Performance Overload.

We had an exciting couple of weeks here at the Libutti household: Michaela performed in the the Middle School's musical, Bye Bye Birdie, and Alec and Jenna performed in separate groups at their elementary's Lip Sync performance.

I am worn out from smiling so much.

You may recall that Michaela had a little part in last year's musical, Seussical, starring as the cutest little yellow Who in Whoville.  You may not recall this because I am not sure that I ever posted about it.  But trust me- it happened and she was totes adorbs as a smiling, happy Who Whom I Could Not Take My Eyes Off Of Because I am Her Mom.

Well, she tried out again this year and got a part WITH A NAME.  Big time, people.  She played Penelope, friend of Kim, the girl who Conrad Birdie (an Elvis-type character) kisses before enlisting in the service.  She was mostly in group songs with the other friends of Kim and had a few of her own lines in one of the songs.

She attended all of the rehearsals and meetings and dress rehearsals and I tried to be patient as I drove her back and forth to the middle school 8,483 times.  She panicked when it wasn't quite coming together.  But by the last week she relaxed and told me it was going to be a great show.

And she was right.

It was amazing.  On opening night, Dan and I sat in our middle front seats and drank the whole thing in and I could not get over how proud of her I was.  She was just so good- confident and smiley and happy and right in the moment, looking out at the audience.  The songs are great, it moved along quickly and it was a great all-around performance.

Michaela's big song... she's in the center with her back turned to the audience... 

she's a bit hard to hear because she wasn't wearing a microphone

Dancing!!(She's the one who ends up on the far left of the stage.)

Curtain call!  Can you stand how happy she looks?? (Last girl on the right)

Dan and I went to the closing night (the kids all cried because it was over) and a few of the performances in between.  I was a crazy woman trying to remember who was going what night, what tickets I had bought for whom, and what the overall schedule was for that weekend. (I also volunteered to help with the cast and crew afterparty on Saturday so I helped set up Saturday morning and then chaperoned Saturday night.)  By the time Sunday rolled around, we were all pooped out but happy.

Here's a couple of pictures of Michaela with her castmates:

Michaela with her friend Erin- 

they have been friends since they were in 3 year old preschool together.

So once that was wrapped up and we were just about recovered, along came the Lip Sync.  For those not in the know, Lip Sync is an event that occurs every other year (because the Mommies can't muster the energy to do it annually) in which kids form groups of 5 or more kids, a song is chosen and a dance routine is developed and rehearsed and eventually performed for approximately 30,000 people all crammed into a venue with not enough seats for the adoring fans of said children.
And we are no better- we brought a grandparent, an aunt, two siblings, two parents and even a friend of a sibling.
I fully accept my responsibility of adding to the madness.

This event was made much easier this year for me in two ways: 1) Alec's teacher organized the whole class to be a group and they rehearsed at school and even tie-dyed shirts at school so I was not responsible for brainstorming/securing/constructing any type of costume and 2) Jenna was in a group with several girls from our neighborhood and we were able to carpool to rehearsals.  Jenna's group was made us of fairly dance-savvy girls so we were not bogged down in rehearsals, anyway. It was the least painful Lip Sync ever.

Alec came home after the first few rehearsals at school, bursting with news. "I have a SURPRISE!" he said.  "I can't tell you but I want to tell you."  And he ended up spilling the beans: his group was going to sing Frozen's Let It Go with an introduction from the Beatles' Let It Be, and he had volunteered to be one of the four Beatles who stands in front with a fake microphone singing.  This was HUGE news. His teacher was so proud of him.

So the dress rehearsal came for the Lip Sync, and I was able to grab some good video and pictures:

Alec is the boy with the white long sleeves under his orange shirt.  And the only one correctly mouthing the words to Let It Be.

The lady in the orange shirt is Alec's teacher, the Altogether Saintly Mrs. Jones.

And here we are on show night, rocking' the Frozen-color-inspired tie dyed shirts:

(Alec is basically under the 0 in 2015)

Here is Jenna's group, pre-performance at the dress rehearsal.  Such a cute group of girls!

(Jenna is second from the left in the pink shirt.)

They rocked it just as hard on performance night! They did a mash up of a bunch of fun songs, starting with the classic "Everybody Dance Now" and moving into "Shower", "Shake it Off", "Classic", and "All About That Bass".

I was so proud of all of them!
See why my face hurts from smiling?

(I think a teeny tiny bit of me is also smiling because I only have two more Lip Syncs for Alec to be in and then we Libuttis are DONE.)