Random Piano Pieces

Marshall and Shaylen have been taking piano lessons since September. I must say that they were eager to start and have loved every minute of it. Okay, well...not every minute of it. There are times when they can't seem to figure something out during practice and the occasional tear slips out of an eye or two, but for the majority of the time, they LOVE practicing, playing, and going up to see Mrs. Endean, their teacher.

I thought I would videotape two of their recent pieces that they loved so that you all could enjoy them. These happen to be duets so I get to play with them too. Shaylen's was assigned last week and Marshall's was assigned this past Tuesday. He has quickly latched on to it and thoroughly enjoyed playing it over and over by himself AND with me.

We were supposed to have a Homeschool Fine Arts Recital tonight, but the snowstorm we got today made that impossible. Hopefully it'll work out to have it next Friday and I can capture videos of them playing their recital pieces. They are so excited to play them.

Teeth and Chunky Peanut Butter

Shaylen informed me yesterday morning that she felt her tooth give a little as she ate her cereal. I felt the tooth and thought it was wiggly, but nothing to worry about at present.

Well, this morning, Shaylen was eating an English muffin. It was slathered with chunky peanut butter and honey. Her favorite. She went to take another bite and noticed that her last bite had left a remnant of blood on the muffin. She whimpered a little and said, "Is there blood on my tooth?" Taigen looked in her mouth, looked at the muffin and then looked at her mouth again. He said, "It's out, Honey. It's gone!"

We both examined the English muffin for the tooth. Do you know how HARD it is to find a tiny tooth in chunky peanut butter? Impossible. We determined that she ate it.

I am so relieved. I managed to get out of pulling #7. Whew!

A Little Bit of Music Ed

Our homeschool group was able to go down to Boston last Wednesday morning for a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert for kids. What a special treat! Marshall and Shaylen love listening to classical music. They've attended many music recitals, but only one orchestra concert. It was organized by a gentleman in our church who teaches middle school music. He takes a fairly large group (this year was 117, I think) from his schools and he invited our HBC homeschoolers to join in.

We try to expose Marshall and Shaylen to classical music often. It seems like classical music is constantly playing in our house or in the car. I am trying to teach them a silly game Taigen and I play. The game has no name (so if you have an idea of what to call it, let me know). We occasionally try to decipher what piece is playing on the radio, who composed it, and what musical period it is from. It poses a challenge but it's great fun! I am no master at it, but it makes me use my Music Education degree. When I play it with the twins, I usually make sure it's a piece they know and typically only ask them, "Who wrote this piece?" It's usually something they've learned from one of their Classical Kids CDs. What's funny, they usually guess it correctly. Or maybe, I'll know something is by Vivaldi (or whoever), but not necessarily a piece they're familiar with. Using the stylistic similaries, I know that they have the ability to decipher it. So...I'll ask. Sometimes they will say, "Well...it sounds like something Vivaldi would write." Now that's an educated guess!

All but one of the pieces that were played on Wednesday morning were ones that the twins had heard and were fairly familiar with. The funny thing is, the one piece that the majority of the kids in attendance knew (the theme from Star Wars) was the one that my kids had no clue on. Guess it all depends on what you're exposed to, huh? I guess I had better pull out my Boston Pops cds more often, eh?

After the concert we gathered into one of the many halls and one of the double bass players came in to tell us more about his instrument and a little more about himself. There was a time for Q&A that was really neat too. We loved it!

We had a wonderful time (with amazing seats, I might add) and would definitely do it again. Thank you Mr. Bergeron for organizing a wonderful day.
 

Note: Yes, I DID drive in Boston. Can you believe it? I might add though, that I got to follow friends AND had a GPS. Otherwise I would've stayed at home!

Life In These Parts

My mom and sister joke with me that New Hampshire is SO populated and SO full of traffic and people. I guess when you live in Alaska, everything seems more populated. I love living in rural New Hampshire and I especially living in our home and in our neighborhood. We don't live way out in the boonies, but neither do we have houses right on top of each other in our neighborhood. In fact, in summertime, you can hardly see the houses on either side of us because of all of the trees. There is quite a bit of privacy. It is quiet and peaceful. Because our property borders on woods that cannot be developed, we get a few furry, feathered and slimy visitors here and there. We've seen foxes, wild turkeys, deer, woodchucks, skunks, moles, snakes, frogs, all kinds of birds, the occasional lost cow, horse and even a peacock wandering around our neighborhood. Taigen even saw (after 10+ years of living in New England) a moose on the way into work one morning recently!

Tuesday morning I was washing up some dishes after breakfast when I looked outside to see a new creature lurking around the lowest tier of our deck. I said to myself, "That is the biggest weasel I've ever seen!" But then I said, "That's no weasel. I think that's a fisher cat!" I watched him walk around the deck and, I thought, disappear. I was disappointed that I hadn't had time to grab the camera. I was also disappointed the the kids hadn't been able to see it. I continued washing my dishes and watching outside. He reappeared! He had been on our deck right next to the house the whole time! He was sniffing and searching for something under the deck. Maybe one of the stray cats? Maybe a mouse? Who knows but he was looking. He dived under the deck. I got the camera out and waited. Sure enough, he reappeared and started heading into the woods behind our house. I was able to snap up a few pictures of him. This was incredible. We had heard of fishers, and many have heard them (they have an unearthly scream...one that would curdle your blood!), but it's rare to actually see one.

I called Taigen and told him, "I think we had a fisher cat in our yard this morning!" While I was on the phone with him I watched the fisher wander off into the woods. At the same time I googled "fisher cats" on my iTouch. (Go ahead and google it yourself and be sure to click on Google Images at the top of the screen. They are scary!) Once the images loaded up, I knew I had guessed correctly. These are not friendly beasts. They are mean and their teeth alone would be something that would scare you indoors! Combine that with their scream and you have a creature perfect for a nightmare. I was glad to have observed him from indoors.

The kids came down and I told them that they had just missed seeing a fisher cat. Just then, the fisher came wandering out of the woods and was walking along our property again! The kids were able to see him very clearly from our patio door and then from a side window and then from our front door! He was headed over to our neighbor's house. I quickly called her and told her not to let out her dog. Their poodle would have made a nice snack!

I am glad for the quiet, peaceful life that we have and for the woodsy feel of our neighborhood. It's great that we have some wildlife exposure, but it is also wonderful to observe some of these from the comfort (AND safety) of our house.

Homeschool Valentine's Party

One of our homeschool families decided to throw a last-minute Valentine's party for our kids. They were going to exchange valentines, munch on treats and play games. It sounded like fun! I worked with the kids here at home on decorating some brown paper bags and then helped them address valentines. They were so excited! They've never done this before.

Unfortunately, I was still recovering from my own bout with the Plague that had whipped through our church so I wasn't able to attend the party with them, but I heard about how much the kids enjoyed the time with friends.

Superbowl Fun

One of our friends from church invited us over to their house after church on Sunday night. Apparently, her husband had been saving and saving and purchased a nice, big, TV. He wanted to watch the Superbowl game with a few of his guy-friends. What also helps is that he has DVR so they could watch the game from start to finish without the pre-game garbage, pesky commericials and obnoxious half-time shows. Now...THAT'S the way to watch the big game, in my opinion!

I decided to make some cheese dip (chile con queso) and special Superbowl cookies for the party. I thoroughly enjoy making my favorite sour cream cookies. Now that I have some decorating tips I especially enjoy FROSTING them. I also love making the queso. It's so creamy and spicy and full of flavor. It is the perfect accompaniment to a salty corn tortilla chip!

Unfortunately, the Plague whipped through our church the previous week and so the twins and I needed to stay home from the party, but we sent along the special treats with Taigen so he could enjoy the game...well fed.

One Very Good Reason

I know that many may be itching for spring, ready to enjoy the warm sunshine, but I personally am enjoying every flake! I love how God created a most beautiful picture outside this morning with the snow clinging to the branches of every tree. It was breathtaking, and everything seemed hushed and peaceful. I love living in New England.

Snow and the Sickies

Poor Marshall and Shaylen have come down with a bug. On Tuesday we braved the beginnings of a major snow storm to head up to Scarborough for piano lessons. It had probably snowed an inch in the hour that we were there so it was slow-going for the ride home. Both kids complained about headaches and asked if they could take a break from schoolwork for just a bit of the ride home. I complied and soon Marshall was asleep and Shaylen was quiet with her head leaned against the back of the seat. This never happens. They are usually bursting with energy, so I let them rest. Marshall slept the entire way home. It took us an hour and a half to get home. It normally takes forty-five minutes. While the commute was slow and slick, New England looked SO beautiful!

Once we got home, Marshall was weepy and tired. I let him lay down on the couch and there he stayed for the rest of the afternoon. Taigen inched his way home in the van. He had brought plenty to work on here at home knowing that this new storm was going to pack quite the punch! We enjoyed a quiet day in the house. I was originally going to go and have coffee with a lady from church, but I had to call it off due to the storm. It ended up being a good call because Marshall started burning up with fever. He was down for the count and Shaylen wasn't looking great either. Both got a nice warm bath and were sent to bed. There were periodic interruptions during the night, but eventually we all got to sleep.

Wednesday morning they both woke up with fevers and aches. They slept in (something they don't do often) and when I went to check on them, they were both feverish. Their temps were registering in the 102's. No school for us today. They stayed in their jammies in bed for quite a while during the morning and around 10:30a.m., they grabbed their blankets, pillows and stuffed animals and got on the floor just inside their rooms and listened to an audiobook. This took five hours, but they were content to just lay there and listen. When I suggested that they move to their beds at the end of one audiobook and the beginning of the other, they comnplied. Shaylen moved, cried to me that her belly hurt and then threw up. My poor baby! This is only the second time in her life that she has done that!

After a quiet afternoon of watching the snow fall (or maybe "dump" would be a better word), I made homemade chicken noodle soup. Marshall & Shaylen enjoyed the broth in mugs on the couch and that seemed to settle well. Surprisingly, they both went to bed quickly and quietly. Checking their temps, Marshall's was just under 100, but Shaylen's was 102.9. Yikes. It was still so high! I checked on her again at midnight and I could tell it was headed down.

Thankfully, today seems to be a bit better. Shaylen had a low-grade fever this morning, but Marshall was fever-free. The Little Peanut is resting on the couch, not eating much and not doing anything, but Marshall seems to be perking up. I'm thankful that the worst of it seems to be over. Maybe Saturday will be the day to actually go outside and enjoy all the new, beautiful white stuff.