I am sixteen, going on seventeen...

Ok that's a lie, I am most definitely not sixteen - but this is one of my favorite songs in one of my favorite movies! 

The Sound of Music 

Released in 1965 with an amazing score mostly courtesy of Rodgers and Hammerstein. IMDB's description of the movie, "A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower." 

My description? "A beautiful love story of a widowed naval officer and a almost-nun. Before falling in love with him, Maria, the candidate the local abbey sent to Captain Vontrapp to be his children's governess, falls in love with the seven relentless children." 

This movie was set in the hills of the most gorgeous Salzberg, Austria in the late 1930's as the Nazi's are trying to take over. This movie absolutely captured my heart and makes me want to run up meadowy hills singing at the top of my lungs :) If you love musicals and you haven't seen this? I don't know what you're still doing here, you should probably go out and buy it right now so it can become a staple of your DVD collection :) In the mean time, I'll go ahead and re-cap my day full of this awesome movie! :)

Every year on new years weekend, we make the journey into downtown Seattle for The Sound of Music sing-a-long at the 5th Avenue Theater. If you can imagine, it's part concert, part PG rated Rocky Horror Picture Show and fully awesome! My mom dragged me to it for the first time sometime a couple years ago, and all I could think was, "This is going to be SO dumb." I couldn't have been more wrong. It has become a favorite family tradition that we look forward to every year now. 

Let me give you a run down -

They are very big on audience participation, when you enter the theater you are handed a yellow party bag with:

-a party popper

-a square piece of fabric (to wave at the screen when Maria is flustered at how she's going to make the children's play clothes, "Maria! The curtains! Use the curtains!!!")

-a fake little piece of edelweiss

-a couple note cards with pictures on them

You're instructed to:

-hiss when the baroness comes on screen

-boo when the Nazi's come on screen

-clap when Maria comes on screen

-Say "Awwww" when Gretl, the youngest Vontrapp daughter, comes on screen

you get the jist...

The notecards contain the following, when "How do you solve a problem like Maria" is playing you hold up each card accordingly: (PS sorry all the photos are of me, Hanna is in the, "I don't want to take pictures unless I have to" stage lol)

 "How do you solve a problem like

 Maria?

How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

a flibbertigibbet

 a whil of a wisp 

a clown honk-honk (insert me honking my nose here)

Now, all of this may sound absolutely nuts to you, because it looked absolutely nuts to be too the first year we went. However, if you can get past all the crazy things and learn to laugh at the situation and yourself a little bit, I think you'd find you have a lot of fun :)

And to top it all off? They also have a costume contest before the movie starts. There are quite a few of 

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

quite a few nuns

and of course, Fraulein Maria's

Do you think I'm totally insane? I'd be surprised if you didn't. All I know, is that it's a whole day I get to spend with my mom and sister, generally laughing the entire time. That's time I wouldn't trade for anything.

PS - Happy Monday friends! :) I hope your New Years weekend was unforgettable! We spent our evening in the bowling alley with Bryan's family :) I got 120 on my third game?! Watch out Grandma Jean!