Starring Delia!

Okay!  Finally the post that forced me to get caught up on the blog!

Last year our school changed the format of our 4th/5th grade performance a bit.  Instead of casting a play with just a few big parts, they now do more of program that allows every student to do a little something.  So, though she did have a speaking part, solo, and dance number, Delia was in no way the actual star.  The title of this post reflects what was in her mind! :)  You see, this little performer of ours has been auditioning for her big moment on the stage for the past 10 years of her life.  Her resume includes probably 200 living room performances-- everything from the dramatic, to dance, to comedy, to musical.   This program will be the highlight of her 5th grade year.  She's been talking about it for the past 2 months and we were thrilled to finally see every single one of the details she's been sharing with us unfold in real life tonight!  One of those many details being the map of the auditorium Delia kindly drew me, with a big circle around the seats she thought we'd enjoy the best view of her from. :)

Their program was called Go West! and featured a series of songs and speakers explaining the many reasons (gold, railroads, etc.) that settlers moved to and stayed on our lovely West Coast. 

  

 Singing her heart out.

 Singing her solo!

 Her favorite part: the dance number to "Steamboatin'"  The costume changes may have been the best part of this whole thing for Delia.  How she loved her fringy flapper girl and silky blue towns-person dresses!

This cracked us up.  While other kids recited lines and acted out a race scene, Delia just stood in the very front center of the stage smiling.  I kept expecting her to say something or sing, but she never did!  When I asked her about it, her reply was "Oh, I just wanted to be in Scene 5, so I asked my teacher if I could be a decoration and she said, 'Okay'"!

There are a million reasons we LOVE Delia's teacher this year and here is one of them.  Before she came back to teaching, she was a professional photographer.  Yesterday, after the dress rehearsal, she took all these darling posed pictures of the kids and then gave us the code to download them off her photography website!  You can imagine how thoughtful and awesome a picture nut like me finds this to be!!

   

A little after the curtain call fun with Delia's BFF-- serous and silly pictures.

I've written before about how amazing it is watching your kids surprise you by doing things you could and would never do.  It makes me smile huge seeing yet another daughter following in her dad's stage-loving path.  Though Delia did not do any more than any other kid tonight, there was something in her, an exuberance, that did have her shining on that stage.  And many others noticed it and complimented us on it afterwards too.  I love seeing her do something she loves so much and hearing the joy it brings to others as well.