Last night they had a large concert for orchestra students of local schools grades 5 - 12. Jack got to play three pieces on his violin. He did a great job! His favorite piece was Impulse. Please enjoy the video of his performances:
Did you know the kids sing a parody version of Smash Mouth's All Star? It makes me happy to hear this. And old. I feel old.
(I think Sam hasn't learned the chorus yet. I wonder how it goes.)
Both Jack and Sam had a chance to perform for us this fall.
Jack had his first real orchestra concert. It was hard to get a good picture, but he's in the center of these with a black mask and glasses.
Ben took some video of the songs, since he had a slightly better angle than me.
We think he did a fantastic job! He was upset about a few mistakes, but we assured him that we didn't notice at all.
Sam's third grade classes have been working on a musical for the last couple months. They performed a "dress rehearsal" for the first and second graders, then a real show for their parents. He is wearing the green shirt & mask, red bandana, and brown hat.
The teacher had me record the whole show for her to save and distribute to everyone. So there aren't any close-up shots of my adorable son. It's a 30 minute show with 7 songs.
If you want to skip to Sam's part, it's at 17 minutes into the video. He forgot to come down with group 4 narrators, but he launches down the risers just in time to deliver his line.
I'm so proud of both my boys!
Personally, Ben and I were pretty stressed about being in the audience with a group of people, even though masks were required. It's going to a long time before we are comfortable in public again. We are working on it slowly, and these performances were a joyful excuse to go out.
What a fun Halloween weekend! On Friday we all dressed up for school and work.
Jack's costume turned out very well! We went to the thrift store and bought a green graduation robe, the boots, a silver scarf that became chainmail, the turtleneck, and the belts. I spent a few afternoons sewing the robe into the tunic and hat, and got some faux suede to make arm gauntlets. Most people knew he want Link (only one parent called him Robin Hood). Here's a throwback to his first time dressing as Link, when he was one year old.
Sam wanted to be "The Spirit of Halloween," which he described as a pumpkin head with black robes. I found an old Harry Potter cloak I had made for Jack many years ago. I added a hood and extended the sleeves. Sam picked out the mask at the Spirit Halloween store. We had the skeleton gloves from Jack's Jack Skellington costume, and Sam picked out dark clothes to wear underneath. Easy peasy.
Ben found all his cool stuff online. We were all enamored with the prop sword, which looks really good considering how cheap it was!
I loved my costume this year. My vampire look was inspired by the many, many, many kpop vampire performances. (Those links are from the last year alone, and I left some out. Kpop clearly has a love of vampires.) I wore a ruffled shirt, cummerbund, and a costume coat that I tailored to fit. The dangly chain earrings, velvet choker, and combat boots are what bring this 18th century look to modern Korea.
Amanda's musical auditions were this month. I posted a dance video for the kids to practice with. Of course, I had to post a Halloween version, like all the kpop groups do too.
I'm the room parent for Sam's class, so I organized and hosted their Halloween party. After setting up, I got to watch the school costume parade. Then back inside for games and a craft project.
We were so excited to share Halloween with Andy this year! He drove over the mountains to join in our merriment.
Amanda took these great pictures of pumpkin carving. I'm proud of the kids - they did the most independent work ever this year. I only helped them a little on final clean-out. They scooped and sawed all by themselves!
Our new friends from trivia invited us to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood on the other side of Denver. The houses are close together and the homeowners decorate a lot! Kids from all over come to trick-or-treat there.
We came home for a quick dinner and to warm up. Then Andy and Ben took the kids out for another round in our home-neighborhood. I can't believe how long they trick-or-treated! We have so. much. candy now.
Happy Halloween!
The boys got their first dose of the Pfizer covid vaccine this morning! Our pediatrician’s office was extremely well organized and celebratory. We are so happy!
My little guy turned 8 years old this month! He can legally ride in a car without a booster seat, like a fully formed human. We've been talking about baptism and letting him know he can decide to do that now. But we all would prefer to wait until he is fully vaccinated.
Just for fun, here's a link to his 8 month blog post. Look at those cheeks! I'm happy to report he has been sleeping through the night for the past few years! Hurrah! Hmm, stubborn and wanders off to do his own thing? That hasn't changed much. Now he's a spacey kid and hard to snap to attention. He'll look at you without hearing what you are saying, or wander off mid task with item in hand, completely forgetting what he was asked to do. He's still smiley, funny, creative, and fun to be around!
He celebrated his birthday with a small outdoor party that was Minecraft themed. He started by having his best friend over for indoor video games - a treat he hasn't been able to do in over a year! Of course they were masked and I opened all the windows and set up fans to blow fresh air around while they played. They loved it so much, they were a little dismayed when it was time to start the party outside!
Sam started with presents and snacks. Then they made Minecraft character keychains with perler beads.
There was an item matching game with cards hidden in the balloons.
Everyone got a couple turns with the pinata before Desi was let loose. He annihilated the creeper, as expected.
The kids hunted for little containers of ingredients to craft the birthday cake. I found little food items to represent the milk, eggs, wheat, and sugar, that you need to use in the game to craft a cake.
Cake time! Sam asked for a cake that looks like the one from the game. I think it turned out great! It was chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream. A little marshmallow fondant and squares of Fruit Roll-up were used for decoration. We employed the hygienic method for blowing out candles: using canned air.
A brewing thunderstorm ended the party right on time. Sam was feeling a little worn out from all the friends and eating too much junk food. He recuperated shortly and we opened his family presents.
That was all on Saturday before his birthday. Sunday was a quiet day at home. Monday the 13th was his actual birthday. I made him chocolate chip pancakes with peaches for breakfast before school.
That morning I left for GJ to help mom with her knee surgery. Sam had a good time at school and an indulgent time at home with the Ben and Jack. I hear there was pizza and video games, to no one's surprise. He had a good birthday all around.
Here's some pictures I took last week. Nothing remarkable, just a slice o'life.
I love dancing again! I've been trying to do two classes a week all summer, and so far am keeping it up since school started.
In Zumba Wednesday night my teacher filmed one of the routines and I asked for a copy. It's a super old song and I've done at least 3 versions with different instructors over the years, none of them recently. So I was a little rusty! I love when they put old routines in playlists though.
Here's a short clip of the dance. I'm wearing all black and the mask on the left. My friend and instructor is center in the white tank top.
I tried putting that one directly into wordpress, so I hope it plays for you. Here's the full video on youtube. It got a copyright claim with the music, I apologize if it plays annoying ads as a result.
Sam has had several loose teeth for months. He finally wrestled one out yesterday after school.
This was a special tooth, a Siamese twin tooth! We identified it when he was a baby. The dentist told us it’s a single tooth that had a fusion, so it looks like two teeth from above the gum line. He assured us that a single tooth would erupt below it. It’s time to test his theory!
(He got the regular $5 plus $1 for this fancy tooth specimen)
Gross tooth photo warning. ⚠️
If you are not into that the post ends here!
Twin tooth:
