Mari’s Band Concert

Mari is an awesome tuba player! Here is her first band concert from 2018, well, one song. The tubas actually get to play the melody for part of the song, which is cool

 Two notes: 

  1. Mari really is good at tuba. She gets rave reviews from her teachers.
  2. Hearing the kids play in their bands is awesome. For one of the first times in their life they are part of something big and impressive.

Andrew’s Orchestra Concert

Now that the kids are back in school they are all back to their instruments: Andrew is playing the Cello, Mari the Tuba, and Elliot the Saxophone. It is fun to hear them practicing again and they are all doing well. 

Tonight we had our first concert of the school year, for Andrew’s orchestra. 

First Day of School

Today all of the kids started school. The three older kids are all going to school this year at the local public schools. Lucia and Rose are still at home and Lucia is having some introductory kindergarten lessons with Susan.

Mari leaves first in the morning at 7:20. Her school is too close for bus service, so we drive her.
Andrew leaves next at 7:45. He can walk to his bus stop which is just down the block.
Elliot’s bus comes at 8:30, also just down the block.
Lucia on her first day of school.
Rose isn’t in school yet, but she sure knows how to pose.

Drama Performances

The kids had their drama performances this week. I had some technical difficulties during the recording. Someone called during Elliot’s and I had to leave during Andrew’s because Rose was ready to explore. 

 

 

 

 

Moving up in the (music) world

This year Andrew and Mari both started playing new instruments – Tuba for Mari and Cello for Andrew. In recent weeks they have both progressed beyond the entry-level classes that they were in. Mari started playing with the full fifth grade orchestra a couple of weeks ago and yesterday in class she was particularly proud of being called out for her skills. She was asked to come to the front of the class to play a solo of Jingle Bells. 

Andrew will join the full seventh grade orchestra at Indian Hills Junior High next week. His friend Will is already in this group and Andrew is excited for some more complex work.

First Day of School

First day of school today!

Grades:
Andrew – 7
Mari – 5
Elliot – 4
Lu – Preschool (year 1)
Rose – Crawler

After a year’s hiatus, Bean Sprout Playgarden is back! Lu is excited to have some daily friends coming over.

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Home Work

This weekend, and over the past couple of weeks, our work around the house has continued. We started with the bathrooms by installing a new toilet that we got from toiletable.com. Then Susan painted the front door and we cleaned the garage and the storage room. This weekend we tackled more projects, including using some of the kids’ watercolor paintings as wallpaper, painting part of the basement, and Elliot and I built an addition on to the playset. All of this work has come about because of several factors, including Rose being older, Susan’s program starting again, and school starting soon.

Updated front door - what a color!
Updated front door – what a color!

Elliot Hammering Away
Elliot Hammering Away

All Done!
All Done!

Watercolor Wall
Watercolor Wall

Prairie Grass Guild

Tonight we got out for our final hike of the year with the Prairie Grass Guild. We wrapped up our third year of hiking. We meet on the second Friday of each month and go for a hike, usually at Jester Park.