Featuring Jack's Birthday, Gardens, and more Theater

My parents took me and the boys, plus Amanda and Andy, on a glorious long weekend in New York City. There were many shows and museums and snacking. Jack really expanded his theater experience. The kids have both been to NYC before but say they hardly remember/don't remember at all. Now they have a head full of memories of the sights, smells, and strangeness of that great city. We had such a wonderful time!

I'm gonna make a huge picture dump and caption just a few things. I wish we had pooled all our photos before splitting up at the end. Alas!

DAY 1: Traveling, hotel, food near Grand Central

Day 2: Meeting with Amanda, Museum of Broadway, RiseNY Musem

More Day 2: Splitting up. Me to K-town, Jack and Amanda to Hamilton, me and Sam to Central Park

Day 3: All together now! Met Musem, Show, Show, Show

Day 4: Brunch, Shopping, Show, Dinner

Springtime means theater! I wrapped on the middle school musical "Once Upon a Mattress." The kids did very well and there were not as much drama as in some other seasons. Working with the new Music Director was a delight. Amanda got us tiaras to celebrate!

The boys both had spring concerts with their orchestra classes. I fear that I'm so behind in blogging, I'm just going to dump the videos here for posterity without further description!

This spring we completed a huge house project that I've been meaning to do literally since we moved in 12 years ago. Our master bathroom was dreadful. Skinny, mold-prone shower. Scalloped edge sink that was hard to clean. Woefully out of date brass fixtures with mauve and gray tiles. And CARPET. The house only had carpet in the basement theater room, spare room, and our bathroom! What the heck?

I spent weeks looking for a builder and many more weeks planning the new layout. Then many more weeks shopping for the endless list of items we'd need to complete the job. I'll skip over writing out all the details and obstacles I tackled in getting this remodel finished.

The minivan proved itself over and over again while I hauled materials to the house. I'm glad I decided to hire builders instead of DIY-ing it. This project was definitely above my skill-set.

Before pictures:

After pictures:

In the end, it took exactly one month (March 3 - April 3) with the builders from demolition to finish, plus another week or so for decorating/organizing. Although the room is not any larger, the layout if much more useful and the shower is a DREAM. Each day I use the shower I appreciate how blissfully beautiful and large it is.

It's a delight every time I enter the bathroom, even months later. Hoo-boy it was a lot of work of money. I'm glad we finally did it and also that it's finally over.

Jack played in the pit orchestra for their spring musical: Sweeney Todd. He did an amazing job with the difficult score by Sondheim. He grew so much as a musician due to the rigorous rehearsals and extended playing time. He also helped build the sets when he had spare time! The kid lived and breathed Sweeney Todd for several months!

Here's the ending outro that they played after bows - my only chance to sneak some live video without being totally uncouth!

Seriously, we are super impressed with Jack's dedication and improvement with his musical journey. What a kid!

I declared to Ben that for my birthday this year I wanted to celebrating by going somewhere warm. After dismissing flights to Mexico, Florida, Texas, and California, I looked closer to home and decided on a local hot springs resort. Mt. Princeton Hot Springs was only a few hours drive from home, so we could make it a quick one night, 24 hour vacation.

Once again, we left the kids alone to fend for themselves, and once again, they had a snow day!

All the creek pictures are from the second day, when I brought my music and phone/camera. The first day we were still figuring out the options and etiquette. The creek was my favorite pool by far, but they had many different pools of different sizes, temperatures, age restrictions, and water content.

I know, I'm terribly behind on journalling our family. I'm trying to catch up as quickly as I can, so here's a random assortment of photos from the past half year.

Highlights = lots of cello, some board games, roller skating, Jack baking a lot, my car got hit in a parking lot = easy repair and no injuries, but a lot of inconvenience and hassle. Christmas card photos, pre-Christmas trip to GJ, meeting Andy's new dog, Christmas break and gifts. Working New Year's eve, Ben's quiet birthday the next day. Seeing musicals at the DCPA, date night on a random free weekend, Outdoor Lab, archery, Jack getting contact lenses, Cheyanne Mountain Zoo, and costume parties with friends.

Here are a collection of orchestra concerts the kids performed this year. Sorry I don't have song titles, some of them were so long ago!

First, this is Jack's December concert.

Sam was invited to perform with the Jeffco Honors Orchestra. He spent two days rehearsing and then played a concert. He did marvelously!

Next we have spring concerts! Sam performed recently with this 6th grade orchestra (it's a huge group!). Although it's unofficial, I noticed he was seated in the first cello chair!

Tonight I attend Jack's Spring Concert, I think his last performance with this group. He auditioned for next year already and made it to the top orchestra level! I think he will enjoy playing with an elite group next year.