Caitlin at Washington State Solo and Ensemble Yesterday

Caitlin did really well at State yesterday. She won the undying admiration of her dad and received a I and two II's for her scores. Not too shabby for her freshman debut on the State Solo and Ensemble circuit. I think I'll sign her up for American Idol.

Connor and Caitlin at Solo and Ensemble

Connor won the district Solo and Ensemble competition with this performance of the Trumpet Sonata by Hindemith. He'll be off to State in April so still plenty of work ahead of him. Still, the sigh of relief at the end of this piece is priceless. I thought he might even go purple about half way through but managed to stop at just a deep shade of red...


Not to be outdone Caitlin also put in a very well received performance of "Here Amid the Shady Woods" by G.F. Handel. I love her smile at the end.



It was a wonderful day for both of them. Erin and I were bursting with pride.

Siblings and cousins and hives? Oh my

Both of my brothers and my sister came for New Year's weekend. It had been years since the last time we were all together. Of course Mom wanted pictures. The first picture is not too bad but only half of us are smiling. The next one won't do. Megan is wearing what looks like sheep skin and for some reason looks taller than Greydie. she is not. I believe she was standing on the very tips of her toes so everyone could see the sheep skin. The last photo would be perfect if it weren't so dark. And maybe Ben could bend his knees a little so the rest of us don't look so short. But hey, everyone is smiling. Including Greydie. And Megan looks much better without the wool.



I also took a few cousin pictures. Fienna and Greydon both wanted to hold Hazel. And she was a pretty good sport, even though she wasn't feeling her best. For some reason, Greydon developed hives that weekend. Have no idea why. He has no known allergies and nothing was out of the ordinary in his routine or diet. Didn't seem to bother him, not very itchy, but they sure looked awful.

Critter Cakes - part 2

A koi pond was a little too cutsie for Connor's birthday. A pan of cockroaches seemed about right. And the cake was delicious...atomic chocolate with twice the amount of chocolate called for in the recipe. Topped with homemade butter cream frosting. The kids thought the roaches were pretty tasty too.

Just was we finished singing "Happy Birthday" Greydon leaned right over and blew out the candles. Every one of them. So Connor had to light them up again. No problem, he's long been a bit of a pyromaniac. There were no presents to open this year. Instead I took Connor shopping. The kid got Chanel Allure for men. Too posh for a 15 year old? We also found several pairs of new jeans. Highwaters are not the best look for a high school student.

Critter Cakes, part 1

I had a very difficult time getting Fienna to tell me what she wanted for her birthday. "It's a secret." That's all she said. Or that she'd tell our neighbor Sue, but not until her birthday. The one thing she said way back in February was that she wanted a frog. I was on my own for the rest. She loves to watch Strawberry Shortcake so that was an easy choice. Then I found mini LalaLoopsy dolls. She loves those. But I don't. She begs me to play LaLoopsy with her every day. When I try to pass it off to Reed Fienna whines. "Not Dad. He's not a good player because he doesn't know their voices!"



Fi-Rex turned 4 on March 23. She wanted to decorate her own cake but I had other plans. She did put the blue bubbles on and the green reeds. She thought the fishies were pretty cute and wasn't too disappointed with her limited artistic input.

Alaina and Brenna have been fiddlin' for four months now. Alaina is downright mad that I'm posting this because "we made so many mistakes", but for my money they sound pretty darn good.

Connor at Solo and Ensemble

Connor's performance was good enough for 1st alternate for State. He was really pleased and so were we. If interested you can compare it to his performance last November to get an idea of the progress he made in 3 months