Spring Piano Festival

Can you give me a less cheesy grin?

The kids participated in the National Federation of Music Clubs' piano festival a couple of weeks ago. It was Phoenix's first festival. 

Better.

He had to memorize and play two pieces in front of a judge. He received a Superior! He was very excited.

Can you look at the camera next time?

Lutece also received a Superior on her solo pieces. She was not as excited, more like glad it was over and sick to death of playing the same piano pieces over and over for the last couple of months.

A little better.

She also performed in the sight-reading portion of the Festival (something she's quite good at). She was given one minute to look over each of two unknown pieces and then had to play them. She received a Superior in that too. I think we're all glad it's over though.

p.s. I haven't been blogging a lot because there hasn't been anything to blog about. We lead fairly unexciting lives. However, we are going away for Spring Break in a couple of days, so I'll be back in two weeks with some awesome pictures and some stories to tell.

An Irish Excuse . . .

. . . to make a normal day a little special. That's what St. Patrick's Day is. The kids and I wore a little green, I made origami shamrocks for them, and we had "fancy" jello for the Family Home Evening treat.

Then I realized that a year ago at this same time we were traipsing around Shanghai, taking in the sites and sounds of that wonderful city.

Ok, so maybe not as special as it COULD have been, but still a fun day.

What to Do on Another Snow Day?

A play date with shrinky dinks, of course.

I think all the snow days are are behind us now. Looking forward to warmer weather, more sunshine, and better times.

Odds and Ends

We are officially DONE with science fairs for the year, Lutece having ended her run at the regional level. It was the best possible outcome: she won third prize in her field of study at the Middle Grade level. This means that, while she does not move on to the state level (whew!), she beat out a host of other 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (!) to garner THIRD prize.* If that's not utterly awesome, I don't know what is. We went out for Thai food to celebrate (Lutece's choice).

At the beginning of the month, we celebrated Phoenix's half-birthday with half a birthday cake.

Lutece's half-birthday was yesterday. We had the other half of the cake tonight for Family Home Evening.

Lutece competed in a Bach competition a couple of weeks ago (same day as the Pinewood Derby). She memorized Musette and played it well. She won a second-place trophy (there was no limit on how many first, second, or third place winners there could be). We'll take it.

* I found the entire science fair world fascinating. The regional level competition was simultaneously more rigorous and more laid-back than the district level. The Central Kentucky fair was hosted by the University of Kentucky (lucky for us, since it was a 5 minute drive and Stayc spent the morning in his office while he waited for Lutece to be judged . . . it took 4 hours!), and the judging was much more rigorous. Lutece had to present to four different judges, all professors at UK. The awards ceremony, however, was very casual and much more about the kids, rather than the sponsors. While at the district level, Lutece was only up against kids her same grade; at the regional level, she was competing against kids four years her senior. We are so proud of her!

A Day at the Races

Phoenix's very first Pinewood Derby was a couple of weeks ago, and we had a jolly time (well, kind-of).

It was Lutece's very first Pinewood Derby too. There was an "outlaw" class in which they allowed family members to compete, and Lutece couldn't resist designing a car too.

It was a huge bi-stake affair with something like 80-100 heats.  I would be lying if I said we weren't sick to death of it by the end of the two hours!

Phoenix opted to sit away from us with the other boys in the front row. I think that even most of the boys were bored silly by the end of the races.

Each car had to race in four heats, once in each of the four lanes. Pinewood derbies used to be so much less complicated, didn't they?

Needless to say, Phoenix's car didn't win any prizes for speed (it was about average), but he did win the prize for "Best Paint Job."

If you think an 8-year-old painted this car to look like an exact replica of an Airheads candy wrapper, then you're as crazy as the judges.*

The front view is not as impressive.

 

 Lutece also had a very clear-cut idea about what her car should look like. It was to be a coiled snake . . . as best as we could make it within the confines of a big block of wood.

 

We thought it turned out pretty cool. Unlike Phoenix, Lutece painted the whole thing herself, but unlike Phoenix, she didn't carve the whole thing herself.

All in all, a (fairly) fun day.

* Phoenix was adamant about the design of his car. He wanted it to look like a "blue raspberry Airheads candy wrapper." He did most of the work himself until we got down to painting the logo onto the blue overcoat. Only then did I realize how truly impossible it would be for him to recreate the details of the wrapper, so I painted it for him while he looked on. 

So, yes, I beat out a bunch of 8-10-year-old boys for "Best Paint Job." Yeah to me! (Super embarrassing.)