The Singing Cat

The last week of school before Christmas break, Cat had several singing performances, but would you expect anything else from the girl who "love love love(s) to SING" ??  Most of them were with the school choir, which she has been the best extracurricular activity ever.  For one of their performances they walked to an assisted living facility a block away from the school and sang a few of their songs to the residents there.  When she heard about the upcoming field trip, she was a little too excited.  "Mom!  Tomorrow we're going to the BEEHIVE HOUSE!"  "Cat, you know there aren't any bees there, right?"  Seriously disappointed: "Then why do they call it the Beehive House?!?"

I also feel the need to take a moment and thank the good people at Cat's former elementary school who insisted on showing up to every student event six hours early and saving 26 rows of seats.  I don't think we ever got a decent seat at one of Cat's concerts or commencement ceremonies, and I know that I cried about it at least once, because try as we might to be early (and we were early on more than one occasion), we could never be early enough.  Fast forward to this year, when my kids are a little older and a little easier to handle when we arrive somewhere early, Ben is a little more available, and we live a block away from the school, and I'm used to having to be mega early to everything.  Works out great for me, because this is a small school where people are NOT used to having to be early.  When I showed up an hour early to Cat's choir concert, I was literally the first person there.  By the time the concert started, people were crowding along the walls trying to see their child, because the school has gained many more students this year since launching a Chinese immersion program and there are suddenly many more families than the auditorium/gym can accommodate.  So, I'm thankful for the classical conditioning of the last 2 years that allowed me and my family to sit in comfort and take pictures as we pleased.  For every 1st Grade event thus far.  Moving on...

Below are a few pictures from the actual choir concert.  She, and of course the rest of the group, did a wonderful job.  Their songs included One Little Candle (very pretty song by Audrey Snyder, which they sung with all of the house lights down and each child holding a battery-operated votive candle); You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (which their principal, Mr. Finch, good-sportedly participated in); Down, Down the Chimney; Choc'late in My Stocking; Peace, Peace; Stille Nacht; and Do You Hear What I Hear?

This isn't a great picture of Cat or Grace (our neighbor and Cat's good friend, who is also in the choir), but Eliza looks pretty cute.  :-)

Again, not a great picture of everyone, and I almost didn't include it.  But then I thought about it and realized how perfectly representative this photo is: not everyone in our family is included, half of the people in the picture aren't even looking at the camera, and Ben is holding one of Jack's shoes.  It's surprising that more of our family pictures don't look like this, really.

Below are a few pictures from Cat's 1st Grade Christmas presentation.  I found it very smart that the school has each grade level sing 2 songs for the parents during one concert.  They do this at 2 different times during one school day to accommodate schedules and to allow people more room in the auditorium/gym.  However, the principal mentioned that they might add a 3rd time slot next year because the room was so crowded this year!

Cat and her fellow 1st Graders sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and "Once There Was a Snowman," the latter in English, then in Chinese.  Therefore, as Cat as informed me, she knows Chinese.