Mini Jim Brickman

F truly loves piano. He picked one really easy and one really challenging piece for his spring recital this year. The challenging one, an arrangement of the Jim Brickman song Rocket to the Moon, marks the first time he hasn't had his recital piece 100% memorized,  but it's also the longest/most complicated piece he's played. 

When he chose this song we came to an agreement - he could perform it only if he put in extra practice so he would be prepared come recital day. Boy, did he ever practice. Most days it was about an hour and he only complained once  (he bargained for practice a different time of day, not to give it up altogether). It paid off! 

I want to give a very special shout out to my aunt Pam who decided F would be a good recipient for my grandma's piano. I hope you know how wonderful that made F feel and I believe that having a piano that is his very own is part of what makes music so special to him. 

Big Winner

FFM was selected to participate in our school district's annual art show. He was one of several kids from our school, and his piece was a chalk sunflower. The art show includes students from all grades in the district, from pre-K to seniors in high school. They are judged in groups, elementary, middle, and high school. Our little guy took second place overall for the elementary group (about 50 kids overall), and his art will be on display for another upcoming show at our local community college. His art teacher is over the moon, as is FFM.

His piece got a little damaged somewhere between school and the competition. He was a little concerned about that but realized the judges must have understood the wrinkles came from transport. Happy little guy, he was super surprised!

Lighting Up the Season #2 + Two Shoes and a Puppy

You know just one visit to see Christmas lights isn't enough, right? Moores saw not one, not two, but THREE sets of light displays.

#1 Trails of Lights with Emma and her Mom

#2 Denver's Parade of Lights with Suzie and Audrey

For any non-Denver readers, the Parade of Lights' claim to fame is that all the floats, marching bands, and balloons are lit up. The advent of LED lights with battery packs have made it pretty spectacular. With my bum foot we opted for grandstand seats this year, an excellent choice. The Denver City and County building gets all lit up, too, and our view over the parade route included top spot viewing of the building (above).
Back in his college days my brother's fraternity volunteered to walk one of the balloons, Underdog. Since the parade winds through the city the balloons have to go under stop lights and such. Underdog didn't make it under his first stop light and sadly fell to the earth. Travis and I were just barely dating and sat patiently toward the end of the parade route and Underdog never showed up. "Oh no, we killed Underdog!"

#3 Blossoms of Light, just us! It was a bit pared back this year, we think due to the Chihuly exhibit that just closed down. Most of the area where the glass sculptures were was closed off and unlit this year. Good thing we had two previous doses of holiday light cheer.

Last weekend I managed to squeeze a shoe onto my right foot! Hooray! It's been nearly a month since I wore a shoe on that foot. I still have to wear the boot some during the day, but now in the evenings I'm wearing shoes or slippers around the house. Freedom! Healing is slightly ahead of schedule and Dr. and I are both excited about how well it's going.

 The puppy is here, the puppy is here! Not our puppy, but our puppy to borrow. Granny Annie and Eric picked up Teddy on Saturday. Sunday Travis and I went to the Bronco game and F got to hang all day with super mellow Teddy. We'll have plenty of chances to visit and dog sit, even better than having a dog of our own!

Fall

The last few weeks have whizzed by, here are some highlights.

We visited the Denver Botanic Gardens one last time before it moves on, this time at night for the illuminated experience. We loved it. I was glad FFM and I know the paths well, between sculptures it was pretty dark.

 Travis had a business trip so we asked Granny Annie to come with us to our symphony season opener, Spooktacular! F's costume this year was a mad scientist. The dangley bits on his hat lit up and flashed and his test tube full of "molecules" glowed.

 The symphony runs a low key costume contest, winners get to go on stage during the performance. See our little mad scientist on the right side of the photo. He was not shy at all and had plenty to say about his costume and molecules.

under the green arrow

 Trick or treating with old and new friends was extra fun this year. I couldn't keep up and ended up taking a short cut home.

We went to a bowling birthday party, got there half an hour early, and killed time in a photo booth.

 I had surprise surgery on my foot in early November. It required 2 weeks of zero weight bearing. That's HARD. I switched couches periodically for a change of scenery. I'm starting to walk this week, should be out of the boot in about two more weeks.

 A good friend kindly loaned me her knee scooter. I would have gone crazy without it. Crutches work OK but it's hard to carry much when your hands are full of handles. I scooted my tiny path and only spilled a couple glasses of water.

 Our most recent symphony was Symphonic ComicCon. We've been before and knew that wearing a costume was encouraged. Darth Vader was thrilled to walk in to the lobby to find his troops waiting for him. They asked for some time off and raise.

Now we're in the throes of a very low key Thanksgiving week. Being hobbled makes it easy to justify doing little to no prep. When I explained to F that we were having a traditional dinner this year he got upset and told us quite clearly he wanted fondue again. Fondue is now on the menu for Wednesday night with turkey to follow on Thursday. We also had to explain why people camp out in front of Best Buy and he remarked that he still didn't get it, why anyone would want to buy something that badly. Hard to argue with that.

Spring Piano 2014

As requested by his grandmas, FFM's Spring Recital performance.

He was thrilled to lead off the performance, and this year's recital was the best one yet. At the beginning of the year his teacher decided to leave the school where she had been teaching and a few students followed her for private instruction. Because we've done both group and solo lessons with Kelly for 2.5 years now we knew almost every other student at the recital. It's way more fun to listen to kids you know than strangers! The kids all did very well, and it was obvious they are all enjoying their music. No two kids repeated songs (unlike days of old), and the evening went by in a flash.

I missed the introduction, but here's Amazing Grace and Star Wars Main Title.
(a side note, Ms. Kelly's piano is a couple hundred years old and has a unique sound. Because a lot of these kids listen carefully when they play several of them fumbled around for a note that sounded different on her concert piano than on her practice one or the one they have at home. Normally I don't hear any of these kids stumble during a performance, it's good practice to play on all kinds of pianos!)

Going to the Superbowl!

My team, not us. Probably next time the Broncos get to the Superbowl we'll head out to watch them.  Going to the AFC Championship game was pretty durn exciting, though.

Even on game day he squeezes in some practice time

The stadium was very, very orange

Enjoying a balmy 60F day, watching a good football game, life is good!

Final play of the game,
before everyone in orange erupted and everyone in red and blue slunk out of the stadium.

  Final score, Denver Broncos 26, New England Patriots 16.
 Seahawks, here we come.

Piano Recital 2013

So
Far
Behind
!

FFM's piano recital from December. He was the youngest pianist at the recital and the only one that played without his sheet music. He LOVES recitals and practiced night and day (thus the no music). This recital was at a church, and while the piano wasn't the beautiful grand piano that we usually have for recitals it was a nice trade for having plenty of room for family and friends to come along to watch.

I was slow and missed the beginning of the first song, "Land of the Silver Birch." Second song, "Cossack Ride", which he fumbled a little bit trying to play faster than his little fingers will go.



Later he and the three other children in his class played a four person version of "O Tannenbaum" which was quite a feat.

Summer

It's a lot harder to post in the summer. The great outdoors beckons, FFM and I play a lot, read often, and generally poke around. We've been slowly doling out the bounty of birthday gifts he received so the fun lasts all summer. There's always a new Lego set under construction, outdoor toys to test out in the greenbelt, and new books to read. We go to the library a couple times a week, avoid the grocery store and pluck dinner from our garden instead, and we're both always up for a trip to the pool.

Last week F wrapped up a two week theater camp that gave him a little change of pace and me time to do a quick swipe over all the house to get the worse of the grime and to start (not finished yet!) a painting project.  The first week of camp they learned about stage direction, projection, and tips like to face the audience even if they are talking to the person next to them. The kids worked in small groups of about 4 and rewrote a traditional fairytale in their own words. They learned how to create and use storyboards, and at the end of the week there was a small performance.

The second week they spent more time on the BIG stage and learned more theater speak. I got a tour and was shown the house, pit, backstage, lighting tech, etc. Week two the kids broke into different small groups and wrote their OWN play from scratch. They were great! Good plots, interesting characters, and great DIY costumes. Friday brought the Final Performance. F's group performed "Good VS Evil" or as he puts it, "The Queen, The Kitty, and The Witch."

Synopsis:
The Princess falls ill and her mother, The Queen, sends off Magical Kitty Miracle to find the Magic Flower that will cure her. Kitty is intercepted by the Evil Queen who casts a spell on him, renames him Darkenss AND kidnaps the Princess! The Queen sends the Magical Dove and once the Dove saves the Kitty the two have enough power to defeat the Evil Queen and turn her to stone. In the meantime the Queen has found the magical flower, saves the Princess, and they all live happily ever after.
Guess who was the Kitty?
Video quality is poor, my phone camera struggled. I promise it's not too painful to watch, but the sound is bad.


P.S. I had no idea the magic bird was a dove until she told me. I was fully under the impression she was a magical crow.

February Fun

I'm always glad February is only 28 days long. It's not usually a banner month for me so having fewer days is fine and dandy. This year I've barely noticed it's February with all the good times we've had lately.

A few weeks ago FFM skied his first legitimate black run. For those locals, he skied Cataract on the east side of the Rose Bowl. It's a tricky run, but he was game. After a few nerves he got the hang of the steep stuff, which wasn't very bumpy due to a nice big dump of snow. He fell a few times and learned it's easier to get up on a steep slope than down on the flats. I can't wait to get my hip fixed, I'm going to need to be in top form to keep up in no time at all!

"Yeah, take my picture Dad. I rocked that run."

 FFM knows all about GNO, or girls' night out, and has been hankering for his own guys night out. It ended up being an afternoon, but he and Travis had their guys day out at MONSTER TRUCK JAM! I wanted to go, too, but thought they could go do their guy thing.

Ready for the show to start!

 Prior to the event I talked with FFM about what to expect. It was going to be loud, it might be "smoky" (exhaust), and he might want to take a break now and then from the noise and/or smell. This was of great concern to our young man who took it to heart and was planning how often he'd need to have a break. He really thought the show should pause periodically so he could take his breaks and not miss anything.

Little boy heaven

 Last week we made some Valentines to hand out at school. It's so much fun to choose a crafty idea together and have FFM execute almost all of it on his own.

 His Valentines = "I only have eyes for YOU Valentine!" complete with googly eye rings. We used up all the leftover eyes from his 100s day project and a couple more bags besides.

My end of February-March fun arrived in the mail this week. The Moores have signed up for a plot in our Community Garden this year and we're going to grow all kinds of yummy stuff. Purple carrots, yellow tomatoes, lime green cucumbers. I hope they all work! The plot ended up being about twice as large as I remembered, so we've got quite the assortment. We'll have some prep and planting to get done starting in a few weeks. Travis built a lovely, lovely seed starting station and soon our basement will bathe in the glow of grow lights.

In the meantime the mountains keep getting more snow and while my hip aches the boys are itching to get some time on the slopes. I'll take it easy the rest of the season and end a little early with hip surgery scheduled for March 29. I'm hoping it's as successful as my other surgeries and that I'll improve my mobility and get back into activities like biking and yoga.

Laurie Berkner LIVE!

Music is almost as popular as reading here at our house. F has an inborn talent for singing and playing that neither Travis or I have. We both did music in various forms but had to work at it. F sings and plays his piano with such simple effort that it's a joy to get to listen to. We have the rear entertainment system in our car set up for all kid music or audiobooks, and it's a toss up as to which one is F's favorite.

One of the artists that fills F's world of music is Laurie Berkner. If you've got a child who is less than 7 or so I'm sure you've experienced LB (and maybe even some of you with older kids who have outgrown her). She's not just one of the artists, she's his hands down all time favorite. I'm relishing this time as he listens to music I don't mind, I know that right around the corner are pop music and goodness knows what else.

Saturday Laurie Berkner played at the Boulder Theater. F and I had front row VIP tickets (which were only nominally more expense than general admission, go figure) and part of the package was meeting LB live and in person. We were the last ones of the before-show meet and greet and Finn blushed and wiggled as he waited his turn. He was all prepped with a couple questions for Laurie, and she had a few of her own for him. FFM was in HEAVEN.  He got hugs, he got autographs, and when Laurie asked him his favorite song she offered to sing it with him.

Live with Laurie Berkner, FFM singing "Drive My Car"!

We could have gone home right then and there and FFM would have been over the moon. He now counts Laurie as one of his friends and asked when we could see her again. LB was magnificent with all the kids, giving each one her full attention and infinite patience. She made sure everyone got a great photo, even the kids who got a bit nervous.

Getting ready to go in to the famous Boulder Theater

Sharing a moment with LB

Getting some hugs

Leaning right up against the stage for the whole show

"Pig on My Head" is a song about exactly that, a pig on her head. I was impressed that she managed to balance a giant stuffed pig on her head before she got started singing. Then during the song you do things like touch your nose, touch your toes, and then touch your nose to your toes. The woman must do some killer yoga because she stood there on stage, with a stuffed pig balanced on her head, in a skirt and pretty tall sparkly high heels and brought the toes of one foot up to her nose. Without so much as a wiggle to regain balance. Awesome.

I should have gotten a photo of the toes on the nose,
but all I managed was the pig on her head.

Having a super great day