Piano Recital 2011

On Monday, June 13th we had our annual piano recital.  I squished 50 people into my dining/living room.  That is the largest crowd we've had here in the NW ever!  It was awesome:)

Emma played "Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God" by Janice Kapp Perry.  She worked hard on it.  She couldn't really practice it until after her elbow injury healed.  She did AWESOME!

Olivia played "Water Music" and a duet of "I Love To See the Temple".  Since I was the one taking pictures, I couldn't take a picture of her while playing the duet with her at the same time.  But she did a great job on both pieces!

Brynn played a duet, too.  It's called "C.S. Theme and Variations" by Randall Compton.  She started playing by herself, but played the wrong song (Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime by Paul Cardall).  I then stood up & made a big fuss about her playing the wrong song & scooted her over on the bench.

We then played each others' parts while teasing one another.  You had to be there:)

At one point during the duet, I PUSH her off the bench & take over the top part.  She had to get up off the floor & settle on playing the lower part.  We are currently working on recording the duet to post on YouTube.  I'll let you know when that happens.  But it's just not the same as when we did it at the recital.  We have had a TON of fun learning this duet together!

At the end of the recital, each student was presented with a potted flower (to represent how much they've grown in their skills) & a Super Song Star filled with all the super songs they had passed off since January.  Some had one song, others had 6 or 7.  It really depended on each student and the songs they chose to work on, the level of difficulty it was, and such.  

From left to right:  Emma's, Brynn's, Olivia's

This is the Super Song Star Chart.  It's on the wall in the piano room.  I drew the big yellow star & had it laminated.  I then laminated each of the stars spelling out "Super Songs", above & below the yellow star.

A Super Song is any song NOT in their lesson books that they choose to learn.  I keep a list of these songs under each students' name in my teaching binder.  We then can refer to this list to choose songs to perform.  The purpose of this program is to further nourish the students' skills in a more desirable & fun fashion.  They learn what they NEED to in order to play the song they WANT to.  They progress much quicker than if we just stayed to the lesson books & they enjoy learning the piano much better.  Not to mention their repertoire grows along with it:)  Once the student passes off the Super Song, they earn a star and a certificate.  I keep colorful paper stars in my piano bucket for the students to write the title of their song on.  They sign their name on the back.  By using poster putty, they stick their Super Song Star anywhere on the Star Chart.  Others who look at the chart will see only song titles and no student names.  This way the competition isn't one sided & they can get ideas on what others' are playing.

At the end we all pigged out on cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, and bubbly apple cider with apple juice star ice cubes.

Thanks, KARA, for being so willing to help set up the refreshments during the recital & pitching in at the last minute as "photographer"!

Major Pentascale Master

Olivia was the first piano student to pass of all 12 of her Major Pentascales.  

A Pentascale is just a 5 finger scale.  Each student has their own colorful fish that has 12 "scales" on it.  Each lesson, Livvy was assigned a scale to work on during the week.  There are 12 scales total.

As she passed of each scale, she wrote the name of it (C, A flat, etc.) on a scale of her fish with a dry erase marker.  Once all 12 scales are filled (or passed off), she earns a Certificate, a bag of gummy worms, & a picture with the fishing hat to put on the wall above the aquarium.

Of course she had to do a "SILLY" picture!   Hahahahaha!  

Great job Livvy!!!

Emma's Choir Performance

Emma joined the choir for her last year of Elementary School.  She enjoyed it very much!  These pictures of at the biggest concert of the year, which is held at the High School with all of the other grade schools.  Her choir wore white shirts & black pants.  Other schools did or didn't do something similar.  Emma's school was the nicest looking group up there.  Emma's on the back row (surprise!), 4th from the left.

She will miss choir & hopes to do it again in High School.  

New Flower Bed

After 5 years of neglecting all my flower beds, I FINALLY felt like doing some pretty yard work.  However, I wanted something in the backyard, not just the front & down in the lower 40.  In the lower 40, one cannot just casually look & enjoy the flowers.  You have to meander down there specifically to look at them.  And let's face it, I'm LAZY.  If I can't enjoy it by simply looking out of a house window, I won't enjoy it at all.  I spend much more time in our backyard than any other part of our yard, so I wanted a "happy spot"there:)    

This whole project was taken on by our entire family.  The girls were as excited as I was to get it started. They helped dig out the grass, which was about 18 feet X 4.5 feet.  Terry & I had to do most of the digging, but they cut the lines to divide it up into smaller sections for easier removal.  Terry then leveled the dirt & we were off to Lowe's to by the border stones I wanted!  

Terry began to lay the foundation row & showed me how it needed to be done.  While he was at work, I had to mark the "corner" stones & the "straight" stones so that I could see that they were exact & symmetrical.  This is my anal gene coming out in force!!  The front  & back "straight" rows were marked with alphabet letters & they had to be across from one another.  Terry just laughed:)  Whether mentally or physically, I'm sure he rolled his eyes, too.  But it's what works for me!

 The "corner" stones I marked with numbers 1-4 twice.  Don't ask.

When building a flower bed against the house, most people use the house for support & build up the other 3 sides.  But with our vent holes & wood siding, that's a bit of a problem.  So of course I create more work to build it up by stoning it all around.

The girls helped throughout the entire 3 weeks to get this done.  They shoveled dirt from the truck, into the wheel barrow and into the flower bed without a single complaint.  They wouldn't even let me do any shoveling until they began to get tired.  They did over half of it before they'd let me help:)  They asked if we could divide up the flower bed into sections & allow each of them to care for their own.  They worked their hynies off, so I thought they deserved that privilege.  They each got a 3 foot section, I got 4 feet.  Why did I get 4?  Because it was my idea in the first place & I'm just selfish like that:)  

There are 2 sections in this picture (above).  The far left is Brynn's & all she wanted was Pansies.  It's fun to watch her enjoy them.  She smiles & giggles just thinking about 'em!  The right side of the picture is Kara's.  She loves Fox Glove's & chose 2 different sizes.  They're in the back row with a sun flower between them.  She also likes Marigold's.  Brynn shared the extra Pansies to divide up between everyone else, too.  I think there's a Dahlia & a Gerbera Daisy in there too.  Honestly, I can't remember all the varieties that were planted by everyone!  Everyone chose their own for their section. 

The middle section of the bed is mine.  I have a couple of Daisy plants in the back, a Dahlia & Carnations in the middle & a variety of the "extra" flowers left over from the girls' choices. 

 This is Olivia's & Emma's section.  The left is Livvy's.  I know she has some snap dragons in there, petunias, a Dahlia, gerbera daisy, marigolds, & a fun pink bells plant that I can't remember the name of.  We did try to put the flower name tags next to the flowers as we planted them.  But I'm too lazy to go out & actually write them down for this blog:)  The right part of the picture is Emma's.  I think her favorite plant is the Poppy, which is the tall orange & pink flowers in the back.  She has some purple snap dragons & another purple plant that I can't remember the name of.  She has a gerbera daisy as well & took advantage of some of the "extra" flowers as well.

This is the most diverse & FUN flower bed I've ever seen!  We all love it & are taking good care of it.