Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend: Heather had a softball game on Saturday morning. Her team is a nice group of girls ages 6-8, and they are all quite good softball players.

Heather got a good hit each time she was up and never struck out.

In the afternoon, the kids and I went for a hike. We had planned to hike the short and friendly Haystack, but arrived to find signs saying that the trail was closed due to mud. So we chose the nearby Bald Mountain trail. It's a much longer, so we only did part of it. Wayne, Cole, and Heather were going fishing with Wes after the hike.

Moose tracks.

Wayne discovered moose droppings. Of course they had to poke at it with a stick. 

We saw lots of little wild flowers. I have no idea what any of these are.

This one is trillium I think.

We stopped for our traditional after hike ice cream.

Monday morning Wayne marched with the middle school band in the Memorial Day parade.

After the parade there was a ceremony, remembering and honoring fallen soldiers. This man is throwing a bouquet of flowers in the river to symbolize soldiers who are gone but not forgotten.

Later, there were flowers at the cemetery and Wayne had a baseball game in turbulent weather.

The long weekend made us look forward to vacation. The countdown begins. My last day at preschool is the 4th. Everyone else is the 13th. 

Cole and Spike at the Pond

My Happy Mother's Day

We had a beautiful Mother's Day.

To start the day, Wayne and I went for a jog and Heather rode her bike alongside of us, while Wes and Cole styed home to get started on a delicious brunch.  We ate on the porch.

A little later we went to the Willoughby Falls to see the fish jumping upstream.

We only saw a few, and I didn't get any pictures of them, but it warm and sunny - a pleasant way to spend some time on Mother's Day.

Hope you all had a great day too.

Amish Friendship Bread

A couple of weeks ago, Martha gave us 2 bags of Amish Friendship bread batter.

Amish Friendship Bread is like the chain letter of the baking world. 

We followed the directions, adding ingredients, 

separating some batter into new bags with instructions, to pass on to friends and teachers.

And we had lots of fresh baked sweet bread for school snacks all week long.

Thanks Martha.

More Music

Today was another big music day for our family. Wayne had a Middle School concert at LR, while Cole and Heather had a piano recital.

It was a treat to have Mary and Grammie come to the recital, and thanks to Mary for driving us while the red car is being fixed.

Joanie went to Wayne's concert while Wes had to stay home fixing the car.

This week has been heavy on the music for us, but don't worry, baseball and softball have begun!

Opus 28

Yesterday was Wayne's big day.

We traveled 2 hours in the rain to Ludlow for the Opus 28 concert. Wayne finally met his music composing mentor, Erik Neilson, in person for the first time.

There were 25 student compositions being rehearsed throughout the day before the evening performance. Wayne's piece was first on the rehearsal list. He and other students joined the musicians on stage as they played his composition and Wayne made comments, gave feedback, and mentioned some things he's like them to do differently. Cole and Ben came along as well, because they are part of the school's composing club. Another friend was supposed to come along, but was not able to make it. Students are encouraged to listen to each others rehearsals and learn from them.

It was quite an experience to hear Wayne's piece played live for the first time. It sounds so much more rich and lively after getting used to hearing the computer generated version all these weeks. I was so proud I almost burst into tears.

The people who run this project, including the mentors and musicians, are so organized and so nice. It was such a great experience. Wayne's mentor saw his name tag and immediately knew him, even though he probably mentors dozens of kids. He also saw Cole's name tag and said, "Oh you're the fella who's writing Dark Piano."  Wayne's mentor told me that he was very impressed with how hard Wayne worked on his piece.

When the coordinator saw me with my camera she told me to feel free to go right up on stage and take as many pictures as I wanted, wherever I wanted.

Wayne on the stage during rehearsal with his teacher, Ms. Kennedy, Cole, and Ben.

After Wayne's rehearsal and after listening to some other rehearsals, we took a rainy walk to Subway for lunch.

After lunch, there were workshops to attend.

And snacks. I later learned that Cole ate 7 brownies.

Wayne had to be interviewed for DVD footage. His teacher, Ms. Kennedy , read the interview questions, while a tech from Lake Champlain Access Television recorded it.

There was dinner of lasagna, salad, bread, and desserts.

 If I had known that Cole had already consumed 7 brownies that afternoon, I would not have let him have dessert.

Showtime. Wayne's composition was the last before intermission. 

We listened to 14 student works, including Wayne's. Since intermission was right after his, we decided that was a good time to gracefully duck out for the long, rainy drive home.

All of this music sounded completely professional to me. I would never have guessed that it was all written by elementary, middle school, and high school students.

Wayne said that he wants to do the next Opus project as well, and that even if he doesn't have a piece that is chosen for the concert, he wants to attend the day and concert.