Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Piano Recital



Last Sunday we had a piano recital at our house.
This was my first year teaching piano lessons. I didn't know that I would enjoy so much!
It was very rewarding to see my little students perform. Four of the students I got to teach from the very beginning- middle C, quarter notes, and everything. I loved watching them progress. Most of them love playing the piano. (The exceptions are from my own family unfortunately) I am very proud of them all. They did a great job. I look forward to another year of sharing music with them.


A piano duet- Puff, the Magic Dragon with Haela
Haela Checketts

April and Louisa

Adam and Haela getting ready

Hugs from Aubree

Annalisa wasn't enjoying the hug as much as Aubree.



Trevor performs Star Wars

 The Farmer's piano is making the trip with them to Japan so this little guy can keep up the great practicing.
 Preston loves the piano more than football, to Tyler's dismay and April's delight.

Chase was accompanied by his mom.

Calli always sits underneath the piano bench during lessons and practicing. 
The recital was no exception.

Alec's turn- He played Superman.

  




Adam playing "Stargazing"


Annalisa even participated. I only taught her two songs. She insisted on piano lessons so she could get candy from the treat bowl like the other kids. It was pretty cute. Especially when she fell off the bench at the end and popped back up saying "I"m okay!!"

Anna was all smiles. 
Geoff said she was anxiously awaiting her turn.
 He kept having to tell her how many songs before she could go up and play. 
I honestly expected her to chicken out. Quite the opposite.

Trevor and Mariah surprised us with an amazing little duet about the Harry Potter books that they learned from YouTube. It had like a thousand words quickly rattled off. They didn't learn the last part of the song because they haven't read book 7 yet. :)  They didn't want to spoil the ending for themselves. 
My jaw hung open when I saw my shy little Trevor perform this with such enthusiasm and confidence. Mariah has a strong influence on him for good. I love that they are such great buddies still. 
 
Every so often our family events end badly. This was one of those nights. Tawny thinks it's the lack of adult supervision. Could be. We get to chatting and let the kids do their thing. 
The weather was so perfect that the kids went outside to play after the recital and dessert was done. There was an incident involving Alec with a stick in hand while climbing up a slide while Lincoln was sliding down. 
We were lucky it wasn't much worse. Lincoln did need a few stitches however. 

Lincoln was so sweet. After he had recovered a bit from the injury, he told a distraught Alec that he was glad he got hurt. He thought his scrape "looked cool." I'm pretty sure he only said it to try to make Alec feel better. It touched my heart. What a sweetheart.

What beautiful eyes that boy has. So glad the stick didn't hit them. Whew.

Memorial Day Picnic


The Rockwood 1st Ward has a fun Memorial Day tradition. 
We gathered at Bluebird park for a potluck picnic and BBQ contest. The food was abundant and delicious. I made two trays of cinnamon rolls which have become very popular in this ward. (Maren sells them to make girls' camp $) Mr. C even brought his famous ice cream. Then the kids had a giant water fight which lasted for about two hours. The older kids played ball games. 
It was a great event. The weather could not have been better. I can't believe how lovely and long this spring has been in St. Louis. It still isn't warm enough to swim in the outdoor pool in the backyard, but I'll take it! The hot weather will come soon enough.


Aubree leading Mitchell to the treat table
This was the first of about 30 visits to that table.
We were pretty sure he was going to eat himself sick, but he didn't. 
But Tawny said he didn't touch his dinner that night. :)

Pretty Haela 

Oh! What fun they had! Enoch was a little devil with that squirt gun. 

Louisa and Tyler arrive 

Mariah didn't get wet that day because of a big scrape on her knee that she got while camping. I should've take a picture of it, because it was a very big deal. (for Mariah) She limped for a week. Her mom was pretty sure she would survive, but Mariah didn't take any chances. She babied that knee very carefully.

Lincoln preferred dumping water on his own head, which he did over and over and over.



 Cupcake girl


 
Enoch sneaked up behind his mom and soaked her pretty good. Charity was classy as usual in her response. April was pretty sure she would've handle it differently. Something about holding someone's head under the faucet...


In the midst of the chaos of the water fight, Mitchell dropped his treat.
He knew just what to do about that. He headed right back to the treat table.

Tawny and Louisa


Check out what Enoch Checketts put on his plate. We all laughed. 



Strategizing