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!

House Hunting in Birmingham!

We had a fun time in Birmingham looking for houses last weekend! We left the kids with friends and looked at 30+ houses in 2 1/2 days!

Matt's new company put us up in a hotel, provided a rental car, paid for meals, and stuck him with some needles and stuck him in a small box for a hearing test (torturous for a claustrophobic man!).

Andrew's Roadtrip!

Andrew started his first music book with me on Monday! This is the first time I'm using this young beginner piano book, and we have both had lots of fun. He asks every few hours if we are going to do some more piano yet.

Just Chillin'!

Building Marble Runs

It's been months since we've had the marble run container out. Gabe, Liam, and Andrew were thrilled with it, and Peter was, too!

Peter was so excited he danced around squealing while the marbles rolled down.

Duets!

Peter and his friend Hope took over the piano and improvised some duets!

Daddy Gets a....Backrub?

We made this for Matt's Father's Day gift a couple years ago. He hadn't used it yet, and the kids remembered it this afternoon and dug it out. So he got a form of backrub with cars and trains zooming around "Merrellville", complete with a hospital and it's helicopter pad, on his back!

(Peter got in on the action later on, and turned out to be Matt's favorite because he pushed harder than the other kids. In this picture, you can see his back; he's seated at the piano.)