String Project Spring Concert

Jeremy dropped Sylvia off at the ISU Center for Performing Arts this morning at 8:40 for Sinfonia rehearsal.  We enjoyed watching Sylvia perform in the String Project Spring Concert at 11:00.

Sinfonia performs after the other 3 groups, Dolce, Allegro, and Vivace.  It was easy to hear the progress of each of the groups today!  They all did a great job!

VIDEO: Serendipity Suite

Sylvia is second chair 1st cello this semester.  

Sinfonia played Ashokan Farewell without a conductor.  They did such a beautiful job listening to each other and expressing the emotions of the piece together!
And, even though Sylvia had told me, I forgot there would be no conductor, so I missed recording the very beginning of the violin solo while I thought I was waiting for a conductor to come on stage.
Also, after the violin solo, only the part 1 instruments play the next section.
And, the loud clanks throughout of the piece came from the toddler next to me whose guardian allowed her bring a large metal bucket as a toy to play with during the concert.  Enjoy.

VIDEO: Ashokan Farewell

VIDEO: Amadeus!

I think Annah would rather be on stage making music than sitting in the audience with her crazy family members.

For the grand finale of the concert, all four of the groups came together!  These are children in 2nd through 8th grades.  There were well over 100 kids, at all different levels.  It was really neat to see them play together, and to hear how the ISU student teachers arranged parts for each group/level so that they could all play together!

VIDEO: Star Wars Main Theme

Sinfonia gathered on stage for a photo following the concert.

Sylvia had told me before the concert that she wanted to ask for a photo with her favorite String Project teacher ever, Ms. Aviel.  Sylvia has loved learning from her in rehearsals, and says she is the most expressive conductor and teacher.  She is from Israel, and is finishing her master's degree in orchestral conducting at ISU, and also has a degree in vocal performance and experience with opera.  Sylvia has really appreciated the way Ms. Aviel has encouraged Sinfonia to work together and express emotion in the music.  Noam is going on to incredibly impressive things in her music career, and Sylvia is so thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from her!

After the concert, we kept our somewhat regular tradition of lunch and ice cream at Carl's.  Mmm!

From there, Jeremy went to work, and the kids and I went to watch our friend Emma a lovely production of The Wizard of Oz at Normal West HS.  It was so nice to spend this gray, rainy day enjoying music!

4-8 Spring Concert

This evening Caeden and Sylvia participated in the 4th-8th grade Spring Concert at school.

The gym was pretty full! Lots of kids play/sing in this concert!

Caeden played in 3 groups of 5th graders who have been learning to read and play rhythms on marching percussion in music class.

3 VIDEOS:

  

 He also played in the 5th grade band.  (If you look closely, you can see his head right under Mr. M's left elbow.)  He played bells and snare drum.

VIDEO: 

5th grade band

Aura Lee

Sylvia sings in the JH Choir.  

Here is a playlist of the 4 songs they performed.

VIDEO:

Sylvia had the 2nd solo in the final song.

VIDEO: I'm Yours

The JH Band also performed 4 pieces.  My favorite was As Summer Was Just Beginning, because it featured the horns--and my favorite person in the JH band is a horn player  

VIDEO:

VIDEO:

Jubilations

As Summer Was Just Beginning

Highlights from the Star Wars Saga

Canto

It is always fun to see how these kids are learning and progressing with their music!

New Things

Sunday, the guys went to the RYWC Banquet. This club had an awesome season of wrestling, learning, and teamwork! Many dads (more than pictured) have stepped up to help coach the kids--some learning about wrestling for the first time.  It has been awesome to be part of connecting people in our community through this club, and I'm so glad Jeremy and Caeden (and we girls, in support) have been part!

As of the official vote at the board meeting last week, Jeremy will be the head coach of the new high school wrestling team for the coming year!  Pretty exciting stuff.  I am super proud of him!

----

A few of the lilacs on one of our lilac bushes are blooming.

The girls and I had to run some errands this evening in town, and ended up having supper at Denny's. Sylvia was really freaked out by the animated bacon on the menu.  Turns out they have a whole website with animated breakfast food videos. 

After we ate, one of the places we stopped was Hancock Fabrics.  They are going out of business, sadly.  I think we caught the last few minutes of the closeout sale, but Sylvia managed to find some patterns.

RHS Spring Concert

Ridgeview High School Music Department put on a very good concert this evening!  

The choir performed 5 pieces, 3 of them a cappella, 2 in foreign languages, and one in 12-part dissonant harmonies.  

VIDEO: Go, Lovely Rose, by Eric Whitacre

Annah did a lovely job on her short solo in this very difficult, dissonant piece.

Addie accompanied the choir on their alma mater

VIDEO: All 5 pieces in order of performance

The band performed 5 difficult pieces as well.

VIDEO: 

Liberty Bell March

Fate of the Gods

O Magnum Mysterium

Urban Dances

Abram's Pursuit

Taking a bow...

We sure do have a lot of fun with music, and we love it when it's concert night!

Peter Pan

A few weeks ago, Sylvia decided she want to audition for the production of Shrek Jr. the Musical in Gibson City this summer.  It's been 2 years since we were part of an ACT Theater Co. production, because it lasts the entire summer.  We've talked a lot with the kids about narrowing down their activities for the summer and just choosing ONE.  Sylvia decided she wants to spend her summer on stage, learning and getting more experience singing/dancing/acting.

This show is for kids finishing 6th grade through high school, so she recognizes that she will be one of the younger kids.  She made her final decision to audition just last week, and set to work learning a song from the show for her audition.  

When we got to the auditions on Tuesday night, it was so sweet...all the company volunteers recognized us and called us by name, saying they had missed our family being part of the productions and were so excited to have us back.  As Sylvia looked around the room at those waiting to audition, she felt like they were all high schoolers who had done every ACT show they could've.  She started to get nervous, but I tried to remind her she was prepared and should just have fun.

They were running behind the scheduled audition times, and had begun to take auditioners in groups. When she came out of her audition, she said they told her she was the first person to have prepared a song other than "Happy Birthday" for her audition.  She felt like it had gone well, even though she had been nervous.

I am just super, super proud of her for the way she is becoming more confident with singing and wanting to learn more about it.  I'm proud of her for all she did to prepare for her audition, and for going WAY out of her comfort zone to do this on her own!  She is such a determined girl!

Last night, after all the kids had gone to bed, I saw that the cast lists had been posted.  Jeremy and I were excited to see, but I didn't want to wake up Sylvia and have her get too excited to go back to sleep, so I waited until this morning to tell her that she gets to play PETER PAN!  

She is very pleased, and very excited to start rehearsals and spend her summer in green tights!

Biome project

Caeden got off the bus with a big roll of blue paper on Friday and a science project about a biome [the ocean] due on Monday.  Since he already had a sleepover with Sammy planned for Saturday, that left him Sunday afternoon to finish his project.  He had done all his research at school, so he just had the poster to put together. When I got home after 6:00, this is what he had.  He said he had worked all afternoon on it.

I love that he had incorporated kirigami (it's a form of origami that includes cutting, not just folding), which he has been really into over the past year or so--thanks to the Origami Yoda books. I thought that was really creative of him, and was glad he found a way to enjoy a project he wasn't too thrilled about doing.

After looking at his project closely, I felt like most of his flip-up cards were too hard to read, so I helped him print out some new ones on the computer to replace them.

When I asked him how his presentation to the class went, he said he decided to run it like an interactive game show, since he had his facts on flip-up cards.  I thought that was pretty fun and creative too.  

Good job, Buddy!

An "ordinary" weekend

I got new glasses, and I really like them.  I can see so much better!  (Note to self...in the future, don't wait [months and months] when your eye doctor says you need new lenses.)  I got a special coating on the lenses, for people who stare at screens all day long.  (That's what makes them look purple in the picture.)  According to my eye doctor, everyone needs bifocals when they turn 40, so I guess that will be the next thing.

We are having some beautiful spring days!

Friday evening, the music department held their annual Family Fun Night.  For the past 4 years, Annah and I have run the cupcake walk to help raise money for her music department trip to perform at Disney World.  Now that her trip is over, Sylvia and Caeden helped me run the cupcake walk tonight to begin raising money for their music department trip to perform at Disney World in 4 years!

I think all the high schoolers had a lot of fun participating in the Family Fun Night while the younger kids took their turn working!

These 2 coincidentally dressed alike today.

Annah thought this egg swing at Meijer was awesome.  The girls were so slap-happy while we tried to do some grocery shopping today!  I couldn't concentrate enough to get much shopping done, but definitely enjoyed the time with my silly girls.

Sammy came over to hang out with Caeden today.  They had some light saber duels outside, watched some Star Wars Rebels, played Mario Kart and Rock Band, and watched the first Star Wars movie before bed.  They are such good buddies, and I'm thankful for their lifelong friendship!

PoC Organization

Just over 4 years ago, God led us to step out in faith with a group of people from our church to plant a new church. God has been so faithful, and He is working in and through Point of Change every day!  

Friday evening, more than 70 people from our congregation drove to Peoria to be present for Point of Change's "official organization" ceremony at NWIL District Assembly.  It was a pretty exciting night!

Jeremy saw his buddy, Pastor Scott Sherwood, who is now our District Superintendent, and couldn't resist making him uncomfortable for a second with a hug.

The girls sat with their sweet friends.

After the official organization ceremony, Pastor Todd had a few minutes to talk about what God is doing at/through PoC.  Everyone in attendance received one of these "vertical bar" magnetic flashlights.

Pastor Todd explained that for PoC, the vertical bar means "associated with" or the "adjacent possible." In other words, we use it to represent ways/places Jesus is taking PoC to give help and show the hope of Jesus to whoever, wherever, whenever.  We are learning to follow the missional impulses of the Holy Spirit, to stay connected with Him at all times, and to act in the moment when we have an opportunity to work for Him.  

A few people went forward with Pastor Todd to represent 

PoC|Saturday night service,

PoC|Champaign,

PoC|Local Missionary Community,

PoC|Oakland Avenue house church,

PoC|Hispanic community, 

PoC|Bloomington, 

and PoC|Preaching Points 

were represented too.  

2 years ago at District Assembly, God gave the number 7.  At that time, several PoC leaders were given that number and were led to declare in faith that we were going to start 7 new churches.  It was a scary thought, when we felt like we had barely begun to plant 1 new church!  But, as listed above, God has done the work...we have 7 PoC churches!  They don't all look the same, or even like people would expect a church to look, but God is working through each of these unique groups.  It is exciting!!!

I love that our kids are growing up in the middle of these amazing things God is doing!

We weren't able to attend the assembly on Saturday, but General Superintendent Crocker presented Pastor Todd with a very special award for innovation and church health! It was the first award he has presented in his time as GS.  I'm so proud of our pastor, and so blessed by the opportunity to work with him and learn from him.  Our families have been close friends for almost 15 years now, and through it all, Todd has been completely authentic while constantly challenging us to keep moving closer to Jesus.  It is a well-deserved award. To God be the glory!

What an amazing celebration!  Here is a video I put together for PoC.

Tomorrow's such a daily day

I felt really awful last week, and Caeden wanted to spend time with me.  I was not getting out of bed, so he read some Harry Potter to me.

Annah knew her Gram and Krampa were almost here, so she watched out the front window, like she used to do when she was really little.

 We really enjoyed having Krampa and Gram with us for about 20 hours!

Sunday, Celia and I had a spontaneous lunch outing to the Thai House.  I had a great "fortune" in my cookie!

Sylvia got a new wire and shiny silver bands on her metal smile Monday!

Annah got rid of her Wilson arch and got regular full braces on, so she has a shiny new silver smile too!

 Caeden acts like his dad...in so many ways...