Desert Stars

We had these awesome neighbors. They moved in around the same time we did, so we've known them for a while, and we definitely benefited us to be their neighbors. Unfortunately for them, being our neighbors didn't benefit them near as much. Jan and Andy (or collectively they were "Jandy") worked at Tuacahn High School as drama teachers, and we were often gifted with free standby tickets, or discounted tickets to performances at Tuacahn. They also brought over home made doughnuts and sugar cookies that were almost too pretty to eat. They have two little Dachshunds that Aiden loved to go over and "babysit" when they were home. Aiden loved Jandy, and would get excited when he saw them driving up to their house. He came running up to me once, and said "Jandy's home, can I go say hi?" I told him sure, but come right back. I didn't want him to be a bother. 30 minutes later, he still hadn't come back, so I went looking, and I found him still at Jandy's house, making himself at home.

This summer Jan invited Aiden and Zander to participate in Tuacahn's Desert Stars musical theater camp. She got them in for free, so it was a no brainer. All we had to do was drive them out there. Every morning for a week they learned and practiced for their performance at the end of the week.

On Friday they performed what they had learned for us, and it was by far the cutest thing I've seen yet. They sang and did a choreographed dance to Aladdin's "You ain't never had a friend like me", they sang Aladdin's "A whole new world", Aiden and one other kid did a two person skit about a new kid at school. Aiden's lines were "sure, I guess", "California" and "me too". I couldn't have been more proud. Then at the very end the little kids combined with the bigger kids to perform Hairspray's "You can't stop the beat".

This is the whole crew at the end.

He's so stinking cool. I don't know where he got his coolness from,

but I do know where he did NOT get it from.

Also, I love him. Have I said that before?

This is Aiden with Jan.

And Aiden, Zander and Jan.

Jan's blog is amazing and will make you cry and laugh.

Aiden and Zander are even included in one of her posts.

Thank you so much Jan for everything!