Winter Pictures

We have had nothing but sub-zero temperatures for weeks and weeks now. Most of these outdoor photos that are shown here are from a while back. I recently found them lingering around in my camera and thought I should do a blog post. It's been a while.

Snowshoeing with Cole one day after school.

Ice Skating on New Year's day.

King of the Mountain on the snowbanks.

 Or, Queen of the Mountain.

 After many snowfalls, we gave up on shoveling off the pond and tried out the rink at Orleans school.

 We made a snowman.

 Heather and I went snowshoeing.

 Heather picked one of the lemons off of our dwarf lemon tree. 

There was a school concert made up entirely of music and songs from Frozen. Cole and his friend Grant sang "Reindeer(s) are Better than People." The 4 boys in the 5th grade class were supposed to do this all together, but the other 2 did not show up.  Unfortunately, the video quality is poor and I only managed to get a few seconds, but they were by far, the hit of the show.

 This week, Wayne has a basketball tournament in Newport. After one of his games we went to see the ice maze.

 Ice blocks taken from Lake Memphremagog. The ice is quite clear. The ice blocks are about 18-24 inches thick.

 Snowshoeing in very deep snow. Thank goodness Spike is always eager to cut the path for me.

 The house is cold in the mornings. Heather and Patches snuggle up in an afghan (made by my grandmother, probably before I was even born) and watch cartoons.

Winter is fine, but I sure wish we had some temps at least in the teens. 

Preschool on WCAX

I'm not really in this, but here is the preschool where I work.
(It's hard to see the player controls at the bottom of the video screen, but if you hover your mouse over where the play button would be, you'll kind of see it.)

WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Opus 29

Yesterday was the Opus 29 Concert. Wes had a regular day of school, but Wayne, Cole, Heather, and I had inservice.  I don't have to go to work on inservice days, so the kids and I drove down to the Elley-Long Music Center at St. Michaels College. 

During the day the musicians meet with the young composers to rehearse and discuss their pieces. Wayne's rehearsal was scheduled for 1:40, but we arrived around 1:00 to be "on deck," as they call it and to listen to the other composers discuss their compositions with the musicians.

Below, Wayne sits with Sandi MacLeod, the director of this whole Music-Comp and Opus project. Wayne's music teacher was not able to make it to the day due to car trouble, so Sandi joined Wayne on stage for his rehearsal. Also, I should point out here that Wayne was not able to attend any of the school composition meetings due to sports, so he really did this whole thing on his own as an independent study this time.

When Wayne did Opus last spring, the concert pieces featured string and woodwind instruments. This time students were required to write for their choice of brass, piano, percussion, and voice, or any combination thereof.

I loved the french horn. It sounded so good.

As part of the school's composition group, Cole came along to observe the rehearsal discussions and to attend the workshops. Other students from the school had originally planned to come but due to the music teacher's car problems and bad weather, they did not make it. Since there was no school, Heather came along too.

Video recording for the DVD.

After Wayne's rehearsal, they went into a workshop. 

Anne Hamilton from Newport and she talked about the importance of patterns in music composition.

Wayne and Cole attended another workshop later in the afternoon. Heather and I somehow got roped into helping out in the kitchen, preparing snacks, coffee, drinks, and getting ready for the evening dinner. 

Before the concert, a big group photo with all the kids, musicians, and mentors.

Some of Wayne's fan club. Wes drove down after school. We appreciated martha and Chris coming, especially since Martha was not feeling well. Joanie was also in attendance, but when I took this photo, she was out moving her car so it wouldn't get towed.

Showtime!

Luckily, Wayne's piece was played in the first half of the concert, so like last year, we quietly ducked out at intermission. It had been snowing all day and evening, so the roads were terrible. It was a long ride home. It was a good thing Wayne's music teacher had not come with the other classmates - it was a treacherous drive.

We are very proud of Wayne for having a composition chosen 2 times in a row. It is a wonderful experience for him.

**Note**
I ran into Wayne's music teacher, Ms. Kennedy, at the store this evening and she said she had gotten an email from Sandi MacLeod ( the woman sitting with him onstage duirng the rehearsal) In the email, Sandi had told her that Wayne would be one to keep an eye on in the years to come. She is very impressed with him.

Christmas and New Years

Better late than never - here is what we did over the holidays.

Christmas Eve, Heather and I make cinnamon rolls.

Christmas morning, the stockings.

Overnight cinnamon rolls, baked in the morning. The house smelled great. We had bacon too. And pancakes.

A little game of Christmas Monopoly, which Heather got for her birthday.

Opening the presents under the tree.

Wes took Cole and Heather over to see Joanie and Grammie, Peter, Jeanne, Katie and Lizzy. Wayne and I stayed behind so as not to spread his hand foot and mouth disease.  We did go outside for some fresh air and sledding. We built a ramp in the snow (below) and Wayne went flying. Later when we came back inside, we skyped with Joanie, Grammie and Co. and Wayne played  a game of Bolderdash with them via skype, while I got Christmas dinner ready. (Pork Roast, mashed potatoes, rolls, honey glazed carrots, stuffing, and green beans, eggnog, wassail) Unfortunately, Wayne's throat hurt so badly that he wasn't able to enjoy it.

A day or so later, Cole and Heather test out our ramp.

Heather got this inflatable "tube" sled for Christmas.

We had a nice time at Mary and Danny's for the big family celebration. I know there were lots of photos being taken. I'm sure Jeanne had them up on facebook in no time. It was great to see the next generation, so grown up now and on with their own lives. We missed those who could not make it to various flus and illnesses going around. Wayne was feeling pretty good by this time, but we told him to keep some distance because he could still be contagious until the rash disappeared.

With Wayne feeling better, he, Heather, I made a trip to Maine to see my mom and bring her gifts. We had dinner with her at her assisted living facility (pork tenderloin with mustard cream sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit, and ice cream sundae.) They have an old pipe organ there, donated by my childhood church. Wayne figured out how to use it and played some of his piano music for her. Heather played a little too, but they had not brought sheet music, so it was hard to remember whole pieces.

We had some warm days and rain, then some cold days which turned the pond into a nice, smooth skating rink.

Cole skating.

We spent Christmas eve day skating like crazy.

I didn't get a picture of Wayne skating before he left to hunting for the last afternoon of partridge season. No luck.

 Monday will be a rude awakening, but the kids are looking forward to "winter activities." It's part of their physical education class. Every monday for most of the winter Cole and Heather will be bussed to the indoor rink for ice skating and Wayne will go skiing at Burke Mountain. (It's totally free for 7th and 8th graders, including rentals. Can you believe that?) Some of their friends will go to Craftsbury for cross country skiing. 

January will be a busy month with Opus 29 coming right up. Let's hope we stay healthy!

Happy New Year!