Our house fix is finally nearing an end! We still have a little wallpaper to patch, and then the dining room can actually get moved back to the dining room. Here are some pictures of the upstairs bedroom and bathroom, all pretty now!

Believe it or not, Kayla will be 12 this Saturday! She is having a few girl friends over for a sleepover Saturday night. It’s crazy to me that I can read the cousin blogs, with babies meeting those milestones, and then look at my two and realize how BIG they are! And how long ago those baby milestones are, and yet they don’t feel like it should be that long. Kayla is turning into quite a special young adult, with a crazy sharp intellect and a kind heart. She wants to work the church food pantry Saturday morning – that’s the kind of girl she is.

Ashley amazes me constantly with the piano. The video is of her playing her version of
“The Entertainer” from her level F book. She taught this to herself. She has only had 1 lesson in the last 6 weeks. She just decided she wanted to play it, so she plugged away at it and learned it all alone. There is no doubt that piano lessons for her are one of the best investments we are making.

Today was Solo Fest! The way Solo Fest works is that Kayla’s band director let her choose a piece of music many months ago to prepare. She had a choice of “The Entertainer” or “Pachelbel’s Canon”. She thought the canon looked trickier with the 16th notes (she is thinking of trying that next year), so she chose “The Entertainer”. She had two rehearsals with a piano accompanist, and then she faces the judge in a room. She performs both the piece and two scales of the judge’s choosing appropriate to her level in band. He had her play a concert E flat scale and a chromatic scale. The judges have a rubric sheet with various categories including tempo, dynamics, appropriate dress, etc.. When she was done playing, he called her over to his desk, where he gave her some positive feedback and then asked her to try a few things for him, like tonguing her notes better. Here is Kayla before her performance:

And here is her performance:

And then we had to wait. Kayla’s judge seemed to be a “sheet hoarder”. He did not send down results very often for posting like other judges. But finally, the results were in! And…..

It’s a little blurry, but here is the proof!

We went for a celebratory lunch at Jimmy John’s. Kayla ate almost an entire slim 6 by herself, plus Thinny chips and 1/4 pickle! She was so excited and hungry after the event. Ashley did about the same to her slim 6, although she only ate about half.

After we got home, we sent the girls outside to play in the snow. They had a really good time spending about 2 hours out there building things, like the fort up against the neighbor’s fence. I have a soaking pile of snow pants and coats here! But I also have two worn out kids with bellies full of minty hot cocoa who are playing a little Wii. 

Poor daddy…..he just wanted to see what they were doing…..

And last but not least, this picture speaks for itself.