JCCC Carlsen Center "My Father's Dragon" Play and My Love for JCCC

I am a Johnson County Community College alumni :-) Look, it took me TEN YEARS to get that 2-year Associate of Arts degree, dangit, and I am proud of myself. I can't say I enjoyed the FOUR Math classes I had to take to get that degree but I did enjoy all of the English classes and History as well. Drama and Public Speaking were decent too. I have to say graduating with ZERO student loan debt was pretty nice.

It was hard working and going to school, sometimes one full-time job plus a part-time job plus classes. Thank goodness for night classes. And these days you can even do online, which is INSANELY COOL. Kids these days don't know how good they have it, dagnabbit. I vaguely remember walking uphill both ways in the snow to get there as well.

My poor children have had to endure stories about me attending JCCC and how some semesters I would work all day, grab some Taco Bell, then park in the underground parking garage and eat while listening to talk radio while waiting to go to my class.

We have moved to Missouri now, which means we can't take advantage of CTE (formerly called Senate Bill 155) that lets you take FREE classes at JCCC (check out dual credit options if you are homeschooling or even if you are not). Looks like I need to get to some government meetings and start fighting Missouri for that! Anyway, check out that option at their website. It's a great benefit of living in Kansas and you should take advantage of it!

I tear up a little thinking of how I used to dream of being a mother and now I have these five precious beings in my care. You have to love how they always know I'm going to make them get together and pose. Poor things.

I used to go to classes in this building and had the PERFECT puzzle-piece schedule one semester. I only went two days a week from 8-12:30 and knocked out THREE classes back to back to back all within feet of each other. Quite the coup, friends! Then I was able to work the rest of the time.

This NEVER happens, but we were an hour EARLY because I messed up on the time so we trekked over to the Student Center for some grub.

On the way in, I grabbed a copy of Kansas City Parent magazine to see if I had any articles in there this month, and I did! I guess those JCCC writing and English classes paid off! It's a piece about carving out one-on-one time in a big family.

Hey, what are all those cute kids doing at COLLEGE? This is just such a classy college with such a cozy feel and it's easy to navigate indoors and outdoors.

The food court is INSANE! Look at all those fast food options, as well as a salad bar and a hot bar.

"My Father's Dragon" is based on a book and was a fantastic play. Yardley Hall is amazing!

Hey there, boys.

Hey there, girls.

The play was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The actors never actually spoke until the Q&A section at the end. The play was narrated through a speaker system and had some fun music as well. The actors mostly just had to use their bodies to convey the words that were being spoken. There was one main character, Elmer Elevator, then four people in green suits played all the other characters using stuffed animals controlled with sticks and string, and lots of props and masks. The play ran about an hour and was very engaging. The cost was normally $6 per person but we got a school/homeschool discount and paid $5 per person.

Bottom line: We would do this again! I would love to attend the Nutcracker there but it's more pricey for us so that'll go into next year's budget. I'll be hunting down more of the $5 plays for sure next year for our homeschool! The Carlsen Center is beautiful and rivals anything else in town for entertainment and arts. Check out their events here. "Guess How Much I Love You" looks pretty cool for March 1. Yes, I drag the older kids to these little kid plays :-)

Bonus: My van is too tall for JCCC underground parking (what college student drives a 12-passenger van normally?!) so the parking attendant moved some cones and let us park right out front, just steps from the front door. If you need to do this, though, beware: leave the play IMMEDIATELY before busses start to block you in. We almost got blocked in for a very long time.