For more than 35 years, first-graders at Cora's school have performed The Wizard of Oz. Cora's class had its turn Wednesday, and Cora had the honor of playing Dorothy.
She worked for weeks to memorize more than 50 lines, and really did a great job with the part. This was her first real experience acting, and she did very well. She said her lines with emotion, and slowly enough to be understood. That is quite a feat, especially at this young age.
Here's the cast after the show, with the teachers and parent helpers. It took a lot of parent help to put on a show of this scale, with the makeup and costumes (which the school provides) and snacks and after-party.
Stace helped too - he cut and painted the bricks that will be given to each child as a memento, with his or her photo attached.
We were so very proud of our girl.
Since she did so well, we later asked if she'd like to take an acting or singing class. After considering it, she said she'd rather take ice-skating classes. Then, I mentioned a local theater's children's summer program. It runs from 9-noon in two-week sessions. But Cora thought that would cut too deeply into her swimming time.
So, we'll lay off of taking head shots or shopping for acting agents. But Cora did really enjoy being in this production, and she was sad it was over.
Mrs. Vasquez was very proud of Cora, too.
Grandpa took all the individual photos of the children for their bricks, along with the cast shot. And Auntie Mel came over a couple of times to read the script with Cora, and give her pointers.
Cora proved helpful throughout the play, feeding lines to the
actors classmates who hadn't really memorized their parts. A few other glitches - the mic feedback and mic cord getting caught in a prop - helped us all remember that it was a first-grade play.
The show was double-cast, so more children had a chance to play the "big" parts, and the children put on two performances. In the other show, Cora was part of the munchkin "lullabye league."
She was great here too, very loud and expressive.
(Cora was in school when they left, and she still had one more school day, so a late night wasn't appropriate for her. But Grandma took Cora to Magic Mountain for a couple of hours earlier in the week.)
A week later, we had a playdate at Charlie and Tommy's house. This was Violet's idea, too. Charlie loves insects and other creatures, and is a very creative, interesting boy full of ideas. The children played "aquarium" for a while with bowls of water, rocks, and plastic turtles, before deciding to color the turtles.
Uncle Bill found this board at a great price at Costco, so on our way up the coast, we stopped at their house and picked it up. The board stayed hidden in Rigo's camper until the right time came to get it out. Cora successfully laid on the board and rolled off, the two things Stace wanted her to learn on this first time out. Cora was disappointed she wasn't riding waves on Day One, but she's on that path.
Of course, Stace wanted to try it out too. He found it quite short - he was used to longboards when he surfed in England - and slippery. But he sure looked good!
Meanwhile, the little girls worked together to carry water to play in the sand. Then, they did some "boogie boarding," with Rigo pulling them through the water.
On Sunday, after we ate another yummy breakfast and pulled out of our campsite, we stopped at the beach again. This time, playing on the rocks was the planned activity.
We just enjoyed a fantastic weekend, camping near the beach with Rigo, Colleen, Lucas and Liana.
The children all enjoyed playing in the trees on our campsite. They had quite the involved game going on with their stuffed animals. It was glorious to see them playing for hours on end - all weekend, really - with no electronics involved.
