Easter Break

Well, my Easter break, so far has been quite enjoyable...and I very much expect it to keep going that way! Because tomorrow (at the crack of dawn), me, Mom, Dad, and Grandma-Mona are leaving to go to New York City!!!!! Well, actually we're really staying in Jersey City, but it's close enough. We'll be going into the city plenty enough. Before I talk about that, though, let me tell all about my lovely weekend, and the beginning of my week.

Saturday, we had a little different experience for Easter. Instead of going to the Ousse's (my Mom's sister's house) we had alot of people over at our house, which was extremely fun! It was a little strange at first. I kept getting confused and thinking it was Thanksgiving because that's the holiday that we usually have everyone at our house for. This was the first time we ever had Easter at our house in my entire life! But, it was fun!

We had Jade, Jennifer, Claire, Ethan, Blythe, Owen, Evelyn, Grandma-Mona, Paw-Paw, Nony, Frank, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Dianne.

We did the normal egg paquing. It was the first time Frank had ever paqued eggs. I think he enjoyed it!

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Frank and I paquing

Nony and I before we paqued :-)

Nony and I after we pacqed...

Frank accepts a challenge from Nathan and his egg: The Beast.

Now, what I haven't metioned was that Saturday was also my birthday! And Grandma-Mona's birthday was 2 days before mine. So Mom made us each a cake. Grandma-Mona's was a lemon cake with almond butterflies. It was very very pretty. Mine was a chocolate cheesecake!!! :-D

We also sat down right after lunch and watched some old home videos. They're from back when Jade and Nony were in high school and I was about 2. That was fun. There was one part in it, that showed Jade laying on the floor and me standing on his hands while he lifted me up in the air. He used to do that with me all the time. So, Jade and I decided to see if we could still do it. I ran to my room and grabbed some shorts to put under my dress, then came back, and here's what happened:

Yay! We can still do it!

Saturday night, we had the last performance of "The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged". I was sad that it was the last performance. But, I was looking forward to a little surprise that Natalie, Megan, and I had planned for after the show. We had been plotting and planning to perform the very last scene of the play. Which is the part where they perform "Hamlet" backwards...

We learned all the lines and practiced the lines and the blocking for about an hour Saturday afternoon. We did it again and again and again until we had it perfect. Natalie was doing Casey's part, Megan was doing Duncan's part (much to Natalie's dismay...Natalie wanted to do Duncan's part...), and I was doing Jay's part. That meant Natalie was Hamlet, Megan was Horatio/Polonius/Laertes, and I was Ghost/Ophelia/Gertrude/Claudius. We also planned to dress just like them. So, Natalie wore pink tights with black shorts and a black shirt, Megan wore purple tights with black shorts and a dark green shirt, and I wore green tights with black shorts and a white shirt (and I twisted my shorts the way Jay's always ended up near the end of the show).

When the show was over, sweet Mrs. Sonja gave us all some pretty roses. Then after the audience left, Casey announced that our cast party was gonna be Wednesday. We weren't gonna do anything big, just a little party at the theatre and we were all gonna bring something yummy.

After that, we told Casey, Duncan, and Jay not to move, we had something planned for them. Then I told Jay that I needed his shoes and Natalie told Casey she needed his shoes and Megan got Duncan's shoes. Then we ran backstage and got dressed.

When Natalie finally got Casey's shoes on, we went out on the stage and gave it our all. I had to wear the lovely blonde curly Ophelia wig that was on Jay's sweaty head every night, Natalie had to wear the Hamlet hat that was on Casey's sweaty head every night, and Megan had to wear the Polonius beard....you can't imagine the smells coming from those costumes after 10 performances. But we had fun! And I could hear Casey laughing his heart out and Jay and Duncan were laughing alot, too. It was fun to do that for them...I'm glad we did. :-)

Sunday was Easter. It was a pretty normal Easter Sunday. We woke up, read the Easter story from the Bible, and received the treats in our Easter baskets. Then we went to church.

Monday, Natalie Sibille had some sort of rehearsal in Opelousas, so she came to my house after her rehearsal and spent the night with me. Yesterday we were really bored and it was a beautiful day outside, so we put on some old fashioned looking dresses, packed up a picnic basket and a quilt. Then we went out in the backyard with our barefeet and had the most lovely, peaceful, and relaxing time. We sat in the shade of a tree and listened to soft pretty music. It was wonderful. And we took a bunch of pictures...here are some of my favorites:

Later, we walked to the snowball stand near my house...in our dresses! :-)

Then I went to Natalie's house to spend the night. We had a wonderful time, of course!

Today, we packed and packed and got ready for our New York trip all day long! Natalie S. had another rehearsal for something. So, she came to my house after her rehearsal. We had the cast party for "The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged". So we decided to fix our treats together. She did a crackers and cheese and ham and pepperoni platter thingy. And I made a Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake! :-) If only it would have looked like the picture. Ya'll, that was an ugly cake. I'm not ashamed to admit it...it was really ugly. And I tried sticking a flower in it to make it prettier, but that didn't even help. It looked like a pile of mud with some plant growing out of it. I did not wanna walk into the theatre carrying that! Casey, Jay, and Duncan were definetely gonna make fun of me...I was sure of it. I could only hope that it would taste better than it looked...

So, I summoned up my courage and marched into the theatre with pride. Surprisingly neither Jay or Duncan said a word about my work of art. Well...Duncan did mention some little remark about a plant growing out of my cake, but they didn't mention anything about the frosting falling off the cake or that the cake was extremely lopsided...

Natalie and I went to the bathroom near the beginning of the party and she was taking forever (Natalie Catherine Sibille is the Head Queen of slowness) so I opened the door to go out, and she said, "Gracie, don't you dare leave!"

So, of course I left, but I had more motive than that. I stood right outside the door waiting for her to come out. When she did, I jumped out and scared her to death! :-D

Her reaction was, "AAAAA! I hate you!"

My reaction was a fit of giggles. Then we went into the main part of the theatre and Jay and Duncan looked a little confused. But, once they figured out what had happened, they were laughing their heads off too....it was great....a very priceless moment...

Casey finally arrived at the theatre. And he had gifts for us all. :-D

Ya'll, I would've never expected Casey to be a really good gift giver! But he is! He gives awesome presents! He just gave everybody the perfect gift. For Michael he had an autobiography of Anthony Rapp, Mikie's favorite actor. For Natalie, he had the "Into The Woods" original Broadway cast soundtrack. He gave Duncan some book about ninjas. He gave Jay "The Encyclopedia Of Imaturity" (which is actually a really cool book...hahaha). He gave Megan a book that she likes alot and I think it's called "Watchmen" but I don't know what it was about and I don't remember if that's the name or not. He gave Ashley Brown a book that the director of the "Twilight" movie wrote about making the movie. And he gave Angie a book by C.S. Lewis. I don't remember which one. For me, he had SUCH an awesome present! He gave me Kristin Chenoweth's autobiography: "A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith In Stages". He got such personal gifts for each of us. I thought that was so awesome. And he even wrote us a note on the inside of each of our books. He was a really good director.

Jay's sons were at the cast party, too. Their names are Jude and Gabriel, they're 6 and 3. And they are SO cute! We had a sword fight with them. Only it was very unfair. Mikie was on their side and Jude and Gabriel both had two long swords, but I only had two of those little short daggers that have the springs in the blade so that looks like you're stabbing somebody when you pretend to stab somebody. So, they all kept killing me... But it was fun. Those 2 little boys were some of the cutest little boys ever! And I thought it was cool that they were the exact same ages as my nephews, Ethan and Owen.

Eventually, it was time to go home...we said some sad goodbyes....This cast in particular seemed to have grown really close to each other. We usually do get pretty close during plays. I mean, we see each other almost everyday for a few months! But for some reason, I just LOVED this cast! And I will miss spending everyday with them... :-(

Left to right: Jay Mentel, Gracie Feucht, Casey Harmon, Natalie Sibille, Duncan McBride, and Mikie laying on the floor in front of us...

Casey as Titus Andronicus/Paula Dean and Jay as Lavinia. They performed Titus Andronicus as a cooking show.

The comedies all in one lump...

Duncan as Romeo and Jay as Juliet


Casey narrating "Romeo and Juliet", Duncan being dead, and Jay discovering that the dagger was the springy kind.

And by the way, nobody made fun of my cake after they tasted it! That was the best chocolate cake ever!! (Jay even took a big ole slice home with him!)

Tomorrow morning...off to New York!!!!!!!!!