Concentrating...

Painting a dump truck he put together...he loved this project!

Thanksgiving Fun!

A huge chunk of our Thanksgiving fun was due to spending time with the elephants! We love these people. Besides having a great time playing games, Jefrilyn and I had lots of fun going to thrift stores looking for chairs to recover. The downside is that my hands received a decent bit of damage for removing the old covering.

Candy Cane Relay

Yesterday's activity was a candy cane relay! It was the first time we've done that, and it was a hoot!! There were 6 candy canes in a cup, and they had to make it all the way down our line and be placed in a cup at the other end. Lots of laughs involved with this!

Family Movie Night at the Blunck's!

During Thanksgiving week, we house-sat for some friends in Lilburn, GA. We had a lovely week playing with friends. This day we needed an earlier bedtime and opted for a quiet family movie night. Peter loved the popcorn! Even when I took all the bowls downstairs to the kitchen, he kept starting down the stairs, asking for more popcorn.

Boys Playing the Mustache Game!

Thanks, Aunt Allyson! These boys are loving this game!

Brothers Reading!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!

Spikes, His Royal Majesty

Naomi has proclaimed Spikes to be king. So far his reign includes sitting on a cushion and .....sitting in his tank. We do love him, though! 

Mother/Daughter Minute to Win It Party!

We had a great time and came in 2nd overall!

Been Busy...

We've been busy entertaining guests (or working them to the bone!!). Grandma and Grandpa Jones were here for TWO WEEKS!!! 

Amid all the work projects, Grandpa Jones made time to help the kids make a birdhouse for our backyard! Now I just need to clear out all the undergrowth in the yard so we can put it up.

Out with the Old, In with the New!!!

After some crazy last few days, we said good-bye (or maybe "Good riddance!")  to our rental house in Lilburn, GA. Then we drove to the first home that is actually ours! (Well...perhaps a few bricks are ours...We have to pay off the rest. :)

The picture of an almost empty room is in our new living room. Naomi decided to keep up with her math homework, and Peter and Andrew joined in the "homework party"!

Hard Day

And it's not even 9:00! No dump trucks to be seen, so Peter is a sad fella.

Tracing Paper Fun!

Any Guesses Who Did This?

Who in my house would make a blanket for the toy alligator? I had no doubts who it was when I saw this on my bathroom counter, and I wanted to document this because she does things like this all the time! We love our animal lover bunches and bunches!!

                            

      

Naomi and Lauren Tapping Rhythms!

Lots of laughing involved!

We Love This Guy!

Birmingham chapter!

This was last night, about 30 seconds before Matt left for Birmingham, where he started his new job today! We hope to join him in a couple weeks when we close on a house!

One of My Partners in Crime!

As happy as the giant ice cream cones make me, this lady makes me even happier! This is my absolute favorite picture of the whole Piano Social evening. We look like we are plotting something devious. We weren't...but we usually are, so it's perfect! I'm gonna miss Jefrilyn when I move!

Merrell Kids at the Piano!

As reported in my previous post, my studio's Fall Piano Social happened last night. I haven't consistently done lessons with Gabe or Andrew (and not even super consistent with Naomi!!). I'd like to change that, but they were interested in participating and all had songs they were able to polish up easily. Here they are:

I will never get enough of playing duets with my children! 

We had time for some fun pictures afterward, too. 

First was trying to get a group picture. Of my 20 students, 17 were present. 

The best we managed: 

Pictures with the giant ice cream cones!

Fall 2015 Piano Social!

My piano studio's Fall Piano Social was this evening, and it turned out really well! Here's how everything went down:

Exactly one week and one day ago, I met with my "planning committee" (i.e. best friends Autumn and Jefrilyn) to go over a few details. I was planning on keeping it very simple, so I thought we'd discuss how many tables and tablecloths we'd need, and what type of very simple decoration we could put into the middle of each table. Being the artistic/ambitious/crazy/fun-loving ladies that they are, they immediately started planning bigger and better things.

After a couple days of being up to our elbows in paper mache (from 10 am to 8 pm!) and another one of being up to our elbows in hot glue and tissue paper, we had created this:

Those suckers are taller than Jefrilyn. Here's another shot:

And we had a lot of fun doing it! We had an ice cream incentive program (kids earned paper ice cream scoops for sight reading, playing duets, transposing, composing, technique exercises, theory, rhythms, etc. If they hit a certain number of scoops as a collective studio, they would earn the ice cream party. And they did it!) So we had an ice cream sundae bar. Here are pictures of other parts of the decorated room:

Small cones for the tables:

Each performer had a name card and a bracelet at this table. The bracelets have the melody for "Ode to Joy" on them.

The ice cream table: 

It was a fantastic event, and I couldn't have been more thrilled with it! The students provided background music while the families ate and visited. Sometimes simple is better. But all-out decorations can be more fun!!! I'm glad my friends talked me into this!

Pictures of the kids to come soon!

Happy, Happy!

Lunch with the Gabe-man!

Fun At the Piano!

Putting robots on the C's...

2015-16 School Picture!

It's not a first-day-of-school picture, but it is a picture right before the older two got on the bus yesterday!

Harry Potter Movie Night!

On Saturday, we finished reading the first Harry Potter book as a family. So we popped some popcorn and watched it for Family Movie Night! 

Anticipation was running high!! (Hannah, a neighbor, was with us as well, should you wonder about the extra child.)

Preschool Celebration of Andrew's Birthday!