Making Music With My Friends*

Sophie and I had a ukulele gig on Saturday. We played in a room with really amazing acoustics.

It's such a blessing to sing and play with this group and I'm so glad we're both in it.

It fills my soul.

*This is a line from one of the songs in our concert set, does anyone know the song without Googling it?

Reading for Prizes

After school got out for the summer I signed Topher up for the summer reading program at the library. 

And then totally forgot to have him work on it.

He's read voraciously for the last two months, which is great. But the summer reading program has specific reading prompts, plus some art projects and local field trips. So reading what he picked only checked some of the boxes.

On Monday I realized that the summer reading program ends tomorrow.

On Tuesday I asked Topher if he wanted to pull out the booklet to see what he'd already accomplished. Just from regular reading, he'd gotten through a quarter of the one hundred and twelve prompts, seven weeks with sixteen prompts per week. He decided he wanted to try to finish it. I pulled books from our home library that would fulfill some of the assigned tasks, then we went to the town library for the rest. He read a lot when we got home that day.

Then on Wednesday he did some of the art projects with Phoebe and read some more.

On Thursday I wrote out the remaining tasks on post-it notes so he could easily see what was left. This worked so well for him and he knocked through many of them on his own pretty quickly, moving them from one side of the wall to the other once he'd finished each task.

Today Topher read the last few books, grabbed some paper and a crayon, and drove around with me for the local field trips. He finished the art assignments while we found the community garden, ginkgo trees in town, and life in this creek.

Then we went to the library to present all one hundred and twelve finished tasks in his summer reading booklet. He earned several trinkets of his own choosing, plus coupons for two ice cream cones, a hot dog, two doughnuts, and six dumplings. They were all well earned.

Librarian Teaser

Phoebe and her friend Phoenix ran to be librarians for concert choir next year. This was the campaign video Phoebe made.

Spoiler: they were elected!

Oh Mr. Moon

On Saturday Sophie and I, along with our fellow ukulele orchestra members, got to perform two shows with Kate Micucci. She wrote a children's book and came to our library to do a reading and ukulele performance. It was such a fun experience!

Our first show was at 10:00 at a local church. There were 100 people at this performance and 50 people at the 2:00 show at the library. Apparently there were 300 people still on the waiting list.

We got seats for these guys! A local bookstore was selling signed copies of the book, so we bought one before our first show.

Kate was delightful and gracious. We learned one of her songs, Mr. Moon, and she played that plus three others songs with us. She read her book and taught all the kids how to draw their own puppet. She answered questions from the kids in the audience, then stood in line and talked with everyone that wanted to say hi. When it was our turn, Topher showed her his favorite page from her book, so she signed it!

Kate had come a few days before to practice with the ukulele orchestra. Unfortunately, neither Sophie nor I could be there. The rehearsal was recorded so we could watch it at home and be ready. It helped a lot. 

Before we started our first show, before the audience was allowed in, Kate came over to say hello to the ukulele players. She asked the names of those that hadn't been at the practice, including Sophie. But when she got to me, she said, "Wait, I've met you before." She was in town two years ago and attended a library function where the cast of The Little Mermaid was performing. She and I had chatted briefly (I wrote about it HERE) and that was it. I was SHOCKED that she remembered talking to me. She didn't know my name, but she remembered my face. I'm impressed with her memory!

I'm not sure who took this picture, but it was sent to me by another member of the ukulele orchestra.

Phoebe attended the morning show, but then she had to dash off to rehearsal, so she didn't get to talk to Kate afterward. Kate announced that she would be at a local coffeeshop at a specific time, in case anyone else wanted to come by and say hello. So I picked Phoebe up from rehearsal after our second show and we went to a coffeeshop to say hi to Kate. They had a nice chat about Phoebe's love for theatre and Doctor Who, then we took a picture with Kate and her son.

It was a very full, very fun day!

Comfy Cozy

Our local library got a new set of beanbag chairs. Topher loved them so much that he only played on the computer for ten minutes and then parked himself on the beanbag with a book. 

Jingle Bell Rock

Saturday was one of those totally crazy days that has too much packed into it. All three of our cars had to go in different directions. Peter went to do service, Bryan drove with Cooper to his first winter track (did you know that's a thing?) meet of the season, and I kept the younger three with me for a lot of practicing and performing and service.

After our final kid choir practice of the year, Sophie and I had another ukulele performance. This time we played and sang for a whole hour as part of a town-wide Christmas celebration. I love that we get to be musical ambassadors for the library. And I love that we performed inside the library because it was ridiculously cold outside.

Some friends surprised us by coming to watch us play and sing. I didn't realize they'd taken this picture until my friend texted it to me a few days later.

Phoebe was a big help by watching Topher and doing crafts with him while we performed. I was worried he would go running through the library, but he was content listening and making Christmas scenes with paper.

All I Want for Christmas

The library had a Christmas sing-along last week. Sophie and I got to participate with the ukulele orchestra. The evening also included a special visitor in red. Topher is in on the game, but he went and made some Christmas gift requests: a hot wheels garage and a pet polar bear. When he saw the surprised expression on Santa's face he corrected himself and said a stuffed animal pet polar bear.

Wingardium Leviosa

Sophie and Topher had fun at the annual Harry Potter party at the library this week. Sophie was a helper and Topher was a happy participant.

Read for Your Breakfast

These two completed the summer reading program at our library and earned two free donuts in the process. They cashed in their first coupon today and enjoyed fancy donuts for breakfast.

An Artist's Best Tools

Sophie and Topher have been trying to finish their library summer reading program charts. Finger painting was one of the boxes to check off. We bought the paint a few weeks ago and I kept putting it off. Well, today was finally the day.

Sophie was very artistic and conservative in her paint usage.

Topher loved the gloopy feeling of it on his fingers. And he loved smooshing the colors around. It's been ten hours since he painted and the paper is still wet in a few spots. Thankfully, it appears to be as washable as the box promised, otherwise multiple surfaces in my house would now be much more colorful.

Artfully Done

Sophie and Topher attended their last art class of the summer at the library today. They learned about Oliver Jeffers (one of my favorite children's book writers and artists) and drew crayons modeled after the ones he drew in The Day the Crayons Quit. They've enjoyed this series and have created some cool pieces.

Where Are the Lazy Days of Summer?

This has been our busiest summer, maybe ever. We don't have any big trips planned, we've only done a handful of things for our summer theme, and we aren't dong any major household projects.

Why is it so busy?

Normal stuff. Girls camp, high adventure, FSY, youth conference, library activities, the occasional park visit with friends, and weekly church youth night. Add in newer things like Cooper's cross country practices and Phoebe's harp lessons and it feels like we've been running at top speed. I spent most of Wednesday in my van, driving kids places and waiting for them to finish whatever I had driven them to.

Today I laid down for an hour of quiet time and I woke up two hours later, shocked that I had slept at all. That's how worn out I am from the summer so far.

I love summer. I'm not wishing it away. But, man, I am tired.

Oh No! My Hat!

Topher and Sophie had fun at the library today. They attended an art class about the work of Jon Klassen, listened to a few of his stories, then tried their hand at imitating some of his art.

And then we stayed for another hour and a half, reading books, going on scavenger hunts, playing games, and collecting prizes.

We really love the library.

You Oughta Be In Pictures

The summer reading program at the library started this week. Their theme for this summer is art. On Tuesday night we signed the kids up and the boys took advantage of this awesome photo op.

Divide and Conquer

On Saturday we had to divide and conquer. Cooper was scheduled to take the ACT about an hour away from home. We found out the Sunday before that the youth in our ward had a temple trip planned for the same time as Cooper's test. Bryan and Topher shuttled Cooper while I took the girls to the temple.

The Philadelphia Temple is just a few blocks from the Free Library of Philadelphia, so when we finished at the temple the girls and I walked over to the library. The building is nearly 100 years old and beautiful. We found the teen section in the basement and enjoyed perusing the titles. We even found my friend's book!

Any resident of Pennsylvania can have a Philadelphia library card, mine gets lots of use. The girls signed up for their own while we were there. Then the librarians asked if they wanted to do the summer reading program. I explained that we live far enough away that we might not be back during the summer. They said that was fine and that if they signed up they could each have a tote bag and pick out two new books.

The girls immediately said yes.

Bryan and Topher had fun at a park with cool statues.

Cooper is glad the test is over.

All the Good Things

Topher had a particularly fun day today. He went on a field trip to the zoo with all the other first graders in his class. This meant he was outside nearly all day.

His mom, who usually says no to sweet treats, said yes to a microwaved s'more.

 Not pictured: a very quick trip to the library, lots of reading, and cereal for dinner. These are all wins for Topher.

Green Day

Sophie helped facilitate fun a St. Patrick's Day party at the library yesterday and Topher got to attend. There was a leprechaun story, a treasure hunt with clues that took them all over the library, time for coloring, an art tutorial, and it ended with green refreshments and sidewalk chalk and bubbles outside.

Off to Hogwarts

The activity planning group that Sophie belongs to at the library hosted a Harry Potter themed party last night. They took a quiz to be sorted into houses, played Harry Potter Bingo, chose wands, cast a spell, and enjoyed butterbeer. It was a fun evening! Sophie was a lovely Luna Lovegood and Topher was a dashing Harry Potter.

Aloha

All the members of the Ukulele Orchestra were given leis to take home at our practice last night. Sophie enjoyed weighing her options.