December 4

As I made dinner tonight, all the children played so sweetly together (for this moment at least) in the piano room. With the warmth of the tree's lights, the scene looked homey and sounded so quaint with Claire's faint piano practicing, Hamilton's hum mimicking a steam engine, and Collier's occasional high-pitch siren imitation of a fire truck.

Year-End Events and Videos

In the last weeks we've attended three year-end events for the kids--Claire's orchestra party, her piano recital, and Hamilton's family day during his last day at school. May is so packed with these events!
Our whole family enjoyed the orchestra party and picnic at Splash Island. Claire loved showing off her two brothers to her friends, and Hamilton loved flirting with Claire's friends.

Claire received an award for "perfect average" in strings class.

Her best friend Cady got several awards too.

The girls love their sweet teacher.

After the picnic and awards, we played at Splash Island. Hamilton saw a little slide and immediately--and uncharacteristically--wanted to slide down it. He got wetter than he was expecting the first time, so it took a few more times of trying to finally get him to come down the slide again. But he finally did! Many times he slid down after that, though I had to be right there to catch him. He didn't like getting his face submerged in the water at the end.

I caught him on video one of the last times he slid.

Collier spent some time crawling in the water too, but it was so "cold" (overcast, a little breezy, 75 degrees) the day we went. So he really loved being wrapped up in his fluffy towel after his few minutes of playing in the water.

Mr. Morgan stayed home with the boys, and I took Claire to her piano recital. Though she didn't play well at all considering how she plays sometimes, we had a great night with just us girls. Her best friend Cady came to the recital with her dad, and we all went out for frozen yogurt afterwards.


During Hamilton's last day of school, the parents were invited to come for outdoor games and a cookout. When Collier and I arrived, we found the boys already sweaty on the playground.

When it was the two-year-olds' time to play in the jump castle, I was hopeful Hamilton would love it. After a near disaster on the slide, he wanted to get out. He apparently hasn't been on enough slides to know how to do it. The second picture shows his upright position just before he tumbled onto his face at the bottom.

This shot with the boys' teachers was the best we could do, since sometimes two-year-olds don't like to be cooperative.

And here's the famous "Mih Ah-jee," so you'll know whom Hamilton's talking about. When she was his teacher at the beginning of the year, she was the first person he mentioned when he heard anything about school or teachers. She was also the first person he prayed for every night back then.

If you're still reading this long, catch-up post, you'll enjoy this video. This night just last week when Mr. Morgan was putting Hamilton to bed, he asked Hamilton to pray. Hamilton prayed for all his family which he'd never really done before like this. So Mr. Morgan left to get his phone, asked Hamilton to say his prayers again, and this video/voice-recording is the prayer he got. Sweet Mr. Morgan added the subtitles which make it even cuter.

December 16

Claire's writing invitations for an impromptu piano concert she's giving tonight for Mr. Morgan, Grandma Judy, and me. She even created programs for each of us with an order of songs written. She serenaded us with all her favorite songs and her latest pieces. She said she doesn't want to feel nervous at all during recitals anymore; apparently she got a little nervous once the recital started last night. She declared she'd give impromptu concerts to us often, so she can get used to performing.

Claire's Piano Recital

Thursday night was Claire's piano recital. Mr. Morgan took video footage of her playing. She played her two songs well, and she said she wasn't even nervous. The little girl in the white sweater listening to Claire cracked me up when I watched the video today.

Though the recital was relaxed and informal, I didn't want either boy to interrupt another child's performance. One student before Claire was to play, the boys both were sitting in my lap, since Mr. Morgan was prepping the camera. Well Collier started bucking like he wanted to crawl around on the floor and Hamilton kept trying to pinch his cheeks for some reason. I'm wrangling the squirmers, as I'm trying to keep them on my lap. Then Collier grabbed a fistful of Hamilton's hair. Repeat--cheeks pinched again, more hair pulled. Miraculously they didn't actually make any noise during these shenanigans, but it was a juggling act in my lap with those rambunctious boys. I was appreciative of the hallway we escaped to after her songs.

December 13

Hamilton loves to play on the piano. He especially loves to push the buttons for the different instrument sounds!

Parked Cars

Hamilton loves to play the piano especially the prerecorded songs. He giggles if he particularly likes the tune. Sometimes he'll sing while he touches the keys. Either way he's looking up at the music just like Sissy does when she practices for real. Today as he was playing, his cars took a much needed break.

Where else would you park cars when you're playing the piano?

Speaking of cars, Mr. Morgan now drives a new-to-us Audi A3. He's just as giddy and excited about his new car as Hamilton is about the Matchbox variety. Mr. Morgan may have used the word "blissful" to describe his commute to Claire's school after his first day of driving. Yay!--for his getting a better car to drive, but retiring the Explorer signals the end of an era.

After my flipped-the-car-several-times wreck back in 2004, Dad helped living-single-me pick out the Explorer. When Mr. Morgan and I married, he called it "part of his dowry." It made Mr. Morgan a fan of Explorers, but lately it's been the bane of his existence. Enter the Audi A3. Our car-life is now good again.

Two Talents

Claire showed off two of her talents last Thursday night. She participated in her school's talent show in which she played the piano, and she presented her architecture project with her SAIL class.

When the talent show was advertised to the fifth-graders, Claire immediately wanted to participate. She began working really hard on several pieces including Mozart's Turkish March, The Entertainer, and Minuet in G. Claire plays so easily by ear that a friend taught her the first song, and she learned the second by combining a kids' arrangement from one of her books with the original that's prerecorded on our piano.

Several weeks before the talent show, Claire started learning Minuet in G after she found one of my old books that I played from in high school. I did not play the song for her, nor did she hear a rendition of the tune to my knowledge. She just read the music and taught herself how to play it.

Claire practiced many hours on her pieces, but in the end decided to play only Minuet in G for the talent show.

Architecture has become Claire's newly declared, future profession when she grows up. She said she loved this architecture project because it combined so many of her favorite things--art, math, and science. She and her classmates took a field trip downtown to visit several historic buildings. The students chose which historic building they wanted to build a model of; then they measured the buildings, made exact models on a quarter-inch scale, and made electrical circuits to give the buildings light. Claire chose The Pink House because it's an art gallery today.