Pan

Michael and Peter

My little Michael

Back at the beginning of March Jeffrey's music teacher recommended him to the high school to fill the role of Michael (the youngest boy) in Peter Pan.  After going and auditioning before three complete strangers he got the part.  He spent most of March and April at rehearsal.  Every day after school he would go down to the high school and hang out with his friends.  He was very lucky that the cast quickly took him in and made him part of the family.  They didn't really mind having a 7 year old boy running around, jumping on their backs, being silly with them.
They had their 3 shows this weekend.  It was a long week of rehearsals, but he made it through.  One night he got home and barely made it to his bed before falling asleep.  The next night he came home completely hyper and singing silly warm-up songs at 11 PM because he couldn't fall asleep.
The shows all were great.  Jeff had his moments of goofiness on stage, and by Friday night his allergies were bothering him to the point he was sniffling into his head mic.  But you could tell he was just having so much fun.  He loved the dances and especially the "combat" scenes.  His favorite part about the combat scene was where he got to jump onto a pirate's back and then steal her sword and sit on her.
After the last show he was invited to come to the cast party.  I brought him thinking the high school kids didn't really want a little kid running around (especially at 11 PM).  But they continued their inclusion of him, letting him jump and play with them.  By midnight, when I coaxed him to leave, we headed to the car and Jeff started sobbing.  It was all setting in that the show was done.  He had spent more time with these folks than our family for the past few weeks, and seen them all every day for the past month.  They had become his family.  His little heart broke when he realized that he wasn't going to be with his friends every day any more, and especially the "seniors going to college".  I explained to him we would see them other places around town.  I mean, there's always Wal-Mart :)
So here are a few photos and quick video clips that I got during the shows.  The photos were taken by some of the high school students and shared on the play website.

They never let me play father

Flying!

This tie, won't tie

Tender Shepherd

I'm so proud of our little guy for working so hard and being brave enough to get up there with a bunch of big kids and just have fun.  Way to go buddy.

His buddy Charlie

On the "rock" outside the school