On Friday day night (April 29th) the girls participated in their Spring Recital. It was the 7th recital for Abby and the 3rd for Angelique. And the end of their second year being instructed by Betty Bermel. True to their natures, Abby was relaxed about it and Kippy was nervous and stressed. {I'll let you decide which daughter takes after her dad and which one takes after me.} In the audience were a few special guests. Grandma Rose & Grandpa Rod were able to come for the event, which I believe is the first recital they have been able to attend where both granddaughters played. Angelique played two pieces. The first one was Overture by Rossini and the second piece was a memorized piece called Scat Boogie by Bastien. She did a great job. After the performance she confided to us that she had made a mistake in Scat Boogie and said, "I should have done ba-da-ba, but instead I played ba-dom. Never mind, I'll just show you when I get home."
Abby tackled two difficult pieces and played them both with a lot of emotion and dynamics. Tarantella by Beaumont was light and playful, while Fur Elise was both familiar and dramatic. So proud of both of them and as you can see, so are the grandparents! Such a fun night listening to all the students perform, enjoying the fruits of all their practice time! Another special guest was in the audience... Ms Lori Reader, who had driven all the way from Omaha, NE for the performance... well, actually, for the Prom which her daughter was attending... but she got in on listening to the 2 Lindgren girls and 4 Hubert girls play their hearts out. Free entertainment, how great is that? Since we had neglected to take any pics of the three of us when we were last together in February, I made Abby take pics of us on Friday night. Unfortunately, Abby wasn't happy with how squinty my eyes were and kept saying, "Open up your eyes!" So, we all three gave Abby our best open-eyes. Rather freaking, huh? But I love my PEEPS!
Band concert, Choir concert and piano recitals... it is definitely time for music in our house. This year both Abby and Angelique got a new piano teacher, Betty Bermel, and they have both done very well with her. Angelique finished her 2nd year and Abby has completed 5 years. Their Spring recital was held on April 30th.
Angelique played Somersaults by Vandall, Dance on a Moonbeam by Hidy and Music Box Dancer by Mills. Angelique said she was really nervous, but she played all her pieces well. She has come such a long way in two years. Abby's recital pieces were more complex and quite beautiful. She really does well with adding emotion to her music.
Abby played Bagatelle in G by Faber and Pachelbel Canon arr by Faber. Steve and I are very proud of their hard work. And we are happy that we only have to bug/nag them occasionally to practice, right girls?
Tuesday night (May 4th), Abby had her Spring Band concert. The theme for the evening was music from the movies. It was very entertaining because all of the tunes were recognizable.
Abby is always so difficult to see in the second row because of her lack of height (thanks to me). She plays alto sax in the 7th grade band and also in the 7th and 8th grade honors band.
If we had one of those cool Flip video recorders, I could have embedded some of the music with this post. Unfortunately we don't, so I just snap a few pictures and have to call it good. I have to call out that Abby wore my black skirt and white shirt to the concert. She is officially borrowing my clothes. Before this, it was just my jewelry that she raided. Let the clothing wars begin!
May was chuck full of activities and although I took a boat-load of pictures, I just couldn't keep up with blogging about it. Since my blog has become my only means of tracking the events and happenings in our life, it isn't fun being so far behind. With only one day left of May, this is going to be my catch up on a few events and important milestones before my feeble little brain forgets it all.
Remember Abby's poem "God's Gifts In My Life"? She found out that she got 3rd place in state for her entry. How fun for her!
Another milestone for Abby was earning her Bronze award in Girl Scouts and "walked over" from a Junior Girl Scout to a Cadette. The girls in her troop (normally 5 girls) worked over a year to fulfill the requirements for the Bronze Award, which is the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can earn. It requires her to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a project that makes a positive impact on her community. Working towards this award demonstrates her commitment to helping others, improving her community and the world, and becoming the best she can be. The girls created a blog about Fergus Falls so help people learn about the town and have family friendly activities to do. They also put together a Kid's carnival during Summer Fest. As part of the "walking over" theme, the girls custom designed their own flip-flops and had a red carpet/runway to walk down.
Music, music, music... we were entertained by Abby's Spring band concert as well as piano recitals for both Abby & Angelique. This is the end of the first year of piano for Angelique and in true form, she has been completely different from her older sister. We struggled to get Angelique to meet her practice requirements on a weekly basis. There were times I felt like our fee for piano lessons was literally being flushed down the toilet. I don't know what the future holds for Angelique in terms of continuing to play the piano, but in the last 2 months, she has really done well and the amount of nagging went down considerably. We are taking the summer off, mostly because I can then take a break from trying to encourage (a.k.a. bribe/nag) her to practice. Angelique had both of her performance pieces memorized and during her first song, she actually looked over at Steve and & while playing and smiled. It was so funny! She received a lot of praise from her teacher as well as from Grandma Shirley, who came to watch the recital. Hopefully, that will translate into a more motivated student this coming Fall. I can dream, can't I?. Abby had two very challenging pieces that she played beautifully. She has just completed the end of her 4th year of lessons. As the difficulty increases, she has been getting discouraged at the time it takes her to master her songs. Hopefully, she will feel motivated enough to continue with lessons this Fall. A Midsummer Nights Dream... It was a rather ambitious school play put on by Prairie Fire Children's Theatre in 5 days time. Try-outs are after school on Monday and by Friday night, they have their performance. As a 6th grader, this is Abby's last year at OLV. One of her most favorite things is being the play. She had the part of Starveling, a tailor, in the play, which she was completely thrilled about. The play was funny and cute! Grandma Rose and cousin Logan came to watch the Saturday afternoon performance and they said it was worth the trip.
Angelique finished up parks-n-rec soccer this past week. It is a great activity to help her burn off her excess energy. As a 2nd grader, she hasn't started playing true games. That will come next Fall as a 3rd grader. Steve was the total soccer dad. He took her to practice twice a week for 6 weeks. I missed EVERY.SINGLE.PRACTICE. and I feel bad about it. I have a boot camp class that I go to which caused conflicts, plus Abby had problems getting all her homework done each evening without supervision. And it was a cold and yucky Spring, which is not fun for me as a spectator. Excuses... I know, don't judge me. Hopefully next Fall I will be able to be a proper soccer mom. Luckily, Angelique never held it against me.
In the audience were a few special guests. Grandma Rose & Grandpa Rod were able to come for the event, which I believe is the first recital they have been able to attend where both granddaughters played.
Angelique played two pieces. The first one was Overture by Rossini and the second piece was a memorized piece called Scat Boogie by Bastien. She did a great job. After the performance she confided to us that she had made a mistake in Scat Boogie and said, "I should have done ba-da-ba, but instead I played ba-dom. Never mind, I'll just show you when I get home."
Abby tackled two difficult pieces and played them both with a lot of emotion and dynamics. Tarantella by Beaumont was light and playful, while Fur Elise was both familiar and dramatic.
So proud of both of them and as you can see, so are the grandparents!
Such a fun night listening to all the students perform, enjoying the fruits of all their practice time!
Another special guest was in the audience... Ms Lori Reader, who had driven all the way from Omaha, NE for the performance... well, actually, for the Prom which her daughter was attending... but she got in on listening to the 2 Lindgren girls and 4 Hubert girls play their hearts out. Free entertainment, how great is that?
Since we had neglected to take any pics of the three of us when we were last together in February, I made Abby take pics of us on Friday night. Unfortunately, Abby wasn't happy with how squinty my eyes were and kept saying, "Open up your eyes!" So, we all three gave Abby our best open-eyes. Rather freaking, huh? But I love my PEEPS!
