We've taken a group to Disneyland a few times now and each time as been something new and exciting. This year Kyle has 2 auditions choirs at his HS (168 kids in his entire program!! That's huge! When he started it was something around 50-60!) and decided to take them both on tour. After a few kids couldn't go, our final number was 54 kids going with 6 adults and 2 stow-aways (the daughters of chaperones). It is quite the task to get ready to take 63 people to Disneyland! After lots of changing plans and figuring out the details, we were all ready to go! It was quite the party when we got together with Marie to count out all the money. Each person got $12 a meal so we had to stuff 300 envelopes with $24 a piece! (60 people for 5 days). I had never seen so much cash in my life!
You can't see all of it in this picture but my Mom made me the CUTEST little purse to take to Disneyland. On the bottom corner it has a cut out of minnie with some rhinestones and a big bow- seriously, SO CUTE. I have some trader pins and these just finished the purse right off.
We met at the school early Monday morning and loaded up 4 suburbans and a whole bus with everyone and ventured off to California. We stopped by the beach before going to the hotel and enjoyed soaking our toes in the water.
On Tuesday the Select Choir performed at Knotts Berry Farm. Before letting the kids all loose to play we all made them go on the same ride together. The kids loved seeing all the chaperones on a roller coaster and it was a great way to get everyone pumped before they got to play and perform. The choir did a fantastic job and the rest of the time at Knotts was just filled with rides. I think the longest ride we waited for had to only been about 10 minutes- we got right on most of the rides. At about 4:00pm we all met at the front of the park and started out to load to bus to get ready for Newsies. Kyle has a rule on Tour that for every minute you are late- you have to ride It's a Small World once. There were 4 kids that were late (they wanted to go on one last ride) and had to ride it's a small world 3 times in a row. It sounds pretty strict, but when we need to go- we need to go!
The suburbans and the vans met back at the hotel, we changed, ate the best pizza in California that the Shumways picked up, and loaded back up to go to Newsies at the Pantages Theater. The kids looked so good dressed up- if I find a picture of the group I'll have to post it. They all looked so nice! A gentleman at the theater got the biggest kick out of all the choir students and did a few magic tricks with them and then did a choir exercise. It was quite entertaining and something that those kids will remember for a long time. We had Select Choir sit on one side of the theater with Swing Thing on the other side to give each choir their own experience and bonding time.
The show was phenomenal and really changed some of the students view on their shows. The learned the importance of following your moves and being present on the stage. I thoroughly enjoyed the show even though I was on the verge of falling asleep for almost the entire first half. If it hadn't been for intermission I'm certain I would have fallen asleep! We got back to the hotel at around midnight and I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
The next few days were all about Disney! Wednesday Swing Thing performed in California Adventure, Thursday each choir had a clinic, and Friday Swing Thing performed in Disneyland.
While we were off in California I got this picture from my Mom- London got her ears pierced! My Mom said she did really good and didn't cry a bit. She has been loving her earrings ever since.
