Madeleine and Hannah

Taken at family dinner at my Mom's a couple weeks ago.

Hey baby, it's cold outside!

Brrr! It has been unusually cold for these parts. The other morning I woke up and my thermometer said 10 degrees! 10? Really? Wow! Despite the frigid weather, we have managed to keep ourselves very busy. Dane has started private trumpet lessons with the director of music at Tacoma Community College and is doing very well. He still plays with the Stahl Junior High band as well. He is also continuing with piano along with Madeleine. They are both amazing at piano! I guess they get it from Brent, as I have no musical talent what so ever! ;) Madeleine is also going strong with her guitar lessons. They are both becoming very talented musicians!

We have made it to a few shows lately. We saw Little Women at Kentridge High with my niece. Next we took in a live performance of Guys and Dolls at Tacoma Musical Playhouse. Then we enjoyed a classical concert performed by the Tacoma Community College orchestra, directed by Dane's trumpet teacher. To round it all out, we went to a Jazz concert last night featuring saxophone, and of course, trumpet!

Madeleine is taking Lyrical and Jazz in dance and is working hard toward her upcoming recital. She is not thrilled with her jazz costume, but her lyrical one is very pretty. We weren't able to get enough tickets for everyone to come to the recital, so we will have a DVD for those who want to see it.

We are hoping to get up to the snow over winter break. The kids are both wanting to try their hand at snowboarding, so we have been looking into lessons. We are undecided as to which mountain we want to go with however. There are a lot of pros and cons for each. So we're working on that.

That's it for now. ~ Try to stay warm out there!

I'm On My Own

~ For Celeste ~ ;)

Flashcards

Madeleine doing her homework last night ~ "Parents are like flashcards. They always have the answers." :)

Nap time

Madeleine is 10 today!

My little ballerina ~ age 5

My "little baby girl" is growing up. It's hard to believe both my kids are in the double digits now. Where has the time gone? I still remember Madeleine as the pudgy little baby who wanted to be held constantly, the funny dinosaur noises she made as a toddler, how she used to pretend she was a kitty for days, weeks on end, the 'angry' faces she made when she wasn't happy...all these memories are so dear to my heart. And now as she steps into this new, more grown up phase of her life, I am excited and sad at the same time... and as I write this I can't fight back the tears. Excited to see her turn into a young woman, and sad for leaving behind the little girl part of her life, but to me she will always be my "little baby girl". :)

Ms broken arm :(

Ice princess

Madeleine passed her ice-skating test and moved up to the next level!

Piano Lessons

Dane and Madeleine have started piano lessons on Wednesday afternoons. They have had 2 lessons so far and it's amazing the improvement in just that time! I found a teacher who will come to our home too. She doesn't normally do that, but she lives just a couple of minutes down the road from us, so made an exception. She is a great teacher...very patient. Dane really wants to play guitar, but we have a "deal" and he is starting with piano. :)

And the award goes to...

Madeleine won an Academic Achievement Award for creative writing and was presented with a certificate at the school assembly today. There were only three students who won this award. She was also asked to read one of her original works of poetry. She was very nervous because it was in front of the whole school, but she did an amazing job. We are very proud of her!

This picture is with her teacher Mrs. Wilner.






Reading her poem.

Madeleine's Legend

In school Madeleine's class is doing a writing project on Legends. They had to write their own legend or folk lore on a topic of their choosing. Madeleine chose fire. Her legend is as follows:

HOW FIRE BECAME RED AND ORANGE
By: Madeleine Pfeiffer

A long, long time ago when fire was white and cold, things seemed a little sad back then. First of all when the fire didn’t have the color it has now life was not so good for the Indians. They had no light to see in the dark and their food was always cold. The Indians always ate raw food, the only thing they had to eat was fruit and vegetables because they couldn’t eat raw food, and they could get sick. But sometimes they did eat the raw meat because they got tiered of eating fruit and vegetables. Then one day when the sunset was red and orange, everything changed for the Indians and animals. Suddenly while some Indians were cooking some raw cold fish over the white cold fire, a pack of big gray scary wolves came to the Indians. The Indians were frightened because they didn’t have their spears or weapons with them, then suddenly lightning came and struck the Indians and by a miracle they were not hurt, but rather they could now talk to the wolves. So the Indians started talking to the wolves and they said “Oh please, Oh please, help us. We have raw food, we can’t see, and we have to eat vegetables all the time.” The Indians waited for the wolves to say something. Finally the wolves said “Wait until the next sunset to turn red and orange, even if it takes many days, or even years. When this happens makes sure everyone lights their fires.” Then the pack of big scary wolves left in a flash and the Indians did just what the wolves said.
They waited and waited until the sunset was only red and orange. Many years past until the sunset finally turned red and orange. The Indians started shouting and screaming with excitement for the wolves to do something. Then finally when every single Indian in the world had their fire already made the wolves stated to howl louder and louder. The howling was so loud that a piece of the red and orange sky fell off and shattered into tiny pieces and landed into every single fire. The Indians and animals were so happy because now their fires were warm with the power of the sun. Never again did they have to eat raw food or struggle in the night to see.
And that is the legend of how fire became red and orange.

Madeleine has been asked to read this at a Young Author's Tea on June 2nd. Space is limited for the event, but I will be sure to post pictures for all to see.

Shopping at the greenhouse.

Madeleine gets the job!

Madeleine's class has recently implemented a monetary system at school where they can earn "class money" to spend at an auction that will be held at the end of the year. They earn money for doing extra tasks in the classroom and for excellent behavior. They are fined for breaking rules or not turning in homework. The teacher posted a job opening last week for classroom banker. The banker is in charge of managing all of the classmates accounts. Interested students were required to fill out an application complete with qualifications and references. They were also interviewed by the teachers. It was announced yesterday that the position had been filled...Madeleine got the job! We are so proud of her. She worked really hard on her application and is very excited to be the banker. She has always had a knack with money and is extremely frugal. She currently has $120+ dollars in her personal savings account which she has earned through allowance and profits from her artwork online. In addition to this the students were asked to submit designs for the class money to be voted on. Madeleine's designs won 2 out of the 3 currencies to be used. Way to go M!

Master and student

Dane has never shown much interest in the piano whereas Madeleine took to it like a duck to water...so I found it quite intriguing this morning when I awoke to find Madeleine giving Dane a piano lesson. I couldn't believe it...he was listening intently as she told him how to hold his hands and went over the notes with him. It was a very sweet moment. Oh, isn't it the most wonderful thing in the world to be a Mom! :)

Brent and the kids outside Teatro ZinZanni across from McCaw Hall after the ballet.

Madeleine passes her ice skating test and moves on to the next level!

Madeleine's Drama Class Performance

M had her drama performance last night. She was an elephant. It was really cute!

Madeleine's performance

M joined the school primary chorus. It is comprised of 2nd and 3rd graders. If she does well she can move onto intermediate chorus next year. They have only had 4 rehearsals and had their first concert last night at the school Art Show. I was really impressed how good they did with so little practice! There will be another concert in June for those who missed it.

(She is in the back row in the pink and white striped sweater.)

M at ice skating lessons

So cute!

Aerial work

M learning aerial work at acrobat class.