Caitlyn Cooks Dinner (for an assignment)

Caitlyn is in a culinary essentials class and her homework this weekend was to prepare a three course meal (appetizer, main dish, dessert) for the family. So she did.

Appetizer was cheezy tomato bread with a garlic/balsamic drizzle:

Main dish was Mediterranean Baked Chicken

with a side mozzerella/tomato/basil antipasto salad.

And on the table:

And for dessert she made pineapple upside-down cupcakes.

All in all, it was a good experience.

School's Started, Which Means... Choir Concerts!

All the women in all the choirs... Caitlyn's good friend Hannah (who she did the You and Me, but Mostly Me with back in the spring, has the first solo)



The choir Caitlyn's in plus the Men's Chorus. The guys need help... but then, they're only freshmen (mostly) and they'll get better. Hopefully, that includes tying ties as well.



And ALL the choirs. The director is SO good.

Caitlyn and Marie Paint a Wall

Caitlyn's been doing extra chores around the house to earn money for a trip to New York City over spring break. (It's been challenging trying to come up with extra chores!) I decided that the back wall of the playroom was an eyesore and that we had a lot of extra paint in the laundry room, so I gave Caitlyn free reign to do whatever she wanted. This is what she came up with:

At one point in the process, Marie wandered down and wanted to help, so Caitlyn let her. Marie said it was her first time painting anything.

She was very proud of her work. Rightly so!

And in use (with a tower Kristen built):

Camp!

I don't often get camp pictures, but they started a super sekrit Facebook group and they had a fantastic photographer this year, so yay! Camp pictures!

Dinner the first night:

Her group after successfully getting everyone through the spider web (they could only use each hole once):

The men with their skit at camp. President Chandler wrote a song.

The 4th years' camp got flooded out, so they got to stay up at the (air-conditioned) lodge.

Crossing the lake on the way to the naming ceremony. The idea came from Harry Potter. :-)

They were knighted as part of the naming ceremony.

 No idea. You'll have to ask Caitlyn.

The entire camp!

After a skit, maybe?

Being the victims for the first aid part.

Star Night

Caitlyn has been talking about Star Night for months. It's the Drama program's annual awards night, and they make a HUGE deal about it. Fancy dress (or themed dress; this year was Around the World. We were a bit sad that Megan's sari didn't fit), red carpet, the works. We went out and found an outfit that fit the theme and wasn't too horribly expensive. She spent a good long time getting ready.

And then she got to walk the red carpet with her friend Meagan.

And Russell even took some pictures with a couple of Caitlyn's senior friends

Pictures stolen from other people's cameras:

And then for the awards:

She's really proud of the statuette: it's for Best Actor in a One-Act Play, Female. And that's the one she was nominated for that she really cared about.

One year of drama down, with three more to do. I hope they're all as good as this one!

River Cleanup 2015

Yesterday the was the annual Arkansas River Clean up. I didn't go (it was also Independent Bookstore Day, and I had to be at work), but Russell and the girls went (Caitlyn went with the Drama Club; she has do to things like this now that she's officially a Thespian) and had a blast.

They found that some church friends were there (for the first time) and didn't quite know what to do. So, they teamed up.

Kristen says that 80% of the fun of the river clean up is being out in nature and picking up trash and 20% of it is riding the party bus. Alison says it's more like 50-50.

Either way, the party bus is, well, a party.

We managed to get pictures of Caitlyn, too!

(The intimidating-looking guy in the leather jacket is her drama teacher.)

It was a good morning all around.

Bearlesque 2015

The last choir concert of the year is a HUGE affair. (That's a major understatement.) This year's theme was Broadway, and Caitlyn had an amazing experience.

There was a lot that I didn't record or take pictures of (like Caitlyn's friends who did a spot-on rendition of "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain or the ones that did "Easy Street" from Annie or the dad who dressed up as Edna Turnblad from Hairspray) but I did get a few numbers.

The Women's Chorus did two numbers: "Raise Your Voice" from Sister Act (which Caitlyn said got better over the three performance days; unfortunately, we went the first night...)



And "Wash that Man" from South Pacific. (Caitlyn says she's adorable in that.)



And then Caitlyn and Hannah were the only freshmen to have a featured act. And they killed it. (It's missing the first few seconds...)



And a couple of pictures:

Her final number costume (they said "dress like a fairy tale character):

And the entire collective choirs at Northwest

And that's it until next year!!

Caitlyn went to Solo & Ensemble

Caitlyn was part of a group of girls who went to Solo & Ensemble. Thankfully, their choir teacher loves taking selfies. (YAY!)

Here they are after district...

And they went to state (YAY!) so she went up to Lawrence, and got to sing.

It was great experience!