How I Spent My Summer Vacation-Olivia's Edition

If you missed my edition of Summer Vacation you can check it out here! Now on to Olivia's summer experience...

This past spring Olivia was selected as an Empire Girls State delegate from Newark. Girls State is a program that teaches young women about the legislative process via the means of a mock state legislation. All of the delegates from the various municipalities are placed in districts with girls from all over the state. Once in the district, they are further separated into counties. Girls can run for positions within their counties, districts, all the way up to governor of the state. Olivia was placed in the Keller county with about 30 other girls. She was elected Treasurer of her county. Girls are also placed on committees and tasked with a piece of legislation to take through committee and present to the floor-like a real bill would. Other than the legislative process the young women also learn about American traditions, such proper care of the American flag, the raising and lowering ceremonies, and the traditions behind the pledge of allegiance. Click here if you want to read more about Empire Girls State.

Olivia was one of about 400 young women who stayed on the SUNY Brockport campus for a week. She wasn't thrilled about the strict dress code (Girls State T-shirts with either navy, khaki, or black pants, long shorts, or long skirts) but she LOVED meeting girls from around the state. She made some great friends that she still keeps in touch with. One was also a dancer so they had quite a bit in common.

Olivia and her dancer friend Katie

Girls in her county on Red White and Blue Day

Girls at final ceremony

getting reading to work on legislation!

final ceremony/formal day

Liv had to miss a week of rehearsals for the community theatre production of Damn Yankees she was a part of. Damn Yankees featured kids from around the county freshman through recent high school grads. Olivia played the infamous employee of Mr. Appelgate (aka The Devil), the seductress Lola. Olivia vamped it up singing "Whatever Lola Wants" and dancing to "Two Lost Souls" in Fosse style ala Gwen Verdon. :) There were a bunch of kids from Newark but Olivia really had a great time meeting kids from Lyons, Marion, Clyde, and Sodus! She had so much fun with her leading man that their showmance turned into the real thing after the show closed! Matt is from Marion so they only get to spend time together on the weekends and sometimes once or twice during the week. They have quite a bit in common. Matt is very involved in his high school theatre program and is also the Student Council President, like Olivia! Since the summer Olivia has spent time with the nice group of friends she met doing the show. They've been bowling, out to see each other's shows, and heading to a Christmas party this weekend! I posted some video clips at the end of this blog if you're interested!

Publicity photo that made it into the newspapers

Lola and Mr. Applegate

She has a little brains, a little talent with an emphasis on the latter...

Hello Joe!

Whatever Lola wants...

Who's got the pain when they do the mambo...

Two lost souls on the highway of life...

Lola!

Give in!

Mambo dance (you may recognize Curtis from Fame or The Nutcracker!)

Lola and Joe!

Matt and Olivia

Applegate, Lola and the Washington Senators

Liv and Matt

Rehearsals were in the evening which left Olivia time during the morning and afternoon for some additional projects. She was busy with her summer reading for AP Literature and AP Psychology. Olivia thinks she may want to study elementary education in college, along with dance, so she decided to volunteer in a summer school classroom. She went into a Kindergarten/1st Grade classroom 3 mornings a week and helped students with their reading and writing. 

There is a summer day camp in our town called "Park Program". Chances are if you grew up in Newark you went to, volunteered at, or worked at Park Program. You probably have memories of playing kickball, SPUD, and Octopus Tag--or if you were me--performing "Born With a Mic in Our Hands" as Barbie and the Rockers in the annual talent show. Olivia and Grant both attended the Tots program (ages 4-7) and Kreative Kids (up to 5th grade). Olivia volunteered a few summers ago but was happy to have a paying gig as a "counselor" with the Tots program this summer. She came home with funny stories and had lots of little ones asking if she could "come over and play". To round out Olivia's summer experience she also volunteered as a Vacation Bible School teacher. Many of the kids were also from Park Program or from the dance studio so they were thrilled to see Olivia again!

We went on a family vacation last December so this summer we didn't do any family traveling. However, Mom, Dad, and Olivia made a few college visits; meeting with dance departments, taking campus tours, and interviewing with admissions. Applications are in, but no decisions will be made until the spring...stay tuned!

This summer was a fun start to Olivia's senior year...hopefully I'll update with fall activities soon! Watch for Grant's summer update next...

A little snippet of "A Little Brains"...

Lola meets Joe

"Whatever Lola Wants"

"Who's Got the Pain" and some dancing from "Two Lost Souls"

Happy T-Giving 2011!

We interrupt this broadcast of regularly scheduled events (updating you, dear readers, of our life events where I left off in May!) to bring you a special blog edition of the Howard Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are thankful for our family, friends, health, and a day (finally!) of sitting around in our pajamas on the couch stuffing our faces with food and watching countless hours of television. :)

The Howard Family is fairly adventurous about food, but when it comes to Thanksgiving we keep it very simple. Maybe it's just because this day for us is more about spending time together than it is about making gourmet side dishes (recipes courtesy of the Food Network) to serve with our turkey. Whatever the reason may be we keep it simple. Below you'll find a photo of each of our plates...can you guess who they belong to?!


The Howard Family wishes all of you a very happy holiday season, filled with love, family and friends, and lots of delicious food. Now Mom and I are off to Walmart for the craziness! Let the Christmas season begin...

2011 Elenbes

Last year you may remember that I posted about the annual awards ceremony called the Elenbes (read last year's post here!

The Elenbes were held again this past May...and Olivia won for her role in the fall play "Dirty Work at the Crossroad"!!!!!!!!!!!! (covered here!)

Watch the video of her acceptance speech below!

The school's also have the opportunity to perform a piece from their show. Please enjoy the short performance by the cast of Fame!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation-Emily's Edition

Yes it's December and yes I'm still blogging about things that happened six months ago! What can I say...as soon as I think I'm done with a project another one starts right up again. My plan is to have Olivia and Grant both write a blog entry about their summers too, but I have a feeling I may serve as writer/editor on those as well. So...I thought I'd start with mine!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (or lack thereof)
This June I had a milestone birthday-three point oh. It came and went without too much ceremony so now I'm successfully in my thirties. June 11th hit on a Saturday this year, right in the middle of my rehearsal period for a show I was in: Company with Pittsford Musicals. Company is a very cool Sondheim musical that centers around a bachelor turning 35 and reflecting on the marriages/relationships of his friends. I played Susan, a Southern belle married (and later divorced/happily living together) to my gay husband-->ignorance is bliss?! Basically each couple gives the main character a different insight into life as a twosome. I asked for a big birthday gift this year-my new camera-and I love it! I used it that weekend to take photos backstage. I'm also including some of the dress rehearsal shots that my friend took one night. Don't get me wrong, I love kids...but I was thrilled to do a show with all adults! She Loves Me in 2009 was the last time I was part of a production with all adults...and even in that show I think there was only a handful of us that could legally enjoy a glass of wine after a performance. I made some great friendships working on Company and I'm looking forward to working with these actors and artistic staff on other projects.

with my Company husband-Tom!

with Olivia and Grant after the show

with mom and dad

the whole company...singing Company!

in our apartment-in an awkward prom pose

I'm including this picture just to prove it is possible to point your toe whilst wearing sneakers...just look at that pretty foot!

here I am singing in my best Catholic angel super soprano voice behind my friend Kristen- the crazy bride!

backstage with my friend Mary Ann

married couples and Bobby on stage for his birthday

end of Side by Side-this picture ran in the newspaper too!

We're getting divorced! :)

Other than Company, I kept busy with my usual activities of cheering Grant on at soccer games, helping with publicity for Olivia's summer show (more on both of these in future posts!), dinner and drinks with friends, going to see my friends in other summer theatre productions, playing with my new camera (fun with jumping photoshoot in another post some time!), and generally catching up on television and reading.

I did take a short vacation to visit with three of my very good college girlfriends. Last summer we all gathered in West Palm Beach where Marisa lives, so this summer we all made the trip out to Nashville where Maribeth lives. MB lives right in downtown Nashville and it was great to be within walking distance to all the fun. This summer all four of us celebrated our 30th birthdays so MB made a super cute list of 30 things to do in Nashville for our 30th! We had so much fun just spending time together. It's always bittersweet to see these girls-my friends from both the Freed Center (theatre) family and Delta Zeta (sorority sisters). It's so easy being friends with them. The best time we had together was sitting around catching up and laughing-it's like we never left ONU. Friendships like these are something really rare and really special. I'm so glad that my time in college brought me to these girls. They are the kind of friend that you could (and I have) call or email any time, any day, just because you need someone to hear you. Would I have been friends with them if it wasn't for the sorority? Most likely. But am I closer to them because of that special bond? Absolutely.

List of 30 things to do in Nashville!

I love this picture because we're cracking up and that's how I remember spending most of the weekend! We're on the steps of the famous Ryman Theatre by the way

Posing in front of a fountain by Maribeth's workplace-she works for the symphony

This is what happened when we tried to teach Brandi about planking...click here if you aren't familiar with this internet fad

Love, love, love this pic and these girls!

super sweaty after tearing up the line-dance floor

Marisa and an amazing photobomber!

exploring Opryland-rebuilt after the flood last year

signed a wall in a Nashville bar.."Woo" is a term of endearment we used in DZ

So my summer was pretty great. I got to perform and to see some friends I don't often have a chance to see. If turning 30 looks like this, then I say, bring it on!

The End of an Era

This spring the youngest of the Howard Family successfully completed his three years at Newark Middle School and is now a high school freshman. This is the first and only year that Olivia and Grant will be in the same school building!

In June, the 8th graders are honored at a celebration ceremony and then head off to the gym for the much anticipated 8th Grade Dance. I shan't regale you with the whole sad story of my 8th Grade Dance (picture 8th grade Student Council me-a la Patty Simcox-the last to leave setting up/decorating the gym only to attend the dance alone...at least I had an awesome new dress-from the Limited and sweet brown Mary Janes from Nine West-which I still kind of wish I had!) but I will state that I am very glad the powers that be decided to combine the "graduation"/awards ceremony with the dance. This (mostly) puts an end to the over-the-top dramatics that used to happen-dates, flowers, dinner out before the dance, limos etc.!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the Ceremony because a production I was in opened the following weekend and I had rehearsal. I did, however, snap some very dapper pictures of Grant on my new camera before I had to take off!

8th Grade Celebration!

Posing with Mom and Dad!

different tie!

Grant wasn't sure which tie but ended up with the dark blue one...it brings out his lovely blue eyes! :) Mom and Dad said that it was a very nice ceremony. Congrats to Grant!

A Little Spring Music

Each time I post I think I am closer and closer to actually catching up to the current week. Alas, we are just too busy in the Howard Family for me to keep up! It seems like there is something every week...and many things I want to share with all of you. Therefore, please enjoy a Smorgasbord or music performances from this past spring! In order to view the videos please click on the link at the bottom of the post or visit the actual blog site. I have posted two selections from Grant's 8th grade spring concert, Olivia's solo from Cabaret Night May 2011, selections from the group numbers are Cabaret, and a piece from Olivia's 11th grade spring concert. ♫

First up is Grant and the 8th grade chorus singing Heal the World...Grant has a small group solo about halfway through. (if you click the 4 arrows in the bottom rt hand corner you can watch in full screen)

Next is another selection from Grant's 8th grade chorus...with a bonus of his signature hair swish at the beginning of the video!

Each year the high school Vocal Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Band performs at a special event called "Cabaret Night". Audience members sit at cocktail table and are served desserts and coffee throughout the night. Last year Olivia was in both ensembles. Members of Vocal Jazz are offered the opportunity to prepare and perform solos. Olivia worked on this piece with her voice teacher throughout the year and I think it was a perfect choice for this event. It is a song "Mix Tape" from the Broadway musical Avenue Q.

Here's Olivia jamming out in Jazz Band at Cabaret Night...

Below, a sweet redition of Buttercup...Olivia's an alto in the top row.

Lastly, Olivia's choir singing Bridge Over Troubled water

Olivia and Zoey...saxophone buddies at Cabaret Night

Norene and Olivia both part of Vocal Jazz