Last night's CBA concert

Last night was the end of year concert for our homeschool group's band and orchestra. Enjoy!


The Advanced Orchestra

The Advanced Orchestra

The Combined Orchestra (intermediate AND advanced)

The kids did a GREAT job, as usual!

Mackenzie's first violin recital

Today was Mackenzie's first violin recital, and I'm really proud of the job she did! You can see her in the photo above wearing the red dress with the white jacket over it. Even though she made a small "oops" in the first piece, she recovered and kept on going -- and told me she was never nervous! What a kid!! Sometimes I think that inside that mild-mannered body are nerves of steel! She constantly amazes me!

The funny part of the first song -- I was playing the piano, accompanying her on these two pieces. For the first one, she plays the song through, then repeats the song playing with 1/8 notes instead of quarter notes. For you non-music types, that basically means that she's playing in doubles what she played the first time -- and when she started playing through the first time, I could tell she was going to end up going at break-neck speed if she didn't slow down!! So you'll hear me trying to play a bit slower, trying to get her to rein it in a bit -- to no avail!! However, she did great anyway, and actually did slow herself down a bit when she got to the doubles -- so we didn't have a "crash and burn" situation!!

Hope you enjoy her playing!!

Easter, music and kids.......

They kind of go together, don't they? At least, in most churches I've ever gone to. Usually pretty tacky music, but when it's kids 5, 6, even 10 years old performing it, somehow it's never really terrible!! (Might be a bit painful for those of us with nearly pitch-perfect ears, but it's still cute!!)

Anyway, here's a group of kids at my church this Sunday! Mackenzie played her violin for the intro and the closing of the song. Unfortunately, not everyone "got the memo" that she'd be playing at the end and so her ending got a bit stomped upon by clapping -- but no matter!! She still did great, even if the applause messed up her rhythm a bit!!

And the proud moment for this mom -- she was so matter-of-fact about all of it. Not nervous at all!! Where did THAT come from? I used to be TERRIFIED of performing in front of people.....

And now..... here's Mackenzie!! With apologies for my abysmal videography skills!!)