Behind the Scenes

All the audience ever sees is the spectacle-- the costumes, the lights, the singing, dancing, and acting.  But you don't get that without the months, weeks, days, and HOURS of time spent together polishing and perfecting.  This is where the heart of drama lies, in the authentic relationships built as you are, ironically, pretending to be someone else.  This cast was called "one of the sweetest casts ever, so encouraging and helpful to one another!" and "Practically perfect!" by their director.  

 

Selfies!

Though not the lead of the play, Delia has always played a leadership role in her casts, especially ones with younger actors.  Nothing could make us prouder than hearing about how she uses her encouraging spirit to make everyone feel welcome and appreciated.

Gettin' their hair done.

Some fun with the Supercalifragalistic blocks.  I guess they spelled something silly, that the audience couldn't see, with these prop blocks every night.

Bird Woman, Mrs. Banks, Jane, Mary and the Spoon pausing to pose.

Chimney Sweep huddle.

Feeling dapper in the Jolly Holiday costumes.

And the traditional after-show stage pictures.  We're proud, happy Drama Parents!

Delia loved our post show gift-- a bag of candy with spoons taped all over it.  Get it?  A spoonful of sugar...

The Juniors on cast.

Lots of little fans came to see the play!  Delia enjoyed chatting and taking pics with all her little church buddies afterward.  Jade has always had a special place in Delia's heart.

With some best friends.  Above, Natalie and Laura.  Below, with Bella, who played the evil nanny to hilarious perfection.  She was one of my favorites!

Good pal Nich (Bert), who Delia has now shared numerous shows with!  You may recognize him as Mr. Darcy. He's a big talent!

This trio of BFFs is always up for a goofy pose.  This time they made us moms recreate it.  We nailed it.  Haha!

And a sweet one too.  Love when our kids' friends bring friends in to our life too.  This has become a very dear group-- texting regularly, sharing rides and homes for our kids to hang at, making meals, and even worshipping together!

Mary Poppins!

This weekend Mary Poppins, the show Delia has dedicated all her after-schools, Saturdays, and days off to rehearsing culminated in 4 wonderful, audience-delighting performances!  It's always a thrill to see these productions come together and this one was no exception.  Ella's class brought a lot of talent and star power to our drama program.  It was hard to imagine a show without her dozen friends leading the cast and running the tech.  But, this younger cast stepped up and delivered!  When Mary Poppins was announced last year, Delia knew right away she wanted to be in the ensemble-- not missing the chance to sing and dance in any of the big, iconic numbers.  Though she read for bigger parts at the audition, she was thrilled to learn she got exactly what she wanted!  Jolly Holiday, Feed the Birds, Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Step in Time, and Let's Go Fly a Kite are all now on her acting resume!  And she even scored a cute little extra role as the Spoon!  Since this cast was lot more inexperienced, the process was not without its moments of stress at practices, but it came together for performance weekend, as it always does. Here are a few of the 200 pictures our photographer graciously shares with us (I picked the ones with a Delia-focus ;).

 

We meet the dysfunctional Banks family.  Actual kids were cast as Jane and Michael and they were phenomenal!  Fun fact: the boy playing Michael was once one of my favorite preschool students! :)

After a sweet plea for a nanny who plays games and gives sweets, Mary Poppins flies into their lives.  The kids quickly learn that she's "tricky" and regular things like a walk in the park can turn into a magical Jolly Holiday fast.    

Delia's big moment!  Actual dancing spoons brought a new "element of fun" to the song Spoonful of Sugar!

In my opinion, the best sounding, but most underrated, song was Feed the Birds, a whole cast number that blended every voice in its haunting tune.  Featuring Delia's best friend Tessa as the Bird Woman!

The magic continues as Mary Poppins teaches everyone a fun new word.  With its high energy and most challenging choreography, this song was the big before-intermission show stopper.

The stage version of Mary Poppins is slightly different.  Mary Poppins leaves for a while and is replaced by an evil nanny.  But after a bit of a nanny show-down, we're back in familiar territory on the rooftops of London for the crowd-favorite Step in Time.  Delia was a lead dancer in this one with a solo.  It was her favorite.  Her good friend Nich, who plays Bert, is also an acrobat and stunned with a series of across-the-stage flips and tricks each night.

"What's all this?  Step in Time!  What's all this?  Step in Time!"  The Banks home is inundated with a crowd of dancing chimney sweeps.

The broken family (and kite!) is mended after a tense scene at the bank and it's time to Go Fly a Kite!

In this version, as Mary Poppins leaves she sings the line (to the tune of Spoonful of Sugar) "In every job you must complete, there is a sense of bittersweet.  The moment when you know the task is done..."  It's wistful and nostalgic and perfectly sums up the feelings that always accompany a final curtain call.  We're thankful for these opportunities to use gifts, make friends, and accomplish something so wonderful with team and hard work.  And we're always happy to get a piece of our lives back as the busyness settles.  But it's invariably a bit sad that it's over too.

An Update from College

Since the #1 conversation Dave, Delia and I have with people lately is "How Ella is Doing", thought I'd write a post with some of the pictures she sends me so you all could see how she is thriving and living her best life!  First, this is not a surprise.  We've always known that Ella was built for college.  She does her best work when challenged.  She's always been good at making new friends.  And we weren't too worried about her being homesick, since she was away from home with a busy schedule for much of her high school years.  One thing we have all found and love is that absence from her family does seem to have made her heart grow fonder.  We text every day.  We FaceTime on Sundays.  She usually talks to Dave on the phone (he likes that ;) once a week.  She's been very good at sending pictures of her new friends and fun activities, so we feel very in the loop.  This weekend we had a text thread so hilarious, I laughed so hard I cried!  This new phase of our relationship with Ella has had such a neat intentionality to it, we've been really enjoying it!  We'll get to see her at the end of October for Family Weekend (Delia will even stay in the dorm with Ella and her friends!), and we're so excited to see her in person!

Ella's schedule is major.  She's taking maximum credit hours.  One of her classes is 7:30 am three times a week.  One is a night class.  Two of her classes, chemistry and biology, each come with 4 hour labs every week.  She does spend a lot of time studying.  But she's keeping A's in almost all her classes!  She's finding chemistry to be her hardest, but most interesting.  She's more average in that class, which is something new, and that makes her question if she's on the right career path.  She may want something medical that's not necessarily pre-med, something with all the anatomy/physiology she loves, but less chemistry.  

We find this so delightful.  One of Ella's new best friends is Ava, HER APPARENT TWIN!! These two have been having lots of fun confusing everyone in their dorm this first month.  They say they plan to swap outfits and go to each other's classes and see if anyone will notice!  Haha!  (Mask because Ella's roommate tested positive for Covid in the first week and she had to mask up for a few days.)  Ella's roommate has been someone she can live with comfortably and compatibly.  They do cute things like make dinner together one night a week.  But, the roommate is local and goes home every Thursday to Sunday, leaving Ella the room to herself, and forcing Ella to find her people in other places. 

Which she has had no trouble doing!  One of my favorite new memories was a night we were Face Timing Ella and her new crowd of friends came into her room, popping in our call to say, "Hi Mr. and Mrs VM!! We LOVE your daughter!!!" Above is a picture from Nation Ball night.  At my college, we had Chaos Day, and this is Ella's version of that-- an epic night of dorm competition.  Her dorm is coed for the first time in its history, so it was the first year they did not get creamed! ;)  They actually came in second place and Ella said the night was so fun.   Her current favorite thing about life is the Swing Dance Club she and her friends joined and do every Friday night!

Above and below is another one of Ella's new best friends, Tori.  They spent a Saturday serving the church they have been attending.  This made us laugh.  Their church is a Baptist church and the job they were assigned was to scrub out the dusty baptismal tank!  Ella was like, "You know this job would be so much easier if you just used a bowl!"  LA's weather gives them a cool marine layer each morning, so Ella loves being not so hot and busting out all the fun fall sweaters well before we usually wear them.  I guess she and Tori looked cute one morning, so their RA made them pose.

Ella is already dreaming about her exciting future and how her gifts will be best used in summer's valuable free time.  She's exploring going to 6 week EMT school, or being a counselor at Mount Hermon, or this-- the internship at JPL that our tour guide sold so hard!  Her research seemed to indicate that the NASA application might have been made for her.  We'll see where the Lord leads!

And one last picture of one of our many fun Face Times!  We so look forward to this weekly time to catch up and laugh together about the week's random things like emotional support cats, quinoa hate, Dave accidentally sending his exegetical commentary Amazon orders to Ella, stump removal, moldy rug adventures, cute boys in the dorm, and skeleton unboxing.  We miss her, of course, but we know how settled and happy she is in this perfect-for-her new home and that makes us all say, "We're doing great!" when we get daily asked how we're surviving.  

In the Lord's Hands

When Move In Day came, we were nothing but excited!  All year, Ella's been receiving the cutest gifts for her dorm room.  She couldn't wait to meet her roommate in person and start getting it all set up!  The move in process was so organized and easy!  Ella was given a time slot to arrive.  Being a 3rd (top) floor room, she was in one of the first morning slots.  Every athlete at the school made themselves available for Move In Day.  Groups of kids in Softball, Golf, Cross Country and Water Polo shirts immediately greeted our car and whisked all her stuff up to the room in a matter of minutes!  

Ella and Elizabeth met on a roommate finder app that matched them based on compatibility.  They've been talking almost daily for months.  Ella is optimistic that they will live together comfortably, even if they don't end up being best friends.  Elizabeth is local and in a week has already spent a good amount of time at home.  But, Ella doesn't mind; she's found a wonderful core group of girlfriends on her floor so she's definitely not lonely.

Unloading all the tubs and making her space cozy was a highlight.  Some of Ella's favorite things are her string lights, industrial desk lamp, privacy curtains, saucer chair, and artwork featuring the patents of rock climbing gear.  Much of this a gift from you, Reader, so thanks! :) 

The girls lofted their beds to create their own studying and sleeping areas.  But the picture above shows only HALF the room!  The other side is their wardrobes (which are huge; Ella has empty drawers!) on the wall with the door and then a sitting area by Elizabeth's bed and a bookcase/kitchen space by Ella's bed.  The table in the middle is for puzzles and games and dorm-cooked meals.

Ella loves her fluffy bed too!  She picked out the softest bedding and filled it with fun pillows.  Since this picture, posters of colorful wildflowers have been added to her sleeping area.

After a morning of settling in, we all had lunch in the cafeteria with Elizabeth.  This is not the crappy college cafeterias Dave and I endured!  Ella gets to enjoy legit chefs who cook delicious meals from local, sustainable ingredients.  She will have the option every day of 6 stations including Home Cookin' (meat and potatoes type food), Chef's Table (fresh), the Pizzeria, 6th Street Cafe (burgers, tacos, etc), or The Garden (amazing salad and sandwich bar).  DOLE WHIP in the soft serve machine is another SoCal perk!  As is half the Caf seating being lovely, outdoor patio seats!

Our dinner the first night was catered by Chick Fil A and with the School of Science that Ella will be a part of.  Through her Zeemee app (the same one that connected her and her roommate), she's been meeting and texting lots of new friends, including fellow Biology and Biochemistry majors.  On this night, she was able to meet some of these friends in person.  We loved sharing dinner with them and their families.  Conversation was easy with these new people who felt so familiar, they too have dedicated themselves to raising kids who love learning and love the Lord.  

All summer, Ella had a faculty member praying and fasting for her by name. The trees around campus were draped with these prayers and blessings written by the staff for the students!

Ella's dorm is going to be a super fun place to live!  Besides having huge rooms, it also has an energetic vibe!  It's a coed, all-freshman dorm, so everyone was raring to meet new friends and start building community.  At a special regional breakfast, we met other families from the Central Valley. I connected with one mom in particular whose son went to one of our rival Christian schools and also lives in Ella's dorm.  We spent the day together, attending all the parent seminars and hugging and crying by the end of it.  We've exchanged numbers and have already texted a bunch.  This is the new community Ella's college has gifted us-- the warmest, kindest people, open to sharing their faith stories, dreams, and fears; making the bond strong even when the time together has been short.

The thing I appreciated most about these 2 days was how the school acknowledged all our feelings about this monumental change in our family and lives and worked hard to connect and equip us.  We went to all different sessions about things like campus safety or how to help our student succeed academically, emotionally and spiritually.  I now know how the college will protect and support Ella in possibly every circumstance-- from an earthquake to feelings of failure and anxiety when she gets her first B in a class. ;)  The best thing the school did, though, was cover the whole experience in prayer and worship.  Both nights of orientation we all came together on the lawn to sing and hear encouragement from speakers.  It was all so Christ-centered!  

We all knew exactly when goodbye would be too, a luxury another friend has since told me we should totally appreciate.  After a powerful worship service, the school encouraged each family to share a prayer and communion time together.  As we clung to one another, tears streaming down our faces,  Dave led the 4 of us through the most beautiful communion service, then prayed an amazing blessing over Ella.  We'll remember this special time forever.  Long, teary goodbye hugs followed.

We walked with Ella back to the middle of campus and parted ways at the giant painting of Jesus that we always thought was kind of funny.  But as I took a last look back at Ella, I loved the image of her walking away into Jesus' outstretched arms.  That's what this whole season has been about really.  Sending Ella away to this expensive school has always been a step of faith for our family.  She's felt such surety in her calling here.  Over and over we were affirmed that this is exactly where the Lord wants her and it's into His hands that we entrust her, having seen His hand in every part of the process.  

We drove back to our hotel, feeling sad and spent a few minutes sitting there in a kind of dazed numbness until we had the impulsive idea to make a 10:30 pm run to Downtown Disney!  We were there in a matter of minutes and cheered ourselves up with the magic of Disney, plus this decadent chocolate milkshake from Crazy Shake, and some fantastic exhausted-guests-leaving-Disneyland-at-midnight people watching.  It was yet another perfect core memory with our new family trio!

On Saturday our 4 days of family fun in LA came to a close as we made our way back home again-- with one last little stop at an iconic LA spot for our donut-loving youngest.  This was all one week ago and I can report that since goodbye, there have been no more tears!  God has given us such peace and happiness for Ella!  We text with her every day and have talked on the phone twice.  She sends pictures of her friends viewing the super moon on top of their parking garage, or of her delicious lunch, or updates on her classes (which she loves!), or all the fun floor dinners, movie nights, coffee dates, and rollerblading parties she's having.  We know she's in a bit of a honeymoon phase right now, but she's thriving as we knew she would!

A Wednesday Packed with Fun!

After our JPL tour, we just stayed on the north side of LA knocking out some fun dorm shopping at the "Big 3" (Costco, Target and IKEA) and meeting Anna and Derek for dinner!

The next day we reunited with Anna and Derek again on the south side of LA to show them around Ella's new digs.  We found a Portillos right by Ella's school!  These Chicagoans were so excited!  So, now when we make the trek down to see Ella, I have a roast beef and cheddar croissant to look forward to also! ;)  We think it's funny that our California girls will probably now learn to associate this iconic Chicago establishment more with LA than its city of origin!

Security is tight at Ella's school, which we do love.  When we explained to the officer at the gate that she was a student moving in the next day, they let us in to take a walking tour of the beautiful campus with Anna and Derek.  It was so fun to show them around and continue to get excited as we explored Ella's new home!

Anna and Derek guided us to the 2 nearest beaches-- Seal Beach and the famous Huntington Beach, both just a short drive away!  We know lots of students from Ella's school spend their Saturdays at the beach.  One of the many things that will have Ella living her best life in college, we predict!  

We bid farewell to Anna and Derek (an easy thing to do when we know we'll be seeing them multiple times this year!) and got ready for the night's big outing!  We love this goofy show called The Goes Wrong Show, where the premise is anything that can go wrong in a play performance hilariously does. I follow Mischief Comedy on social media and saw that their Broadway Peter Pan Goes Wrong show was moving to LA, perfectly timed with our visit, and I grabbed tickets immediately.  Again, being a regular reader of this blog, you probably know and love this show as much as we do! ;)

So many funny signs to take pictures by!  One our favorite parts of seeing this play was enjoying the original cast!  We've come to know and love Chris, Robert, Dennis, Max, Trevor, and Annie so well, we are super fans!  Seeing them was thrilling and the closest we've ever gotten to a real celebrity encounter!  There was an actual famous person (Bradley Whitford) as the narrator and he was great, but we were there for the OG Cornley Youth Theater actors! 

The Ahmanson Theater is a part of a fancy 3 venue plaza.  Right next to it is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (former home of the Oscars) and the iconic Disney Concert Hall.  It was fun to just walk around all these cool and famous places too!

 Peter Pan Goes Wrong was AWESOME!  We laughed non-stop!  All our favorite parts from the movie unfolded in front of us, like the bunk beds collapsing, or the flying mechanism ripping all their costumes off, or Dennis messing up every line.  But, seeing it live meant we could enjoy extra things too like: 20 minutes before the show started where the actors roamed around the stage and audience, "fixing" things and making mischief; or a playbill full of humor, like an ad for a Flying Operator desperately needed, and an In Memoriam for Nadia, the real Nile Crocodile who tragically died playing her part; or all the improv and audience participation during the the show.  Another perfect outing before our big goodbye!