Olivia's first performance with Les Mis!

So the teams for the kids have finally been decided. Up until now, Olivia has been paired with different Gavroches, Cossetts and at the very end she got paired with Jackson and then they didn't shuffle the teams anymore! Olivia was so happy! What are the chances that she would know another kid in Les mis AND that they would get paired together?!  The second kid in Olivia's group is called Cassidy. She plays cossett and is the only kid who has previously been in a musical (she played Molly in the musical Annie.) It's a good team to be in! 

Here are the kids before their very first show.  As a treat for the parents, the company gives the parents a couple of free tickets. There was one for Stan and I and Mary. Then a couple hours before the show I asked if they had any spares and we got one more for Mary's friend Paige. The girls dressed up and had a great time together.

Here is the list of cast members

After the show Olivia had flowers and gifts waiting for her. I didn't realize the first performance was such a big deal.  Olivia's and Jacksons voice teacher (Cherine Peck) gave them both a matching bathrobe with their name on it and the Les Mis logo. Olivia wears it over her costume to keep clean and to keep warm, as the theater can get cold.

Stan and I also sent flowers and got her a small necklace with cossets face on it!

Jack Lyall (Olivia's friend from The Voice- kids who is currently preforming in the Kind and I) sent a balloon bouquet- 

Crazy triangle. Here is Olivia with two of her voice teachers (1) Patrice- voice teacher from Sydney (2) Cherine- voice teacher from Melbourne. Patrice is playing fauntine in Les mis with Olivia.

and to top it off, it just so happens they know each other. Cherine and Patrice toured in Lion King together. Patrice played Nala and Cherine played Shenzi...it's a small world after all!

 Here are some pictures from the show-

The cast Olivia gets to preform with

Simon Gleeson (Jean Valjean)

All in all the kids did fantastic...here is to the beginning of 6 more months!

Talent begets talent- singing to cross country.

So this is a crazy concept.  Part of Olivia's training for The Voice- kids (8:00 am audition time) was to get up earlier in the mornings and go for a run. Her voice teacher said it would help her lungs, wake her up and get her ready for an early audition. So we ran...every day....for several months.  

Here we are running on a track at 9:00 am during school holidays- yes, I would time them around the track- I only had Mary and Thomas come along during the school holiday/ two week break.

Once The Voice- kids was over, we stopped running.  A few weeks later, Olivia's school had cross country qualifiers for districts. Olivia placed! We couldn't believe it- we didn't know Olivia could run. The truth is, she is tiny compared to her peers, but she had trained (albeit, she was training for voice and so this was icing on the cake, but she was in shape and used to running when it came time to qualify). Here are some picture-

First- qualifying at school- she came in the top 5 for her grade of about 100 kids.

Here she is about to take off- 

 She ran with a stitch (cramps) the whole time, but she still managed to lap a few of her peers. Her goal was to not walk.

Here she is holding her side-

 The course was a 3K

 

I love this picture she is so proud of herself!! About 6 weeks later was divisionals (so the top 5 kids from each school against each other going for districts) To get to Districts you needed to place in the top 8. 

Again, we didn't train :-) I told Olivia just to have fun since we were doing a sport we didn't know much about. Other schools had been training daily with their cross country kids and they were taking this pretty serious. 

Here is Olivia about half way- she is starting to pass people up.

She was 4th place the whole race and right at the end a group of 6 girls started to sprint to pass her. I was screaming for her to run faster but she kept a consistent pace the whole race.  

She ended up having this girl in the white shirt get in front of her, but she still got 7th overall and qualified for Districts! Wooohoooo! 

 Again, she was pretty proud of herself. This time she had no cramps and took almost 2 minutes off her original qualifying time- 2 minutes is a TON in cross country!  She told me the girls behind her kept yelling "slow down, or you will burn out!" she told me "mom I wasn't going to burn out- I felt good!"

My little runner!

The next section was Districts!  By now, Olivia was in the full swing of Les Miserables and I was having to email the show to see if she could continue with these comps. We were playing it by ear, but in the end they didn't need Olivia on the day of the race so we got to go. During districts they again take the top 8 (but the bottom two are alternates) for State!

To sum it up, it was a cold rainy day- Olivia was grumpy tired, and she got a cramp. She didn't qualify for state, but in the end we laughed about how far she got- who would have thought?? Go Olivia!

Three peaks challenge & Bright, Victoria

 Stan recently participated in a 3 Peaks Challenge, which involved climbing 3 mountains in 3 states in 33 hours. The mountains were some of the highest in Australia and they hiked day and night (one night it was poring rain!!) Once they were done they would get on a bus and drive to the next mountain. He was fundraising money for Whitelion, which is an organization that helps troubled youth from 12-18 yrs. At work Stan overseas a program called "Bain Cares." Stan facilitates opportunities for Bain employees to give back to the community through pro-bono consulting to non-profit organizations in trouble, clean up opportunities in the community, and even high adventure fundraising opportunities for interested employees. It is fun and Stan really enjoys doing this for other people. 

The final day of the three peaks challenge ended in Bright. Stan wanted to know if I would come and pick him up (it was a 4 hour drive each way); he was tired (hadn't slept more than a couple hours over the three days and two of the three days it was very bad weather.)  He said it was gorgeous, but I wasn't too keen on loading up the kids for an 8 hour drive so he came home on the bus! 

The next weekend Stan suggested we take the kids up to see the leaves. Most of Australia does not have deciduous trees, so bright is a bit of a spectacle. Bright gets snow and lots of rainfall. I think the reason it is called bright is because of the rainfall- everything is bright beautiful colors. It reminded me a lot of the east coast in the USA. Soooo-since it is officially autumn, we decided to come see Bright as our last weekend away trip!

We stayed in a holiday park and just relaxed. We took a long walk along the river and got pizza at a nearby playground- it was so nice to just let the kids run around!

Thomas throwing a footy with Stan.

I love the fall and all these leaves!

We were also lucky enough to show up during an autumn festival,

 Roasting chestnuts!

 Thomas smashing nuts.

The next day we went for a hike. Here is Olivia having breakfast before our hike!

Lucky in love

We wanted to go up to one of the highest points in bright- you can see into NSW...but once we got to the top there was a bunch of rain and fog, so we couldn't really see more than 10 meters :(

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!