Piano Performances

The kids performed in their studio piano recital in early February. It was crazy to all of us that it was the last studio recital in which Cat would perform. She did a great job, as did everyone, especially considering they were all still in the process of mastering their pieces. Their festival was the following weekend, while Ben and I were out of town.

 

Two weeks after the above videos were taken, the kids all performed at a nearby nursing home. The performance was our family service project for February, and they did a great job. There were only a few residents watching, but they really enjoyed it, and the kids stayed and talked with them for a little while afterward, which might have been even better than the performance.

(I have videos from that performance as well, and normally I would compare the videos of each piece and post the better version but since I'm already slow getting this published, I'm just going to stick with the recital videos for now. Maybe one day I'll come back and rectify this unfortunate situation.)

Caught red-handed... swiping popcorn from the popcorn machine.

February Miscellany

Luke loves Jell-O

One of these days I'll teach these kids how to eat birthday cake.

Cat tuned in to the last couple of minutes of the Super Bowl at
the end of dinner that night. Then we all watched...

Luke made himself a set of Naruto headbands.

Liza was in the school play! She had mixed emotions about it, as did I.

They had a looooong rehearsal period. Auditions were at the end of August and rehearsals

began the third week of October. The performance was President's Day weekend.

(And keep in mind that Liza was in the ensemble, which had exactly 2 numbers and was

on the stage for less than 5 minutes.)

Then the director quit a month before performance weekend and took a job at a different

school. And in the two weeks leading up to the performance, the male lead and the new

director, and a few other people, came down with Covid.

But Liza stuck with it and ended up having a lot of fun, and everyone

pulled together a very good performance!

Jack was missing because he had to work that afternoon.

The TabChoir performed Mendelssohn's Elijah that wekeend, so Liza was
unable to attend with the family because she had a Saturday evening performance.

Luke and his good friend went to Airborne on President's Day

Ben took this whole crew to see the new Antman at Jack's theater

Luke trying to draw out Liza's teacher's graphic showing
the differences between nerds, geeks, dorks, and stalkers.

Luke explaining the different options of weapons I could purchase from him.

We attended Garrett's farewell Sacrament Meeting and lunch in Pleasant View.

Can you guess where he's going?

Liza's Birthday

 Liza had a great birthday and we had fun celebrating (with) her. We started out with sourdough waffles and buttermilk syrup for breakfast, then she had to go to school for a little while. A couple of her friends wanted to take her out to lunch at Costa Vida, one of her favorite places. It was so sweet!

We all met up at Tokyo Grill for a yummy and entertaining dinner, then went home for cake and presents.

Almost everything Liza received for her birthday had to do with nails - she could open her own salon at this point! (We've talked about starting to charge people to do their nails but she says she just wants to do it for fun.) That weekend she worked on everyone's nails in the family except for Jack.

The next day, a Saturday, Liza and her friend Claire from school had a joint birthday party at Classic Skating. Claire's birthday was earlier in the month but because of Liza's schedule (a volleyball tournament and Xanadu - more on that later), we scheduled the party for after both birthdays. Unfortunately, Liza wasn't feeling well when the party started, but once she threw up (near the bathroom) about halfway through the party, she felt much better and had a lot of fun with her friends.

Valentine's Day

 (this post is slightly out of order but I'm probably the only one who cares)

Luke made this for me at Activity Days the week before
Valentine's Day. The bag contained home-formed caramels.
(Hack: they took store-bought caramels, unwrapped them,
rolled them in their hands, and wrapped them in wax paper.)

Valentine's Day Morning Table Decor

I had a rehearsal that night, so instead of a special dinner,
we had a breakfast of crepes and sparkling cider.

Luke made this box that just had a big eye on top.

His Valentines were glow stick heart-shaped
glasses and Target had the perfect bags to contain
all the pieces. They said, "Eyes For You."

I brought a Pictionary game to Luke's class party.
I used a bunch of Valentines-ish words such as hug, wedding, chocolate, etc.
When his group came to my station, they wanted to come up with their own
words to draw. I agreed. Luke went first. He drew a bomb.

Flowers from Ben

We were the only four around for an early dinner before
I went to rehearsal so we grabbed Waffle Love at a brand
new location that opened between our house and Luke's school.

We had our traditional fondue dinner and dessert the Sunday after Valentine's Day.

I didn't take any pictures at dinner, but here are a few from the after-dinner dance party.

The kids love doing Just Dance videos on YouTube - we really should do it more often!

Not pictured: Carlie. She joined us for dinner and dancing, but only watched the

dancing because she had a hurt foot.

Also not pictured: the Val-a-grams the older kids sent and received at school. These were items such as chocolates and little stuffed animals. At least one of the kids in the family sent something to him or herself. :-)