"Beauty and the Beast"

Today was a special day. C and J participated with 65 of their friends and fellow homeschoolers in the Avon Mountain Drama Group's Summer production of Beauty and the Beast. In just 4 rehearsals, the show came together beautifully and all grandparents and family members were amazed at how well done the whole show was.  The scenery, costumes, dance numbers and acting were quite good, aside from our parental bias. Doobs made her acting debut, playing the part of Tink (Chip, the teacup in the movie). She had a handful of lines, even one line in a song and she pulled them off with charm and great stage presence.  Linka was a villager named Jane in the French town as well as a flower dancer in the Enchanted Garden!  She had a few lines too and was graceful and poised in her ballet dancing in the garden scene. MK was supposed to be a "grandchild" but decided last minute that she didn't want to be on stage. (I think she found the snack table and wanted to stand guard until after the show.)

The kids had a blast with all of their friends at rehearsals and it was really great to see such a team effort on behalf of all of the families. Mom had an even bigger blast living vicariously through her children. Ahhhh, the old aspirations of becoming a broadway actress came full circle in just a few short weeks. I KNEW God had a plan for those desires!

Congratulations to our two little "rising stars." We are so proud of you, Tink and Jane!

Cast of Beauty and the Beast 

AMDG(2) - Summer 2008

"Green" Cocktails

At the risk of boring you about my new favorite subject which is "juicing", I feel I must for the sake of good communication. It all started when I saw an old high school friend on Oprah. Kris Carr is her name and cancer has changed her life.  She decided that since there was no cure for her rare form of vascular sarcoma, the only power she had in her healing process would be to control everything she put into her body. She spent years researching everything under the sun and landed soundly into the world of raw foods, wheatgrass and juicing!  

While this encompasses an entire lifestyle change, which can be quite expensive and challenging with children, I am very interested in the whole juicing thing.  It's fun, it's green and it's super healthy.  I figure that if I can kick-start my day with a healthy dose of chlorophyll, live enzymes, vitamins and minerals, then I may offset some of the other junk that I take in which can damage my body. (i.e. brownies, cookies, wine, cheese, etc.) The pleasant surprise is that the more I juice, the better I feel, which makes my cravings for the "bad stuff" decrease.

The girls actually like the juice depending on what I put into it and the baby especially enjoys sipping from the green straw.  

Fact: "The only place you will find the "helpers" you need to detoxify and restore your cells from the toxic poisons of synthetic, processed and indigestible foods (mostly meat and dairy) is in uncooked plant foods and their juices." (Natalia Rose, Phd, author of The Raw Food Detox Diet)

Why juice instead of just eating the veggies, you ask? Well.....if you could see how much stuff I throw into the juicer to end up with 8 ounces of juice, you would have half of the answer.  You couldn't possibly eat for breakfast the heaping mound of kale, celery, cucumber, romaine, broccoli, apple and lemon that goes into one drink. (nor would you want to) The juicing process allows you to ingest all the benefits without expending any digestive engery.  There are also enzymes deep in the  fibers of fresh veggies which don't get absorbed through normal digestion but are released by a juicer.   

"You with your juicing, mom", they say to me. But ahhh, they're right there in line fighting over who gets to throw the next veggie down the juice shoot!

Maestro in the Making!

Doobs had her very first piano recital this afternoon. It was a lovely occasion completely organized and hosted by the piano teacher who, herself, is only 16 years old. Having studied piano since age five, she is quite a poised and accomplished young lady to be teaching younger children and putting together such a special program for them today. We were delighted to watch our little cutie pie perform "Brahm's Lullaby", "Alouette" and "London Symphony" with some poise and confidence of her own. Nick and I both agreed that neither of us could have done this at the tender age of six!

Good job Dooby.  We are so proud of you and hope you continue to develop your natural flair for all things musical.  You are a talented girl.  We love you honey.