unique but to rely on Romans 12:2 and call on Isaiah 41:10. She noted that bravery makes her think of Queen Esther who bravely confronted the King with a huge request after prayerfully seeking the Lord and wise counsel. I was tearing up as it was such a heartfelt and wonderful presentation.

Mia and classmates gather for a picture together after the ceremony; Mia is on stage, just above the "of." We pray that this class can continue to grow their friendships and enjoy these last few years in the Rhetoric School together.

We are so proud of our brave Mia!

End of Spring

 Wow, these last six weeks have flown by! I didn't even make an April post. Work was unbelievably hectic until the 15th. Then we took a few days off to rest up, and then there's just been things taking my attention. Good things for sure though. So, here we have all of April and a lot of May.

Lily found out a few months ago that one of her most favorite actresses was staring in Hadestown on Broadway. Ryan and I came up with a fantastic idea: he would take her to NYC for a day trip over spring break! Mia was going to be in drivers ed all week, and I was going to be working a ton; they didn't have much of anything going on during the week. She was over the moon excited! They had fun thinking of all the cool things they could do on their daytrip. A few weeks before the trip, Lily found out the actress was only cast in this for a month or so then she was returning to filming her show. Unfortunately, her run was over before their trip. Talk about disappointing! They knew the trip would be fun even still, so on a very early Wednesday morning of spring break, off they went!

They were able to snag a table for two at the famous Stardust Diner. This is known as a restaurant where actors and actresses waiting for their big shot on Broadway work. They break into song throughout the meal. How cool! Lily got caught with someone singing literally right behind her!

We were able to get them really awesome front row seats for the show. The actors could practically spit on them!

They had some time to walk around Times Square and go in a couple of shops. It was cold and rainy the whole time, but these two can always have a fun time together, rain or shine.

They even managed to sneak in a slice of pizza!

This was such a fun day for the two of them, and I know they made lifelong memories on it. Some of the memories though weren't quite as fun (at the time - they're better now!). The rain started to turn into a storm as it got later in the day. After they got to the airport for the flight home, flights started getting cancelled due to weather. They were on a Delta flight, and we knew that Atlanta-based crew wanted to get home, so we were hopeful their flight wouldn't get cancelled. It was delayed once, then twice, then a third time. They were absolutely exhausted at this point and thought they were going to have to sleep on the floor at the airport. Not a good feeling. Thankfully, two seats opened up on a flight that was leaving, and Ryan was able to snag them. They had to book it to another terminal, but they made it! So, about 5 hours after they were originally supposed to leave, they finally headed out. They landed in Atlanta about 3am the next morning. Luckily, they were able to take Thursday to rest and relax from their adventure.

I decided to stay home for the evening after picking Mia up from drivers ed on the day they were in NYC, so she and I could hang out some. We went to dinner at Miyako which is always a treat.

On Friday of Spring Break, Ryan and Lily drove over to Birmingham. They picked up Bama, and all went to a Samford volleyball match together. Yay for Samford coming out on top of UAB! After this they treated Bama to an early birthday dinner at Perry's which they said was delicious. On Saturday morning, Ryan and Lily headed back to Samford for Junior Day. This is a chance for high school juniors to get to know Samford better. I'm pretty sure that this solidified Lily's decision on a college!

On April 8, there was a total solar eclipse! GA was going to receive a little more than 80% totality of the eclipse. Schools let out early (a little unnecessary if you ask me), so Ryan and the girls were home. They donned their special eclipse glasses and enjoyed seeing this from our back deck. I had a pair of the special glasses at the office, so the ladies and I took a little break to go outside and pass them around, so we too could see what all the fuss was about. Not the coolest thing I've seen, but it was neat for sure.

We love happy Decker!

Mia had the chance to go with Brylliant to see Shrek: Reimagined at The Fox. They put this together since their group performed Shrek Jr back in December and at JTF in January. The next night, Ryan and Lily took our friends Adam and Samantha Raeburn since neither Mia nor I were able to go. The consensus all around was unfortunately the show wasn't very good but it was fun to be with friends both nights. A night at The Fox is always going to be fun.

Ryan took the 11th graders to the Bible Museum down in Lagrange on a field trip. They had a great time!

Our small group held a 20's murder mystery dinner party one evening, and it was so much fun! We dressed up according to our roles and had fun figuring out the murderer throughout the evening. Who knew Lindsey had it in her to (pretend) murder the theater owner?!

The weekend after tax season ended was Secret Church. David Platt teaches this each year, and we love it. This year he walked through the book of Ruth verse by verse. He is a gifted teacher, and we always love learning more about God from his teachings. We were happy that Jeff and Ali Pennington were able to join us as well. They are such sweet friends of ours, and we always enjoy time together. This was a great evening.

Our family was excited to celebrate the end of tax season with an amazingly delicious steak dinner at Marcel's. It is always a fantastic experience. Ryan and Mia were happy to order the Baked Alaska dessert which resulted in this fun fire display right at the table.

Six was the next show at The Fox at the end of April. We three ladies love this show! Ryan's seen it a couple of times already, and while he enjoys it, he was okay passing on this go-round. I was happy to invite Samantha Raeburn to join us. She had never seen this show before, so we knew she'd enjoy this. It's fun to share these experiences with friends, and this time, it was so much better than Shrek!

Stonehaven's annual Saltere was in early May. My girls look so beautiful all dressed up!

We loved having Paige Pennington come over to hang our and ride with Mia; she's such a great friend!

Lily met up with a lot of her friends on the Square for a photo shoot beforehand. She was able to snag a few more pictures once she actually got to the school too.

We had a gorgeous Mother's Day in mid-May! After church, our family drove over to Marietta Country Club to have lunch with my parents and Wayne. I am more than happy to get to celebrate my mom on this day. She's the best, and I am so thankful for her.

After lunch we were happy to go Lauren and Kate's graduation party for a little bit. So many of Lily's closest friends are seniors, so we have had a parade of parties this spring. It's both so much fun to celebrate these wonderful graduates, but we know we will miss them terribly next fall.

We dropped the girls off at home and turned around to pick up Ethan and Amanda Evans. We were excited to have them join us for To Kill A Mockingbird at The Fox. It was indescribably good. The whole cast was amazing, but Richard Thomas as Atticus was fantastic. It was really fun to know too that the neighbor in the play, Mrs. Dubose, was played by the actress who played Scout in the original movie (Mary Badham). We all left in awe of this ageless play. It was a great way to end my Mother's Day.

Mrs. Myrick led the Stonehaven choir to victory at a recent competition. We saw the video from it, and they were fantastic! Lily had a lot of fun with this group.

I don't know why in the world Decker chose to sit like this out front for about 10 minutes one beautiful afternoon, but it was cracking me up.

Lily and Peter Smit have been getting to know one another since mock trial earlier this year. He came with Lauren and other friends to one of the Mean Girls performances (that has its completely own post). Afterwards, Lily met him in the lobby where he gave her a beautiful bouquet of flowers that asked her to be his girlfriend on them. It was super sweet! She said yes, and we all look forward to getting to know this great guy better.

Look at this adorable little Crestridge bear stuffmellow Lily got!

Ryan has made such a wonderful connection with the boys he teaches in 9th grade Bible. He taught them in 8th and 9th though of course we've known many of them for years since they are Mia's classmates. The boys finish Ryan's three year survey of the Bible in 9th grade, so they will not have him next year. So, at the end of this school year, they presented him with a Bible. They wrote him the most precious note in the front, and then they filled the margins throughout with notes and inside jokes. This has already become a treasure to him. Ryan's already looking forward to having these boys again (plus the girls!) in 11th grade for Systematic Theology!

It's been a wonderful Spring!