An Abundance of Music

We've added two more instruments in the family!  Little Guy has been begging to start violin for over a year now.  We have a rule that they have to play piano for a full year and prove that they will practice consistently and behave respectfully with the teacher before they can add another instrument.  Little Guy practices, but he was struggling in lessons with Mr. Scott for a couple of months.  Little Guy finally pulled it together in December and all of a sudden he's doing really well with piano.  He's reading his notes really well and making progress.  It was time for us to hold up our end of the bargain.  

Mrs. Alla is from Russia, and she's awesome.  Little Guy is very serious at lessons.  He REALLY wants to play.  He has a quarter-sized violin that he's decided to name November (after his birthday month).  He learned all the instrument parts and the string names at his first lesson.  We need to get him a new shoulder rest though, because his neck is longer than your average five-year old.  Alla can't get over how big his hands and neck are for his age.  She keeps thinking he's in 1st grade even though he's not even in Kindergarten yet.  

BB also asked me if he could start voice lessons.  After he heard Little Man sing in the recital he decided he really wanted to do it as well.  It's pretty wonderful to have my boys singing.  I just love their sweet voices, and it's really exciting to me that BB has made so much progress on piano that he now can play his songs for voice when he's practicing.  Little Guy asked if he could sing as well, but I told him let's focus on violin for now.  I'd prefer to wait until he can read before he starts voice lessons. 

It's a bit of musical insanity around here now.  The music room is the most coveted and fought over room in the house:

Little Man: Classical Guitar, Piano, and Voice

Little Lady: Cello, Piano, and Voice

BB: Piano and Voice

Little Guy: Piano and Violin 

It's sweet music to my ears.

What Do You See?

 Little Guy loves to "read" Brown Bear, Brown Bear to whoever will listen.  Today's (mostly) willing listener was Luna.  The look on her face is priceless.  

Children's Broadcast

 This weekend our church had a worldwide conference for all of the kiddos.  My kids loved it.  They each made their own drawing of them praying.  I love all the details they put into it.  

One Day

 Little Guy got to go to preschool for one day this week.  You can tell he was pretty excited.

A Week Later

After a week of polar vortex-like temperatures we are finally back in the positive numbers.  My children finally went back to school today for the first time in a week.  Their Valentine's parties are a week late.  I told them they should just hold out for another week and they can combine it with St. Patty's Day, but they didn't like my idea.  We've mostly huddled inside trying to stay warm.  School kept getting canceled, because of the roaming power outages in the area.  We have been lucky and haven't lost power, but we know several people who have not been quite so lucky.  

Yesterday it was finally "warm" enough that the kiddos could enjoy the new snow.  

I'm afraid to get the gas bill, but in the meantime we're thrilled that the temperature is supposed to climb above freezing by the end of tomorrow!  We will not be missing the Polar Vortex of 2021.

Kitty Update

 We're now 3 weeks into Luna's recovery.  She still hates the cage.  We still try to take her out as much as possible to sit on our laps or sleep on the couch.  Some days she's content to sleep away the afternoon on the couch, and other days she's jealous of Stella running around and we're forced to put her back in the cage, so she won't jump around.  The x-rays this week showed that the bone is starting to heal, but we probably have 3 more weeks to go before she's healed.

Frozen Valentines

 Nothing says love quite like a frozen tundra.  The high was 0 yesterday.  Every year I write a valentine to each of my children telling them things I love about them.  I don't normally do gifts, but I caved this year, because I found the cutest magnetic plushies.  Hallmark is based in Kansas City, so we have more Hallmark stores than any other place.  Since moving here I've gotten into the Hallmark spirit, and these stuffed animals spoke to me.  I laughed out loud when I saw the bacon and eggs and I knew it was perfect for Little Man.  There are 4 combinations, so it fit nicely for my four children.  They've been playing with them nonstop in a make-believe story ever since.  That may be my valentine gift for the year - a peaceful day.

Frozen Recitals

 We braved the cold to attend the kiddos' recital yesterday.  All four did a lovely job.  Little Man sang for the first time.  He was so nervous, but it was so beautiful.  Boy Sopranos are angelic.  I'm so sad we didn't record it.  I'm thinking I may have to have him perform it again, so I can record him while he's still a Soprano.