The season of Easter officially begins on Ash Wednesday but for me it's Mardi Gras. Universal Orlando would be my favorite place to be on that Tuesday but making a King Cake at home and celebrating Hubby's annual bonus at Texas Roadhouse on their Mardi Gras night was pretty fun too. As a bonus, Michelle didn't know Natalie and I were planning on making a King Cake that day so she made a delicious chocolate cake with raspberry filing so we all had plenty of cake to eat the whole week.
I was all dressed up for Michelle's pre-festival concert at her high school when I received the following text:
The reasons I think it is not worth your time to come to this concert:
1. I don’t care about it
2. I am only playing in a fraction of it
3. It will be bad
4. I have a LYS concert in a little over a week I actually put effort into
5. You have better stuff to do
When I told her I wanted to come anyway, she responded, "Please I can not stand you having to lie to my face about it being good because you’re my mom🙏" and I had to respect her wishes. I did, however, listen via the live stream, and she caught me listening to her three pieces again with her little sister while we braided her hair. I do agree that the concert was crazy long and that auditorium is sooo uncomfortable, but I don't think (and my cello player doesn't think) that they sounded bad at all. The following are photos from their festival SO helped at the next day.
Hubby and I sneaking fro you on a date. I love this man so much and I love false spring in CO! This man and this weather reminds me of how much easier it is to be happy when you're with your favorite human and it's not freezing outside.
Hubby actually took time off work so we could go on our date together. After school is such a busy time of dividing and conquering for our children's activities in the spring. It was so nice to have uninterrupted time together. Speaking of work, I have a couple pictures my coworkers and I took together, a baby plant from Natlaie's spider plant that has been named Peter Parker, and the 7th grade Mt. St. Helens shoebox project I got to be a part of. I am so lucky to only work part time so I can still do the things I want to do as a wife and mother and still feel like I am contributing to my kid's middle school. Best of both worlds.
Of course, the dog would disagree. I think she feels like I should be paying attention to her all of the time. Here she is watching me do the dishes on one of my days off work. So pitiful! I do try to walk her a mile every day I'm not at work but even that isn't a guarantee when my to do lists are so long.
On Saturday our calendar was surprisingly empty so a project we have had in mind for a while got completed and we are thrilled with the results. After Danny took the big bookcase/organizer thing from Ikea down to his bedroom closet, we decided to put up five shelves in the play room. We now have a Disney sipper shelf, a Disney popcorn bucket shelf, and three Lil Woodzeez/Calico Critters shelves. And surprise of all surprises, it only took one trip to Home Depot and two hours of the three of us (Hubby, Natalie, and I) to complete. The pictures don't do the shelving justice. I am still surprised every time I see the playroom. Look out checking account, the next time I'm at Disney and see a popcorn bucket I really like, I already have room on a shelf to place said bucket!
P.S. Natalie has gotten to go to two amazing birthday parties recently. I don't want to post group photos because I'm not sure how their parents feel about their daughter's photos being online but the first party was at a fancy tea house and Natalie absolutely loved it. This one was with friends she doesn't usually spend time with and she had so much fun. The next was for AH and they went to watch Shrek at the local theater and had a sleepover. That sounded like so much fun as well! I am happy that she can enjoy her friends so much on the weekends even with softball season starting up.
Michelle was right that she would perform in a larger percentage of the program over the weekend. She participated in 4 of the 10 pieces on the program. The three her orchestra performed were:
Concerto for Double Bass in D Major by K.D. von Dittersdorf, Arr. by J. Rozemond
Concerto in D Major for Viola and Orchestra by Franz Anton Hoffmeister
& M's favorite, Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, "Pastoral" by Ludwig von Beethoven.
When you are a senior in high school, you get to do a concerto. It was neat to see pieces of music featuring instruments that don't always get a lot of attention in the orchestra. Andrew and Finn both did an amazing job and I appreciated how respectively the director, Mr. Chen, treated them on stage. You could tell he had utmost trust in their performances and was so proud of their hard work. Michelle had told me the first time she heard Finn play that viola solo it brought tears to her eyes. So inspiring!
Then the combined ensembles played Prairie Dance by Zachary Docter. Let's just say we were all impressed! Photo credit goes to Natalie, who felt underdressed. My parents and I were still in our Church clothes from when they came to my ward to hear me speak in Sacrament Meeting. (Hubby was there too but had to take Danny to comp basketball tryouts at the same time as M's concert that afternoon.) It has been years and years since I gave a talk like this and honestly I was surprised I wasn't more nervous -- not saying I wasn't -- but it could have been worse. I knew that I was keeping the whole thing very Christ centered and you can't go wrong with that. I won't put my entire talk in here but I will include my invitation I gave: "Last Wednesday marked the beginning of Easter season for many Christians. Easter is the most important/spiritual holiday for us believers in the Christ. This would be the perfect time to deepen your understanding of the Savior, His mission and teachings here on Earth, and how you want to show up in the world. You can prepare for Easter in whatever ways you feel is best for you and those you love. Maybe you can tweak some traditions you enjoy from Christmas time. You can look up Holy Week on the Church’s website with ideas for every day leading up to Easter. You can find ways to show God’s children extra love this Easter season. I feel like this might be the very best way for you to prepare for His Second Coming."
The day finally came for Michelle to be rid of her orthodontic torture! She is so happy to not have braces and rubber bands and appointments every month. Hooray! That same day I got to watch Natalie play softball under Wednesday night lights. It was great to catch a smile on her face when she was on deck during a time out. Then she swung to let me know to stop taking pictures. She is so much fun! And they had fun winning that game too!
The next day I traded work with my part time partner in crime so that I could attend Danny’s first track meet. I felt so lucky to be able to pick him up from school early, let him get ready and eat lunch, drive him to his meet, and watch him try triple jump, win his heat of the 100 with a time of 12.33, and see his relay team with A, B & R win 1st place in the 4x100. I’m so proud of him for trying something new and enjoying the experience!
Comments