Let The Music Play On

Every other year, the school has a band concert that includes all the bands from 5th grade through high school. It is so fun hearing the step by step progression of the bands. The fifth grade band was adorable. The high school band was amazing and all the of bands in between were incredible. I wish they did this every year.

Here is Isaac playing his little heart on the clarinet. He looks so calm. You would never know he had been so excited and so ready for this concert for days ahead of time. He memorized the entire information newsletter regarding the concert. At dinner he told every one where they needed to go and what room they should report to. Then he told Joel what time we needed to pull out of the driveway to be at school on time and he told me which lens to put on my camera to get good pictures. Is this the same kid that tries getting on the bus about once a week while leaving his lunch bag and clarinet on the driveway?





Here is Daniel doing a bang up job on the trumpet. They played In The Mood...which was the first song played at our reception when we were married. Love that song! Thank you to the entire 8th grade band for picking a song that I JUST LOVE. Thank you to Daniel for practicing it a lot so I could hear it over and over and over again.




And here is Nicko. I love watching Nicko listen to music. He shoulder dances. Big, tough, strong, male bopping away to the tune of big band classic is just not something to be missed in my book. I know that he will probably be horrified that I shared this on a blog. Sorry, Nicko. You just don't know how entertaining you are to watch!



And poor Alyssa had to sit with Mom and Dad while she watched the boys. She reminded me about 4 times that next year she can join band and she is going to be playing the flute. She loves the flute. She can't wait to play the flute. (Funny she said the same things about the piano and that seems to have lost some of it's glamor and excitement.) She is really going to work hard at practicing so she can be really good at playing the flute. ;-) She is in such a rush to grow up and do the things the boys get to do. Sigh.

Coming to a Galaxy near You...

We were invaded this weekend. The kids brought the Legos out and took over half the family room to build, display and TEST their creations. We started out with a pile of Legos that quickly spread.



This is Daniel's awesome car. He designed it to flip and keep going. Joel and Daniel were giggling like little girls as they built a course for the vehicle. I did not get a picture of the course or the boys 'playing cars.' Too bad.



Alyssa built a landing pad for our awesome space ships. The landing station came complete with a crew of really cute Lego men.



We had so much fun. I made my own space ship. I started out just building something to make the kids happy. Then I revised it and had to rebuild it. I created a Space Rescue Vehicle. It is a tow ship for broken down space ships. So here is the empty ship.



The back end opens to let the broken down space ship in.



And here it is with the rescued ship.



Here is the happily and safely rescued space ship. Our fleet of SRV's use the latest technology, training and research to set industry benchmarks in the space rescue field. That is Joel making fun of me. But I don't care. My secret to an awesome SRV? It's color coordinated. :-)




One last shot of my awesomeness!




Here is an interesting side note. We have not purchased one piece of Lego for the kids. These are all Joels Legos from his childhood. I think that is so cool. I wonder how many generations of play we can get from a tote of Legos.

Snow and Wind

I love winter. I love a really good snow storm when we are all at home and in front of a fire. But just as good as a snow storm is the beauty that the storm leaves behind. We did not really have a snow storm, just a few inches of snow and some wind. School was not canceled and life went on as usual, but this morning, we had a beautiful surprise.



As soon as the sun came up, the trees turned back into ordinary, naked trees. But it was so amazing while it lasted.




The snow almost looks like sand dunes, but it sparkles in the sun.



Now the sun is out. The snow is sparkling and it is sort of cheerful. The best part is that the sun is melting the snow off the driveway now. :-) That is really cheerful! Happy Winter Everyone.