Emma Makes the Front Page ... Again!

Emma Kruyer, left, was just one of about 50 children who participated in Missoula Children’s Theatre “make-up” class held Tuesday afternoon. Applying make-up to Kruyer is Missoula Director LeAnn Casey Bjornrud. Pilot photo/Carol Anders

Here's Emma on the front page of today's Pilot News (story below). I didn't even think about doing this last week when Emma and Gracie had their picture on the front page the first time (participating in the summer lunch program at the high school), but at least I'm thinking of it now, right?

P.S. It doesn't look like Emma is in the actual production ... but check out who is (bolded). Congrats to Alexandra!

Edited to Add: Kelsey tells me that she will also be in the production!

PLYMOUTH — Auditions for the Missoula Children’s Theatre musical production of “Pinocchio” took place Monday at Menominee Elementary School in Plymouth.
The spin-off of the fairy tale classic will be presented twice for the public — at 7 p.m. Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13, at the Young Outdoor Amphitheater, Centennial Park, in Plymouth. The rain venue is Menominee Elementary School.


Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for students. Preschoolers are free.
In just two hours, MCT Tour Actors/Directors Le-Ann Casey Bjornrud and Brandon Price cast 60 roles from a group of 112 who auditioned.
Leading the cast is:
Pinocchio, Christa Finley; Jiminy Cricket, Shelby Pratt; Blue Fairy, Olivia Hilliard; Fox, Sarah Puglisi; Cat, Kate Shaffer; Harlequin, Kelsey Shaffer; Columbine, Allegra Davis; Scaramouche, Kate Peters.
The Urchins: Brooklyn Bitting, Dakota Bitting, April Bowen, Andrew Chupp, Briana Gantz, Becca Houser, Chloe Jacobson, Alexandra Jeffirs, Allison Sherk and Toni Stanage.
Candlewick is Eli Wendt and his Candlewick Crew: Chase Holzwart, Grant Ringenberg, Nicole Snare, and Allie Wright.
The Pleasure Isle Kids are: Forrest Baumgartner, Taylor Birk, Haley Buchanan, Ethan Cook, Carter Cripe, Nick Hamera,Kirkland Heddick, Joshua Hildebrand, Sydney Holzwart, Annie Keller, Megan Maxwell, Emily Morris, Gracie Morris, Nathan Nixon, Kate O’Neal, Claire Peters, Calvin Petrucelli, Olivia Wendel and Isaac Wendt.
Ballerinas and Baby Dolls are: Emmaly Bitting, Jia Bloom, Audrie Burton, Hadassah Chupp, Kelsie Crier, Jessica Gladieux, Gracie Holm, Sydney Morris, Sara Stillson and Maddie Wright.
Toy Soldiers are: Kennedy Chavez, Matthew Dobuck, Takis Kurtis, Ryan Puglisi and Payton Sales.
Assistant Directors are: Cameron Carter, Andrea Finley and Isabella Miller;
And Geppetto will be played by Brandon Price, actor/director of Missoula; while director will be actor/director, LeAnn Casey Bjornrud.
MCT offers FREE acting workshops
Missoula Children’s Theatre Tour Actors/Directors Bjornrud and Price will lead free acting workshops for students entering first grade and older from 1:45 to 2:30 p.m. today and Thursday in Plymouth.
Being cast in the show is not required to attend these fun events.
“Chameleon Improv” — today, Menominee Elementary;
“Acting Up” — Thursday, June 11, Young Outdoor Amphitheater, Centennial Park.

Klaudia on Bars

Klaudia Vaults

Easter Photo Album

There was a fairly big crowd at Minkerfarm Sunday to enjoy a low-key Easter together. Take a look below at some of the highlights, which included kite flying, wiffle ball, a scavenger hunt, and, of course, the egg hunt. If you have pictures you'd like to share, you can email them to me and I'll add them to this post. OR ... I could send you an invitation to become a contributor, and you could post all the photos you want. Either way, wherever you were on Easter, we'd love to see your pictures.

Liam and Emma's Soccer Schedule

Liam and Emma are on the same team for soccer this year! Their first game was Saturday. Each team splits up into two groups, so there are two games going on at once and everybody gets a chance to play. Emma's group won their first game something like 7-1, while Liam's group tied at 2. All games are on Saturday mornings at 10:00 in Plymouth. For more details, ask me or Laura. If you're around, hopefully we'll see you one of these mornings:

April 18
April 25
May 2
May 9
May 16
May 23

(Over)spreading the News

Mike, Liam, Max, and I are happy to tell you that Baby Fort version 3.0 will be arriving in early October. Although the gender is unknown, leading contenders for the name (according to Liam) are "Spiderman" and "Firetruck." Since the adults aren't even close to agreement on this one, we're telling everyone who asks that we've chosen "Marlene" for a girl and "Marlon" for a boy. (Unless someone can come up with a better masculine form of Marlene...)

Fossils Are Fun

Cole is doing his big fourth grade Indiana history project on fossils, so it was perfect timing that the library offered a free presentation on space rocks and fossils on Saturday morning, given by the owner/curator of the Joshua Tree Museum. The boys and I met Janis, Cole, and Cassidy at the library for an hour of checking out the different rocks and hearing their histories. If you're wondering about Liam's lack of hair, you can read that story here. Meanwhile, check out our fun morning in the pictures below. In one of them, you can see a hand with a camera in the corner -- that was a guy who was taking pictures for the library's (or possibly the Joshua Tree Museum's) website (he wasn't very clear on which one he represented); if we end up on those pages, I'll link to them later.