As the days go by, the general pattern of Sturgis begins to set in--getting
up, setting up and working wherever we are needed all day. It's not really a bad thing...it helps to get
used to things. However, it seems like
once things settle in and we all know what to do, that's when the time goes by
the fastest.
Today was slower than yesterday. It
started out cloudy and as the morning progressed it even rained just a little
(but not enough to have to take down the bounce houses, thankfully). While it was cloudy, we had almost no
kids. But an hour later, when the clouds
cleared away a little, people started to come in more steadily.
I was busy most of the morning and could not help monitor the bounce houses
until almost lunchtime. First, I was
setting the sound equipment up. That was
the last big thing on my list of what I had to set up. Then Dad brought in a brand new printer
(which he found for around $30--which I thought was a great deal for the kind
of printer we got). I spent much of the
morning creating forms and printing them out.
One of them was to keep track of the kids' points. Kids can get points by doing various
activities here at the Kidz Zone, from bringing other people or doing Bible
lessons to just attending a kids show.
Those points are then counted up for each kid and they go toward the
grand prize of an Mp3 Player that we are giving away at the end of the week to
the kid who has worked up more points than anyone else.
Sometime in the later morning Steve-O asked me to come with him so he could
show me something he had done with our advertising signs over by the
road. When we got there, I saw he had
hung up the "Kidz Zone" sign right below the city park sign. We took turns taking pictures of it and of
the road filled with motorcycles with both of our cameras, which I found to be
pretty fun. He also showed me his tripod
that turns into a monopod on the way, which I thought was pretty cool.
After lunch, it was only a short time before I was called over to help
prepare for the show(These days go by so fast!). We haven't really had much of a schedule made
at any point, but Dad is pretty good at choosing a theme and then adapting the
materials and skits to fit that theme.
We have classics from years past and this year also have a new act or
two that we use. Even though we are
using essentially the same equipment every year, Dad is always coming up with
new ways to make the programs original and interesting.
However, as we don't have a set routine or anything I usually have to
prepare music and sounds on the fly.
Each character or puppet has a different song that come out to and
sometimes leave to, so I have to prepare those and queue them. I used to bring out my laptop for that, but
now I have a tablet of sorts (actually a Nook Tablet that I tweaked so it runs
on android like a normal tablet), so I just bring that out and create a
playlist on it, which helps keep things organized and queued when I need them
ready. As long as I have a few minutes
it is usually no problem to get things ready by showtime.
I was going to record a whole show on my camcorder, but I figured out today
why it quit working in the middle of yesterday's recording: the battery ran out. And, as I only just figured that out minutes
before the show started, I couldn't record anything today--just take
pictures. I was, however, able to hook
up an audio recorder directly into the system, so anything that was said into
any microphones was recorded right into my device! I was also able to hook up some earbuds and
hear exactly what was being said. I
thought that was a pretty nifty trick!
I always have a hard time telling exactly when to play music or have a
character come in. Sometimes Dad tells
me beforehand just to interrupt him at some point, but when the time comes I
can't tell if he is still saying something that the kids need to hear or if
he's stalling and waiting for me to play the music...this can be pretty
disruptive to the show if I get it wrong (which I have been known to do on
occasion). Yesterday was, I'll admit, a
little patchy, but today I feel I did better.
There was one point where the situation I described above about Dad
stalling and waiting for me to start the music happened. However, he remedied the situation by banging
on the stage a couple times, which absolutely confirmed my suspicions that he
was waiting for me. Aside from that
part, I did do better than yesterday. Of
course, in years past, just when I think I have it down pretty well, the week is
up. I'll just do the best I can while
I'm here.
Everything wound down pretty much as expected. After the show we had a brief water fight
(pretty much the helpers get to squirt the kids with water or throw water balloons at them). I helped Steve-O with
his video message to his church again by holding the camera for him. We closed down pretty quickly and before I
knew it a lot of the team was leaving.
Those of us who stayed talked together for quite a while (guess that's
what happens when you get Dad together with friends he doesn't see often from
all round the country). After that, we
went to Pizza Hut and everyone got to eat at the buffet and pig out after a
hard day of work.
Now I'm back here again in the pavilion watching the supplies. Dad said I'll probably end up watching this
stuff for a lot of the week before going to bed each night. That gives good amount of time to blog and
look at my pictures in the evenings as I am doing now.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to record a whole kidz show like I've been
trying to for a couple days now. There's
always been just one or two problems, but I think I'll have them all solved by showtime tomorrow.
Well, I'm excited for the week ahead.
It may be a lot of work, but I know that in the end it's always worth
it!
By the way, if you'd like to see today from another's point of view, here's Steve-O's blog post!
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