Once Upon a Mattress

          After the Cryers left, it was all systems go in preparing Abigail for her big performance in her high school musical.  She had landed the star role of Winifred in Once Upon a Mattress, a broadway musical which is an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale Princess and the Pea. 

     This was a very big deal, as you can imagine, but all the more so because although Abigail has been in many musicals, plays, concerts, music competitions, drama competitions, etc., she has never won any awards or been awarded any solos or a starring role in anything.  And she has always dealt with the disappointment gracefully, and so much more gracefully than I think I ever could.  She has always seen herself as a team player, doing her very best for the sake of the 'show', and has never shirked in a performance because she thought she deserved to be in a better role.  I guess that shows a real love for her art, and also shows that although she can be a real drama queen/diva on the surface, deep down I think she is nothing of the sort. 

     So anyway, this was quite turning point in her career.  She put in countless hours of rehearsals, practicing her songs at home, etc. I wasn't there for any of her rehearsals, so I really didn't know how much she was accomplishing or how good she was becoming at her role and her solos.  So when we showed up at her performance on Friday night, I was absolutely floored by what I saw.  She gave a completely captivating performance.  I was mesmerized from the minute she got on stage until the end of the play.  Her opening scene was so good, so authentic, and so funny that it actually made me cry.  I was so taken with the whole thing that I dropped all my other commitments and made a special trip down on Saturday night to watch it for a second time - I couldn't stay away! 

     Here are some pictures from the play from beginning to end.  In the opening scene, Winifred arrives at court by swimming the moat and climbing over the castle wall.  So here is Abigail in her first entrance, dramatically huffing and puffing whilst climbing over the set wall:

Entering court by climbing over the wall

     It's a humorous scene, as Winifred is a very vivacious, fun-loving character, coming into court in a most unconventional way.  She then sings a very funny song, Shy, asking where the prince is whom she is supposed to marry.  Between the dramatic entrance and this song, this scene really draws you in to the play.  Abigail gave an impeccable performance, so much so that she won an award for this particular scene. 

Singing Shy

  

More Shy

   

Shy

Shy

 

Shy

     After the song, Winifred and the scary Queen have a dialogue, in which Winifred realizes that she and the Queen might take a little while to become friends.



Winifred and the Queen

    Soon afterwards there is a scene in which Winifred talks about her home kingdom, which is located in a swamp.  She sings a song, Swamps of Home, in which she gets upset about being homesick.  But it's also meant to be a funny song since her home is a swamp so she sings about missing the frogs, etc., and she imitates swamp sounds.  The song demanded a lot of nuance, since Abigail was supposed to be sad at being homesick, but at the same time deliver a humorous performance about missing frogs, etc.  She did it brilliantly - I laughed through the whole thing.




Swamps of Home

 

Swamps of Home

 

With Prince Dauntless and Winifred's Ladies in Waiting

     The next big scene with Winifred is when Winifred tells Dauntless to call her by her nickname, which is 'Fred'.  This then leads to a fast-paced song, Song of Love, about how wonderful 'Fred' is, in which she is supposed to showcase her many abilities.  So Abigail had to run around the stage pretending to play the lute, lift weights, dance, and wrestle Dauntless.  Abigail did it very tongue-in-cheek, acting as though she was doing these things well while in reality she was doing them very badly.  It was very well done.

Song of Love

 

Song of Love

     Abigail's next solo was Happily Ever After, a song where Winifred complains about how all the other fairy tale characters have found true love except for her.  Abigail was on the stage all alone for this number - not an easy feat, but she managed to keep us all enraptured

Happily Ever After

  

Happily Ever After

     Soon after comes the pivotal scene where the Queen tries to get Winifred to sleep on the 20 mattresses .... 

 

Winifred with her ladies in waiting and the Queen

  ... but alas, this, of course, does not work, as Winifred is a true princess ...

 

Winifred tossing and turning atop the mattresses

  

Winifred threatening the muse as she demands the muse stop singing

     In the final scene, Winifred emerges in the morning, exhausted by lack of sleep, and collapses on the floor in front of Dauntless.  

 

Winifred with Dauntless

     He wakes her up momentarily to tell her the good news that she passed the Queen's test to see if she was a real princess ....

 



Winifred and Duauntless

 ... and then she climbs back onto the bed and promptly falls asleep while the rest of the kingdom rejoices.

 

Winifred asleep with Dauntless

 

 

Abigail and Paul (Dauntless) at the final applause

     There was all the usual after show congrats, flowers, gifts, hugs, well-wishing and etc.  Abigail had many people wanting to congratulate her, all of which was well deserved.  During the intermission and after the show it seemed that wherever I stood I overheard people speaking about her, talking about how good her performances was.  No one knew I was her mother, which made the comments all the more remarkable.  Tim, and I, were very very proud.  It was a brilliant weekend.   

 

 

Abigail and  Imogen after the show

 

All the family with our Abigail, plus Emilia our German exchange student

 

Last but certainly not least, Abigail with Mrs. Morris, her incredible drama teacher and mentor.

The Cryers Come to Visit!!

     After Easter, we had plenty of things to look forward to.  The biggest one on our list was the visit of our dear friends from England, the Cryers!  Yea!!  They had planned a three week trip to the States, and we were the very last stop before they headed back to the UK.  We felt so honored.
     I've written about Helen and Scott Cryer before on this blog.  They are among our dearest friends.  Grounded, trustworthy, quietly confident, strong in their belief in God - I love them both to bits. And they are raising four incredibly fine children:  Lucy, Jack, Tom and Harry.  When they came to see us, it was as if we had seen them yesterday.  We just picked up right where we left off.  Awesome.
     They just had one day to see San Diego, so we took them to La Jolla cove first, and then on to Balboa Park, and finishing up in Old Town.  Their trip is probably best recorded in pictures. 
     First stop, La Jolla cove:




The kids explore the caves at La Jolla cove

The seals at La Jolla Cove

People could get right up close to the seals

 

     Dr. Suess was from La Jolla, and I can't help that notice the trees near La Jolla cove look a lot like some of his illustrations:

 

 



Hmmmm .... the Lorax?

Sneeches on the Beaches - or something like that

     Next stop was the beautiful Balboa Park - by Helen's request.  Helen is a very practical person, and Balboa was the perfect place to take 11 kids, 4 adults, and a dog without breaking the bank.
     Lucy Cryer and Abigail are BFF's, and they were screaming and hugging and laughing the whole time they were together.  So lots of the pictures from the day are of these two inseparable souls:

Lucy and Abigail

Lucy and Abigail

And ... Lucy and Abigail

     The Cryers loved the architecture at Balboa:

One of many fountains at Balboa

     Something I probably should have mentioned before:  Helen is an amazing, fabulous, beyond awesome photographer.  She has a great eye when it comes to taking photos.  I have no expertise in this area so I just follow her around and try to imitate her in some small, humble way.  So the following pictures of the kids were Helen's idea:

The calm photo

The High School Musical photo, or something

     We also enjoyed the many gardens at Balboa:

Jack Cryer in a garden

I don't think you see these flowers in England



But this looks a bit more like an English garden

 

The Japanese Gardens



Fascinating tree roots

Tim tries the dreadlock look, sort of

All the kids at the fountain

Georgie manages to stay dry

But Samuel definitely does not ....

     We walked, explored, relaxed, chatting the whole time - about family, school, hobbies, England, California, work, politics, food - everything.  We ended up in Old Town, and descended upon a fine Mexican restaurant there in the heart of the town square.  Although I am sure they are used to large parties, we were, I think, still a sight to behold:

Cryers and Bleakleys - a long awaited reunion

Easter

 

          With Georgie's birthday over, all attentions were on Easter.  The four younger children were off for Holy Week, which made all of our Easter celebrations very much easier.  As Christians, Easter is our most important celebration of the year.  But culturally, of course, Christmas is done in a much bigger way.  So, I've taken it upon me personally to change that in our family traditions. Since Christmas is a really big deal, making Easter an even bigger deal is, well, wonderfully challenging.  

     In the beginning part of the week, we made homemade marshmallows in the shape of eggs.  We dipped them in chocolate and decorated them with sprinkles and frosting flowers, etc.  We also did our traditional Easter craft. This year was the most scaled down Easter craft we have done since I started it this tradition about 8 years ago.  We decided to do the Upper Room, and do a model of the Last Supper table, with 13 cups, 13 plates, and 13 pieces of unleavened bread, etc.  We researched on the internet different artistic interpretations of the Last Supper - paintings and sculptures.  We saw some very interesting, and very inspirational work.

     Thursday was our traditional Jerusalem supper/Passover meal.  This is where we have a few foods from the traditional Jewish Seder plate, and talk about what the foods represent.  We tell the story of the Passover, and talk about the connections between the Passover, the Last Supper, and Christ's atoning sacrifice.  This year, we had the Skinner family join us, and Emilia, our German exchange student, was there as well.

 

Jerusalem dinner, with the Skinner family

      Good Friday is not a holiday in the US, which is always a pain.  However, the kids were still off school, so we go to do a big Easter egg hunt with the Sommers, the Golds, and the Hubscher families. There were an obscene amount of eggs - there may have been near 500? - hidden over three gardens.  It's always a great event for the kids. 

 

Eleanor hunting for her allotted 27 eggs

  

Samuel, the confident 12 year old, too cool for the hunt (but then why is he there?)

Verity cannot hold all her eggs

 

Georgie hunting in the midst of the palm trees

The golden egg? 

 



     Saturday marked the start of General Conference weekend.  General Conference is the official semi-annual conference of our church.  It is broadcast live from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and there are four 2 hour sessions over 2 days.  It's always a big event in our house:  we all settle down in the living room together with personalized notebooks sent to us every six months by a dear friend in England, Margaret Curley.  We surround ourselves with lots of good food, and take lots of notes from the conference talks in our notebooks. At first I wasn't thrilled that Easter was on General Conference weekend , because I love going to church on Easter Sunday, and General Conference weekend is one of two weekends a year when we don't go to church.  But this year Abigail said quite spontaneously to me 'I love it when Easter is on General Conference weekend'.  'Really?'  I said. 'Why?'  And she said 'We can relax more and enjoy Easter more when it is on General Conference weekend.  So there you go.
     Easter Sunday morning was lovely. The Easter bunny left Easter Sunday outfits for everyone, and laid out 7 baskets full of various candies and chocolates - one for each of the children, plus one for Emilia.  Before the children could see their baskets, however, we had a short Easter devotional upstairs where we read the story of the Resurrection, talked about our belief in Jesus, and had a family prayer.

 

Samuel on Easter Sunday morning, having just received a much needed new suit coat

 

Georgie, Nelly and Verity, with their new Easter dresses

The children in their new Easter outfits, with their notebooks ready for General Conference
 

            Our big event for the morning was a full-on Easter brunch.  We invited several families from our church congregation to join us, so I was catering for something like 40 people.  Yes, here is where we talk about the food.

     I love Easter food.  Again, very different from standard Christmas food, but there is so much tradition surrounding the culinary experience of Easter.  For some reason I find myself thinking about the Orthodox Christian traditions when thinking about Easter food - so I look for traditional Easter food from places like Greece and Russia.  Israeli food also features high on the list; any kind of food from Jesus's time and place gets a nod.  This year, Russian hard boiled eggs with anchovies, olives, and homemade mayonnaise really caught my attention.  It seemed to be very important that the mayonnaise was homemade, so for the first time in my life, I made mayonnaise.  I'm a total convert!  The mayonnaise was exquisite - nothing like what we buy in the stores.

     Standard Easter fare in our house representing Israel is unleavened bread, so that was on the brunch table, along with a smoked salmon pate.  I also made a kind of 'Jerusalem pie', a kind of quiche with Israeli flavors like mint, dill, and pine nuts.  But the dish I was the most excited about was a recipe from the cookbook Jersusalem for pickled lemons.  I was skeptical at first, as all you do is marinate lemons in a bit of salt, sugar, chilies, lemon juice, and a few spices.  They were, however, delicious and I am fairly sure they were my favorite food on the table this Easter.  



 

Russian Easter:  olives, anchovies, hard boiled eggs, and homemade mayonnaise

 

Beautiful California avocado and prawn salad; pickled lemons on the left hand side

 

     Another piece de resistance was my Greek Tsoureki bread, a sweet bread braided and then baked with colored eggs.  I think its totally fab to stick decorated eggs in bread!  And of course, I made tons of hot cross buns.  There were also artichokes and asparagus on the table, in honor of Italian spring food.

 

 

Hot cross buns, Greek Tsoureki bread, unleavened bread, etc.

The Easter brunch table in all its sunny glory

     The brunch was lovely.  It was great to have so many people in the house on such a special day.  We had another General Conference session, which rose to the occasion of providing great spiritual nourishment on the most important Christian holiday of the year.  The kids and I especially liked this talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about Jesus's incomprehensible love and power.

     We then went for a hike before our Easter dinner; it was good to get out of the house on this sunny day.  Plus, the puppy had to get some exercise, so we headed for the foothills. 

Easter Sunday walk with family and friends

Max the dog got tired!

     Then we came home and had our Easter feast - the paschal lamb, spring vegetables, something with mint, and then of course my famous strawberry and rhubarb Easter trifle for dessert.

Tried and tested strawberry and rhubarb trifle

Family photo on Easter Sunday, 2015