Grace and Anna participated in chorus at school.
This meant that they had to go to school early every Tuesday and Thursday for quite a while.
(another reason I'm so glad the school is across the street)
They had a good time learning the songs and were excited to perform them.
They performed at the University Mall and at the school too.
We have had quite a few memorable musical moments recently
(how's that for alliteration!)
I thought I'd share them all in one post.
- Dallin played at a rest home with his violin teacher and some of her students. They did and the people were so grateful.
- Dallin had his Winter Orchestra concert, he did a great job. I was particularly impressed to watch as he noticed that a young lady did not have a music stand and he went and found one for her.
- Mike and I were able to go to see The Sound of Music at a local community theater. A friend of ours was playing Maria. It was very well done...really made me want to look into doing that again. It's been a long time! Just for fun I dug up a couple of old pictures from my community theater days...one of them is even pre-redhead! Enjoy :)
I played Rhetta in Pumpboys and Dinettes,
such a fun musical and a great cast!
I played Gloria in Damn Yankees.That was a great part! It was a very physical part too, I remember coming home very bruised from several rehearsals...but it was worth it!
I also stayed up one night and painted this olio drop, it turned out great and the director was very happy.
...so happy that he requested I do another one for Phantom...
I wish I could find my picture of that one, it was so involved!
(Maybe I'll have to do some more digging and do a more in depth flashback post!)
I was Carlotta in Phantom.
That has to be one of my favorite roles I've played. It was fun playing a mean, bad character :)
...and I had awesome costumes too!
Ok, sorry for the side track down memory lane, now back to the regular post :)
- Dallin performed at the mall with his violin teacher and more of her students.
They had a pretty big crowd gathered around.
They sounded so good!
- We went caroling as a family and delivered treats to some friends. We had a very moving experience when we went to visit a dear sister from our church who had cancer and was in a coma. I'll never forget the feelings I had as we sang to her. She passed away 3 days later. Her funeral was wonderful. I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a funeral...but she would have wanted it that way! She requested to be driven to the cemetery in a beat up red pick up truck (the story on how that was able to happen is pretty neat too) with Latin music blasting as loud as possible.
- Noah had his Winter Band concert...he nailed his solo, and he looked like James Bond.
- I led the choir last Sunday in church and it went very well. We did two songs and they sounded so wonderful! I'm so thankful to the awesome friends who come and share their talents and sacrifice their time to support me in this calling and to sing praises to the Lord.
and...I found the videos from the piano recital...I'm so happy!!
This year the elementary school had a talent show.
This is the first time they have done this
(since we have lived here anyway.)
Grace and Isaac both participated and they did a great job.
It was their first time performing like this and I could tell they were a little nervous but I was so proud as I watched them perform.
I couldn't stop smiling! Grace sang "Reflection" from Mulan Isaac did comedy
Here they are before heading to the show Our little comedian!
Grace decided that she wanted to dress like Mulan
...so we did the best we could
not bad for some fabric scraps, an old angel costume and a neck tie :) She also wanted her hair straight for it, so I straightened it. I wish I would have remembered to put a flower in her hair, oh well!
Grace's performance
Isaac's performance
Although their performances weren't perfect,
Grace missed a couple notes
Isaac forgot a couple of the jokes he was going to tell,
they were perfect to me!
*on a personal note, I was happy with Grace's selection and thought it was very age appropriate, there were some other performances that I felt were not appropriate for elementary school age kids...that's my opinion anyway :)
Our family had the opportunity to participate in a Pioneer Day fireside at the Washington D.C. temple visitor's center this past Saturday.
Aren't we cute!
The music and spoken word presented were great. It was fun to be a part of it. I especially loved watching my kids.
Here's a little dance they did
You probably noticed that Noah was missing from that first picture, he didn't think he should be in it because he wasn't in pioneer clothes, but we had to get one with him anyway. He watched from the audience...and manned the video camera.
He was at scout camp for the first rehearsal and honestly, I didn't think he would have wanted to do it anyway, since he is getting older. I was surprised when after it was over he told me that he wished he would have been in it and that it felt weird to watch us perform without him. I asked him if he wanted me to force him to do whatever comes next and he said, yes! Love that kid :)
We got an extra fun treat after the fireside. Our good friends the Fishers live here in Maryland, but we haven't been able to get together with them. We met them about 12 years ago while living in Monterey California. Anyway, I let them know about the fireside and they canceled all their plans for the evening ;) and came and watched it (mostly because I bribed Chaoyi with a zucchini from my garden, kidding!)
After the fireside we all went out for treats. It was so fun catching up with them in person rather than through blogs and facebook, though I'm so glad to have those means of keeping in touch.
I can't wait to get together with them again, I know we'll have so much fun!
...oh and I have to say how honored I felt to be the first contact Chaoyi entered into her new phone :)
On Saturday May 8th there was a family concert at the Washington D.C. Temple Visitor's center. The kids were asked to perform their Oliver/Annie number from our Stake Night of the Arts
and I was asked to sing a duet with my awesome friend Rebekah. We sang "For Good" from Wicked. I had so much fun singing with her!
The whole concert was fantastic. Watching some of the young kids play the violin and the boy with little cello was especially cute.
We all had a great time.
It was extra special because my Mom and Dad happened to be in town and got to come and watch the performance.
On Friday night our Stake had it's annual Night of the Arts, that I am in charge of. This year the theme we picked was "Salute to Broadway." There was a ton of work that went into it, but when it was all over, it was worth every effort.
Our ward was represented by some of our primary kids. I asked an awesome friend to put together a performance, and we talked about possibilities. We came up with the idea of dividing the kids up and having the boys do "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver! and the girls do "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie. She made an invitation to all the primary kids, and then worked really hard with those who wanted to do it. I, of course, volunteered all 5 of my kids to do it. Nothing like forcing what you love onto your kids, right? The best part was that they had fun doing it and I think they would do it again.
It was also really good for them to see what is involved to make a performance. Watching them really made me miss my days of community theater, I just might have to find a show to audition for... but I must say that I had a blast being an mc for the night and goofing around with my good friend and cohort Tanya!
Anyway, Rebekah did an amazing job with the kids and pulled together such a great performance. (And she did it with only 3 Saturday rehearsals and 1 short Thursday night dress rehearsal.) I was so proud of my kids!
For your viewing purpose I split the video, on that night the girls came out right after the boys and then at the end the boys came back and they all bowed together.
Here are the boys with Food Glorious Food.
Noah and Dallin start out in the back, they both have brown pants and kind of green tops, Isaac is on the far right, in brown pants and a cream top ...unfortunately Mike was too close to the stage and couldn't get everyone in the entire time, so Isaac isn't visible for some of it.
And here are the girls with It's a Hard Knock Life, special appearance by Tiffany as Miss Hannigan! Grace leads in the front line and Anna is the one in the pink dress, right behind her.
They received a standing ovation ,the only one of the night, when they were done and they sure deserved it! They were awesome orphans!
As a side note, I was also particularly happy with the way the refreshments turned out. I wanted them to coordinate with the Broadway theme so I came up with a play on words idea and made little signs to go with each item. Then I found a wonderful person to head it up and assign out the treats. Thanks JoAnn!
Here's what we had, most of them are self-explanatory, but on some I've added an explanation...
A big bowl of potato chips
Black and white cookies
Big pretzels dipped in chocolate
An empty platter
Brownies with a layer of green mint
Mini lemon-poppyseed Muffins
Sugar Cookies with purple icing
Anyway, just thought I'd share those with you, I had fun working on them.
The night was a success and I'm relieved it's over, but now I have to start thinking about what to do for next year... any suggestions?
Today was the closing ceremony for Anna's preschool. She has really loved attending preschool, I think she will really miss it...especially if she doesn't get into PreK at our Elementary school...because if she doesn't she's just going to be stuck at home with me!
Anyway, Grace stayed home from school today because she chose not to go on a fieldtrip, so she got to come with me to Anna's little "graduation" ceremony.
It was fun to watch all the little kids sing some of the songs they have learned throughout the year. Here is a little bit of "Mother Gooney Bird"
Enjoy!
They each recieved a certificate also. Anna was really concentrating on trying to read hers :)
Ms. Douglas has been great with all three of my kids who have attended the First Flight program, and they love her.I'm glad Anna has had such a positive preschool experience. She's such a fun little girl.
A couple short clips
