Fashion show!

So- after all this Olivia attention, Mary and I decided to take a girls night out to the Melbourne fashion show. It was our first fashion show. Mary dressed up and on her seat there was a little gift with nail polish and lip gloss. When the runway started all the models came out with their various outfits. I was amazed how they all looked identical to each other. The only thing different was the hair length and hair color and on occasion skin color- it was like a room full of life size barbie dolls. Some were very skinny, but they all had the same look.  It is a cool experience to have, but I wouldn't necessarily do it ever again!

 Mary posing on the runway

My Mary bear, growing up very fast!

Behind the scene, Les Miserables rehearsals!

So I just thought I would give everyone an idea of how it all works before the show actually opens. I found some pictures online from the early days of rehearsals

 Here is our kid group. There are 12 kids (4 Cossett's, 4 Eponine's & 4 Gavroche's) there are 4 teams of 3 kids and each group takes a couple turns on stage each week. The picture above was our first day of rehearsal! The two adults in the picture are the kid chaperons. They monitor the kids at all times and give us (as parents) feedback if we stuff anything up (lunches, drop off times, forgetting things etc...) They run a tight ship, but I am grateful they do!

Here is what the music room looks like when the cast come together to sing through the show. Olivia told me that sitting in the room was an overwhelming experience. She said everyone has amazing voices and they all sing very powerfully. She said it was probably like sitting in heaven with a bunch of angels around you.

I think she is right, these are some of the best singers in Australia and the cast come from all over the nation to be a part of this amazing production. When the show is not in their home state, the cast members stay in a hotel. When the tour goes to their state they get to stay at home. This picture is focused on Simon Gleeson (Jean Valjean), the tall guy is Hayden Tee (Javert) and then our favorite Patrice Tipoki who plays Fauntine.

On the first day of rehearsals Olivia was very nervous. She said she walked in and met everyone and the first person she saw was Patrice. Patrice gave her a big hug and asked how Olivia had been. Olivia told me she was so happy she knew at least one person in the group. Patrice was Olivia's very first voice teacher in Sydney. Patrice then moved to Brisbane and Olivia moved to Melbourne and now two years later they were able to see each other again!  I was also over the moon to see Patrice!

Luckily for Olivia Patrice was not the only person she knew in the cast. Jackson Rudge (Gavroche) was also cast in the musical. Olivia and Jackson go to the same dance school, have the same singing teacher and now that they are rehearsing together have become best of friends. I am so happy for Olivia to have a built in friend and another adult at the opera house to keep an eye on her since I am not able to stay with her and watch.

After a few weeks of rehearsals at the Opera house, the cast were able to move into the theater and start practicing on stage. Here is a picture of all the props getting loaded onto the truck.

The show will be at 'Her Majesties Theater' which is in the middle of the city right near a hub of other theaters. I was so excited, because that theater is directly across the street from where I work!  This meant when Olivia had lunch breaks we were able to meet up and hang out!

Once the kids were in the theater they worked through stage movements, lighting, sound, the orchestra came to start rehearsing with the cast, this is called the Sitzprobe which Olivia said was AMAZING!

The technical aspect of the show is amazing. The set was imported from England and they even bring their own stage so the props can fit into the grooves necessary for moving from scene to scene.  The backstage area is so small that some of the props are hoisted into the air just to make space for other props to come on during certain times of the show. The parents were given a backstage tour with the kids, which was really fun since the kids were amazing tour guides. 

Olivia showed me her dressing room, where she gets tutored, where they eat, color pictures etc. Olivia is at the theater 4 nights per week. Two of those nights she is on stage, the other two she is behind stage, in full costume ready to go on in case the other kids needs her to fill in. How often do kids get used to stand in if the other has a problem?  Fairly often (not a ton) but it happens more often then you would think!

After 8 weeks of rehearsals it was time for OPENING NIGHT!

Weekend at Phillip Island

After Olivia was eliminated from The Voice- kids, she had 4 days before her audition for Les Miserables. After we found out she got the part for Les Miserables, and realized what a time commitment it would be (4 days/ week and every weekend would be taken until December) we realized we would not have time for a holiday for a good year. We packed up the car and drove an hour east to Phillips Island for the weekend, we stayed in a holiday house, went fishing and just let the kids play. It was long overdue and since we had spent most of the summer with family, filming The Voice-kids and then going straight into school- we hadn't had a weekend away for a very long time.  

Here are some pictures of the kids fishing. Olivia and thomas caught a fish straight away, but nothing seemed to bite for Mary.

The summer is gone and autumn came sooner than I would have liked!

After an hour we left the lake and went into an indoor area loaded with fish. Mary was sure to catch something here!

5 minutes later....

Afterwards, we ate the fish for lunch and then went onto the chocolate factory and some time at the beach!

Tenilles Wedding!

So my baby sister Tenille got married!  I flew out to the USA for two days (yes I was in the air longer than on the ground), and got to see my gorgeous sister say "I DO" to Jake Gorringe. Here are some lovely pictures of their big day. 

First their engagement photo-  Jake proposed by bridal veil falls with just the two of them. He got down on one knee, asked my dad for permission and did everything the old fashioned way- so he is a keeper!

Here is Tenille right before she walks down the aisle

 Here is my dad doing his last walk with Tenille before giving her away-

I didn't get many pictures from the ceremony, but here is Jake "kissing the bride" 

I love Addisions' (flower girl) face! 

Man and wife!

 Tenille and Addision

 Tenille and the bridesmaids

 all the nieces and nephews...welcome to the family Jake!

 

Tengelsen kids-

 

The family

 Sisters 

 Wedding photo's of the couple-

 

The cake at the reception later that night!

Dance party- here are Tenille and Jacob (my little brother)

 Daddy daughter dance!

and they lived happily ever after-

Congrats you two!!

Les Miserables!

For those of you who are sad for Olivia because she was eliminated from The Voice-kids, don't be!  It just so happened that 4 days after Olivia was eliminated from The Voice- kids, there were auditions being held for the Australian tour of Les Miserables. Had Olivia gone through to the next round of The voice- kids she might have missed out on a shot to be a part of the world famous Cameron Mackintosh production of Les Miserables!

 From start to finish, the audition process took 4 months. Olivia auditioned the first time with a group of 10-11 year olds. She made it to the final cut and then received a phone call a few months later (Cameron Mackintosh himself reviews the final group) that they had decided to cut almost every kid from the first audition. Only a few remained and she was one of them. Now they were opening up auditions for kids younger than 10. The benefit of having kids 10 and older has to do with government working restriction. Once the kids are younger than 10 there are more restrictions. So she prepared for a second string of auditions with kid ranging from 6-11 years old.

 Here is Olivia zoning out. Usually there is a lot of draining energy at these auditions and you have to keep your head in the game. Kids crying, singing, talking, being excited etc.... Everyone copes with auditions differently. Olivia just ignores the hustle and bustle and zones out. When they do the auditions you go round after round and can get cut at anytime. Some rounds are singing, some acting etc..It's more a game of how long you can stay in. In between each round, a couple girls would go ahead and the rest would come out in tears. Overall about 150 girls auditioned for the parts of Cossette and Eponine. They needed 8 girls total (so 4 on each part).

We didn't hear anything for ages and after a very very long wait, Olivia was informed that she had been selected for the musical and she would get to play the part of Eponine & Ensemble! When she found out she screamed with excitement!  I asked her "are you disappointed you didn't get to play Cossett and sing 'castle on a cloud?' She said "NO, I am just grateful they would think I was good enough to do something so big as Les Mis!"  She would have played any part they offered her and I am so proud of her for (1) being grateful no matter what and (2) for giving 100% no matter how big or small the part!

Honestly, I am busting with pride after Olivia's gracious loss on The Voice- kids and now her genuine excitement for her role in Les Mis. She really does have a heart of gold.

To sing in Les Miserables is pretty much a dream come true for the whole family. I have a soft spot for Les Mis; when I was 16 years old my parents took me on a trip to England, and Les Mis was the first musical I ever saw. I have the poster framed in my house with the original tickets!

Here is Olivia during one of her first days rehearsing in the theater!

Crazy story: Olivia's very first voice lesson was from a girl in Sydney named Patrice Tipoki. Patrice was a friend from church and when they started lessons the first song Patrice taught Olivia was "Castle on a cloud." Unfortunately, Olivia's voice lessons were cut short, and after only 6 lessons our family moved from Sydney to Melbourne (8 hours south).  Shortly after we moved, Patrice's husband graduated from school and their family moved up to Brisbane (10 hours north of Sydney). We didn't expect to see them again, but as fate would have it Patrice landed the role of Fauntine!  Olivia couldn't believe she would be singing alongside her old voice teacher!  Crazy hu??

Throughout the play Olivia has 3 outfit changes (1) a peasant costume, for the beginning of the play when John Val John is looking for work (2) a beautiful blue dress and bonnet during the master of the house scene when she plays Eponine and (3) a street costume during the second half of the play when she is part of the french revolution riot, and sings a short solo in the song "turning" when the girls are cleaning the blood off the streets after the revolution.

Olivia is at the theater 4 nights a week, with 8 performances happening each week. Olivia will rotate with 3 other girls (there are 6 night performances with two matinee performances (Wednesday & Sunday), and Mondays are always off!)

So far it has been a big learning curve for us, but we are doing well!  I am so proud of Olivia for all her hard work! Honestly, she is amazing! Here is the webpage in case you want to have a peak! http://www.lesmis.com.au/about/cast-and-creative/ensembles/

And if you have never seen the play- GO! It has such a beautiful message and if she only ever gets in one play, this is the one we would pick! We love Les Miserables!

 Above is Her Majesties Theater in the CBD of Melbourne and below are some pictures of what the city looks like right now!

Movie Star Planet!

So this picture is a bad example because Olivia's video eventually didn't pop up anymore and you now have to search it, BUT a few days after Olivia's blind audition's were shown on TV there were a few kids that were advertised on a kids video game called "movie star planet."  Olivia was playing the game with a friend and  then all of the sudden her video popped-up along with Alexa (this girl is on fire) & Robby (the scottish kid). The three of them popped up for about two weeks until they were replaced by some other popular you-tube clip.  Olivia would sit on the game and see comments from other players about her video. She kept telling me "I want to tell everyone that I am her!" I didn't want her too for safety reasons, but it got really funny when someone created a movie star person called "Olivia" that looked like her and would talk to other kids, but Olivia wasn't that person. We watched this character for a while and decided if this character did anything bad we would notify The Voice- kids legal team to have them take down this false identity of Olivia. 

Either way, interesting right?

Pavement United Brands!

So it just so happens we have a friend who has just opened a tween clothing company called Pavement. www.pavementbrands.com  (why won't it link to the web page!)

He has managed several successful businesses in the past (gumboots, happy lab, smiggle...just to name a few) and when we told him about Olivia on The Voice- kids he said he would sponsor her!!

It was free clothing for us and free marketing for him so a win/ win!! At first I thought 'this will be fun,' but once I came to the head office and saw all the outfits lined up on the wall, Olivia felt like a movie star. They had a full table of head pieces, accessories, shoes, and if anything didn't fit they would run downstairs to the warehouse and grab another size. We would take pictures of each outfit and email them to wardrobe at The Voice-kids  and then hey would pick what we wore from Pavement.

Pavement realized that The Voice-kids ultimately has the final say, so we didn't feel bad if The Voice-kids picked something else. All of Olivia's casual on-camera outfits ended up being from pavement (from head to toe- hair all her headbands-accessories, clothes and shoes). What I liked best about working with pavement was that it was our choice. Olivia liked some clothes and didn't like others, and ultimately got to pick out a couple free outfits that she liked. On top of it, if I needed anything last minute, they had shops all over Australia and someone would run the goods over to Fox Studios. 

Below are some of my favorites, but there were so many I don't even know where to start!

Here was Olivia's blind audition outfit!

Here is the outfit Mary wore during Olivia's blind audition 

Olivia ended up wearing this fury vest (above) and these shoes (below) for her battle round.

Here is the outfit Mary wore during Olivia's battle round (which ended up not being shown on camera) and the outfit below is what Olivia wore during her training session with Delta during her battle round.

Since Olivia wore their clothes on TV they followed up by offering to feature her on their web page with a few other Voice Kids that we also hooked up with Pavement. It has been incredible and I can't believe all the support we have gotten from people just coming out of the wood work for her! We love you pavement!

Here are some blog posts by pavement about Olivia:
https://www.pavementbrands.com/blog/performing-tv-and-starring-les-miserables
https://www.pavementbrands.com/blog/we-heart-olivia
https://www.pavementbrands.com/blog/go-olivia-sienna-sebastian

and an email I had a friend show me in on her phone- I was like "send that to me!"

We heart pavement!