Concerts galore!

We've gotten to attend some phenomenal concerts recently.  I feel so lucky about the programs our kids are involved in.  The teachers and directors have got to be some of the best there are out there.

First off, we attended the Spring Choir Concert.  Sariah finished up her year in Cantabile and has already been accepted into the next choir called CMS Singers.  She worked hard this year because she knew that CMS Singers sing more challenging music and they sometimes get to go on little trips around the state.  Congratulations Sariah.  Elijah and May will continue singing in MSU Children's Choir.  Their choir has taken huge strides this year and are sounding incredible together.  Nathan's Young Men's Chorus got to work with MSU's A-cappella group, the Acafellas, which has been a dream of mine for him.  They sounded phenomenal.  The three older kids are rewarded with a week of choral camp in Ithaca, New York with other choirs and choir directors, staying with host families.

Next, we attended Nathan's Orchestra concert.  Nathan's orchestra teacher and his intern do astounding things with the orchestra and the concerts are always enjoyable.  It's no secret that I love the sound of the cello and Nathan and his cello cohorts always provide great sound at the concerts.

Sariah had her first jump rope show this year!  Like May, Sariah didn't know much about jumping rope when she started with the Jump Rope Club.  By the end of the year, she was jumping like a pro and plans to continue with the club next season.

Brigham and Sariah performed songs and dances tonight at Red Cedar's annual International Festival of Cultures.  Mrs. Melissa Sigh is an amazing elementary music teacher (Elijah has her for orchestra this year in fifth grade too!)  The kids learned songs in several languages and my favorite dance was performed by the third grade class.  It was an Indian Dance with music in the background and a chant by the kids (I should post a video of this, but they take so darn long to upload).

Mrs. Sigh writes grant proposals so that she can pay for amazing Michigan musicians to accompany the kids' singing.  We are so lucky.  This was Brigham's first year and I'm so proud of both Brigham and Sariah for learning so many songs and performing them.  Our school has kids from many nations who speak many languages.  They wear clothing from their countries of origin and do this musical event every year!

May also had her final band concert for the year tonight and I was sad to miss it.  She continues to enjoy flute and Joseph and Nathan both told me that the seventh grade band was better than the eighth grade band.  Go 7th Graders!!

Elijah plays the viola and his first orchestra concert is next week.  The night is open so that the whole family can enjoy that.

The four oldest kids have recently started taking art classes from their teacher named Stormi.  They all love her and all four of them have begun painting masterpieces.  They all want to work on birds almost every time they go to art.  Coming up soon, they will get to take part in sidewalk chalk art (you know those really cool 3D sidewalk art pictures?).  I can't wait to see what it looks like.  May also entered art into a contest at school.  I'll have to take some photos of their work and share it here

The final thing that's been going on is not a concert or a show.  Nathan is doing a big conservation/community benefit project at our local nature center.  So far we've put hours into service for the nature center and also a couple of hours a day doing point counts for birds around the part.  Nathan chose seven locations according to their varied ecology.  He goes to each location daily if he can and takes a five minute point count.  He's come a long way in identifying birds by sight, but also by ear.  It's great to see him work as I accompany him as often as I can.  We have made some cool discoveries of plants, butterflies, caterpillars, insects and mammals.  I thrive in the outdoors and it seems that Nathan does too.  Here are some photos of Nathan taking his point counts and a couple of the cool critters we've found lately (Mourning Cloak caterpillar and Painted Turtle).

Nathan is being given the opportunity (by Kalamazoo Nature Center) to come try out bird banding on the weekends.  If the guy who runs this is impressed with what Nathan can do, he'll let Nathan help out with Fall Migration bird banding.  This is an exceptional thing for Nathan to be a part of.  Go Nathan!

An on-time birthday

Here's Elijah with his pogo team. He's on the right side of the photo, to the left of the group.

Elijah got to celebrate his birthday on the actual date this week. On the same date, we attended his jump rope team's show. The whole team did great, but Elijah on his pogo ball, was spectacular. I see the makings of a fine athlete in him.

Here are the cupcakes he shared with his class (idea from "Hello, Cupcake"):





Elijah loves the Little House on the Prairie books. He got the whole set for his birthday, just as he was finishing reading them. He requested that we make the recipe of Laura's Wedding Cake from our Little House Cookbook. This recipe takes quite a bit of work because it requires you to beat 10 egg white by hand with a fork until they are stiff. Elijah and I took turns with the beating. Here is the result:




His other passion at the moment involves Great Lakes Freighters. He's specifically interested in the sinking of the Edmund Fitz, but anything freighter is interesting to him. He asked for this map of ships that have sunk on Lake Superior.


Happy Birthday, Elijah!

To the other three

It's been so long since I blogged. Can't say when I'll be back again. There are three other kiddos I didn't say much about. Here are pictures of their beautiful faces!

Birfday Boys

Our two youngest boys have birthdays close together. It was a days-long hectic t-shirt and cupcake making fiasco! We have way too much fun around here, I tell you.

Elijah chose the cover of his "Travels of Thelonious" book for his t-shirt. The phone rang while I was working on coloring Elijah's shirt. I left the room with Brigham sitting at the table. I had that little feeling that says, "Don't leave markers with two year old." I did it anyway and you can see Brigham's addition of green marker in the "O."

(happy about something he opened)

And panda cupcakes from the book "Hello, Cupcake." These were a hit at school.




Brigham got the cover of "Red Truck" on his shirt.



If you've never read "The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein,



you might not get Brigham's cupcakes. Even if you have, you might not get it, but Brigham lovingly called this whole scene his "birfday." All he really asked for was the ladybugs. The rest was just to keep me entertained. Again, most of the ideas came out of "Hello, Cupcake."






The kids made Brigham's wrapping paper, drawing all of his favorite vehicles from his Hot Wheels collection and from books.


Brigham got some new car j's.



My favorite memories from this birthday season were:

1) One night I went and laid in bed with Brigham for a few minutes and filled him in on what his birthday would mean (turning 3, cake, presents). It was such pleasure to see his face light up over and over again.

2) Watching Elijah open his presents and get everything he put on his list. He was so excited!

P.S. This is a cute little orchard oriole that visited our house for a few days. No relation to the birthdays, but he deserves a place on the blog. Miss that bird!

Ground Zero to Heaps & Mounds

Last week, I was a little bit worried that we might not have a white Christmas. But then,

it started snowing!

Yesterday was a snow day for the kids. 2-3 inches overnight and 5-8 more yesterday. We spent a good deal of the day shoveling. Not all driveways and walks, I assure you. Elijah and Sariah created an amazing maze in the front yard.



My camera seems to underexpose or overexpose at night despite all the adjustments I tried. I looked out the window last night and thought the maze looked so cool, like a little world of it's own.

Still Surprised

It's so fun to have a two-year-old. He doesn't have enough experience to expect the change in seasons, so it is all new, surprising and wonderful to him. First, it was the leaves falling down and now, with a tiny snow storm, he's amazed by the snow on the grass.



It was fun to watch Elijah experiment with riding his bike through the big piles of leaves (you can see him in the background of the picture if you double click).



Sariah spent the whole summer (even with all our beach trips) wishing it was winter. So, you can see that she will use the leaves to her advantage. If there is no snow, at least you can still make an angel!



And finally, this last picture. I need throw this question out there...What do you do with a boy like this?

A Favorite Picture

An Unfortunate Stage of Development

Elijah and Brigham have birthdays within just a few days of each other, five years apart. Two things I know. They were both born at the wrong time of year AND they are right where they should be developmentally. I only know these two things from anecdotal evidence, so you are free to disagree.

Though I'm too lazy to dig up the evidence to prove it to you today, both boys suffered from heavy mosquito bites to the forehead in their two-year-old summer. Both boys continued to show the evidence of these bites far into the autumn of the year in the form of bleeding picked scabs. Lovely, huh? Elijah still has visible scars. Brigham tries really hard to respond to my redirection.

Oh, and while I'm here being abstract, I'll share another funny story.

Brigham recently started a habit of chewing on his long sleeved shirts. He'd either chew the ends of the sleeves or the collars. After a while of this he was developing red, chaffed skin around his mouth. I decided it was time for an intervention. I started telling him, "Brigham, don't chew your shirt, chew your ears." It was SOOO funny watching him try to find a way to get his ears into his mouth. When he realized he couldn't do it, he started just pulling on his ears instead. Now, all I have to say is "Brigham, don't chew on your shirt," and he will automatically stop and reach to pull on his ears. He's almost completely cured.

Halloween. Bah Humbug!!

I was a real scrooge about Halloween this year. Nathan and Brigham didn't even have costumes. The kids participated in their school parties, but we didn't trick-or-treat, or even (gasp!) carve a pumpkin. I regret that one. We did read a couple stories out of "Haunted Lake Superior." I'm not so sure I'll read too much more of that one or I won't want to visit any locations around Lake Superior for fear I'll see a ghost. I think the day turned out o.k. anyway, but you'd have to ask my kids to find out how truly deprived they are.

Here are pictures only taken because my sister requested them. Bad, bad mom!