Featuring Jack’s Birthday, Gardens, and more Theater
Month: June 2025
My parents took me and the boys, plus Amanda and Andy, on a glorious long weekend in New York City. There were many shows and museums and snacking. Jack really expanded his theater experience. The kids have both been to NYC before but say they hardly remember/don’t remember at all. Now they have a head full of memories of the sights, smells, and strangeness of that great city. We had such a wonderful time!
I’m gonna make a huge picture dump and caption just a few things. I wish we had pooled all our photos before splitting up at the end. Alas!
DAY 1: Traveling, hotel, food near Grand Central
Day 2: Meeting with Amanda, Museum of Broadway, RiseNY Musem
More Day 2: Splitting up. Me to K-town, Jack and Amanda to Hamilton, me and Sam to Central Park
Day 3: All together now! Met Musem, Show, Show, Show
Day 4: Brunch, Shopping, Show, Dinner
Springtime means theater! I wrapped on the middle school musical “Once Upon a Mattress.” The kids did very well and there were not as much drama as in some other seasons. Working with the new Music Director was a delight. Amanda got us tiaras to celebrate!
The boys both had spring concerts with their orchestra classes. I fear that I’m so behind in blogging, I’m just going to dump the videos here for posterity without further description!
This spring we completed a huge house project that I’ve been meaning to do literally since we moved in 12 years ago. Our master bathroom was dreadful. Skinny, mold-prone shower. Scalloped edge sink that was hard to clean. Woefully out of date brass fixtures with mauve and gray tiles. And CARPET. The house only had carpet in the basement theater room, spare room, and our bathroom! What the heck?
I spent weeks looking for a builder and many more weeks planning the new layout. Then many more weeks shopping for the endless list of items we’d need to complete the job. I’ll skip over writing out all the details and obstacles I tackled in getting this remodel finished.
The minivan proved itself over and over again while I hauled materials to the house. I’m glad I decided to hire builders instead of DIY-ing it. This project was definitely above my skill-set.
Before pictures:
After pictures:
In the end, it took exactly one month (March 3 – April 3) with the builders from demolition to finish, plus another week or so for decorating/organizing. Although the room is not any larger, the layout if much more useful and the shower is a DREAM. Each day I use the shower I appreciate how blissfully beautiful and large it is.
It’s a delight every time I enter the bathroom, even months later. Hoo-boy it was a lot of work of money. I’m glad we finally did it and also that it’s finally over.
Jack played in the pit orchestra for their spring musical: Sweeney Todd. He did an amazing job with the difficult score by Sondheim. He grew so much as a musician due to the rigorous rehearsals and extended playing time. He also helped build the sets when he had spare time! The kid lived and breathed Sweeney Todd for several months!
Here’s the ending outro that they played after bows – my only chance to sneak some live video without being totally uncouth!
Seriously, we are super impressed with Jack’s dedication and improvement with his musical journey. What a kid!
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