Water Slide in Central Park

Don’t you just love summer?  Friday evening was spent in Central Park in our community listening to a local band, visiting with friends, and taking advantage of a water slide sponsored by our local children’s theater group. 

$5 purchased as many goes on the slide as a person could handle.  A bargain!

The husband manned the video camera and got some great footage.  Check out the videos:

Obviously the boy had a great time!  He was quite muddy by the time he was done and luckily we had a big towel that kept the wetness and the mud on him rather than the seat in the car.  He was literally hosed down when we got home before taking a shower.

Friday evening was the 2^nd evening in a series of three that were spent in Central Park in our community.  Thursday evenings during the month of June and July welcome our local municipal band concert.  And, Saturday night was “movie night” in the park.  One reason to love summer is that there is so much to do and so much to do outside!

God Rest Ye, Gerry Mentlemen--OCCP Wraps Production

OCCP ended the 2011 season with God Rest Ye, Gerry Mentlemen, a holiday story with a holiday message.  The short, yet quaint, play is about Gerry Mentlemen, a shrewd businessman who ends up finding the spirit of Christmas, just like Scrooge!

About 50 children were a part of the cast while parents and other volunteers worked backstage.

The set consisted of 5 “boxes” that rotated to create 4 different scenes.  A local art teacher provided the details in the painting. 

Children and directors rehearsed for five weeks to bring the show to life at Bridge View Center during the first week-end in December.  If you weren’t in the holiday spirit before the show, you certainly were after, as holiday songs were sprinkled throughout.

The boy played a “townspeople” character.  He was on his way to school during the opening scene, as it was just after Labor Day.  Later, he was in a Halloween costume for another scene, and ended the play in a Christmas sweater, just in time for the holidays!

The husband painted set and worked backstage, while I managed the sound board.  The family that does theater together, stays together?!?  (The husband even got recruited for a small role in the next OCP production!)

After three performances, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the cast and crew celebrated with a Cast Party complete with food, cake, music, and dancing.

 The boy with Directors Marc and Becky!

In addition to this production coming together quite quickly, it featured many new faces from throughout our community.  And, after watching all of the kids interact and have a grand time at the Cast Party—hopefully, many of them will be back!

Click here to read about another OCCP production.

The boy's adoring fans:

The Boy Went to OCCP Summer Camp!

Ever since Santa brought him a sleeping bag for Christmas, the boy has been anxious to use it at the annual OCCP Summer Camp, which he was finally old enough to attend this summer!

The camp takes place over the course of 3 days and 2 nights at a camp a few miles outside of our city.  The camp has a lake/beach, cabins, gym, lodge, etc.

At about this time, you might be wondering how we got the photos of the boy at camp.  Well, the husband was a volunteer at the camp and was there overnight both nights.  While he didn't share a cabin with the boy, he was right next door and available for photo ops.

OCCP is our local children's theater group that produces three productions each year.  The boy has been in many OCCP productions.  Click here to read more. . .

This was the third year for the camp which consisted of several counselors, adult volunteers, and about 60 campers.

The weather was great the first afternoon so everyone got to swim in the lake and go canoeing.  You can see the boy climbing up onto the floating dock in the photo above.  There was a lifeguard on duty and the kids had to pass a swimming test before they could go out to the raft.  The boy was the only one of his age group that passed!

Here's Marc ready to take some campers out in the canoe.  Life jackets!  Yeah!

Here's the boy donning a life jacket so he could head out in a canoe.  From the photo below, you can tell he was enjoying his leisurely ride!

Some of the girls decided to bury a fellow camper.  And, in the photo below, is that the boy hanging out with the lifeguard?

There were two boys' cabins.  Each cabin had to create and perform a short skit by Friday.  It was, after all, theater camp!  Each cabin was given a bag of props to help them get started with creating and writing the skit.  They used the props during the performance.

A camp fire was on order for the first night and included songs, making smores, and photographs.  Each camper received a t-shirt to commemorate their camp experience.  They are all wearing the shirts for the camp fire and photos.

Ah, someone must have taken the camera from the husband to snap the photo above. 

Smores!  Yummy!

Chillin' in the cabin.  The boy had a bottom bunk for his 2 nights at camp.

The boy's bunk is bottom left in the photo above as that is his sleeping bag.  That means that all the stuff spread out on the floor in front of the bunk was his, too!

There is a large gym as a part of the facility that came in handy during rainy afternoons.  There was also a dance held in the gym on the second night.

The boys' created a skit about a leprechaun and the boy played a Sheriff who had had his money stolen by the leprechaun. 

Friday evening marked the end of camp.  The parents were invited to attend the performances and then take their camper home.  Here's Marc and Becky welcoming the parents and introducing the skits.  There were 6 skits in all.

Now it was their turn.  The leprechaun is wearing the green hat.  The cast introduced themselves before the skit started.

The sleeping Sheriff at the beginning of the skit.

Acting, acting, acting.  They skillfully executed their skit.

And, here's the boy at the end of camp, rolling his bag from his cabin to the car.  He had a great time and was very tired on Friday night.  The stories started coming Saturday morning during breakfast.

He's looking forward to going again next year!

A Cast Party for OCCP's The Secret Garden

What’s a show without a Cast Party? For the cast and crew of OCCP’s The Secret Garden, the Cast Party was a celebration of weeks of hard work.

The cast party was held after the last performance in what is referred to as the “Studio” at Bridge View Center and was decorated by a group of volunteers with a garden theme.

The food was catered by Bridge View as well as each parent bringing a food item to share. There was plenty of food and it was yummy!

Another parent made this terrific cake—it looked like the secret garden! On one side, the names of all the kids in the show were written in icing.

A D.J. was on hand to provide music for dancing. Kids of all ages shared the dance floor!



Then, it was time for Karaoke-- a new featured added for this cast party. OK, you have a bunch of kids who are into theater and performing. What do you think is going to happen when you add a microphone and music into the mix? Yep, that is exactly what happened!

The boy wanted to go first, but he hesitated as he hadn’t experienced Karaoke before, so another cast member took the reigns and performed the first song. What was neat about this was that many of the other kids gathered around to watch and see how it all worked. They formed a semi-circle around the performer with tall ones in the back and small ones in the front—no need for direction giving needed, they did it automatically and made sure that everyone who wanted to see could.

So the boy went 2nd and it wasn’t too long before he was adding his own vocal stylings during the musical interludes.



There were others who came next. Then, something happened, that made me question whether I was dealing with an 8 year old or had fast forwarded in time 10 or so years. The boy came back to where we were seated and asked for a pen. I dug through my bag and found one. He then began writing his song request for Karaoke on a napkin—including his name and the title of the song. With the pen returned, he gave his song request to the D.J. and within a few minutes he had the microphone in his hand again!

Fun was had by all and the cast members left, after saying good-bye, with a token from the show, which was also garden themed. What’s a show without a Cast Party!