Busy, busy, dizzy....

Noah had his certificate upside down, so he fixed it.

I'm so proud of my kids.  Nathanael and Noah worked really hard and made straight A's this six weeks.  Great job, boys!

Carlye had auditions/competition for the Middle School All Region String Orchestra this morning.  We had to wake up crazy early and drive over an hour to a middle school that I had never been to before.  I did a happy dance when we arrived because I was not sure that we would get there on time (and without getting lost).  The boys sat for 3 hours while we went through the process of registering, tuning and, finally, auditioning.  Carlye had several friends there from her old school, and a couple from HCYO.  There were about 52  violas (give or take) and 14 made it into the orchestra.  Carlye is 7th chair and I am SO proud of her.  She, however, is mad.  She had all of her audition pieces done perfectly, and she messed up on the ending of the very last excerpt that she played and so she had to re-do it.  I told her that it means she played REALLY well on the other pieces if she could mess up and STILL make it into the orchestra.

Then, at 3:00, Carlye and Nathanael had their solo recital.  I took pictures and video, but they won't upload for some reason.  Nathanael played Allegretto on his cello and it was better than he's ever done.  It's amazing to me how much he has accomplished in such a short time on his instrument.  Carlye played Bouree (Handel) and it did not go well.  She has played this song over and over for months, has it completely memorized, AND it's one of her favorites.  However, halfway through she played a wrong note and it threw her off.  She actually froze.  Completely.  She tried again.  And again.  And again.  Then, I saw her face change and I thought, "Oh no! She's gonna run!"  She told me afterwards that she really thought about it, but decided that would be even more embarrassing.  She finally hit upon some of the correct notes and then finished the song.  I was so sad for her, but I know deep down that it's a great experience for her to go through - and I know that she'll be a better musician (and person) as a result.  

I am now going to try to go to sleep.  Today I am thankful for GPS, ibuprofen and pillows.