Weekend in Hadestown

Veronica was a member of the ensemble in Hadestown, put on by the Children's Theater Company in Minneapolis. I really enjoyed this show!

All of her grandparents made it down for performances.

Great job, V!

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Summer ballet intensive

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Spring band concert 2026

Here's a clip of Omri playing percussion in his school's spring band performance. I've always kind of wanted to be a drummer, so seeing him hitting a snare drum in this show made me very proud. He has good rhythm!

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Spring dance recital 2026

I was able to bring my camera into a dance recital by volunteering to do some shooting for the owner of the dance company. It gave me the opportunity to get some shots of Veronica as well. She performed in three different dances...

Lyrical:

 

Tap:

And ballet:

Great show!

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Percussion, no concussion

Omri had the school's first-ever Newspaper Club injury last Thursday, colliding with another kid on the playground and ending up in urgent care to get checked for a concussion. Thankfully, he tested out okay and he's the same goofy kid he's always been. The biggest bummer is that he missed the upper elementary play where he had an important part as a percussionist in the accompanying band. So that all of his hard work didn't go to waste, R recorded this video of him playing his part to The Monkee's "I'm a Believer" at home. This part does not contain the melody, but if you know the song, I think you'll recognize it anyway. It's quite impressive how he has this whole thing memorized, along with other music that would have scored the show. I'm very proud of my boy!

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Spring choir concert 2026

Just a short clip from the choir performance at V's school:

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Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd was an ambitious show put on by Veronica's high school. She killed it in an ensemble role. I did not take these photos but wanted to share them in order to give you a look and to mark the show on our timeline.

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Annie audition

Our brave girl auditioned for the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. The audition was held publicly in the rotunda of the Mall of America! Then she moved on to another round at the "The Chan" itself. We have not heard back yet about the results of that, however. It would be quite a commitment with four months of performances next fall/winter. We'll see what happens.

R was present and took this photo/video at the mall:

 

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On to State!

Veronica had a triumphant night last Friday. It was her first speech meet ever (she's been too busy with dance and voice lessons on Saturdays to attend any of the others). It also happened to be the class A section tournament. And she got first place in her category (Serious Interpretation of Drama)!

Here's a video of the award presentation of the finalists (there were 15 students total in her category):

 

She snapped this photo of us right before going into the final round:

 

These are all the first-place winners from MPA (they tend to dominate, having won the section tournament as a team for the last 26 years, plus the state title itself last year):

Here's the full MPA team (V is the only freshmen moving on to the next round):

She's been really busy lately! This week alone she has a callback at The Chanhassen dinner theater, three performances of Sweeney Todd (plus rehearsals), and then a state speech tournament. I'll let you know how it goes!

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Panther Choir - winter 2026

Just a short clip from one song from Veronica's high school choir here...

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"Tomorrow"

Veronica sang the prelude at the Ash Wednesday service at our church. Her accompanist couldn't make it to the service because of the weather, so V had to find a new one at the last minute, which was stressful, but she rolled with the punches, and everything ended up working out great. It sounded so powerful in person. I'm very proud of our girl!

 

The pastor had a nice way of tying the song into season of Lent that I wish I would have recorded.

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Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Veronica's first play as a high school student! Photos were NOT taken by me.

 

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Solstice Festival 2025

Omri played percussion in the band this year (his first year). I thought they sounded great! He's in the back/right.

 

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Winter dance recital 2025

Only limited iPhone shots here, but Veronica did such a great job in four different dances!

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The Little Mermaid

I was waiting to see if there would be professional photos available for purchase from this production, but I haven't seen any yet. All I have is this not-strictly-permitted snap from the curtain call:

 

And V's bio from the online program:

She worked really hard in this show, in the ensemble and as a tap-dancing seagull, managing three- or four-hour nightly rehearsals on top of her transition to a college-prep high school. It was cool for her to be included, given this was a high school and adult cast!

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Summer band

I was proud of my buddy for joining the summer band program put on by the school district. He met for practice with his fellow percussionists four days a week during the month of July.

They performed on a stage at Valley Fair last Friday and were able to enjoy the park during the afternoon. The night before that, they held a concert at Mounds View high school for families.

It was a big group and Omri was in the back row.

 

And here's a sample of the music they performed:

Way to go, bud!

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Dorian middle school music camp

Veronica attended a music camp at Luther College (in Iowa) last week. She did a lot of singing over the week and somehow memorized the lyrics and melodies to nine songs. The rest of us drove down to pick her up and were treated to a concert full of talented kids.

This is the chamber choir:

And this is the full ensemble (good luck finding V in there):

It's a nice campus. We were able to try out the cafeteria, and I grabbed this photo in the quad.

Here are a couple of clips taken with my iPhone, starting an Amish buggy sighting on the drive down:

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Ballerina

Veronica did a lovely job at ballet this year. (She also danced jazz and tap but didn't perform in the recital for those).

These are pro shots from Catherine Brinker Photography:

Video was prohibited at the recital, so I had to sneak this short clip and left the sound off in order to keep it from getting flagged online:

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Choir & band concert, spring 2025

Veronica's final choir performance at Oak Hill:

 

And I don't think she'll be continuing with the flute in high school, so this feels like an even more final performance:

A few video snippets too:

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A Cosmic Carol

Omri was a percussionist in the upper elementary play! I snapped this shot of him on the side of the stage before the lights went down:

 

Here's the set the kids designed and painted:

Omri is not interested in acting right now. I give him total respect for doing his own thing. He's starting band this summer and already has a head start on percussion from his piano playing and from helping write and perform a soundtrack to this play. Here is with the base bars:

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