A Night to Remember

Friday night was the annual Hollywood Bowl Sound of Music Sing-A-Long. This was our fourth year in a row and we always have a great time. Sam and I get a kick out of the whole thing and we plan on keeping it a yearly tradition. It is a fun and truly unique experience that I'd recommend to everyone. Where else do you get a goody bag filled with props for the show, boo and hiss at the bad guys and sing a long to the Sound of Music with close to 18,000 people? Regulars to the show (like my husband) even bring their own props like flashlights, bells, whistles, rice... all to be strategically used at certain parts of the movie.

They also have a pre-show costume contest where people dress up as basically anyone or anything related to the movie. As always, the pre-show was a lot of fun. It's always neat to see everyone's creativity and it's even more fun to clap and cheer for our favorites. People were dressed up as "brown paper packages tied up with string", "raindrops on roses", "whiskers on kittens", "drop of golden sun", the Von Trap family, nuns, Maria, the curtains in Maria's room (the ones she used to make play clothes for the children), etc.... you name it and it was probably done.

Every year we've toyed with the idea of having Austin and his pals dress up but we've never done anything - until now..... For months prior to the show Sam occasionally brought up the idea of having Austin do something. I told Sam I would help but that this would be his project and not mine if you know what I mean. Months, weeks, and days passed and it wasn't until two days before the show that Sam came up with an idea and then it wasn't until the night before (at 7pm) that we actually went to the fabric store, brainstormed there and stayed up to make a costume for Austin and his friend Sophie. I have to admit that I wasn't 100% gung ho about the whole thing because it was so last minute and that's one of my biggest pet peeves. Inside I was thinking, "Are you kidding me? We're working on this the night before?". Despite my initial lack of enthusiasm, my spirits quickly lifted and we had fun putting the costume together. It's not often (at least in our household) that we are able to work on a project from start to finish like that. That night reminded me once again that despite the differences in the way we perceive and approach tasks, we sure work well together.

With all that said, the next evening we headed out to the Bowl. We met up with our friends, had Austin and Sophie put on their costumes and headed to our seats. From there, Sam and Austin, along with Sophie and her Dad headed down to the line for the costume parade. The rest of us waited for Austin and Sophie's turn on stage. The costume parade usually lasts about an hour and a half (yes, there really are that many people who dress up) and once you get on stage, you are either escorted out of the staging area (meaning you didn't make it to the next round) or you are led down the steps to the side of the stage to wait for the next round. After everyone gets a turn, those that are left on the side of the stage go up to the stage again and that's when the cheers and applauds of the crowd basically determine first, second and third place.

After about 30 minutes of waiting and wondering we finally saw our two cuties up on stage and we clapped and cheered as loud as we could. I strained my eyes from our semi nose bleed seats to  see whether or not Austin and Sophie made it to the next round and guess what? They made it! It was pretty exciting and so unexpected. I went into this thinking it would be a fun thing for Austin to do and another xanga entry for me to post. Fast forward another 15 minutes or so and it was time for the "semi-finalists" to walk the stage again. They gave the crowd the opportunity to cheer and clap for their favorites and again they were either escorted out of the staging area or told to wait. As you can imagine, I cheered as loud as I possibly could and apparently so did a lot of other people because Austin and Sophie made it to the final round! I couldn't believe it and after a lot more cheering or rather screaming on my part, Austin and Sophie placed second! They are now the proud owners of a blue ray disc player and a handful of blue ray discs.

And now finally, what you all have really been waiting for, the big reveal ..... drum roll please!

Introducing the second place winners, Austin and Sophie as "a needle pulling thread"!



Believe it or not, Sam is the one who gets credit for the costume. I did give a little help with my input and my mad skills with the scissor and glue gun, but he's the one who sewed and did the bulk of the work. Impressive huh?



That night I caught a mere glimpse of what it might be like to be a celebrity. A lot of people took pictures with and of our needle pulling thread duo. In fact, that's how I was able to find some of these pictures. Thank you world wide web!

On stage



Austin and Sophie's view from the stage



With Liesel from The Sound of Music



Austin and Sophie on the big screens to the left and right.



For obvious reasons, this was my favorite Sound of Music Sing Along ever! The next day we asked Austin what he thought of the night before and he simply replied, "I didn't even know it was a contest" and went about his business. I guess it was more of a big deal for us than it was for him.

I saved my favorite picture for the end. Since Austin was already fast asleep when we were working on the costume, we had to do a wardrobe check any way we could....



He didn't even budge!

One month left of summer vacation and we've been keeping ourselves pretty busy. Here's a quick rundown of our summer so far.

We spent our first week off at VBS. Each day we came back home completely exhausted but it was well worth it to spend time with...

friends


water balloons


and crazy hair day!


OUR SUMMER VACATIONS WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT......

The Hollywood Bowl
Every summer we attend the Bowl a few times.  Here's Austin with his buddies at the Looney Tunes show. We'll be there again for the Sound of Music and Les Miserables.


Sleeping In
This is how I found them I kid you not.


Fun in the Pool


Playdates




and a road trip!

Our family and friends took a trip to good ol' San Diego. This was in the lobby of our hotel. The piano "doll" reminds me of someone I know but I can't put my finger on it..... creepy.....


And just to make sure this trip would be a memorable one, we paid a visit to the emergency room. Yes that's right, the ER. One minute we're sleeping peacefully in our hotel beds and the next minute we hear a loud thud and wailing coming from yours truly. It was about 3:30am and Austin had fallen from his bed. We didn't know where he was hurt exactly except for the obvious red spot on his cheek.. All we knew was that he was screaming crying (you know how that is) and would not calm down for a full 20-30 minutes. I was pretty sure it was just a bump but we finally decided to play it safe and take him to the emergency room. Not surprisingly, on the way to the hospital he fell asleep and once we got there he was sleepy but completely fine. Fortunately, it was a very slow night in the ER and the staff was really nice. They were all in a good mood and made sure Austin was comfortable and having fun.

 

Since it was a slow night in the ER, they decided to use Austin as a guinea pig for one of their interns. The doctor told Austin he was looking for aliens in Austin's stomach. Thanks to our ER visit, we got to see Austin's stomach, heart, kidneys, liver, spinal cord, etc.... but unfortunately no aliens!





We got back to our hotel room at 6am, took a quick cat nap and then were off to breakfast and Sea World.

Sea World



Despite our lack of sleep, we were able to spend the whole day at Sea World and had a great time!



San Diego Zoo





Austin got tested for his orange belt the other day. As you can see in this video, he was super excited to get it.

See the guy giving Austin his orange belt? He's going into ninth grade and just started assisting in the classes as a criteria for earning his black belt. I was his kindergarten teacher and now we've come full circle. I taught him and now he is teaching Austin.... gosh, I feel old!





The dark spot on his left cheek is the bruise from his fall at the hotel.