Lawton

Well, we're back to typical Oklahoma summer weather now - no rain, but it's hot! We did three shows today at the Lawton library. They all went really well, but Evalyn had a mishap during show number three.

During the verses in "Oklahoma Annie" Evalyn pulls a stick horse out from behind my guitar case and rides it around. (This is choreography she worked out herself at home out of an insistence that the "real" Annie should be in the show.) Well, as she set off with Annie her foot got caught in the microphone cord and down she went!

I saw it coming, too - I stood there thinking, "Should I stop to fix this, or will she manage to step out of that loop on her own..." and pow she was down. Needless to say, Daddy felt pretty bad about that.

Evalyn's knee was hurting and she cried some. After a few seconds of trying to figure out if she could go on, the audience applauded her like an injured athlete, and she went to sit with Mama. I continued the show with "Silly Song."

After "Silly Song" Evalyn came up wanting to try again. We started from the beginning and gave a great performance. Evalyn received a huge round of applause - the biggest we've ever gotten! Mama and Daddy were mighty proud of her for getting up to try again!!

Evalyn says, "My knee hurt real bad and I was very sad and I was proud of myself that I got the biggest round of applause we've ever gotten."

At all three shows the kids did a wonderful job singing "Oklahoma Kids a Kaleidoscope." At my previous two shows in Glenpool and Piedmont I thought I just had particularly good singers, but now I'm thinking that the way I've been introducing the song lately must be making a big difference. It's fascinating to me how small changes in the presentation can really effect the way the audience participates. Now that I've got it figured out, the summer is nearly over! Well, that's OK - I always strive to improve on what I'm doing!

Here are two photos of Evalyn outside the Lawton library in front of the "Sun Burst" sculpture, one from today and the other from 2005. We just thought it'd be fun to look up the old photo and compare.

Two more days to Harry Potter 7!

See you at the library!