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Permalink The 4th Grade had a dance at school this rainy Monday night.
The dress attire was comfortable shoes for dancing!
The dance was organized dances with a parent or/and a friend. Both Jim and I went to the dance, but Eleri’s first choice for a dance partner was Jim. The first dance Jim and Eleri went on stage to demonstrate the dance.
Eleri had a fun night with Jim. There was a talk in the Rittmann Center, A Child Survivor of the Holocaust, that a few Moms slipped out of the dance to attend…including me.
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Permalink The study this week in the MS and HS is the Holocaust. A special guest speaker has been in the school all week talking to the students. Peter Feigl is 85 years old and a surviver of the Holocaust. Emersyn wrote one of her exceptional pieces for her writing assignment. She was asked to read her letter at the assembly on Monday. The assembly was a special assembly for Mr. Feigl.
By Emersyn Lyon
In this essay, I am to write a sympathy letter to a child Holocaust survivor, but I won’t do that. I can’t do that. In reality, I will never be able to fathom the horrors they experienced. I will never see my friends, family, and neighbors struck down like dominos. And I will never become accustomed to seeing corpses litter the ground. Furthermore, I will not write a sympathy letter.
From my experience, people don’t want sympathy – they want acceptance. Sympathy makes remembering their misfortunate harder. It makes facing reality more difficult. They don’t want your pity or for you to commiserate about their loss because you can’t begin to comprehend the loss a Holocaust survivor has faced. Instead, acceptance allows those who have experienced great lost the ability to move on. They want you to understand the Holocaust took place and there’s no way you can change it. No amount of sympathy or pity can change the historical events that occurred, but learning from the past can change our future.
* * *
Mrs. Chandler stand before us preaching about our life versus those in the Holocaust. She tells us what we already know: we have a perfect life filled with food, clothes, family, and most importantly – education. She tells of the ignorance-filled childhood bliss Jewish children had before the Holocaust and how evil stole this. She delivers the generic disquisition, a speech we’ve been told far too many times. I watch as my peers around me begin to lose focus. They begin fiddling with things – their bracelets, hems of shirts, or watches. Mrs. Chandler is also aware of the disinterest in the room, but the next thing she says impacts us all.
“You are the last generation that will ever be told the stories of the Holocaust directly from a Holocaust survivor. You are the last generation to come into contact with a Holocaust survivor, as they old and will die soon, very soon. Now it is your turn to continue their stories, knowledge and their legacy. It is your turn to tell their stories.â€
My head snaps up from the floor and an invisible hefty weight has been placed upon my shoulders. Knowledge – this is the burden I am feeling. However, I don’t want it. I don’t want the guilt and self-hatred that boils in the pit of my stomach. The contempt I feel for my perfect lifestyle even though I have little control over my fortune and others misfortune. I’m afraid of this knowledge that grows inside and possesses of me. Like the Jewish children, I want the ignorance that came before the Holocaust. I crave the bliss before the haunting images that are scarred in my brain and before the wickedness that was inflicted to Jews.
Suddenly, like a freight train, I realize I have to want it. I have to want the stories and horrors that accompany knowledge. If I ever want to make a difference in this world, if I ever want to help people and further society, and if I ever want to keep a genocide like the Holocaust from happening again, I have to want the pain whose hands are linked firmly with knowledge.
Therefore, I will trudge forward with the burden of knowledge placed firmly on my shoulders. I will travel throughout life with it, but I will not keep it all. Instead, I will share my obligation of knowledge with others, who will slowly lift the strain off my shoulders. Yet, I will still encounter and endure new erudition, which will continue the circle of knowledge. A circle that is impossible to avoid and impossible to tread lightly upon because once knowledge has you in its grasp, there is no escaping.
Peter Feigl spoke in the Rittmann Center, open to the public.
Mr. Feigl shared his childhood diary and the testimony of his rescue through the courage of the entire village of Le Chambon, France. I skipped out of the dance to listen to his story. Emersyn had a very interesting point in her story…this is the last generation to be told the stories directly by a survivor.
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Permalink The 7th/8th Grade MS Social this month is a Valentine’s Dance in the PC cafe/lounge. Emersyn is in an after school writing class with Mr. Umphenour. She hasn’t been to the class in the past two month due to play practices and holidays. By the time we arrived home, she had 35 minutes to get ready to go back out to Jinqiao. She looked adorable in her new black dress!
The plan was for her to pick up her friends at Bella’s house…but, she was running late due to traffic. Meggan sent me this photo of the three girls on their way out the door to the dance. Kaitlin has a fun dress with the Marvel comic book characters.
The report from the dance was she had fun with her friends. She only danced with Kaitlin!
Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 237 user reviews.
Permalink Valentine’s Day always starts with a box of chocolates. This year, Jim was able to buy Godiva chocolates in America. They are expensive in American, but out of price range in Shanghai. A nice surprise for the girls!
The girls had free dress at school which is fun when a uniform is worn daily.
For Eleri’s class, the other room Mom, Lisa (Kaitlin and Will’s Mom) and I are putting on a Valentine’s party. The children were asked to make Valentine’s for each student in the class. During the party, the class are making a Valentine’s holder. Eleri had made her Valentine’s cards and a Valentine holder over CNY. From a box, Eleri made a purse to carry her Valentine’s cards and lolly pops for each student. She decided to not take her Valentine holder to school, but to make a new one with the class. I raided Eleri’s “don’t throw it away, I can make something from it” pile to take extra boxes and such to school.
I made extra creamy cupcakes this time. I used smaller cupcake tins which resulted in more cupcakes than normal. A single batch of frosting was not going to cover all the cupcakes…a double batch gave me extra frosting to put lots of frosting on each cupcake. Eleri helped to decorate them after school.
The kids had a fun party in Ms Muir’s class. After school, we picked Lili up for a sleepover. Lili and Eleri haven’t played in over two months with the holidays. Eleri and Lili are two peas in a pod to have a fun time together. They pulled out every board game we had to play. We had pizza and Valentine cupcakes for this at home Valentine’s night. Jim and I enjoyed a movie while the girls were busy playing board games. Emersyn was at her Valentine’s Dance at school.
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Permalink Emersyn organized her friends for a Monday night Lumineers concert at the Mao House. The Lumineers concert was sold out! Emersyn went with her friends – Bella, Kaitlin, Hayden, Ethan and Josh. Kaitlin’s parents, Mark and Lisa, went with the group which made a difference for all the kids to attend.
Our teen is looking so grown-up. My quick photos as she was heading out the door!
Photos from Lisa’s iphone from the concert.
 Ethan, Josh, Bella, Emersyn, Kaitlin & Hayden
The report when she returned at 11:00pm (on a school night) was…Fabulous! It was open seating. My thought on open seating was seating/chairs, but not assigned. The open seating was no seating/chairs – standing room only. Emersyn and her friends were at the front of the stage. Emersyn’s stories from the night were about the “mean girls” standing next to them. Emersyn thought the girls were about 16 years old. Our girls held their own with the mean girls, but half way through the show, they moved. Our girls felt the mean girls were taking away the enjoyment of the music. As Emersyn is telling us the stories, we discovered she had gum in her hair…we think from the mean girls. Kaitlin found gum in her hair, too. Turns out one of the girls lives two doors down from Kaitlin! We told Emersyn it just adds to the “story”.
She was laughing and giggling as we tucked her into bed!
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Permalink Taipei was a quick two-night stay, but it was fun to see the City. We arrived back from Taipei Thursday night and Jim left Friday morning for California. Jim was spending Chinese New Year in California while the girls and I stayed in Shanghai. We didn’t pull out our Chinese decorations this year…Eleri must have forgotten because she is the one that likes to decorate!
Now that Emersyn is our teen, her favorite place is her room…her “girl cave”. Therefore, this staycation is going to be about me and Eleri hanging together. Emersyn’s three other friends (Kaitlin, Bella and Hayden) are all in town this CNY so she will be on skype with them laughing and being a teen. The downtime is much needed as the Twinderella musical had taken ALL our spare time and energy…we were ready to rest!
First order of business, I pulled out the suitcase table for Eleri’s craft corner. I love having a place to pile her crafts.
Here are a few random high lights. I didn’t take many photos to share of our staycation.
Ellie, Eleri’s friend that lives near at Thomson Rivera, was over for a couple sleepovers and afternoon plays. This was perfect because Eleri needs a break from hanging with her Mom. When Ellie comes over, Eleri and Ellie like to bake. Emersyn likes when Ellie comes over! They made cupcakes one afternoon. I let them make the cupcakes on their own and only helped at the end for oven and clean up needs. I have made this chocolate cake recipe many times over the years. As I was helping the girls pour the batter into the cupcake tins, I could tell something wasn’t right. After checking with the girls, they put in too little flour – 1 1/3 cup instead of 1 3/4 cup, but the cupcakes still tasted great! The next time Ellie came over, they baked a cake. They double checked to get all the ingredients correct.
Saturday was a fun night out to see the Lantern Festival at YuYuan Gardens. See Lantern Festival – The year of the Horse
Sunday Emersyn had her first and last sleepover of the Holiday. Emersyn and her friends had planned many sleepovers…but…the girls stayed up all night to create grumpy girls…a couple of the Moms said no more sleepovers! I am lucky as Emersyn isn’t grumpy after a no-sleep sleepover. I would do the same if I had a nasty girl the next day. We have an understanding that this is her choice and the family should not pay the price.
Monday was a very fun Chinese New Year Party at Linda and Bill’s home, Ellie’s parents. See Chinese New Year Party
On Wednesday, we went shopping at Forever 21 in Puxi with Emersyn’s friends, Kaitlin and Bella, along with their Moms, Meggan and Lisa. The girls have a Valentine’s dance at school. Eleri had to come along since she could’t stay home alone. Bella and Kaitlin bought new dresses for the Valentine dance. Kaitlin purchased this adorable Marvel comic book character dress only she could wear. Kaitlin is very skinny, but eats all the time! Emersyn was fine wearing an old dress she had at home. That evening we had a delicious dinner downstairs at Jennifer’s house.
On Thursday, it was adult night out. I joined Lisa & Mark Gandy, Jennifer & Scott Jenkins and Paul & Kath Taylor for a night out. The Gandy children came to our house to hang. Kaitlin is Emersyn’s good friend and Will is in class with Eleri. They had fun, but we had more fun. We enjoyed Indian food at Saffron and a drink at the Constellation Bar.
Friday was back to shopping for Emersyn. We realized that old dress wasn’t going to fit her properly anymore. The three of us, Emersyn, Eleri and I, had a girls day out. We started with lunch at our favorite spot, Whisk. Then, back to Forever 21 and H&M to find the perfect dress. Emersyn found a cute black dress at H&M – one I would have picked out! Of course, she had no shoes to wear with her new dress, but we found a cute pair of black boots at H&K. H&M had fun bags for the Year of the horse – the seventh sign in Chinese Zodiac calendar. We were also given a red envelope with the purchases of the black dress and boots. See Valentine’s Dance to see our adorable teen her in new dress.
We had one day of bad pollution over 250 AQI. This is Eleri ready to take Roxi out for her quick walk around the compound…
We all enjoyed the sleeping in late and going to bed late schedule. Emersyn enjoyed her girl cave (her room). She came out for food and water! Eleri and I watched a few movies together and many Brady Brunch episodes…always fun.
Eleri always keeps herself entertained…as long as I am part of the entertainment…and Roxi…
She was busy making origami…
She pulled at this Olivia theater Mimi gave the girls. She took photos and video. She was very cleaver to make up a play for 10 minutes.
Our deck view of the red Pearl Tower…
On Sunday, the last day of the holiday, we had snow…big heavy, wet snow flakes. Roxi and I walked Eleri over to Ellie’s house for an afternoon of play. I decided we needed to be Chinese and use umbrellas. I was glad we had grabbed them as Roxi was soaked by the time we got home. With those curls, water generally sits on top of the hair to keep her warm. She wasn’t sure what the big, white flakes on her nose were! I gave her a hot shower when we got home.
It was a nice staycation. Now, the girls can go back to school so I can get something done!! Jim made many decisions on our home. The week in California was much needed as some decisions are very hard to make by a photo over the internet. Jim picked out the floor color for our new wood floors which look great…from the photo.
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Permalink Chinese New Years Eve is traditionally a holiday here in China. However, this year it is not a public holiday. Why? Well, the day is named “chu xi” (get rid of Xi) after a monster that was killed by a hero called Nian (“year”; hence the New Year). With Xi Jin Ping as the new president, the government decided that celebrating “chu xi” might give the wrong signal to the masses. So the holiday, was not a recognized public holiday.
The Lee/Wang family (Linda, Bill, Ethan, Ellie and Maddy) hosted a Chinese New Year Eve party. On this night, the fireworks are the biggest, loudest and longest of the Chinese New Year. The Wang family lives at Thomson Rivera which is right on the river for a perfect view of the fireworks. Thomson Rivera is three blocks (side gate to side gate) from our compound. Ellie and Eleri have been playing together more this year which has been wonderful for weekend play dates NOT in Jinqiao. Emersyn and Ethan have their core classes together for the first time so they have formed a friendship. They do homework together many nights via skype.
Emersyn and her gang of friends slept over at Kaitlin’s house last night (Sunday). Hayden’s Mom would be her back from Jinqiao for the party. Ellie played at our house all day to give her parents time to prepare for the party.
Bill had been in the kitchen all day to present a variety of delicious dishes. He had meat balls, chicken, steak, sushi, noodles, salad and more. Everyone bought a dish to share for a large feast. I have no photos of the food or the friends as I was busy enjoying the night. Emersyn left the party early to walk home. Bella went home with her to sleep over and to really go to sleep this time. They had stayed up all night at Kaitlin’s house to be fully exhausted. It is part of being a teen and learning!
One of their friends, Karen and Brendon, came with fireworks.
We took the fireworks down to the river to have our own celebration. It was a cold night, but clear.
The gang of kids.
We all enjoyed the show of fireworks early, around 11:00pm. Tradition is midnight for the fireworks lighting. I had my little, pocket camera, therefore, I have only a few good ones as the delay in the night is too much and the fireworks are done by the time the shutter clicks!
After our personally display of fireworks, we went back to Linda and Bills’ house for more food and wine. At midnight, we went out on the terrace to watch and listen to the main firework show. The display is always good, but this year was much less. In the past, the fireworks have gone on for hours. This year, at midnight the cracking of fireworks began and ended in 30 minutes. The government was asking people to do less fireworks this year to keep the pollution down.
Eleri and I left the party at 1:00am. We walked in the cold as there are very few taxis on this night. The side gate is locked at 11:00pm so we had to walk the extra two blocks to the front gate. This is what our front gate looked like from all the fireworks that were set off – covered in firework paper.
It was a fun night shared with friends – a great way to start the Chinese New Year!
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Permalink Every year at YuYuan Gardens is a large lantern festival. We have spent five Chinese New Years in Shanghai, but have never gone. It is cold in February and the thought of fighting the people doesn’t make you want to run over to see the lanterns. This year, my friend, Linda, organized a group to go together – a better way to fight the crowds is with your own crowd! On this Saturday, we had an unseasonably warm day – 75f! We took the ferry with Linda’s family to meet the other three families at Din Tai Fun, a favorite dumpling restaurant. The kids sat in a room of their own while the adults sat in another area. I love that our kids are old enough to take care of their own needs.
The first stop after dinner was the cotton candyman. He was a fun cotton candyman spinning the cotton candy long and big for 5rmb each.
The cotton candy was double the size of Eleri’s head!
The cotton candy was almost as big as Maddy.
Now, to work our way through the walkways of YuGardens with the crowds to see the lanterns.
 Emersyn, Bella & Luci
 Emersyn, Bella, Hayden & Ethan
At dinner, it was discussed we would NOT walk over the zig-zag bridge with the masses of people…but we did!
Little Carlos on his Dad’s shoulder in the crowds.
Linda and Maddy on the bridge with the crowds.
Fighting the crowds across the zig-zag bride is well worth the fight. All of these fun lanterns are over the water.
After crossing the bridge, the girls wanted the sugar coated strawberries – a chinese street food. The strawberries are covered with a hard sugar/honey coating.
On our way back home to the ferry, we stepped up to the Bund to see the lights. Meggan’s family is new to Shanghai and her children have not seen the Bund at night. Also, the weather was so beautiful to enjoy the lights.
 Ethan, Hayden, Emersyn & Bella
 Emersyn, Hayden & Bella
The Pearl Tower was all red for Chinese New Year.
The Citi Bank building had various “I love Shanghai” lights.
We took the ferry back to Pudong and stopped at Linda and Bills for a drink on their deck…in February! It was a fun night seeing the lanterns with friends.
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Permalink Jim had a company meeting in Taipei, therefore, the Company organized for all the families to come to Taipei – a family boondoggle. The only problem was our girls were still in school. Chinese New Year break began Wednesday at noon. The Chinese students have three or more weeks off for Chinese New Year. Jim left on Sunday for Taipei and the girls and I left on Tuesday afternoon. Emerysn had test in most of her core classes on Tuesday morning. We checked in at the Pudong airport to have our usual Burger King lunch.
Day One: Travel
We did appreciate the sunshine and the warmth of Taipei. We arrived at the airport an hour outside of the City, therefore, car took us to the hotel, the Shangri-la. This first night’s agenda was a dinner with the spouses at the hotel. Jim and I were a bit late since dinner started at 6pm and I arrived at the hotel at 6:15pm. We ordered room service for the girls while Jim and I had a nice dinner at the hotel with his co-workers.
Day Two: Seeing the Sites
We enjoyed a late breakfast for a 11:00am meet time with the group. A large tour bus had been arranged to drive the group around Taipei. Of course, Eleri chose the back of the bus for us. I didn’t think of taking a photo of our large, blue bus until the end of the day…
The first stop was National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, dedicated to those that died in the war of the Republic of China.
The changing of the guards is done hourly. We arrived just in time to see the change of the guards. The guards are on duty for one hour. During this one hour, they can not move…no nose scratches, no sneezing, no nothing!
Next on the blue tour bus, a visit to the Shilin Official Residence, the former residence of late Republic of China President Chiang Kai-shek. We did not tour the residence, but the gardens. It was a sunny day to enjoy the beautiful gardens.
After the gardens, we drove to the National Palace Museum in the big blue bus. It was about an hour away, therefore, our tour guide gave information about the City as we drove…all in Mandarin!
The National Palace Museum is an antique museum in Taiwan. It is one of the national museums of the Republic of China. The museum has a permanent collection of more than 696, 000 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. The collection encompasses over 8, 000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic age to the late Qing Dynasty. Most of the collection are high quality pieces collected by China’s ancient emperors. The National Palace Museum and the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing share the same roots. They split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War.
One of the most popular pieces of jade carvings in the museum is the “Jadeite Cabbage”. It’s a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a cabbage head with a large and a small grasshopper camouflaged in the leaves. The ruffled semi-translucent leaves attached is due to the masterful combination of various natural color of the jade to recreate the color variations of a real cabbage.
No photos are allowed at the Museum. I had to add the comment about the cabbage. It is very famous and actually very small. Emersyn was wondering why someone didn’t crave something a bit more exciting!
After the museum, we drove to the Grand Palace Hotel for dinner. The Grand Palace Hotel was the first 5 star hotel built in Taipei. We had a Chinese buffet of seafood for dinner. It was a very Chinese meal served Chinese style.
After dinner, the big blue tour bus continued with a quick stop at Taipei 101.
Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District. The building ranked officially as the world’s tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. In July 2011, the building was awarded LEED Platinum certification, the highest award in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and became the tallest and largest green building in the world.
The height of 101 floors commemorates the renewal of time: the new century that arrived as the tower was built (100+1) and all the new years that follow (1 January = 1-01). It symbolizes high ideals by going one better on 100, a traditional number of perfection. The number also evokes the binary numeral system used in digital technology. The main tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese-speaking cultures, the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortune.
There was a fountain…and it was just so inviting. Jim and Eleri had fun running through the fountain. They began to know the sequence and found the “spot” to stand without getting wet.
The last stop on the big blue bus tour was the night market. Our family walked about half way down the night market and decided to catch a taxi home. The same stuff can be found in Shanghai!
Day Two: Walking the City
We had a late breakfast, again, why not? We were on our own this day for touring. Jim wanted to see one more tourist site, but a couple girls were not so thrilled with the idea. Emersyn asked if she could stay at the hotel…now that she is old enough to stay home alone. Eleri liked that idea, too. So the girls plugged into their electronics and Jim and I set out too see the site. Emersyn could get YouTube at the hotel…oh, the little things in life!
One of my collection items is a Starbucks mug from the various cities we have visited in Asia. The Starbucks near us was closed for the Holiday since today is the official New Year Day. Now, I needed to find another Starbucks on today’s adventure.
We took a cab to Memorial Hall Square to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial – double the taxi fare due to Holiday fees. The Memorial Hall was also closed due to the Holiday so we toured the outside.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument, landmark and tourist attraction erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China. The monument, surrounded by a park, stands at the east end of Memorial Hall Square. The structure is framed on the north and south by the National Theater and National Concert Hall.
The Memorial Hall is white with four sides. The octagonal roof rises 76 metres (249ft) above the ground and is covered with blue glazed tiles. The blue and white colors of the building and the red colour of the flowerbeds echo the colours in the flag of the Republic of China. The octagonal shape picks up the symbolism of the number 8, a number traditionally associated in Asia with abundance and good fortune.
Two sets of white stairs, each with 89 steps to represent Chiang’s age at the time of his death, lead to the main entrance. The main entrance features a pair of double doors, each standing 16 meters high and weighing 75 tons, that open into the main hall. A large bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek dominates the main hall. The figure is shown smiling, seated and wearing traditional Chinese dress. Inscribed on the wall above and behind the seated figure are the Chinese characters for Ethics, Democracy, and Science. Inscriptions on the side walls read The purpose of life is to improve the general life of humanity and The meaning of life is to create and sustain subsequent lives in the universe.
We decided we would walk back to the hotel as we passed three Starbucks Coffee shops! It was a beautiful day for a walk. Jim and I have had no time to discuss life which is very uncertain at this time with so many decisions to be made. He has slept 5 nights in Shanghai this whole month. It took us about an hour to walk home. We stopped at all three Starbucks to come home empty handed as it is a certain mug style of the Cities that I collect. When we left the hotel, the taxi drove up two blocks to turn around…Jim remembers seeing a Starbucks at the corner. We walked the two blocks past our hotel to find my coffee mug. I laugh as they are MY coffee mug collection, but I don’t drink coffee and Jim is the one that uses the mugs everyday!
Upon returning to the hotel, we grabbed a small bite to eat in the lounge. Then, we discovered our flight was delayed so we all hung out in the room on our electronics!
The girls as we left the hotel – looking adorable in their favorite sweatshirts!
Our flight was delayed two hours. We arrived back to Hongqiao Puxi airport in Shanghai at 7pm. We told Mr. Nie we would take a taxi as this is a big family night celebration for Chinese New Year – similar to Christmas Eve. We walked to the taxi stand which was a “mile long with people” in the queue with very few taxis arriving. Eleri was the first to say, “let’s take the subway”. We walked back to the subway as we traveling light! The subway stop is two blocks from our home. We walked home quickly since we had no winter jackets!, only light sweatshirts
Touring on a big blue bus with people I don’t know is not my idea of a holiday, but everyone was very nice…and Jim knew them. We were able to check the box on another Asian city.
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Permalink The Middle School play at Concordia generally includes two different plays that are about one hour each. The MS plays are designed to include any student that wants to be a part of the production. Even if the child is shy, he/she can have a part. I love this about the MS play. For the first time during our time at Concordia, the MS Play will include a musical along with a play. Both productions are a spoof on Cinderella. The Musical is Twinderella and the play is Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit. Emersyn auditioned for the musical, of course. She was given the part of Narrator #1. Her friends, Bella, is Cinderella and Hayden is Narrator #2. Holly Poppell, Emersyn’s teacher from 1st & 6th grade, is the director.
Play practice began in September every Monday and Tuesday for the musical, Twinderella. The play practice for Fairy Tale Law & Order was on Thursday and Friday. After Christmas break, play practices step up to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday along with Saturdays with both productions working together. Jim worked on the sets. Holly was more than pleased to have Jim’s expertise! Jim was more than pleased to see a workshop with real tools to build the sets. Most of the sets were built on one Saturday by parents. As the performance was getting close, Emersyn asked Jim to come after work as the sets needed a little help. Holly’s husband came by the Rittmann Center after Jim did his fixing. He took one look at the sets and said to Holly, ” I see Jim has been here!”. My parent involvement was the “front stage” helping with ticket, food for late night practices and flowers. My friends are involved parents too, therefore, we were doing it all together to make the tasks more fun.
On Wednesday afternoon before the first performance, a small portion of each play is performed for the school by grade levels. There were three performances this day with practice after school. Emersyn was exhausted by the time she came home.
The performances are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I had tickets for all three performances. For Thursday’s performance, Jim, Eleri and I would be there to cheer Emersyn on for opening night. For Friday, I had tickets for Eleri, Lili and me as Jim had a work dinner. The last performance would be the three of us for the closing show.
On Thursday, Eleri had a high temperature – not in the plan. In addition, I had taken over ticket sales along with Lisa, Kaitlin’s Mom. I had all the tickets at my house and needed to be at school at 11:30am for the lunch time sales. I had to leave Eleri home alone for a couple hours until ayi arrive at 1:00pm. She was fine with it, but I felt terrible leaving my sick girl home alone. She had Roxi and tv!
Thursday was a full day for the Mom volunteers. After lunch ticket sales, work was done on the boards followed by after school tickets sales. Next, I helped Lisa with flowers. Then, Rachael and I went to get Subway dinner for the cast. Before the performance, it was more ticket sales and flower sales. I was glad I was here to help on this busy day of the first performance. Jim stayed home with Eleri, therefore, I was the only one cheering on our performer!
Then, it was time for the first performance!
The play, Law & Order: Fair Tale Unit, is on stage first.
Kaitlin was Cinderella, a detective. She had one of leads in the play.
Erin had the role of Pinocchio (in the red dress and nose dressing). She was excellent in her role and one of my favorite performances.
Sophie was Doc, Josh was Happy and Alyssa was Grump of the seven dwarfs.
After intermission, the Musical, Twinderella, performs.
Emersyn is the first one on stage to open the play and sing. Hayden joins her for a duet.
Bella as Cinderella.
Emersyn and Hayden have a big presence in the beginning and the end. In the middle, “they went out for hamburgers”.
Ending songs…
Performance bows…
Here is a video clip from Thursday night opening performance. Emersyn is on stage by herself introducing Cinderella. No Cinderella shows so she has to add…
[quicktime]http://lyonfamily.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Adlib_Short.mp4[/quicktime]
Bella had a wardrobe problem. Her dress wouldn’t zip so she missed her cue as they struggled with the dress. Emersyn did a great job improvising.
On Friday night, Jim left his work dinner very early to arrive at the show to catch Twinderella and see Emersyn perform. I stayed home with Eleri watching TV wishing I was watching Emersyn instead. We watched Judy Mood’s Bummer Summer…bummer!
On Saturday, Eleri was well enough for all us to go see the last performance. We enjoyed a pre-performance dinner with the Turkey Gang (the Yangshuo Thanksgiving crew). Every middle schooler except Sean from the Turkey gang was in the play…Kaitlin, Erin, Josh, Alyssa and Sophie (see photos above).
A few photos from Saturday night’s performance. Emersyn wore her hair down since she wasn’t running from school to the production this day.
Here is a video clip of the opening song performed by Emersyn and Hayden:
[quicktime]http://lyonfamily.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Twinderella_Opening.mp4[/quicktime]
After the performance, I was able to get a few photos of our performer.
Jim made Emersyn’s Cinderella book from a lap top box. I do have to add he wanted to throw the box away, but I talked him into letting me keep it since it is a good box. As always, he uses the box he wanted to throw out! And, as usually, he made an excellent book out of nothing but “rubbish”.
 Josh & Emersyn
 Hayden & Emersyn
 Kaitlin, Emersyn, Hayden, Bella & Everett
It was a great experience and fun to see Emersyn perform. The last month has been ALL Twinderella so we are ready for Chinese New Year break and some down time!
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