Poppy sang her heart out in the rain today at the Motueka A&P Show stage where the Tasman Karaoke Superstar Finals were being held.

All the winners from the different regional heats got together for a karaoke sing-off and Poppy took out the Junior Champion prize.  She sang a Lady GaGa Tribute and Sweet About Me by Gabriella Cilmi.

Afterwards we were going to walk around the show and meet all the animals and see the entertainment, but it was really starting to pour so we dashed to the car with just a quick stop at Mr Whippy for a creamy celebration.

Thanks to Jason from Orange Dog for helping us with the GaGa Girl t-shirt transfer… I might have to start taking orders!

Poppy’s first theatre performance at the Theatre Royal was a fabulous success with three sold out shows and three others almost full! Poppy loved every second of every rehearsal and totally blended in with the wonderful theatre people we met. I made several awesome new friends in the process too.

A little note about the Heidi dress Poppy wore in the production – I bought that dress off Trade Me for one dollar when Poppy was little.  Here is a photo of her wearing it as Little Red Riding Hood for a book character day at preschool when she had just turned 2 years old…. with an inset of her wearing the same dress on stage at five years old!

Poppy has really loved going to our local Aquatic Centre’s Wave Raves on Friday nights.  It’s a riot of colour & music along with splashing and swimming fun with hundreds of other kids.  The lifeguards are amazing and run ‘holiday-programme’ style games and competitions - often with prizes and sweets.

• Wave Rave Nelson facebook page
• ASB Aquatic Centre website

Occasionally they will have a theme night and this week was a GLOW PARTY.  They ran a facebook competition beforehand to give away a VIP party and Poppy won!  She wrote a song (with lots of help from Yogi) to the tune of Amy Winehouse’s Rehab.  The competition asked to provide the reason she wanted to win a VIP party at the Glow Night…..

My Mummy said what kind of party
and I said “Glow, Glow, Glow”
Don’t you want to go to Mackers?
And I said “NO, NO … GLOW!”
I want to be a VIP
Come on Mummy, come on PLEASE!
I wanna win a Wave Rave party
So we can **GLOW**GLOW**GLOW**

The Edge radio station (88.8) did a crossover on the radio and Poppy sang her song on air.

• Poppy singing her Glow Party Song on the Edge radio station

The prize consisted of the winner and three friends being picked up in the Edge Roadrunner (radio station SUV) and delivered to the pool; bypassing the long queues of kids and being escorted straight into the VIP party area roped off in the cafe.  It was decorated with balloons and glow stuff and the kids were presented with a party dinner from the cafe along with lots of glowsticks to wear.  Then they had lots of fun in the pools with no waiting in line at the inflatable…. and heaps of sweets!

Glow Party VIPs - Jesse, Ella, Poppy & Alice

Poppy invited her friends Ella, Jesse and Alice and they all had a blast.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPn6gjmeb28

Poppy loved Tom Sharplin and his band in concert and sang along to the old favourites.  She particularly enjoyed watching Karen Davy and all her wonderful glittery rock & roll outfits.  She used to be a Dolly Parton impersonator – and brought Poppy up on stage during her Que Sera Sera number.  Peter Wood on piano & Ray Eade on bass were EXCELLENT and we all had a good time. GranJan & Yogi joined us as our Mother’s Day gift.

Apart from a little rain in the beginning, we all had a fabulous time at this year’s Opera in the Park.  Poppy drew a couple of pictures of the proceedings and ended up asleep on my lap by the end…. unfortunately missing the fireworks!

Our favourite was definitely the Topp Twins…. so funny.  We also enjoyed GranJan’s picnic and our view was perfect.

Some of the photos were taken by John-Paul Pochin, professional photographer in Nelson.  To buy his photos, check out his website http://www.moments.co.nz/.

NeeNe and Adrienne were both in the Special Choir at Marsden College so enjoy getting together for a carol sing-a-long at this time of year.  Poppy raced up to the front when they asked for a child to come and sing on the microphone – she sang Jingle Bells well enough to win a freshly cooked pikelet with jam and cream from one of the food vendors.  There were lots of other wee girls her age to play with and the rain and wind stayed away for a lovely evening.  The choir invited all the kids to come up and sing with them towards the end.

The Big Sing – a chance to stretch your vocal chords and strum along with Nelson’s own World Ukulele Orchestra at the finale event of the Nelson Arts Festival.