We wanted Nia to have the quintessential American summer experience during home leave. In my mind that means, tons of family time (bonus points if done at the cabin), oodles of swimming and LOTS of summer camps.
In typical Sarah fashion I overdid it a wee bit. So instead of a reasonable 2-3 camps over our 2 months in the US, she is currently wrapping up her 8th. In case you’re curious, she did: 3 bible camps, 1 robotics camp, 1 dance camp, 1 world music camp, 1 theatre camp and 1 traditional ymca day camp. Her three favorites were 1.) theatre camp (yippee!!!), 2.) world music camp (double yippee!!) and 3.) robotics (unexpected! – future in science???).
Those who have known me a long time know that I have long enjoyed performing – theatre, choir, band – you name it, I’m in! These were Nia’s first forays into music and I was nervously waiting to see how she took to it. Good news – I think I’ve got an arts kid!
Being the proud mama that I am, I must tell you about Nia’s first-ever play!
Nia participated in a Bend Parks & Rec theatre program with Ms. Lovely (real name!). The kids met from 9:30 to 12 Monday thru Thursday and then put on a 25 minute play with full make-up, hair and costumes on Friday. There was a kid running lights, a kid on the sound board and a kid stage manager. It was the coolest darn thing and made me so nostalgic for my theatre days…
The play was called The Zeem Dream and was about some kids who dreamed that they ended up on planet Zeem and had to defeat the horrible Hogglewart. Nia got the coveted role of Bubble #7 which earned her 3 lines! In the pic below she’s on the far left.
She was super into it, although we’ll need to work on maintaining focus while on stage. J But she delivered her lines confidently and most importantly, created something bigger than herself, which I think is an exceptionally important thing to learn how to do in this age of individual achievement.
Our little diva insisted that we bring her flowers. Initially she wanted us to throw them at her on the stage but I convinced her that it would be better if I gave her a big bouquet of them once she got off the stage. Thankfully she was willing to compromise. J Here’s to hoping for many, many more appearances on the stage!
Here’s a quick clip of Nia delivering two of her lines. She’s on the far left.
