Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Rockin' Tale of Snow White


Once upon a time, otherwise known as this summer, Samuel and Thomas were in a community musical of Snow White.  Because we're kin or like-kin to nearly half the town, it turned into a major family project.  My aunt directed, my grandparents designed some the scenery, two of my cousins were in the cast, and another was in the crew with George and myself.

We all had a great time making friends, rehearsing, and performing to a packed house (I love the small-town support--it felt like everyone turned out to cheer on the cast).


The cousinhood before the big night--a flower, a raccoon, a dwarf villager, and Prince Charming.  They had a great time hanging out in the theater basement with the other cast members.


Snow White had all the traditional characters...


...and some not-so-traditional ones.


George and I worked backstage with the crew.  He carried children, talked with other crew members through the headset, and moved sets.  I comforted the kids who had stage fright,  made sure all the props/children were in the right place at the right time, moved sets--and got trapped behind one of the castle walls when the lights came on too soon.

I have yet to learn how to take a decent selfie
We both corralled kids backstage (FYI, you cannot play hide and seek in the curtains; the audience will see you) and answered their questions (no, Samuel and Thomas are not my children; yes, you can borrow my script to look over your lines; no, George and I are not twins, etc. upon etc.).  I came home exhausted from rehearsals, but I loved (almost) every minute of it.


Thomas: Oh!  Look at Snow White!

A couple of the cast and I made the queen's chains with glow sticks :)
Samuel: Grab that evil woman and put her in chains!

"And they all lived...


...happily ever after."

The End
Posted by Joy

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Once again...the National Bible Bee Game Show!

Delie with a couple of her fellow semi-finalists, Elissa and Alex

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Delie's episode on the National Bible Bee Game Show.  Much to our delight, she advanced to the semi-final round of the show!  Thanks to God's providence in Daddy's teaching schedule and some NBBGS-provided travel money, our whole family went to San Antonio for a week of filming and hanging around the hotel with the other contestants and their families.  Late night times of worship, basketball and ultimate frisbee, impromptu square dancing, long conversations, games galore...it's no wonder that many of us look back on it as one of the best weeks of our lives.

All this to say, Delie's next game show episode will air THIS Wednesday (tonight) at 4:30 CST on the NRB network (you can watch it online here).  If you can't catch it tonight, there will be a rerun on Saturday at 8:30 CST.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

George's 13th Birthday

Summer.  It just whizzed by, but it was wonderful while it lasted.  Life here has been busy.  I hope to post about many of the things that have filled our time, but for now here's a peek at our trip to the Spring River earlier this month.

This summer George turned thirteen.  According to Moss tradition, he got to plan a small trip to celebrate, and, after much deliberation (I'm still basking in relief that he didn't choose an overnight backpacking trip or a twenty-mile bike ride) he asked if we could camp by the Spring River.  Daddy camped there quite a bit as a teenager--even Mommy went once when they were dating--and it looks like we're going to continue the tradition.


Our campsite was right by the river, so we (especially the boys) spent a lot of time in it.  It was simply terrible, if terrible means clear water, little waterfalls, islands to explore, and streams.

Uh, Joy, I think you meant "terrific". 

Oh, right.  The summer heat has fried my brains and then dusted them with sugar.  And because of that, I have no idea why I just compared my cranium to a doughnut.

Moving on.


Samuel and Thomas--these boys practically lived in their suits the entire trip.  Problem was, they didn't sleep in them at night.

Like our last night there.

When we made the all-important discovery that our tent leaked.

More on that later.


Mommy and James
However, all that was in the future on our first night, so we enjoyed the sun while it shone, played by (and in) the river, talked around the fire, and ate lots of deliciousness.

William
Emphasis on deliciousness.  S'mores, loaded potatoes, and bread, oh my.


The next day most of us rafted the river.  With some of us under the impression that we should stop for a snack every mile or so, others firmly believing that we should take the roughest rapids possible, and others jumping overboard every chance they got...let's just say that the trip wasn't boring.

Poor John-John was too young and had to stay with Mommy.  Talk about devastation, calamity, grief. 


Apparently, he got over his disappointment quite quickly.  Ice cream tends to have that affect on me, too.

Hah.


And...we're at the finish line!


While we were all (mostly) wet, we tried out the rope swings at the campground.  Slightly scary, very cold, and very cold--but fun.  And cold.

Where I got the idea that August was hot, I don't know, but I sure didn't get it from the river.

John-John
We spent the evening hanging around the campsite, playing in the river, and drying off from our long day.  We spent the night discovering that our tent leaks.  Badly.  Quite memorable, but sometimes I think I could do without those kind of memories.  I can just see us in forty years: "Do you remember that time we camped at Spring River and the tent leaked?" And the story will grow and grow until we start saying that our tent floated off down river until we woke up and paddled back to shore...no, we were picked up by a barge and when we got on board the crew started to dance a sailor's hornpipe...and then we met the President and were given a special award for courage in the face of danger...  

So in the morning (after we saw that all the other campers had left except for the ones in the RV) we packed up our gear and our crew and headed for the drier regions of home.

As cliche as it sounds, there is really no place like home.  Eggs coming out of our ears, Bible Bee study all over the house, music, homeschool starting up again for all but me (cue Pomp and Circumstance), practicing for an upcoming community play..it's our life and it's a taste of what I hope to blog about over the next month.

Hey, but if our blog has another unexplained period of silence, just know that we're in the business of making memories rather than recording them.

Joy 

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Bible Bee Game Show!


Back in October, our family was part of the National Bible Bee in Orlando (you can read a recap on that here).  It was an amazing week of fellowship and celebration of God's word and my recap was extremely wordy because, well, a few words can't do it justice.  However, there was one part of Nationals that I had to keep under wraps because of confidentiality agreements...

The National Bible Bee Game Show!

Delie, Samuel, and Thomas were chosen to compete in the preliminary rounds that were filmed during Nationals.  And now, after months of anticipation, the Game Show is airing!  Samuel and Thomas were already on in June (apologies for not posting about this sooner) but Delie will be airing tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4:30 pm CST on the NRB network.  If you don't have DIRECTV you can watch it online here.

Enjoy!

Joy

P.S.  If you miss it on Wednesday, the show will air again on Saturday at 8:30 am CST. 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Happy Father's Day!


Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the world!

We love you!

Hugs and kisses,
Joy, Delie, Anna, George, Samuel, Thomas, William, James, and John