The Actress

Emily did Petite Players camp this last week. We have never participated in Petite Players but have had acquaintances that have been a part of their productions and it sounded cute. We decided to try a camp this year. Emily did their one week Sound of Music camp. She loved it and came home so excited everyday. They did crafts (which ended up being the stage props), singing, dancing, choreography, and acting. Certainly right up Emily's alley! The owner/director/teacher is a mom...she is one of those very high energy, talks loud, over exaggerated, super magnetic personality types of people.....like you are exhausted after speaking to her for over a couple of minutes. She is awesome for kids and super great for shy kids. Emily took to her right away. Another really cool thing is that she had three young girls that had "graduated" from petite players (it only goes up to 5th grade) that were helping her. Emily told me one of the girl's names was Katherine. Small world....turns out two of the three girls were sisters and the girls that I babysat for my entire four years of college! I babysat for a family of four..a boy and his three younger sisters while I was attending college. I babysat for date nights, outings, overnight trips and one time a whole week. The family paid me well and it was a perfect college job. They kept me very busy! John and my brother Nic would help a lot. The Andersons became part of our family and when John and I got married, the three oldest children were in our wedding. We have kept up over the years through letters, Christmas cards and accidental "run-ins" around town. I love the family and they seemed to love us! Anyways, the two younger girls were "helpers" at the petite players camp and recognized Emily. They spoke to us the second day and I about fell out of my seat when I saw them because they have changed so much. I started babysitting for them when the two older ones were in elementary school, the third was like 2, and the fourth was not even born yet. So to see them now was shocking. The oldest is a Junior in college, 2nd is a senior in High school, 3rd is going into 9th grade, and the youngest is going into 6th grade. I felt so old!!! The kids I babysat for were now like basically babysitting my child. Very cool though.

The show on Friday where the girls got to show the parents what they had been doing all week was so awesome and one of the cutest things I have ever seen. John and I both cried just cause it was so dang cute and sweet! They did their very own version of the Sound of Music that made me feel like I was sitting in the basement of my house watching my daughter and her friends put on a "play" that they had been working on all summer. It was just adorable but small and sweet! They learned like 5 songs from the movie as well as dancing and stunts! Pretty impressive for four days. I loved that it was a classic story they were depicting as well instead of a teeny bopper modern day movie. I would love to sign Emily up for the fall semester but they are full already...something we will think about for the Spring.