Michael's First Orchestra Concert

Michael goes to his old elementary school for cello/orchestra, thanks to a nifty little PA law that says the school has to let him participate in extra-curricular activities. Last week he had his very first orchestra concert. There were a lot of things I don't like about our school district, but the music program is phenomenal. They have 650 kids enrolled in their strings program. That is just amazing.


Here's Michael with his cello.


And here's Michael and his buddy Noah, who was in his class at school.

I'm hoping to upload a video, but you tube is being difficult. Let's just say that I think the strings teacher is a saint and must own stock in Tylenol.

ETA: And here's the video!

Dan Spam (with some Nick on the side)

Daniel is discovering how much he loves balls. I keep trying to teach him the sign for ball, but he just grins a goofy grin and crawls away.


Daniel and Nicholas doing puzzles




And before and during the bath (ignore my tub--I've been trying like crazy to get the soap scum off, to no avail)

Scrambled Eggs

I wanted to share a fun math game we played last week. First, I cut out 20 paper eggs. One each one I wrote a numeral from 0 through 9. Then I put them all in a little basket. I set up a white board like this:


+

_______________________

Katie Grace pulled out 4 eggs and arranged them on the white board, and then did the problems. It was great practice for adding double digit numbers.

Happy March!

Things have been a little nutty here (thus the lack of posting!) but I'm hoping to catch up tonight. I'm going to warm up with a few Story of the World pictures.

Today a good time was had by all using our blocks to create a labyrinth. For reasons I don't want to explore to closely, they love the story of Theseus and the Minotaur.


We also made a siege tower out of legos. Take that, Nineveh!


To tell the truth, I'm kind of happy to be moving out of Mesopotamia and into Greece. Although now we won't have a reason to sing this song any more.

Animale Carnivale

What a great weekend!

The Symphony Orchestra had a free family concert featuring The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens on Saturday! They did this in conjunction with the library, who hosted a series of workshops featuring mask maker and dancer Jamie Peck. DH had to cancel the 30-Hour Famine due to snow, so he was able to stay home with Nicholas and Daniel, and Michael and Katie Grace were hard at work making masks.


And, voila, Zazu and Simba!


The concert was wonderful. It also featured Mendelsohn's A Midsummer's Night Dream (Katie Grace enjoyed listening for the donkey brays!) and a Chopin concerto. I was a little disturbed by the fact that Daniel was really digging the Chopin, LOL!

The masks and dancing was pretty incredible, even if the pictures weren't (no flashes in the concert hall!)




Finally, baby spam!


Some Carnival of the Animals Resources We've Been Enjoying
Ogden Nash's Poems
Coloring Pages
DVD featuring Radar from MASH
Bernstein's Young Person's Concert
Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids(Book with CD)
Carnival of the Animals: Poems Inspired by Saint-Saens's Music (Book with CD)

This Week's Feasts and Festivals

Liturgical Focus: Lent/Passion of Our Lord

This Week’s Feasts and Festivals:

Friday, February 29: Leap Year Day

Saturday, March 1: St. David’s Day

Sunday, March 2: Mothering Sunday

Dr. Seuss’s Birthday

Special Events:

ALL WEEK: Michael has orchestra

Monday: Chip on retreat all day

Wednesday: Michael’s first orchestra concert

Friday: First day of spring co-op!

Sunday: Trip to the Sugar Shack at the Nature Preserve

Hunkering down for a storm

Today was a bit of a bust. I host La Leche League meetings in my home and, for the first time in months, no one came. I was actually OK with this. The children, who were anticipating a morning off, were not. So I let them watch Felicity: An American Girl. It counts as school. It's history. Right?

For lunch we had church lady macaroni and cheese. Chip had two funerals this week. The church ladies are very sweet about sending extra food along home with him, and they make a mean mac and cheese.

We're almost finished with The Phantom Tollbooth. They have been drawing some great pictures and we made a dodechahedron the other day.

After we read, we had an early quiet time. Everyone was sleepy from the eclipse last night. The little ones tried to stay up to see it, and the clouds just wouldn't move. Finally around ten (after they had gone to bed!) DH and I were able to get a glimpse.

Dh came home a little early today and we made a mad dash to the grocery store. We're supposed to be getting 3-5 inches of snow (at least that's what the prediction was this morning) and this weekend is the 30-Hour Famine at church, so I'm not going to be getting much help. Pray for me! It's been a while since I have had any sort of a break.

Tomorrow it's school as usual, even though we generally try to keep our Fridays clear. But we have to pay the piper for taking today off.

FORGOT TO SAY! If you're on MDC and you homeschool, be sure to vote in my denim jumper poll.

This is a post I had on another blog. I didn't want to lose it, so I'm transferring it here.

I'm going to get all theater geeky on you for a moment.

While we were in NYC, I was curious about just what shows I had seen and in what theater. So, I've been working on this little list ever since. So, without further ado...

Shows I saw on Broadway...
1989: Meet Me in St. Louis* (Gershwin Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in_St._Louis_%28musical%29

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4251

1989: Les Miserables* (Broadway Theater)

http://www.lesmis.com/index2.htm

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/broadwaytheater/history.html

1990: Les Miserables* (Imperial Theater)

http://www.lesmis.com/index2.htm

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/imperialtheater/history.html

1991: Aspects of Love* (Broadhurst Theater)—with Sarah Brightman

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4559

http://www.playbill.com/reference/theatre_info/2156.html

1991: Black and Blue (Minskoff Theater)

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4528

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/minskofftheater/history.html

1991: Once on This Island* (Booth Theater) with La Chanze

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/booththeater/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_On_This_Island

1991: Return to the Forbidden Planet (Variety Arts Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_the_Forbidden_Planet

http://www.heartofoffbroadway.org/theater.cfm?theaterid=188

1991: The Secret Garden* (St. James Theater) with Daisy Eagan, Rebecca Luker, Mandy Patinkin

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/imperialtheater/history.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Garden_%28musical%29

1992: Cats* (Winter Garden Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_%28musical%29#Production_History

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/wintergardentheater/history.html

1992: City of Angels* (Virginia Theater, now the August Wilson Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Angels_%28musical%29

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4261

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/augustwilsontheater/history.html

1992: Grand Hotel* (Martin Beck Theater, now the Al Hirschfeld Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_%28musical%29

http://www.jimsdeli.com/landmarks/42-51_w/martin-beck-theater.html

1992: Miss Saigon* (Broadway Theater) with Lea Salonga and Jonathan Price)

1997: 1776 Revival (Gershwin Theater)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_%28musical%29#Revival

http://www.newyorkcitytheatre.com/theaters/gershwintheater/history.html

2002: Thoroughly Modern Millie (Marquis Theater) with Sutton Foster

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=13138

http://www.ibdb.com/venue.asp?ID=1259

2006: Avenue Q* (John Golden Theater)

http://www.avenueq.com/

http://www.johngoldentheater.net/

2006: 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee* (Circle in the Square Theater)

http://www.spellingbeethemusical.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Annual_Putnam_County_Spelling_Bee

http://www.circle-in-the-square.com/

2006: Wicked* (George Gershwin Theater)

http://www.wickedthemusical.com/

2007: Mary Poppins* (New Amsterdam Theater)

http://disney.go.com/theatre/marypoppins/

Shows I Saw with a Touring Company

A Year with Frog and Toad

Big River*

Cabaret

Company*

Five Guys Named Moe*

Grease

Hairspray*

Hello Dolly

The King and I

Kiss Me Kate*

The Lion King*

Nunsense

Porgy and Bess

Ragtime*

Rent*

Showboat

The Sound of Music*

Sweeny Todd*

Shows I Saw with Decent Local Productions

Annie

Anything Goes

Assassins*

Baby*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_%28musical%29

http://www.mtishows.com/show_home.asp?ID=000087

Barnum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_%28musical%29

The Boys from Syracuse

Cinderella

Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

Guys and Dolls*

Into the Woods*

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat*

Little Shop of Horrors

Mame

Man of La Mancha

Once Upon a Mattress*

Pacific Overtures*

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown*

Shows I Saw With Mediocre Companies

Beauty and the Beast*

Brigadoon

Dames at Sea

Fiddler on the Roof

Godspell

The Wiz

Shows I Was In

42^nd Street (Chorus)

Bye Bye Birdie (May Peterson)

Leader of the Pack (Annie Golden/Ensemble)

The Music Man (Alma Hicks)*

Oklahoma (Chorus)

Shows I Want to See

110 in the Shade

Annie Get Your Gun*

Anyone Can Whistle*

Bells Are Ringing

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Big-The Musical

Blood Brothers

Bounce

Brooklyn

Cabin in the Sky

Camelot

Candide

The Capeman

Carrie

Carousel*

Chess*

Chicago*

Children of Eden

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

A Chorus Line

The Civil War

Clue

Crazy for You

Damn Yankees*

The Drowsy Chaperone*

Evening Primrose

Fame

The Fantastiks

Fiddler on the Roof

Follies

Footloose

The Full Monty

The Frogs

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum*

Goblin Market

The Golden Apple

The Goodbye Girl*

Gypsy

Half a Sixpence

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Jane Eyre*

Jekyll and Hyde

A Little Night Music*

Marie Christine

Mary Poppins

Merrily We Roll Along*

Movin’ Out

Nine

Pal Joey*

Parade

Passion*

Peter Pan

The Pirate Queen

Plain and Fancy

The Producers*

Rags

Side by Side by Sondheim

Songs for a New World

Spamalot

Steel Pier

Street Scene

Sunday in the Park with George*

Sunset Boulevard

Sweet Charity

Tarzan

Urinetown

West Side Story

The Wild Party

Will Rogers Follies

The Woman in White

Working

* means I have the soundtrack. :)

The Ten Commandments, according to Michael and Katie Grace

We started with the Ten Commandments today for catechism. I asked the kids what they thought the ten commandments were.

MICHAEL:
1. Honor your mother and father.
2. Do not joke about the Lord.
3. Rest on the Sabbath.
4. Forgive others.
5. Do not sin.
6. Rejoice for the Lord.
7. Help the poor.
8. Do to others as they would do to you.
9. Love one another.
10. Give your things.

KATIE GRACE:
1. Obey your parents and the Lord.
2. Pray.
3. Be loving.
4. Forgive.
5. Don't punch people.
6. Serve the Lord.
7. Don't pester when you can't have computer time.
8. Be in choir and sing nicely.
9. Don't make fun of people.
10. Be a good example.

Monday

Yesterday for Christian Ed we talked about the Lenten season. We made a cross from push pins and Michael looped the string. Then we talked about different sins and put them on the cross. At Easter, I'll replace the sins with some beautiful flowers.

I found the idea here.

I've been trying something new--a scheduled routine. I'm not willing to call it a schedule. But I've found it keeps me intentional about seeing that everyone's needs are met. We even got to watercolor paint!

Cold and raw the north wind doth blow
Bleak in the morning early,
All the hills are covered with snow,
And winter's now come fairly.