A bit of a drive for an hour and a half of college kids portraying darling forest animals and two loyal amphibians who live out a years worth of ups and downs in this thing called friendship.
And a huge test of parental restraint from pushing the eject button on one fourteen year old girl and one eight year old boy squished in the back seat of a tiny rental car, jockeying for ownership on every square inch of seat and objecting to every possible infraction of every possible rule that ever crossed the lips of every good intentioned parent this side of heaven.
Not to mention the fact that we will be making the same exact trip in a few days to transport one of those college kids home for a Hawbaker Hallmark Thanksgiving, complete with a twenty-six pound, dried out turkey, bloody battles for the remote and hot chocolate made with water instead of milk.
"WHO DRANK THE LAST OF THE MILK!?"
But oh, the trip was so, so worth it.
Zachary is our oldest son. A junior attending college in Ohio majoring in Social Work and English, with a long line of choir and theater credits trailing him.
I've been his mother for twenty-one years.
I did not know he could sing like this.
Or dance.
Or even that he could pull off the greatest portrayal of Toad, from the Frog and Toad series of children's books, ever.
He had me in tears while everyone else was chuckling at the action going on on stage.
I wanted to stand up and wave my hands and say, "He's mine! The toad is mine! I'm his mother!"
I couldn't believe the people around me weren't laying bunches of flowers in my lap in honor of my abilities to birth such a fantastic actor.
Suffice it to say.....I was and am proud.
We were not allowed to take photos during the show, and so the following pictures, I cannot take credit for.
What I can take credit for is that my son belongs on Broadway.
Well done, Zachary. Would travel three times what we did to watch you on stage, providing we leave your siblings home with Grammy. Maybe they can even move in permanently.
