An Orchestra Concert, for a Change

We've done band concerts, we've done choir concerts. But it took us to the third child to get a string player. So we're up for years (in theory) of them. I can go for that; the middle school orchestra director is pretty great.

Alison's hiding in the back; you can hear her (she's the bass) but not really see her. Which suits her just fine.

4th Grade Music

The 4th Grade music program was last week, and I was back in time to go see it. The theme was 1950s and she (at least) had a good time and did well.

The first number was a dance number, and I recorded it, but I accidentally deleted it. Which is too bad because she and her partner were really cute. Thankfully, I snapped an okay picture of them.

Kristen even had a speaking part!



And these are the other numbers she wanted me to record.





It was a very cute program!

School's Started, Which Means... Choir Concerts!

All the women in all the choirs... Caitlyn's good friend Hannah (who she did the You and Me, but Mostly Me with back in the spring, has the first solo)



The choir Caitlyn's in plus the Men's Chorus. The guys need help... but then, they're only freshmen (mostly) and they'll get better. Hopefully, that includes tying ties as well.



And ALL the choirs. The director is SO good.

Kristen Is a Roadie

So, yesterday, I had a musician scheduled to do storytime at work. I didn't know how many to expect, so I grabbed Kristen and insisted she come along so there'd be one kid. We got there, and she immediately looked at the musician and said, "Can I help?" So, he put her to work being his "roadie": helping him haul in his stuff, helping set up. She also was on small kid entertainment duty until it started. I didn't think (mostly because we had more than 100 people show up, which I wasn't expecting. At. All.) to get a picture of the musician and Kristen together until everyone had left and we were on our way home. But here's a picture of the huge musician(Kristen's in the pink striped beanie)

and the huge crowd

and a video where she actually shows up:

It was a fun, if a bit exhausting, morning.

Games

We actually got out games this week. One because Kristen begged to do something as a family. So we played Quelf.

Oh the things you do for Quelf.

The second was because Wayne and Rebecca and kids dropped through (on their way to Austin) and brought the came Caitlyn wanted to play at the reunion in May. Unfortunately, she was tired because of rehearsal and didn't play with us.

We one the first round. But Wayne eventually won the second round, though it took a long time. Kristen put up a good fight, even though she lost in the end.

Our Favorite Start to Summer...

Riverfest!

There will be more pictures later.

Summertime Shennanigans

Or: What happens when the Chavezes come over.

End of the 5th Grade Year

In a recent development (read: after Caitlyn finished 5th grade), the 5th grade teachers decided to have a grade-wide wax museum. The idea is that every student pick a figure from history (preferably "inspirational") and  do research and a tri-fold, and then dress up as the person and do a little speech when their button was pressed.

(For the record, Megan did this, but it was at a different elementary school.)

Alison chose to do Bonnie Parker. The Bonnie in Bonnie & Clyde. No, she's not inspirational, but Alison was persuasive, and her teacher approved it.

She said her button didn't get pressed very much (and mostly by adults), but she wasn't the only outlaw in the wax museum.  Here's her speech:



The same day was the Talent Show and 5th Grade music program. Alison got to emcee a bit:


And they played their recorder song:


Though my favorite thing was the teachers' "talent"



There was also the trip to the skating rink. I had to take a picture of Alison's outfit:

Next up: middle school!

Piano Recital 2015

Alison and Kristen also had their annual piano recital yesterday (which I also missed).

Russell said they both did well, but he didn't record Kristen's pieces. :-( :-( :-( :-( He did get a picture, though.

He did figure out how the camera worked in time to get Alison's pieces:



I'm sad I missed it, but glad they did well.

Bearlesque 2015

The last choir concert of the year is a HUGE affair. (That's a major understatement.) This year's theme was Broadway, and Caitlyn had an amazing experience.

There was a lot that I didn't record or take pictures of (like Caitlyn's friends who did a spot-on rendition of "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain or the ones that did "Easy Street" from Annie or the dad who dressed up as Edna Turnblad from Hairspray) but I did get a few numbers.

The Women's Chorus did two numbers: "Raise Your Voice" from Sister Act (which Caitlyn said got better over the three performance days; unfortunately, we went the first night...)



And "Wash that Man" from South Pacific. (Caitlyn says she's adorable in that.)



And then Caitlyn and Hannah were the only freshmen to have a featured act. And they killed it. (It's missing the first few seconds...)



And a couple of pictures:

Her final number costume (they said "dress like a fairy tale character):

And the entire collective choirs at Northwest

And that's it until next year!!

Spring Choir Concert

The spring festival choir concert was on Thursday. It wasn't as fun as some of the other ones we've gone to, but it was short. And the choirs did well on all their pieces (though Caitlyn said everyone was complaining backstage afterward that they were horrible). Caitlyn also performed her piece for Bearlesque, but I'm going to save putting that up until the concert in May.

Caitlyn doesn't really like this song, but I thought the clapping was cool.


This one's in Latin, and it's Caitlyn's favorite. For good reason.



Enjoy!

Kristen's Magic Tricks

I realized after I uploaded this that it's not really a good representation of what she can do. Maybe we need to pin her down for another show, and record that...

Things to do in January

Make silly videoblogs:

Caitlyn's Monologue

Because Grandma asked to see it.

The School Sing Along

Every year. the elementary has a Christmas sing-along on the last day of school. This year, the music teacher grabbed a handful of fifth graders to help "direct" songs. That seemed worth going to and taking pictures and movies of.

And two of the songs she did: Frosty the Snowman (play it for the joke at the beginning):



And she had a terrifically cheezy part in Children Go Where I Send Thee:

Christmas Nativity Play 2014

Since Megan and Caitlyn were gone, I thought about not doing the puppet play this year. But, Kristen insisted they were NOT too old. So, we roped a couple of very willing sister missionaries into helping out this year.

Kristen's Music Concert

The 3rd and 4th graders got to do the holiday music concert at the elementary school. And Kristen was very excited by it.

And, like all the elementary school concerts, there were a lot of really fun songs. Kristen wanted me to record these four. Enjoy!

In Which We Experience a Choir Christmas Concert

Since Caitlyn is a freshman, we were unfamiliar with the extravaganza that is the Northwest choir Christmas concert. So, we were a bit unprepared for a lot of things.

The size of the megachurch auditorium, for one.

It was pretty massive. This was the view from the balcony, where we sat.

(That's the women's chorus. Caitlyn's in the back row.)

And the length: it was two hours of some pretty great choir music. Everyone got to perform a few songs. I didn't record the opening song but was blown away by it. Thankfully, it's a tradition to do that song, so in a few years, when Caitlyn gets to be in Concert Choir, I'll record it.

All the groups were really good. Caitlyn's did three, two of which were fantastic:





Then ALL the choirs got on the stage (they fit! Sort of.)

and they sang Carol of the Bells (another tradition. I won't record it next year.) See if you can find Caitlyn.



It was a fantastic concert.

The One-Acts

Caitlyn's second show was last night. She was in a one-act play called "The Short-Term Affair" (I think) and had a blast. She really enjoyed getting to know her co-star and the director, and has loved putting in the effort it took to put this together.

I wasn't supposed to do this, but I recorded it; too many people who wanted to see it couldn't come.


Afterward, we got a couple of pictures with Michael, her co-star. He was also in Alice in Wonderland last night, which explains the costume (and Caitlyn's wearing his hat).

Photobombed by the Cheshire Cat.

 Caitlyn's best friend, Meagan, was in her own one-act last night, too (a very funny riff on Rumpelstiltskin), so we had to get a picture of them both.

And she's only a freshman, so we have four more years of this!

The 5th Grade Goes Thriller

Alison was SO excited that the 5th grade decided to do this. They worked on it all week, and she kept it secret; it was a surprise for the parents. And I think they did a fantastic job. :-)