Mijas--Easter 2015

Celebrate the Arts!

My kids love doing art projects of all kinds, and I love enjoying the results!

Gracie entered a kids' art "contest" for our stake's family history conference.  (Despite the billing, it was not a contest.)  She painted this tree and printed off some family photos which she attached with foam tape.  We put it in a frame, and it looked pretty nice.

 Caytie and Gracie also had artwork in the Celebrate the Arts festival our school district puts on each year.  They both have had something in the art show each year they've been in school.  Not bad!  They stopped judging the elementary artwork this year, so they all got participation ribbons.

Here is Caytie with her painted landscape...

 ...and Gracie with her pencil still life.

Caytie requested that I take a picture of this modern abstract work called "Yogurt on Chin."

Another part of Celebrate the Arts is the choir and band performances.  Emma's choir performed the same Saturday as the family history conference, where Ben and Scott were playing in a bluegrass band.  So--divide and conquer.  Ben and Scott took Caytie and Gracie (so she could turn in her family tree artwork) while The Two Musketeers and I went to watch Emma sing.

 I didn't know if I'd get a good picture while they were singing, so here's one as they were getting ready.  Emma has the advantage of always being on the front row--so when the seating is right, we almost always can see her pretty well!

 She is enjoying her choir class, and I'm enjoying hearing them progress as the year goes on.

Scott had a percussion concert and a wind ensemble concert for Celebrate the Arts.  Ben had to go out of town again, so I snuck away from home for a bit to see the percussion concert (truly, this is one of my favorites to listen to), but I had to miss the band concert because Emma had a soccer game at the same time.  I went to pick him up, but I had the times wrong, as they were just starting a sight-reading exercise (which is what they will be doing at a UIL contest later in the month), so I got to watch how they get a new piece of music, review it with their conductor for five minutes, and then play it.  It was fascinating, and they did a great job.

Finally, Caytie finally had her 2nd grade musical performance, which had been cancelled twice because of bad weather.  (She's another front-row kid.)  She was a great little singer, though she seemed embarrassed to do the actions her class had to do.  

 Sometimes, Caytie, we have to suffer for the sake of art.  I thank you for your sacrifice.

Today is the day for the wearin' o' the green...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The idea was great, but none of this facial hair made it past the front door that morning.

Ben was out of town for a couple days, so I thought I'd make corned beef and cabbage when he got back...but I forgot.  I am pretty sure that we had Froot Loops for breakfast, since, you know, rainbows.  I can't recall that we did anything else to celebrate.  We juggled soccer practices for two girls that night, along with piano practicing, homework, and all else that goes on in our regular schedule.

Preschool was fun!  We drew what we wished a leprechaun would give us, played bingo with green M&M's, made rainbow paper chains with glitter painted coins in a pot of gold, and then went on a field trip to the fire station where one of my student's dad works.

Not St. Patrick's Day related, but theme-of-the-month related ("occupations"), and extremely exciting for these kids.  The fire fighters were so good with my little class.

After the field trip, Benson asked if we could go to McDonald's, which is his new favorite hangout.  We very rarely go out to eat lunch, but because it was a "holiday," I indulged him--and myself, because I knew I could get a shamrock shake. Yum, yum, yum!