We’re home from our church’s Christian Community Conference/Talent Show.  I’m back online (whew!) and back home with my chocolate (double whew!).  mmm…chocolate…

During much of the conference I found myself in the back of the room nursing a fussy baby and watching the kids make crazy hats, jewelry, flowers and other stuff with pipe cleaners.

When Bethany wasn’t fussing, she was being passed around like a basketball, from one eager set of hands to the next with hardly a pause in the rhythm.  I never knew where to find her until she cried; then she seemed to find me.

The 3rd annual Talent Show was a challenge and a success.  There were 26 acts in all and it lasted for 3 hours.  We’re a talented bunch.  It was highly entertaining, of course – how could it fail to be? – but many acts ran into bumps and roadblocks, including one of ours.  I’ll tell you about my ovarian guilt from that incident in another post.  For now, I’ll just tell you what our family did.  Poetry seems to be our specialty, so you’ll see that we are heavy in that area:

Would you like to know Who was on first?  That’s right; He was.  Who was? Yes.  Who? Exactly!  Can you guess what act hubby and his friend did?  In spite of the fact that I had heard it a hundred times in the weeks before the show, I still laugh at all the same lines, every time.  I just can’t help it.  I’ll break your arm you say Who’s on first! And I couldn’t help but laugh at audience’s delighted reaction to all the punch lines.  Do I have to tell you that hubby and his friend did a great job on a great skit?  Go watch the original now.

Deanna recited Carry On by Robert Service.  This was a late change, as we decided that the extremely long poem she had memorized was less fitting to the occasion.  She memorized this entire poem nearly effortlessly in about a day and a half, including a small improvisation which fitted seamlessly into the original.  I always tell her that if she had a super power, it would be Memorization.  Not quite as dramatic as the powers of Superman or the Xmen, perhaps, but quite impressive nonetheless.

Kaitlyn and Lydia performed Twins by Henry S. Leigh.  They alternated, each saying half a line without missing a beat.  Very funny and very fitting since they are our only two light-haired green-eyed daughters, and used to be mistaken for twins almost every time we left the house.

Megan learned It Couldn’t Be Done by Edgar Guest.  This was also a late addition to the plan, and like Deanna, Megan learned her poem very quickly.  What can I say?  My kids are talented. 

Natalie worked very hard to learn Adventures of Isabel by Ogden Nash.  She had a little trouble remembering the poet’s name when she was first learning it, so I had all the children repeat his name as a group about 10 times.  As a result, Perry Boy ran around the house for several days chanting, Ogen Nash!  Ogden Nash!  Ogden Nash! Needless to say, Natalie had no more trouble recalling the poet’s name.

Becca learned My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson almost entirely by herself, and recited it flawlessly.  She came away glowing.

Our family had been working on learning Proverbs chapter 3 (not for the talent show), and a couple of weeks before the show we realized that 3yo Rachael had learned the first 8 verses.  This seemed very talented of her, so she recited that for the talent show.

The girls were very nervous about this one, but they did a lovely rendition of Wayfaring Stranger, which they learned from the Von Trapp family CD.  The three on the left sang melody while the 3 on the right sang harmony a half line later, with a sort of echo effect.  I’m sure there’s a technical name for it but I have no idea what it is; at any rate, it was hauntingly beautiful and I’m glad they were brave enough to do it.

And then we all ate BBQ until we could eat no more.  It was a good day in Texas.