Pomp and Circumstance! KAILA - Salem Hills High School Class of 2009

Aaaaahh! It's actually here... Graduation week. And Yes, ladies and gentlemen... she made it! This is one of those milestones that always seem so vague and fuzzy when you look into the future...then you blink and it's here!

Have you ever heard that saying that

"The days go slowly, but the years go by so fast"?

We are feeling that today, Miss Kaila-Roo.

From that first day of Kindergarten, where you proved even then that you could rock ANY style, even your self-inflicted haircut.

One memorable quote from her Elementary school years... her second grade teacher, Mrs. Melander, was trying to be positive during parent-teacher-conferences when she said "Kaila is very social... and she does love to accessorize!" The myriad toys, make-up, game pieces, etc. that constantly appeared in her school bag could surely be defined as "nuisance items"!

Jr. High brought the arrival of a new girl... Kaila's soul-mate: Heather. We can't imagine what her High School years would have been like without her siamese-twin!

And Heather is just the center of Kaila's fantastic group of friends.

Thank you girls for your positive influence!!

Sandi, Lexi, Sheii, Kaila, Kenna, Heather & Sarah

Two years at SFHS involved in the show choir, Premier.
Two trips to Branson for Nationals!

Summer Job: THE POOL!
As a life-guard and swim teacher... Kaila loves this job.
And mom and dad love the money she makes for HERSELF!

And finally... getting to be a part of the first graduating class at the brand new

Salem Hills High School.

Congrats Roo! And may the rest of your years be as full of joy and laughter as you have made the last 18 for us.

Class Plays: The "little" project

Oh, hey. It's May. End of the school year, time to wrap up all those little projects. Thank goodness the "big" stuff is over. What a relief to be done with the musical! Right??? SO WRONG!

Every May as the stress mounts and I want to pull my hair out (again) I think to myself... WHY do I do these plays? They are not the "little" project they appear to be! Each student in one of the Drama classes (6 classes, btw, BIG classes) gets to perform in a one-act play for their final. This just kinda makes sense for a Drama class, huh? Simple. Ya think?

So I've got 194 kids. They each need a role. They have to be able to practice during class time, so the plays have to fit the number of boys and girls in each class. Just trying to figure that out is quite the task! Then let's get them all a script, schedule stage-sharing time, find costumes that "fit" each kid as well as the role, plan for each kid to have a wireless microphone (they have to share 20), pray they get memorized and don't fight in their groups, train techies to run the lighting, sound, scenery all by themselves, and schedule performances into the busy-busy end of year calendar. Oh, and, hey... don't leave any of them alone for a minute... these are junior high kids, people. Piece of cake!

This week I have 11 plays going on in my Drama 1 and Drama 2 classes. They will each perform for the school, and then again for their parents in the evening. That's 22 shows in 4 days! Whoo-hoo!!! (or maybe that's... BOO-hoo.) And next week... Drama 3 gets to do their self-written and produced shows. Here's what my room looks like today:

Costume Corner:

The Microphone Table:

The Dreaded PROP Room:

The backstage view:

This week's schedule:

And let's not forget... THE KIDS!

And WHY am I blogging??? Because everything's ready! We just finished the final dress rehearsal during last hour. At 6:30 pm they will start appearing with their families to PERFORM! Ooops! Wait..... the Programs!!!!!

Off I go the copy room! C'mon June -- Let's wrap this sucker up!!!

Speaking of Drama...

This one made our whole geeky-drama family smile!

Sound of Music Train Station @ Yahoo! Video