On Wednesday my little brother, Bryn, received his call to serve for 2 years as a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the London England South Mission. He is so excited and reports to the Missionary Training Center in England on September 19th. Congratulations Bryn! We're so proud of you!
On Monday and Tuesday this week Max had another show with Scera Youth Theater. Honestly, this one was a little painful, although Max was awesome! I don't mean to sound like a bad parent, but any of you who have sat through kids programs know that they are not always the best. This one definitely fit into that category. The problem was that there were about 200 kids, the show was literally 2 1/2 hours long and Max was in about 3 minutes of it! Until the end... We were surprised when the finale started and Max was the star. Made suffering all night worth it (almost). He had told us he had a little solo, but we were surprised that it was such a big deal. Basically, he came out alone on stage and sang a solo and then little by little all the classes joined in until it was little Max, in his white shirt and bow tie, surrounded by 200 Disney characters. The picture below doesn't do it justice because it's only about half way through the song, by the end there were kids everywhere, up and down the aisles, all around Max. It was an awesome way to end a long night!
One of the really cool things about AHS is Shakespeare week. My kids love it and really look forward to it every year. They especially love dressing up each day and the huge Shakespeare feast! I love that they are being introduced to one of the greatest playwrights of all time and becoming familiar with his works. Each year they focus on a different play and study it as a class as well as seeing the play live a little bit each day. This is great because they don't get overwhelmed or bored and they can really get the story and the characters. Even though I was a theater major the kids know more about these shows than I do, even Abby! This year the play is 'Much Ado About Nothing"... my favorite... and it has been fun to discuss it with them. Abby loves the character Hero and Max likes the comedy.
I had a great Mother's Day this year. It was more of a Mother's Week and a half. First, there was the very relaxing and enjoyable trip to Arizona which included a massage and a day at the spa (Chris' official gift to me). Saturday morning we had Chris' parents over for breakfast and Chris made his super awesome omelets. Then there was Girls Night Out with the Higbee girls, in Tericia's honor, but fun for all of us mom's to get away and pamper ourselves as well. When I got home Saturday night there was a beautiful bouquet of 2 dozen multi colored roses... I love it. Sunday morning the kids gave me gifts they had made at school including coupons (Max is going to babysit and Abby is going to clean all the toilets... woohoo!), we went to church and the kids sang and the young men handed out roses, I got a nap, and then we went to dinner at my dad's (prepared entirely by the men in the family). Max was so funny, all day he kept telling me I shouldn't lift a finger, instructing me to go relax and holding my arm like a gentleman every time we were walking anywhere. What a cute boy! It was an awesome day (week) and I felt very loved and
