Summer Violin Concert 2008

Brooklyn had her summer violin concert on Saturday night. They have been focusing on fiddle songs. They are getting ready for a huge state wide fiddle play-in. They all played so well. The older kids play duets for the younger kids. Brooklyn absolutely loves to play the duets now. She worked hard to learn six duets from their traditional pieces and three fiddle pieces. She has three weeks to learn a few more. My absolute favorite is the "Orange Blossom Special." It's a song that sounds like a train. No kidding. It's so much fun and everyone was mesmorized by how well they did. Thirty kids and not one mistake. Phew...glad it's not me. ;)

I have to say that I always feel like I'm at a funeral. These kids are amazing but they never smile. They can be playing some of the funnest songs and never crack a smile. The audience was really involved also. We were clapping, whooping and hollering when they were playing the fiddle songs. Still straight faces. At their Christmas concerts, it's the same thing. They play some of the all-time favorite and fun Christmas songs and not one will smile. I guess they are just concentrating. :S

It's was really great though. Brooklyn received her 1st Level Federation trophy. It takes a minimun of three years to earn one. They have to have earned three superior ratings at Feredation, which is where they play for judges. They also give them great information about their technique and how to fix something they might be struggling on. It's a lot of practice, hard work, and tears but she decided it was totally worth it.

Google Earth

Google earth is so fun. Katja, my fab friend from Germany, had me find her home using this google earth. I've found her home, marked it with a thumb tack and followed her to the East Sea for her family vacation. I'm hoping that you can click on the url below and go right to her house. Check it out :)

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=51.328733,12.407527&spn=0.004746,0.008218&z=17

So Sad :(

I am so grateful that all of you came home from trek safe and sound. A 13 year old girl and a man were killed this morning while pulling their handcart during their trek. This is the story from ksl. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=3994955

First Day of School

Can you believe that school has started again? It still blows my mind. I am so nervous because we had such a terrible year in preschool last year. I worry about Calvin all the time. Will he be able to keep up with his classmates? Will he make friends? What about his behavior? Is the teacher going to like him or hate him because he is a busy kiddo that doesn't sit still?

Does Calvin look nervous or what. He is so sweet and I hope that his teacher will see that side of him. He came out of school with the biggest grin in the world. He loved his first day of school. His teacher said he was great. Phew....Calvin was so excited to tell me everything. (That's a first) He talked about what they did in class and who sits at his table. He told me that a boy in his class got into trouble too many times and had to go to the principals office. I asked him if that made him want to be good all the time so he didn't have to go to the principals office. He had a very serious look on his face and said, "Yes, I don't want to go to the principals office." I hope it scared him enough to really try. We shall see.

Brooklyn loved her first day of school. We were nervous about her teacher because of situation another kid in our neighborhood had. So far so good. She said that she loves her teacher and that she is so nice. I am grateful that she has been so easy as far as school goes. I do know that she is struggling with playing with kids at recess. She is so tall and the girls in her class are shorter than her by a couple of inches. She said that they don't twirl the jump rope high enough for her. So she asked the sixth graders, who have recess at the same time, if she could jump with them. They said that they can't play with younger kids. One girl asked her if she wanted to jump with them and she said yes. Then the girl said, "Well, too bad, you are too young so you can't." Kids are so mean. How do you teach your kids to play nice, treat others kindly when this is the example they are getting. Do parents not know that their kids are behaving this way? Do they encourage them to treat others like that? I would hope not.

Anyways, I will be helping out in their classes this year almost everyday. With kindergarten, I'll be driving 30 miles just for school drop offs and pick ups every day. Hopefully this will help with the crappy, crappy, crappy gas prices. Arggg...

I hope and pray that we all have a wonderful school year!! I am so grateful for the opportunities and freedoms that we have here in America. It's truly a blessing that I tend to take for granted. This is going to be a great year!!!