It was Robyn's turn in the family spotlight today - we all went to watch her drama group's end of year production. She had kept the whole thing secret except for having to tell us what sort of costume she needed help with. They don't get printed lines to learn and yet they learn the whole thing in one term (seven lessons of just one hour a week). The basic idea of the play was old stories with new ideas, and Robyn was little Miss Muffet, who bemoans her lot - "just four lines of story, with nothing to eat other than curds and whey and a hairy spider as well."

Here she is on stage looking very un-like Robyn:


After the New Ideas put some twists on other well known stories (Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, and others) they look at alternative outcomes for Little Miss Muffet's story. All of these appear far too much like hard work for Little Miss Muffet, and she decides to stick with what she's got.

The rest of the cast in action:


It was cool to see how much more confident and at ease she was this year - last year she was much more tentative. It was also nice that she had a significant part despite being a young member of the group. It's an upper primary group (grade 4-7) but <brag>when they recently split the previously combined group into two her teacher put her into the upper group</brag>.

This afternoon was spent in blissfully lazy pursuits - we lay around in the sunny, breezy garden with lots of books. There has been a lot of rain so far this summer so it was fantastic to be outside. And then we had to spend an hour or so dealing with the domestic chaos before watching the end of Survivor South Africa. The domestic situation was due to having had friends around on Saturday afternoon and evening - very enjoyable friends who tend never to leave, however. After we finally kicked them and their bleary-eyed kids out we ignored the trashed house (think a rainy afternoon with five kids - lego, tents, baking and more) and stumbled off to bed.

"The Arnolds feign death until the Wagners, sensing the sudden awkwardness, are compelled to leave." - Gary Larson, 1987 Far Side Calendar