No progress

Today was a very unproductive today where I actually thought I was making headway but in reality didn't make any progress at all. I'm hoping that they are able to fix all the issues by tomorrow so that I actually have some work to do...I hate driving all that way and then not be able to do anything. Well, there is stuff I can do but the important stuff that have a deadline of Weds and Fri, I'm unable to work on at the moment. And they've been trying to fix the issue since 8/1 so I'm not optimistic at the moment.

And Andy's day was just as bad in a different sense...he spent the entire day running kiddos all over the place. Ty had to be at Karate camp at 9, then it was back to the house to pick Tay up for a drs appt...and hour later, it's back to the house only to turn around and pick Ty up from camp. Then it was time to take Connor, Kenzie and Taylor to piano...which took an extremely long time today...which I think is good because they must have been going over a lot of things today but I thing at that point hubby would have liked a short lesson so he could get back home for awhile. Somewhere in there my sister arrived to help Alex do so pt on his shoulder...my mom also showed up. Soon after getting back from piano, Ty needed to head back for his regular Karate class...I took him so hubby could have some home time. After class, we headed home for dinner, then Andy, Keari, Adam and I took a walk along the river. It was a gorgeous evening..not hot and muggy like it has been but I'm thinking this is only temporary as they are talking about temps in the upper 90's for the next 2 days.

The kids are constantly complaining about being bored but something sure tired them out today, at least the girls, because within 5 minutes of them laying down all 3 were asleep. I should really head that way myself....

Fall at the Mall

Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a piano recital at the Annapolis Mall on Saturday. When that was finished, we then had to run to the soccer field for Connor & Kenzie's soccer games. At least the schedules allowed them to do both events...I hate when they have to chose between the two.

If you are interested in hearing them play, click here...Andy has clips posted on his blog although I took the video as he so kindly pointed out. ;)

Piano Recital

Today was the last piano recital for this school year. It always ends with a recital that their teacher hosts where all his students play a song and then he does a summary of all the activities done over the past year. Students either get recognition or awards for performances done throughout the year. Kenzie was unable to attend this years recital but Taylor and Connor participated. It was a good thing too, since Connor received a number of awards this year. I didn't realize how many things he had participated in until his teacher kept calling his name.

Below is a picture of the awards he received. He received one for getting 3rd place (Honorable Mention) in the Solo Festival & Competition, one for have the highest score on the National Guild Auditions, one for highest average amongst his teachers students, one for playing in the Young Musician's Solo Festival, one for participating in the Chamber Music Festival and I can't remember what the others are for.
And here is a picture of Taylor's awards...he was nervous about performing this year so didn't participate in too many performances. His award was for particpating in the Young Musician's Solo Festival.
And these are Kenzie's awards. She also didn't participate in too many this year due to conflicts with softball games. I can't remember what her two awards were for.

Honorable Mention

Connor played in a piano competition this weekend. It was for middle school students so this was Connor's first year competing in this particular competition. When I asked how he thought he did (I wasn't able to hear him play since I had Keari, Bekah, Tay & Ty with me) he commented that he had messed up on one note in one of his songs. He thought he did okay with the second song. As it turns out, he did great! Out of 7 kids competing, all of which were older than him, he came in third, getting an Honorable Mention. 1st & 2nd place got money but you can't complain about a third place finish his first time out. Way to go!

Recital

Connor and Kenzie had their Winter Recital at St. Johns College in Annapolis today. It's a cool old college that was founded in 1649 and the building they play in is ancient...doesn't look anything like you would picture a college classroom looking like. There's big fireplaces in each classroom (although they have them blocked at this point). The piano sits in the entrance hall to the building...which extends from the front of the building all the way to back...and the room has a balcony that goes all the way around and portraits of past college presidents on the walls. Today I was sitting beside the guy that was president in the 1860's with the cool dress attire from that era.

Okay, so all that has absolutely nothing to do with the recital but I think it's pretty cool and there's alot of history on this campus and the kids enjoy playing here. Both Connor and Kenzie played really well although each made a mistake but they worked through it without any problems. After Connor was done and got his music back, this was a judged event, he started flipping pages so he could show me the exact note that he'd made the mistake on...as if I'd really know. He claimed that his pinky finger knew which note to play but his brain kept saying "No, no" and wouldn't let his pinky play it. LOL The kid cracks me up!

Busy Weekend

Between piano recitals, softball and not sleeping well, I'm exhausted right now. And I didn't even do the piano recital running around. Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a winter themed piano recital in Bowie yesterday. Unfortunately Tay's teacher forgot to give him a piece to play for the recital so he didn't get to play. Talk about being bummed...and to make matters worse, he had to sit through all the other performances. Poor guy! Kenzie played well and made one mistake...he played his scale up one too many times and was going to run out of keys so had to restart that section. LOL

Kenzie had a 3 hr softball practice yesterday afternoon and a 4 hr practice this morning. Both times, I dropped her off and then went Christmas shopping. I don't know what was going on at Best Buy today but that place was packed. There is no way I would have stood in a line to check out that wrapped around the inside of the building. Crazy! I was able to get most of our Christmas shopping done this weekend...not that there was a lot to do since we bought our big family gift of the kayaks back in the summer. Hopefully the kids won't be disappointed come Christmas morning when there is only 1-2 gifts for each of them under the tree.

Final Recital

This afternoon was the last piano recital for the kids this year. It's their teachers end of year recital where he has all the kids play a piece and then goes over what was done throughout the year. It's fun to hear all the kids play. I was surprised by how many recitals Connor, Kenzie, Taylor & Tyler did throughout the year. I never would have guessed it was so many. Their teacher goes through the different events and either has the kids stand to be recognized or hands them a little something depending on the event. I think Connor came away this year with the most items...it seemed like everytime we turned around his name was being called. Got pretty tiring having him climb over us to get out of the pew to get his items...we should have just stuck him on the end of the aisle. LOL He got a really nice plaque for playing in the Chamber Choir recital, a medal for another recital and two presents...one for getting the highest score on a Music Theory test...he scored 103 (highest score possible was 105 which included 5 bonus points) and his other present was for most practicing student throughout the year. Their teacher has a big chart hanging on his wall where he evaluates the kids after every lesson with a different color star. At the end of the year he tallys up all the stars in his super secret way and comes out with the top student...one for his first year students and one for those that have been with him longer than a year. Connor fell into the later category.

I'm so proud of all of them. They all work very hard at their piano lessons and they really seem to enjoy them. Tay was scared to death when it was his turn to perform tonight...he was the first one of the bunch...so we skipped him and by the end he had decided he was ready to perform. Every one gave him an extra applause because they recognize how hard it is to get up in front of a crowd to perform. Tyler didn't bat an eye this time, whereas last year he reacted just like Tay did...how far one can come in a years time. And Kenzie did great, as well. Now they get a break for the summer and will pick back up again this fall.

A Reprieve

Today was to be a crazy day...practice in Easton @ 9, game at Love Point @ 9, game at Mowbray @ 9:30, game at Love Point @ 1:30, piano recital @ church @ 4. There would have been just enough time between the 3 early games to run home, grab a bite to eat, get 3 showers done and then get back to the field for the afternoon game, run home to grab a quick shower before heading to piano. Andy did the Easton trek, dropped Kenzie off, then went to Lowe's in search of driveway sealer and plants. He also dropped Alex off at practice before his game. I took the rest of the kiddos to the twins game @ 9:30. While there, we ran into Connor's coach (afternoon game) and discovered that game was cancelled due to coach and some players being sick. So that freed up our afternoon. Yay! So instead of running around like crazy people, we all came home after the morning games, my dad came down to drop off a load of mulch, I went to the store to look for a mother's day gift, showers have all been taken and we are just hanging out waiting til it's time to go to the recital.

Alex's team won this morning...they actually had the slaughter rule invoked which is unusual for their team. The twins also did well. It was the first game where they had kids pitch to each other and it actually went pretty good. Tyler scored a run and also tried to stop a line drive with his leg. Ouch! Tay had some good swings at the ball but wasn't able to connect...hopefully next. He needs to learn a little patience and not swing at every ball that comes in.

And for something completely different...can you tell what's lurking in the leaves?

Homeschool Piano Recital

We had a piano recital today at our house with a couple of other homeschool familes. It was alot of fun and as Mary was leaving, she said this should be an annual event. I think that's a wonderful idea! They came bearing cookies and fudge and dutch ornaments to hang on the tree. You can click here if you'd like to hear some of the songs that our kids played.

Financial Aid

We finally got around to filling out the Parent Financial Statement (PFS) that the Gunston school gave us when Andy and Alex went to the open house last month. The PFS is submitted to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS) which processes the information and will then send a report to the schools requested and to yourself detailing how much they think you can afford to pay for schooling. We received the results back today (about 2 days after filing the forms). Boy, filing electronically is great. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they calculated what we could afford to pay for school at pretty much what it costs us for the homeschooling supplies for Alex. Of course, this doesn't really mean anything because it's dependant on how much financial aid the actual school can give out but it's nice to know the school won't (or shouldn't) be expecting us to fork out an arm and a leg because we can't. So, since this report says things are still within our means we'll go ahead with the next steps for Gunston which would be submitting an application for the school. Then he has to take a standardized test...like the SAT but I can't think of the acronym for the one he has to take...so he'll do that either in February or March. Then, assuming he got accepted into the school, we'd have to see how much aid they could offer us to see whether it's really doable or not.

We got new insurance cards for all the kids showing their new pcp except for Kearsyn which is the one we really need. They only put 6 cards in an envelope so I'm assuming the one that has her card in it got separated from the other envelope. I wish it would show up as the others got here a few days ago. I figure I'll give it til after the holidays and if we haven't gotten it by then, I'll have them send another. I know her pcp got changed because I can view the info online so worst case scenario, if she gets sick before we get the new card I'll just print that page out. Updating to say that we received Kearsyn's new insurance card today, 12/22, so we are all set for the new doctor. =)

We finally got our refund check from the over payments to the specialist office for Alex & Kenzie's broken collarbones. I called the beginning of November to request it so it took about a month and a half for them to get it to us.

Today we did some house cleaning since we are having a small piano recital here tomorrow. Will be fun to listen to the kids playing.

I've made up all my days for work where I was short on leave so now I'm free until Jan 2. Yay! I was even able to help with a couple of programming modifications that they needed done so my timing was perfect for this make up work.

Bekah is doing so well with her sign language. She walked up to me today and did the sign for drink and then milk to let me know she was thirsty and wanted a glass of milk to drink. How cool!

I unpacked all my regular clothes and boxed up my maternity ones the other day. Anyone want to take bets on how long they'll stay boxed up? And Andy, you stay out of it! ;)

I was able to get most of the presents wrapped today while the kids were over at a friends house practicing for the recital tomorrow. Still have a few more to do but shouldn't take long...finding the time without the kids around will be the problem. And trying to do it at night it's that easy because that's when Kearsyn is at her grumpiest.

Pleasantly Surprised

Kearsyn didn't do as bad last night as I feared. She was only up once and went right back to sleep after eating. She's feeling much better today, thank goodness.

I received a phone call from work this morning and ended up spending the majority of the afternoon and evening logged into work trying to fix a programming problem. I finally figured out what was wrong with one of the files but I'll have to log back in tomorrow to fix the other file. I was too tired at that point to do more. This actually helps me because I was going to be short on leave and working some from home help me be able to stay off until after the new year without taking unpaid leave, which we can't afford for me to do.

The kids had their piano practice today and came home with a surprise. I mentioned in an earlier post that on Friday they played with their teacher a little at the store he was playing in. Well, the store gave each one of the kids $5 for playing there. How nice is that?

Nothing much else happening here...Taylor had Secret Garden today and we forgot to take the van in to get the oil changed. Oops! We'll try to remember to drop it off tomorrow.

Busy, Chilly Weekend

Of all weekends for it to turn chilly, it would be this weekend. Andy and the kids had two soccer parties scheduled for this weekend and of course they are outdoor parties because they always do a parents/kids soccer game. The chilly weather didn't deter them and they had a great time at both parties. Connor & Kenzie's party was on Saturday and Alex's party was today.




Saturday was also pick up day for our family pictures and they turned out great, if I do say so myself. They always do such a good job both with the group shots and with the individual pictures. Getting 9 people to look at the camera at the same time and keep their eyes open is not small feat. Here is our Christmas picture for this year.





On Friday, Connor, Kenzie & Tyler got to play a little bit at one of the stores in the area. There piano teacher was providing background music for the evening and had invited his students to stop by and play a few songs. It was fun for the kids even though there are alot of distractions playing in that type of environment.



Today is the first day of Advent and Tyler got to do the honors of lighting the first candle.






And here's picture of Kearsyn smiling. =) She has her two month check up tomorrow and she's due to get lots of shots so I don't expect alot of smiling tomorrow. Poor baby.

Festival of Trees

Tomorrow is a big night as Connor, Kenzie and Tyler have a piano recital at the Festival of Trees. They'll play in this huge room that is filled with tons of differently decorated Christmas trees. All the trees are awesome! It was great fun looking at all the decorations on the different trees. Last year they also created a huge poinsetta tree out of smaller plants in the middle of the room that was gorgeous. Hopefully Andy will be able to get some pics of the kids and of some of the trees.