High School Musical 2020 “Cinderella"

When the kids auditioned for Cinderella Musical on Dec 1st, they had no idea what sort of crazy turn of events was in store for them... Alex got a role of a knight/carriage drive and Katya got ensemble.

Katya was, of course, disappointed, that she didn’t get her coveted lead role this year, but she made the best of it! Look how beautiful she looks! 

And the crazy/funny part is that the kids’ friend, Cameron, auditioned for the musical as well (first time in his high school career) and actually got the role of Prince Topher! Katya and Alex were both so happy for him! 

The kids worked so hard at every rehearsal. It’s weeks and weeks of staying home after school and dancing, singing and learning their parts. I was on the theatre booster board, so I was helping with a lot of the details that go into putting on a show. 

It was during the week before the musical was supposed to open that our school district started canceling the events. We all watched with despair as things were getting crazier and crazier by the hour. The musical was supposed to open to its patrons on March 18th but instead the tech rehearsal that was happening on March 13th had to become the kids’ one and only performance to an audience comprised of their immediate families. 

Because it was technically their rehearsal, we still ran into a few bloopers and fun moments with costume changes! The kids gave this performance their best effort and we all were so impressed! 

We got a ton of pictures, so here are they are. Both Alex and Katya had a few different costumes that they had to wear. 

Alex, the knight. 

Katya on the stairs:) 

And Katya, the village girl. 

This is where Katya says loudly,  “I wish I wear a bolder girl!"

She did a great job in the main song performed by one of the stepsisters and her loud girls. 

Alex had a bunch of scenes with the prince as well as a towns person. 

And this is where Alex is the driver (who used to be a raccoon).

Cameron did an amazing job as the prince! He has such a pleasant tenor--it was a perfect part for him. 

His face was also quite expressive;)

During the course of the musical, sometime in early Feb, Katya and Cameron started dating and everyone in the cast figured that out. To say that it was an easy task for her to watch her boyfriend sing love songs to another girl is an understatement. We won’t mention the three times that they had to kiss:)

This is one of the scenes where Katya had to watch the prince be all lovey-dovey with Cinderella. 

But everyone survived. Because that’s what theatre people do.

We LOVED the musical! Loved that it was shown to us under such unusual circumstances and loved that we still got a chance to see our kids’ hard work. 

The moment the show was over and we could take pictures, Cameron grabbed Katya to show his true devotion😉

Not being shy at all in front of everyone else;)

We had a chance to take A LOT of fun pictures with the cast, which is not usually the case, so this was very special! 

And here is the final picture! 

After the musical, the Woolstenhulmes and the Whites joined us at Five Guys for a very late dinner to celebrate our kids who were exhausted but happy!

Yes, of course, we wish and they all wish they had four real performances for a bigger audience. And of course, things didn’t go as planned which is so frustrating and sad for so many of these kids. But they made the best of it! 

Our Random Pictures Post

I am pretty diligent about getting my phone pictures to our main computer. Sometimes I end up with a bunch of random pictures from our every day life. So here is a collection of some of them:)

Happy New Year! 2020!! This is when we went to the NY party at the Wests and I made everyone come home at 11:30 pm so that we could meet the New Year together at home;). Alex and Mark were less than thrilled. At least I let them stay up till after midnight! And I just wanted to watch London Eye’s Fireworks again:)

Mark surprised us all this fall and joined his school’s chorus! He diligently went to all the rehearsals and learned all the songs. He definitely needs to work on his concert face though. We laughed quite a bit because he was so funny to watch!!! Good job, Mark, for trying something new though!

Katya’s choir also presented a Christmas concert in December. It was fabulous:) These kids are so talented! 

This is our favorite group of friends to go out with--the W’s. All of our last names start with a W, so we make it a thing:) We are so busy though that if we find a date when we go out once in 3-4 months, we are happy. This is the place that Melanie suggested called Fiction Kitchen in Raleigh (a vegan place). It was good (and I liked it, personally) but most were not huge fans, so they said next time Melanie is not choosing the restaurant. 

Since September, when we switched our church to 9 am, we have been really good at taking walks on Sunday as a family. Most Sundays the kids whine and gripe about going and then when we are walking, everyone is having a great time;). Sometimes we bring Pepper but then things like this happen. 

And sometimes things like this happen! Mark is holding onto Katya!

But most of the time it’s Pepper pulling on whoever is holding onto the leash-hahaha. 

I love our Sunday walks! I have a list of different places we can go, and some are further than others. We love Harris Lake Park and Nature Park. 

While I am talking about Pepper, look at her new sweater with a unicorn:) She wore it once and looked quite fancy!

Robert usually has every other Friday off. It’s exciting because he gets to do a bunch of things now that normally he cannot! One of them is visiting Mark at school at lunchtime:). 

And one Friday, our high schoolers were off as well, so we got to go out to lunch at Diced with them! I love Diced salads! And surprisingly even the big kids liked their food! 

Oh yeah, a picture with my British scarf! It was given to me as a parting gift by Natasha and Victoria in England. I love wearing my trench coat too:)

Oh, and this is a picture of Alex and Katya before their Valentine’s Day stake dance in Chapel Hill. Alex absolutely loves dances! He had a group of friends go with him to this dance and they had a blast! Katya said she is getting too old for stake dances 😏 so perhaps this was her last stake dance, who knows?

Alex and Katya both participated in the speech and debate tournament this February. Our high school actually hosted it so it was nice that we didn’t have to drive anywhere! They both did so well! 

Alex got 3rd out of 17 in Declamation! 

And Katya got 10th out 32 in a more advanced group in Dramatic Interpretation! So proud of these kids! Love that they are involved in speech and debate as it’s such a useful skill to have no matter what they choose as their profession someday. 

Quick snippet of our Saturdays. Mark usually sits right there on a chair that he is vacuuming in this picture. It’s his “watching TV” chair. That rug is also very difficult to vacuum! Once something gets dropped in there...it might be forever:)

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Finally...here is a selfie of me and Robert on a late weekend night. We are those parents of teenagers now that have to stay up late because our kids are having a friends party or get together whether at our house or out somewhere. Katya has been hanging out with Cameron till 11 or so each weekend (in Feb/early March) and Alex has been getting together with friends to play games and chill. Mark still likes us while we are watching a movie or playing a game with him...for now:) We are too young to have teenage kids!!! 😛😆

The End!

D. Sasha and the Ukrainian Orchestra Come to Visit!

It’s not very often that I get family visitors from Ukraine so when we do, it’s a very big deal! 

This year, my uncle Sasha, was touring the states with the Ukrainian National Symphony and they were passing by Raleigh. They did a similar thing three years ago when we had a chance to provide lunch to the orchestra at our church as well as attend their concert in Danville, VA. This time, their schedule didn’t allow them to have a long visit, so I “intercepted" their bus on their drive from NJ to another concert venue in Pembroke, NC and picked up my uncle on Monday, Feb 17th. It was only an hour drive, and this way he could spend the night here at home, relax a bit with our family and then I could drive him to Pembroke in time for his concert the following day.

This is Uncle (Diadia) Sasha and I. He loved being with us and the kids. He said it was very serene and uplifting to be at our home. 

We took him out to Chick-Fil-A with the kids who were off school that day, coincidentally. 

Before this, though, we spent a couple of hours playing the piano and having the kids improvise and sing with him. He is an amazing musician/pianist himself so it was so fun to hear them all. 

We took a few pictures together before I drove him to Pembroke. We really missed my aunt Halia this year, but unfortunately, she couldn’t come on tour after her back surgery.

So on Wednesday, March 19th, the orchestra was performing in Elon, which is an hour away from us. That was the location that was closest for us to go hear them play. We hopped in the car right after Robert came home from work and drove to Elon. Cameron, Katya’s boyfriend, joined us as well. 

The concert was fantastic! The soloist was a Ukrainian who now lives in Charleston with his wife. Amazing stuff! And although it looks like the concert hall is empty... that’s not true, it was full on OUR side:)

Intermission with my half-Ukrainian kids.

Oh yeah, I love dressing up for these things. 

Katya and Cameron.

And the whole group (kind of blurry but ok).

Uncle Sasha took us backstage for a few minutes and we ran into several people who remembered our luncheon from the last time they came through our area. I wish we could have done it this time too, so we’ll try next time, if we have more time. 

Always great to see family from Ukraine and always exciting to hear such talented musicians playing classical music! 💕