annie

I love theater.  This past weekend Annabel was in Annie.  She played Lily St. Regis, and got to be the bad girl -- the ditzy Jersey girl.  And wear tons of makeup, which she loved.  It was an impressive middle school show with a large cast.  Their school's first musical ever.  Annabel did great - she had to act, sing and dance, all in heels.  The girl who played Miss Hannigan was hilarious.  The kids worked hard and had a lot of fun.  

The last couple of weeks I went to some rehearsals and helped out a bit.  The director was happy for any time I was willing to give.  I worked with kids on confidence and projecting their voice, stage presence, a little with singing.  It was really rewarding and it seemed to help.  I love working with kids and luckily Annabel enjoyed having me around helping with her friends.  I guess I'm not the coolest mom, but I'm also not the weirdest mom.  I'm somewhere in the middle.  As long as I don't break into song in front of her friends I'm good.      

final ask skylar

In this episode Sky gives teens advice about boundaries.  She also talks to a kid who is nervous about starting a new high school.  She suggests that the girl create a character which is a more confident version of herself.  Kind of a "fake it til you feel it."  Interesting because just today I listened to this Ted talk by a sociologist who talks about the importance of body language and how even holding a confident posture for two minutes before a person goes into a job interview can make that person exude confidence.

What a great experience this webshow was for Sky.  She got to work with such wonderful people, from the producer, to the assistants, to the tech guys.  She got to be honored for her natural gifts of intelligence, wisdom, and wit.  She had so much fun filming, and got to see what that was like.

Ever since she has been very young she has been dramatic and comes alive when she is on camera.  It will be fun to have these shows as she grows up.

ask sky about getting along with little brothers

The day Shawn was born Sky, age 6 1/2, asked me, in total earnestness, "Can you marry your brother?"  Later that day when we placed this tiny baby into her arms for the first time she said, "I'm your big sister Skylar, and I'm going to love you for the rest of your life."

Shawn was born before noon at home.  Sky didn't leave my side for the rest of the day, and chose to have her meals with us, drawing Shawn about 25 pictures.  She was thoroughly enthralled...

Thank God for this beginning.  As Shawn grew she continued to love him, but baby and toddler reality also struck.  Overall, our kids all get along really well.  I always tell them how lucky they are to have each other, and how it's important to draw on happy memories to help get through conflicts and squabbles.

Something is going right.  Shawn just got back from his first day of school after fall break, the girls are still off school.  I think he missed them.  He is doing his homework in Sky's room (a first) while she charges her brand new cell phone.  

In this episode of Ask Skylar, Sky talks about when little brothers annoy you, and friendships.

life lessons

This is Skylar's webshow -- in this episode she addresses bullying.   

I was harassed in high school my first year by a group of troubled girls who were my age.  I am not kidding, one of the girls' fathers was in prison, and I went to a really good high school!  These mean girls were from the city.  I was a small town country girl.  I never did anything to them, they just started picking on me.  I told an adult but it didn't help, in fact it made it a little worse.   They were pretty scary to me.  There was this older girl in my school (Becky) who was on my gymnastics team and she got word of what was happening.   Becky was also a city girl.   She had a few choice words with the bully leader.  Let's just say those awful girls never even looked at me, let alone spoke to me ever again, and two were soon kicked out of our school, due to their own self destructive behavior.   The rest of my time in high school was much better.

Becky was my hero.  Thank you Becky!!

My daughter was teased and mistreated by some girls and accused of being -- are you ready? -- too happy.  Now she is in a school where there is zero tolerance for this type of behavior and she is loved by her friends for who she is.  For the most part the kids treat each other with respect, despite their differences.

Have your kids experienced being bullied?    

ask skylar

 

It has been awhile since I posted about Sky's webshow.  Here is episode seven.  She talks about friendship.

corner view~silly

Many of you know that our comedic daughter is starring in a webshow.  An advice show.  But there is plenty of silly as well.  Just look and see.

Here are episodes five and six.

ask skylar

Two more episodes of our awesome girl's webshow have been released.  Here and here.  If your kids have any questions, be sure to have them ask Skylar! 

Have a great weekend, my friends!

ask skylar

Ok everybody, Sky's internet show "Ask Skylar" is up.  It turned out really well, and Sky wrote and created the theme song.  Here is the link to view Episode 1, where she introduces herself more in depth.

And this is Episode 2, which is the first show where she answers questions, and you will see the basic format of the show.

Let me know how you like it.  If you can share it with people in your neck of the woods that would be great.  The production team wants us to get it out there and see if it is popular and if kids and teens are drawn to this type of internet interaction.

Have a great weekend!

yamashiro farmers market

It has been a long and busy week in LA.  The girls are going to acting boot camp five hours a day, each girl goes three separate days a week.  Yesterday I cooked lunch at the camp for twenty kids, homemade marinara sauce and noodles, garlic bread, salad with mandarin oranges.  It was a lot of fun.  We are searching for a place back home to live for two months when we return.  We are keeping our active little boy as busy as possible, which involves visits to the parks, hikes, walks in the neighborhood, games, playing ball in our courtyard here.  We are getting the girls started in schoolwork online as much as possible.  Tomorrow Sky gets her hair cut and gets ready to film another six shows next week.  The show will be released to the public very soon.  We have seen it, it is great!  Both of the girls have taken dance classes at this really cool dance studio here.  We are also shopping, cooking, and generally finding our way around in a big city...having fun.

We have booked our flight home at the end of the month.  But for now we are trying to enjoy our time and the opportunities in this place that is so different from our home.

And so tonight, when we had no water due to a plumbing mix up so I couldn't cook, and we had to change plans at the last minute, we decided to meet our invited dinner guests at the farmer's market.  I was so happy to discover this place, way at the top of a hill overlooking the city.  There we met the girls' acting coach, and a bunch of families in town for boot camp for dinner.  And for a few hours, while we ate great food, listened to live music, talked and laughed, and the kids painted flower pots and danced and consumed all sorts of treats, I had a family here.

a day of museums with friends

My best friend from college lives in Virginia and our kids have grown up together and had frequent visits.  These photos are from our day in DC visiting the Spy Museum and the International Art Museum.  It was so wonderful to see my friend and the kids had a blast.  As a bonus our weather all week has been so lovely, warm but not much humidity, perfect for being outdoors!  DC is such a clean and beautiful city, so full of excitement and energy.

los angeles ps

Girls' headshots photo shoot with Jeri, retreat with Amma, bringing friends to meet Amma for the first time, Beverly Hills foggy morning, gorgeous flowers everywhere, Sky with her producer, Irene.  Bye bye LA for now!

los angeles reminisce

LA parks, and streets, and haircuts, and pastries from Cantor's Deli, and seeing billboards everywhere, including our favorite family show, and our kids goofing around, and acting camp where both girls worked hard, and Sky met songwriter teen girls.  The walls in the acting studio are all painted like Mondrian's work. What a wonderful time we all had!