In trouble..........sort of

Ashley received the viola sheet music for Lord of the Rings in her Easter basket.  She has recently read the Hobbit for school and has been an almost obsessive Tolkien geek for the last little while.  Yes, we are a little proud.  Since receiving said music, she practices more than her minimum daily half hour with little or no prodding.  Easter Monday, she spent an hour playing and listening to the accompanying demo cd. 

The only downside is that she has spent very little of her practice time in the 2 weeks since practicing her Chamber Orchestra music or her music for her lessons.  This past Tuesday, her instructor got after her a bit and invoked the concept of eating your vegetables first and then having as much dessert as you want.  So yesterday she practiced what she had to first and then opened Lord of the Rings.  She practiced 45 minutes.  I recorded her playing In Dreams from the Fellowship of the Ring.  I threw her off recording her and there are a few oops in this, but I don't care, I'm posting anyhow.  If anyone wants to know why more often than not I have the score from the Lord of the Rings movies in my head, this is why.

 

Easter pics

Here are some belated pics of the Warner kids all decked out for Easter.  Thanks again Grandma for the great outfits.

I know that last picture is blurry, but that mischievous grin sums up the Lord of Chaos very well.

Chestita Baba Mart

Today is March 1st.  In Bulgaria, people EVERYWHERE are buying wearing and exchanging martenitzas.  It is something I loved when we lived there.  If you are interested in the tradition, the link is here.  To all of my 4 remaining readers, I wish you a happy Spring and am sending you a virtual martenitza.  Chestita Baba Mart.

All Aboard

Trent decided to spend birthday money on a train set this year.  He had already racked up the  hero points that day by fixing Ashley's computer problem so that she could play her online minecraft she spent some of her birthday money on.  He replaced my burned out headlight.  He was fixing things right and left and then he brought home his birthday present.  It was so fun to watch all the kids gather around and watch, but Trent really put the icing on the cake when he let them each have a chance to run the train, even the Lord of Chaos.

Challenge Nails

Last week were the middle school challenges for all orchestra or band students who wanted to challenge for a higher spot.  Ashley had to learn two pieces of music because she both challenged up to Chamber Orchestra and because she was challenged for her chair in Strings Orchestra.  The latter is practically a given since she is currently first chair in the Strings Orchestra.  She picked up her music and had 10 days to prepare.  I was looking over her practice chart and realized that cumulatively, she put in over 7 hours of practice in 10 days.  I wish I could tell you how it turned out, but I won't know until tomorrow.  Plus, everyone who challenged another or who was challenged played in front of one another in one practice room.  NO PRESSURE!  Trent and I really wanted to stress with her that we are so proud of how hard she worked and prepared and that that alone is a win.  So, in addition to telling her all of that, I spent Monday afternoon of Martin Luther King Jr. Day preparing her challenge nails.

She can't have her nails long since she plays a string instrument, and I am no pro, but I think it turned out o.k.  She heard about some picture her teacher saw on facebook and then after googling wanted two owls sitting on a branch along her nails on her bowing hand so that while she played, it would look like owls were sitting on a branch.  Her other hand says hooo across the nails.  Lots of amateur mistakes, but she thought it was great, so that makes it so.  Perhaps we've started a tradition.....

 

 

For any interested in what pieces she had to prepare, for Strings Orchestra, she had to play a selection from Integrity by Larry Clark.  I should have recorded her playing, because I can only find band clips on youtube and it sounds different.  For challenging up to Chamber Orchestra, she had to play a selection from Farandole by George Bizet.  You can listen to that here.  For those of you have or have  had Little Einsteins fans, it is the piece from Annie's Solo Mission, which ironically, was on last Thursday.  I recorded it and all of kids watched the whole thing.  Too funny.  Every time I listed to her practice, I was singing, "here I come.  I'm off to save my friends.  I'm flying Rocket.  Can  you hear my rescue song."

 

 

UPDATE:  Ashley's Strings teacher found her in the cafeteria today.  She did not win her challenge into Chamber Orchestra.  Sad I know, but he did tell her that she played so well that he will be adding a chair to Chamber Orchestra and moving her up, so everyone wins.  Hooray!  So excited for her and grateful that I don't have to find a new long black dress for the Spring concert.  That is harder than you would think.  

Watch Your Feet!!

We are fortunate to have many individuals who are talented when it comes to wood working in our family.  I have a bookcase and a pirate chest toy box from my stepfather.  The girls both have handmade cradles for their bitty babies from their Papa Jon (Trent's father).  Ashley has an amazing wizard staff from a Halloween costume in 2012 that Papa Jon carved and painted for her.  It clinched the win for her in a costume contest that year.  My girls' toy box was made by my late grandfather, and my stepfather's father has made jewelry boxes for both of my girls and a wheelbarrow for Jon.  Well, Owen's wheelbarrow arrived yesterday to much excitement and fanfare.  My stepfather actually did the work on this one as his father is recovering from some major surgery, but I love the tradition and the wheelbarrow is great.  It bears Owen's nickname.  We call him the Lord of Chaos, but Grandpa Norman has dubbed him Captain Khaos and has made sure that for the time being, he outranks his dad.  : )  We've already had lots of fun with the new wheelbarrow.  The only problem is that we need to watch our feet as Owen loves to get things going and run them back and forth across the house, and if you are in the way, knocking into you becomes part of the fun.

What can be as much if not more fun than a new personalized wheelbarrow?  A big box of packing peanuts to play in of course! 

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  Here is to a year FULL of blog updates in 2013.  : )