Our week ~ end of March

Life has been (as I'm sure you can guess) trucking along at top-speed.

A few highlights from our week...

A freak snowstorm that lasted about ten or fifteen minutes,

and the sun was brightly shining the whole time!

We had our first "subject finished for the school year" celebration, complete with throwing away of used-up textbooks (spelling is done for this year)!

Today after church, we got to go hear the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform a special concert designed to educate kids about the instruments in an orchestra.  It was an excellent concert and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The best part of all was that we won our four tickets in a local drawing, so we got to go for free!  Beyond providing for our needs, the Lord gives us good gifts of things that are not even needs but merely wishes...we are humbled and thankful!

Our week ~ August 19

Pictures were few and far between this week, but we managed to grab a few!

We got a very short but sweet visit from Matthew, Ashley, and Will as they drove back to Florida from a trip to New England.  They were here just long enough for us to see Will crawl and sneak in a few kisses on his chubby little cheeks. :)

Piano lessons started up again after a summer hiatus.  The kids have been taking lessons for five years now and love to play the piano even more now than they did back then.

 Below is their first piano lesson in  June 2008...they've grown up a bit in five years!

In the next picture you can see why we keep so busy around here.  If you hold still for a few minutes, David might just booby-trap you...

...so we keep on trucking, just to be safe! ;)  We are on the homestretch of insanely-busy now (hopefully!),  and soon we will revert to our normal level of craziness. :)

Abigail's offertory

Yesterday Abigail and her piano teacher played a duet in church.  Look at that left hand go! :)

Violin recital ~ April 2012

Last night was the kids' spring violin recital and they did a great job!  It's amazing how much they've learned since their first class this past September.  They are very much enjoying both piano and violin, which is a wonderful thing.




Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Abigail's first offertory

This past Sunday, Abigail played her first offertory in church. :)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Fall Folklife Festival 2011

Today we went on our first family field trip of this school year...we especially love these field trips because Bruce (Daddy!) comes along and that always makes it even more special!  We went to the Atlanta History Center's Fall Folklife Festival and had a wonderful day.  Here are some of the highlights...

The kids LOVED the petting zoo.

 

 

 

 

 Just as I snapped this picture (below), this Scottish Highlander cow leaned into David's hug and squashed his arm against the bench.  I had to include this picture because of David's expression of surprise and "ow"!

 We thoroughly enjoyed listening to a very talented bluegrass band.  They sang folk songs and played their instruments with such talent that we couldn't help but smile and sit transfixed...and clap a bit, too.  All three of us violin newbies dreamed of being able to play like that someday...!

 

 On the way out, we had to stop and visit the Civil War cannon (it's a tradition).

 Although most of us were tired and dragging a bit by this point, David was still running around in circles...and he doesn't stop until we put him to bed!

We had a wonderful together-day...

September school days

Wow, how are we into September already?!  We just completed our sixth week of school and are very much enjoying our days full of learning.  In history, we are studying the early-mid 1800s, so for a hands-on project, the kids built log cabins like the pioneers...

 

...and in some not-so-pleasant history, we have also been learning about the Trail of Tears.  The county we live in here in Georgia is named Cherokee County; about 15,000 Cherokee Indians were removed from this area back in 1838 and thereabouts.  This week, we visited a small local museum to learn some more 'personal' history from that time period.  Although the subject matter was solemn, we enjoyed the museum and the time together.

 On Mondays we always have a special clothing assignment.  The kids love to check the school table all weekend long, waiting to see what they're supposed to wear to school on Monday morning.  This week was a special treat -- it was "wear your pajamas to school" day!  The rule is that we come to school dressed and ready to go, so for my pj-loving kids, this was cause for celebration.  It came in handy for some unexpected lounging around we had to do Monday afternoon when Tropical Storm Lee hurled off some tornadoes in our area!  We headed down to the basement, where we laid around playing cards, cutting up old wallpaper sample books, eating treats, and sharing laughs.

We started the week off with weather-related excitement, and we ended the week with excitement of a much more positive sort -- both kids and I started violin lessons!  We are super-excited about this new adventure.  The kids have asked for years (and I have wanted to try for as long as I can remember), so when this great opportunity came up right down the road from us, we jumped on it.  Hopefully we will be playing well enough to share a video in the next few months!

 The days, as always, are flying by!

Musical children and grumpy mermaids

Today we started piano lessons again (after a summer hiatus).  Both kids were so excited to start again (phew!).

After lessons we ran errands, and by the time we got home, everyone was a little short on constructive energy and on patience.  I took the kids down to the pool to burn off some steam before dinner.  Lately they like to play "mermaid" together when they have the pool to themselves.  Here are "Gem" (David) and "Ice Sparkle" (Abigail) swimming out to the 'ocean'.

 Unfortunately, "Gem" was in a rather persnickety mood and only wanted to splash and spit at his mer-sister, which resulted in much shrieking and whining, which resulted in more splashing and spitting.

 This resulted in a short swim and an early bedtime for two very overtired mer-children!!!

Busy kids

We did half days of school this week while my parents were here, and then in the afternoons, David helped my dad with projects (my dad whipped everything into shape around here...yardwork, repair projects, winterizing projects, brake job on Bruce's car, and even an unexpected brake repair on my dad's truck), my mom and I sewed, and Abigail played quietly or rested.

As I mentioned in the last post, Abigail has been sick.  Every morning she would come down and ask for her sick bed on the couch, and she insisted on her blue blanket from Grandma O'Gorman...no other blanket would do this week.

When she felt well enough, one of the things she did was play the new piano...a lot!  I also found some paper with music staffs on it, so she started composing music of her own, too.

We found some new K'nex at a garage sale and one of the pieces is motorized, so David used it to build a car that actually drives.

We had one sunny, lovely afternoon when both kids went outside and made more leaf piles to enjoy...good, old-fashioned fun!

First piano recital

While my mom was here, the kids had their first piano recital as part of a student appreciation service at our church. They did wonderfully! I tried to video their pieces, but had some technical difficulties during Abigail's piece...so I will wait until I can get a copy from a friend and then I'll post videos of both of them. My mom has a couple of nice pictures here, and below is a picture of them with their piano teacher (and our friend!) Danielle, with the flowers they gave her as a thank-you.

Piano lessons

Bruce and I have long considered piano lessons for the kids...we would really like for the kids to have a good music education and piano is a great place to start. The thought of a CI in the future adds a little urgency to the matter, since it is extremely difficult -- and impossible for some -- to hear music with a CI. Lord willing, the technology will continue to improve with each passing day that my kids retain their hearing, so that whenever it's CI time for them, they will still be able to hear the music...

But anyway, my point is that we finally made the decision and the kids started piano lessons today! David is interested in anything musical; Abigail has become intensely interested for the last couple of months and has been asking me to teach her how to play the piano, so we felt like they were both ready. There is a friend in our church who teaches piano and she agreed to teach our kids...we're all really excited!

Their first lessons today went very well. We will see how the first week of at-home practicing goes and then I will report back!!!