First Piano Festival

My Grandma has been a piano teacher for many many years and she has all the 'ins' for knowing what cool piano students in the Utah County do.  So, she signed my boys up for Piano Festival this year.  They played at Summerhays in their concert room on their awesome grand pianos which Hyrum thought was pretty spiffy.  

There is a panel of four judges who listen, watch, critique and compliment each student as they play. At the end of their section, each student receives a certificate with their level and score on it.  Everyone plays two pieces and they must be memorized.

My boys practiced for a couple weeks on their little songs (they've only been playing for about 7 months or so) and they were all ready to go once the day came around.

Here they are looking snazzy...

Hyrum was up first and he did a great job with his dynamics and counting

He even got to use the petal for an 'eerie effect' on one of the songs... He received a 38 out of 40 points. Good job!

Weston was next and he sat right up there and played his songs just right as well.

He counted all the notes, held out the end note and didn't even seem nervous.  Weston also got a 38 out of 40.  (I was the 'auditor' for the session and 38 was the highest score any of the kids received!)

As soon as Weston finished, he stood up to bow and Afton RAN up to the stage saying "me! me!"  because it was obviously her turn. :)  The nice piano teacher judges just smiled and said "Looks like we have an up-coming pianist!"

I was very proud of my boys for doing so well and glad they had a chance to practice performing... Thanks Grandma!

Bunnicula

Did you have a fun mom growing up?  Then guess what, you are in luck because she'll probably be a fun grandma too.  How do I know this? Because I had a fun mom and she is now a fun grandma.  For example, a month or so ago, my mom brought over the book "Bunnicula" for my boys to read.  She also had the other cousins read it.   When everyone finished reading the book, she came over and picked up my boys and hosted a Bunnicula party for all the cousins, ending the night with a sleep over.  Sound like fun?  My boys think so!  I sent Hyrum with the camera so he could take pictures for me because I knew it would be an event worth blogging about...

(For those who missed out in childhood, "Bunnicula" is a mystery about an orphaned rabbit found at a Dracula movie, a crazy cat, a smart dog, veggies mysteriously turning white, lots of garlic and an incident with a steak.)

Of course Bunnicula himself had to come to the party- Mom made this costume, of course. :)

They ate little bunnies with white pears, white almonds and white whip cream for a tail.

Even though milk is already white, "bunny milk" seemed to fit the occasion.

Here's the white veggies- cauliflower, hicama (which my boys LOVE) and cukes, I guess.

White pizza- looks tasty to me. I don't think a rabbit sucked the juices from it...

Not quite sure what happened here... Oh, wait. They are boys. :)

Harold, the dog, LOVES to eat hostess cupcakes.  And so do the kids! I just wish I could see Lydia make that face in real life...

And this face as well... Here's the line up, back to front: Lydia, Hyrum, Bryson, Lexi, Weston, White veggies, Bunnicula, Chester, Harold and the Hostess cupcake.

And.... it looks like Obama may have dropped in as well.  What a party crasher.

Anyway, see what you have to look forward to if your mom is fun?  Oh, the best part is that Zach and I got to go on a date- dinner at Magleby's Fresh, looking at plants at Home Depot, walking about the mall (with Afton who didn't even whine or complain ONE BIT).  Good mom, great grandma.  LOVE.

Pink Kitties

One more Afton... Last post I mentioned how she likes to be a kitty sometimes.  Now, she also points out that she is a PINK kitty.  "Mommy, me, pink, meow."  And then she waits for me to pet her.  Yesterday while walking through the mall, Afton suddenly stops, gets down on her hands and knees and starts meowing.  Zach tries to pick her up and she refuses. Nope, she is a kitty and a pink one at that...

She is a cute one too. :)

My Sweet Afton

I just wanted to up-date a little on Afton at 22 months...Here's my latest journal entry:

Afton is growing and changing so fast! For a while, we were worried she wouldn't be talking before her birthday, but no more. She learns new words every day! "Mommy, stinky, me" "More milk?" "Cake!" "Duck, quack quack". She loves the color pink (why IS that?) and is always finding pink things- shirts, crayons, dolls, spots, flowers... PINK! Afton knows all the parts of the body and each of our names though she won't say Weston's name. She just calls him "Guy". Like this morning, I went to get her out of bed and Weston was already gone. She pointed at his bed and then did 'I-don't-know-' hands and said "Guy?" She teases Weston all the time and loves to steal his blanket and yell "babby!" (Weston's name for it) and then run away. She also has her own "babby" and loves to snuggle with it and me. Afton will pretend to be a kitty, crawling into the room and up onto my lap to snuggle in, meowing all the while. Afton LOVES animals and BABIES. Every time she sees cousin Pippa she tips her head to the side, squinches up her eyes and says in a high voice "Mommy, baby! Oh..." She also does this when pointing out the baby's chair, bottle, binky or diaper. :) Afton loves to read stories and color (Luckily, she quit drawing on everything-doors, walls, floors, books, herself... Thank you magic eraser!). She still loves shoes and clothes, bows and bags, but if she gets a chance she'll be sitting out side with first fulls of dirt in each hand! She loves to go for walks and bike rides and is always asking to go "outside?" I love having this sweet little princess in our family!

Afton decided one bow was not enough. She had to put as many as would fit in her hair, silly girl. When I pulled out the camera, this is how she posed... All her idea. :)

So pretty, huh!

Afton and Weston snacking on my bed- silly kids!

Hoppy Easter!

Okay, these are actually our St. Paddy's day cookies- you know, rainbows to trap leprechauns? But, they'd work great for Easter cookies too. Besides, Weston decided to make our sneaky little guy cookies to see if he would give us a wish and it worked- the boys got a bag full of gold! (pyrite, maybe...:)

See, they would work great for Easter eggs!

Our weather has been so sporadic- one day it's hot and sunny, the next it's snowing. So, we have been taking advantage of the warm days to make sure we survive the cold ones. I love this picture down in the Riverwoods... blooming trees are glorious!

Saturday morning, we got our Easter baskets:

and then had an Easter egg hunt in the Riverwoods (which wasn't very satisfying. All the hundreds of eggs are laying out in plain sight and the hundreds of kids pick them up in three seconds flat. Boring)

Then we went up to the Rock Canyon park for a picnic with the grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles (I wish I'd gotten a picture of my grandparents there, but I didn't. Both Norviels and Walkers were there- how lucky am I?). We also had a REAL Easter egg hunt with the kids. That means at least a hundred eggs for less than 10 kids who really have to look to find a treat:

Yep, that includes climbing the trees!

All the kiddos

Lydia did awesome obviously!

That's Lexi's basket- I thought it was cute...

Now that the Easter 'bunny' part of the weekend was over, Sunday was dedicated wholly to the real meaning of Easter. All week we read the scriptures that went with each day of the week of Christ's life and I also broke out my GAK with all the pictures from the New Testament. We spent a good hour putting them all in order and reading the stories that went with them. On Sunday, we read the scriptures of the Resurrection and watched Lamb of God. I think the boys got it and Afton recognizes Jesus in any picture. :)

Here's the kids in their Easter outfits!

Can you tell I love having a little girl?

Zach's Birthday

So, it wasn't a 'big' birthday- no big party, no big milestones, but I must mention that Zach did turn 32 and we had a Disney themed day. He got Mickey shirts for him and the boys, a Mickey mouse fan, a Donald Duck pez, a Mickey mug, and some gas money for our Disney trip (TOO bad it's still FOREVER away!)

On his birthday, my mom did piano early and then stayed to watch the kids so Zach and I could take a little jaunt up to the Draper Temple for a session. That was fabulous! We ate lunch at "One Man Band" (always an experience!) on the way home and then Zach was off to teach two more classes. Since he got home later, we just had pizza and rootbeer at home...

but it was yummy! The Largey parents came over for presents and snakes at 7:00. Did I say snakes instead of cakes? Why yes, yes I did. Zach requested we have Moroccan snakes for dessert- filo dough filled with a cinnamon almond paste and fried in butter. Also very delicious.

We had a family party on Sunday- this is Zach and the 'boys.'

We did finally have cake and surprised Zach with a giant Chocolate cake from Costco... (It was hiding in Hyrum's closet for a day and we snuck it in the car with out him even knowing. Tricky tricky!)

See that height? Zach always pines for this cake when we visit the Costco but we never have an occasion to buy it... 'till now! We stuck the Disney folks on it, though. :)

Just to make it more festive. :)

I did just notice, Zach grew a couple gray hairs on his head, in his side burns and even his eyebrows. That, and his arms got extra hairy in the last couple months... how that for turning 32? We love our Daddy no matter how gray and hairy he gets!