Honors Recital Auditions

 

We found out late last night that my cute Penguin made it into the live & final round of auditions for the Honors Recital.  Yea!!  She's so excited & I'm so proud of her!!

We've never done something like this, but my understanding is that teachers can submit videos of their students ... so any instrument, small ensembles, singers, etc are all welcome to audition.   I still have no idea what the competition is like or what to expect, so we'll see what happens.

To view her audition videos, go to THIS post.

Mother's Day 2013

 {Mother's Day 2013 ... Turkey told me he was making his "bear face".}

I'm totally trying to avoid cleaning the bathrooms today.  It's my least favorite job.  It goes pretty quickly but it's just so gross & so mind-numbing.  I'd love a maid! Who wouldn't, right?

I had such a nice Mother's Day ... actually weekend.  Hubby had a 3-day weekend which is a rarity!!  Just having Saturday's off if a nice treat, so I was excited to see that he got Friday & Saturday off.  Friday I pampered myself a bit & went to get my hair done which included a goose-bump-giving scalp massage.  Ahhh! :)  Then my boys took me to my favorite pizza spot for lunch followed by a little shopping.  Friday afternoon we met with our architect, had a harp lesson, and dinner was squeezed in there somewhere but I honetly can't remember anything about dinner.

Saturday, Hubby went for a 50-mile bike ride with a couple of his friends.  When he got home, I was craving Jimmy-Johns so we packed lunches for the kids and grabbed ourselves some JJ's.  Then we headed to the mall ... my hubby entertained the kids at Pottery Barn Kids, Apple, & the Lego store so I could wander the mall alone.  Saturday night Hubby & I went to one of my favorite restaurants & enjoyed an outstanding meal!!  I'm still drooling and wanting more!

Sunday the kids went with Hubby to pick oranges for fresh squeezed OJ.  Then they made me Nutella filled french toast with raspberries for breakfast.  At the breakfast table, I was showered with cards & gifts of all sorts.  I'm a very blessed momma & wife.

At church, we enjoyed talks about motherhood.  And during the 3rd hour (yes, I go to church for 3 hours!), all the women 12 yrs old and up combined for a lesson on motherhood, ate cheesecake, and then had some time to socialize.

After church we stopped by my in-law's home to visit & deliver a gift.  Dinner was at my mom's house and it was way fun & yummy.  Definitely my kind of food!  My mom made a pot of potatoes, corn, & shrimp and then dumped it out along a couple long tables that were set-up by her pool - no dishes needed.

 

Plans for the Home

Sooo ... we've been working on plans for our home for about 3 months now.  I think we are finally just about done.  It's been consuming many-a-days and we are counting down the days until we can move onto the next phase of the process ... sending everything to engineers & then submitting plans to our town for approval.  Slowly but surely we are making progress.

Audition Videos ... Done!

It's 11:44pm and I'm finally finishing up Penguin's audition videos for an honors recital.  This was a somewhat painful project.  I had to record her playing two pieces which we did on three different nights.  Recording is frustrating because we kept trying and trying for a perfect recording, which just ends up being frustrating for both of us.  I tried to keep recording sessions short because I found that her best recordings were usually the first few ... after that I think she gets tired ... I don't blame her!

After I recorded Penguin on a few occasions, I probably had about 50 videos to go through and I had to choose which video was best for each song.  I kept nodding off, getting up for breaks, etc but I think I found two winners ... well, I hope these videos make Penguin a winner. :)

We've never done something like this before & we have no idea what the competition is like, so I have no idea what to expect from the judges.  I think 3-4 judges review these videos and then some kids are invited for a live audition, so at this point, all we can do is wait ... and practice, practice, practice!  :)

So ... here is my Penguin after playing the harp for 6-months - probably about 6 months exactly.  I'm so proud of her and I can't wait to see where she's at after playing for another 6 months!! 

Rondo:

Russian Lullaby:

Twist & Shout

 

Peacock participated in a school concert Thursday night.  The entire 4th grade played about 15-minutes worth of music on recorders, which was pretty cute.

When the 4th graders were finished, the kids in grades 4-6, that choose to go to school early and attend choir, had their spring choir concert.  The choir kids sang songs from different decades and they did a great job.  I knew Peacock had a solo part, but she never practiced it at home.  I expected her to get up and sing in her sweet choir voice, but when this came out of her mouth, I about fell out of my chair!  I asked her where she learned to sing like this and she told me she sings under her breath with the radio.  What a hoot!

Bravo!