A Very Good Day

Hello, all! (three of you :) )
Today was the day of Shiloh and Cora's piano festival, and Daniel was here for it! Since he has missed the last two piano recitals (one due to a deployment, and one due to our new Haitian sensations who were not ready for outside babysitters) it was so special that he could be here for this one. The piano festival was not a recital but rather an event where the girls would play two memorized pieces for two judges. The judges would give them an evaluation and some advice for improvement. They were in a room with other students and parents, though, so they did play in front of other people. I really loved hearing both girls practice their pieces for this event, but I especially enjoyed Shiloh's piece, "Sky Blue." It is a dreamy, beautiful piece, and it's the hardest she's done so far with all the hand movement and the pedal. Daniel reported back soon after they finished with "they did an AMAZING job! Both of them!" He was so proud he was about to burst. The main reason we were so thrilled with them, though, was not that they had done so well, but because they had been so diligent in their practicing. They both worked HARD on their pieces and wanted to do a good job. Shiloh was NERVOUS and worried. She would rather pull out her fingernails than play in front of anyone, but we felt that it was a good opportunity for her to learn to overcome struggles. Our teacher doesn't take part in the festival every year, so we decided we would do it this year because we wouldn't have the opportunity next year. Each child can either receive a superior, an excellent, a well done, a good, a fair, or a poor rating. Well, our teacher called this evening.
"Casey, I have to tell you that both girls must have really wowed the judges. They both gave the girls double superiors." Then I about burst with pride!! I will stop with the annoying bragging on my children, but this was a BIG DEAL around here. :) I seriously thought that if Shiloh made it through the festival without crying that I would consider it a success. And Cora had rushed through her pieces consistently in all previous group practices. She worked and worked with her metronome this week. I was prepared to have the "we all make mistakes even if we tried really hard, and I'm so proud of you for giving it your best shot" talk. How much better it was to tell them how much others could see their hard work! How awesome it was to hear that their piano teacher prayed for them this morning. How awesome it was to hear that Shiloh had brought her worries and cares and nervousness before the Lord for Him to calm her heart before she performed. Oh, I am one happy mama tonight. I so wish I could share a video with you, but I completely FORGOT to tell Daniel to bring it in the busyness of the morning (it was hair day for Adah). Bummer! I talked to them both afterward, and they were bubbly with happiness and relief. Daddy took them out to lunch, so that might have been part of the bubbly-ness. :)

I'll leave you with two recent stories from the boys (who often get neglected on the blog in favor of the hilarious Miss Abigail).
Nathaniel:
I went to wake him up the other morning, and he was still VERY sleepy. I was helping him off with his jammies when he said sleepily, "Mommy, I four now?" and he held up four fingers. I said, "You want to know if you're four years old today?"
"Yesh."
"No, you're still two today."
"Oh," he said, disappointedly. Apparently he thought two years had passed since he went to sleep the night before. :)

Jackson:
I was throwing him on the bed at naptime the other day, and the throws were getting progressively higher as he shrieked with laughter. I did a really good throw, and he bounced over onto his side after he bounced on his back.
"Look, Mommy!" he screamed, "I'm a monster truck rolling!"

Videos

The other video I tried to upload didn't work, so this is it for the ice-skating outing. I also have this for your viewing pleasure:

I'd like to thank the Charlie Brown Christmas video for attempting to teach my children how to dance (or how NOT to dance, as the case may be). Watch Jackson again. He could be one of the characters from the video.

Birthday Season

Well, Daniel is off to Germany and England for a "work" trip, so I am filling the long evening hours by catching up on some projects. I haven't posted pictures in awhile, so I thought I'd do that this evening with a cup of apple cinnamon tea (I'm willing away a sore throat).
Abigail finally lost a tooth! It's actually pretty early compared to the other kiddos, but since Adah came home with two teeth already out, Abigail has been in agony waiting FOREVER for a tooth to come out. About two weeks ago, she told me it was hurting during dinner. I touched it and realized it was hanging by a thread?! How did she not notice this before? We actually had to tell her before to STOP trying to take her teeth out when Adah lost her two top teeth. :) She lost the second bottom one the very next night as well.

I never know whether to put captions at the top of pictures or the bottom. Which makes more sense to you? Anyway, the above picture is Shiloh's pitiful attempt at a slush snowman. :) Last week we got Tuesday off from piano lessons and co-op because the roads were so bad from the slush and ice. Shiloh figured if there was "snow," she ought to create a snowman. I like his pipe. Notice the scarf that she knitted herself in her co-op needlework and crafts class. :) She made a much more believable snowman today when we actually had snow (but did NOT get out of piano and co-op). Daniel has the camera, though, so she couldn't take a picture of him. He has Nathaniel's Elmer Fudd hat with the ear flaps on. :)

We're in the midst of birthday season here with two down and one to go. :) Shiloh turned TEN at the end of January, Abigail turned six a little over a week later, and Nathaniel will turn three at the end of this month. I know everyone says this, but I just cannot believe that it's been ten years since we welcomed our little teeny Shiloh - 4lbs. 15oz. - into the world. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for her, but it's a little sad to think that we're already this far along in our time with her in our home. What happened to the two year old toddler? Oy vey.

In brighter news, Abigail also had a new cousin JUST born on her birthday!! Congratulations Sara and Joey!! (From November 11th to February 26th, I think there are 10 birthdays for Daniel's mom to keep up with - sorry, Paula, for our part in that! :) ).
Shiloh's birthday weekend began with going out to dinner with Daddy on Friday. She chose Ruby Tuesday's, where she can get a salad. She loves huge salads. She also likes steak, but she chose a cheeseburger this time. They went to Barnes and Noble afterward, where she got lots of books on Queen Elizabeth I, her current obsession.

On Saturday, we had her celebration. Cake is not her favorite treat, so she requested apple pie with ice cream. Yum! She wanted to invite a family from church (with their four girls) and one of her friends from her needlework class. This particular friend is so very sweet, and I really enjoy having her over. Have you noticed that the theme for the weekend is red? :) Shiloh asked that we keep up the Christmas balls that were hanging from the chandelier so that she could decorate around them. :) I miss them now that we've taken them down. It looks bare in there.
Later that night, I took Adah, Abigail, Jackson, and Nathaniel to another birthday party that Adah and Abigail were invited to while Daniel took Shiloh and Cora ice skating. Shiloh has only been ice skating once, at the Columbus Zoo a long time ago. Cora has never been ice skating. They did a fabulous job, and they had such a good time! They were exhausted that night, and their bellies hurt the next day from tensing them the whole time. I made Daniel promise he would NOT get out on the ice because of his ankle and shoulder, so he just shivered and tried to take pictures that weren't blurry. I have a video that I will post on the next entry.

A little over a week later, we were back at the festivities for Abba-dabba-doodle's birthday. We celebrated at home with her requested dinner - tacos and celery with cream cheese (?) and then cake and ice cream. She had red velvet cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream (what??). You can see from the pictures below that the effect with the red and green was quite...Christmasy. Or weird...whichever. Shiloh decorated her crown with different birds, and she chose a pastel garden theme for the decorations. It is so interesting to me to see each child's likes/dislikes/passions/interests. How privileged I am to be a mom and see them developing into these wonderful people! Daniel gave Abigail the choice of going out to dinner on Monday or going out to breakfast on Tuesday morning before he left for the airport. She responded, "If I go to Dunkin Donuts, can I get TWO doughnuts?" Daniel said yes. She squealed. Then she tilted her head, turned those big blue eyes on him and said, "Can I get coffee, too?" He said yes. She squealed again and said, "Then Dunkin Donuts. Definitely." :) You can see the evidence at the end of the pictures that Daddy did indeed get coffee for her, and then left for Europe for me to deal with the aftermath. :) Just kidding - it was decaf (obviously) and it was about half coffee and half cream. Let's just say it wasn't the most nutritious breakfast.

I think she looks a bit scary in the picture above. I'm not sure why she's smiling like that. Deranged excitement? She hadn't had coffee yet, so it's not that.

She had to take a REALLY deep breath to blow out that one candle.

Abigail with her doll in its party outfit.See the red velvet cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream? Weird, I tell you.

This is what we woke up to this morning. Beautiful!! Now it's practically gone, though.
And there's Abigail with her coffee. She got full pretty quickly, but she liked nursing it like Mommy does during a hard morning. :)

And here are two stories with which to sign off:

The first one comes from Abigail, of course. We were driving along and saw a man running with an iPod strapped to his arm. Adah asked what it was, so I explained. Abigail commented, "I think if I ran with an iPod, I would just dance the whole time. Then what would be the point of running?" I think that's a logical conclusion.

The second comes from Cora. I looked over to the notes she was taking during the sermon last Sunday, which was from the book of Mark. I read, "Jesus was surrounded by a crowd and was liked to be crushed by them." Liked to be crushed?? That is hilarious to me. It's clearly Southernese, but as much as we are Southerners in our hearts, we don't talk like that at home. Where did she learn this?? And where did she learn how to use it correctly?

Ooh, and I forgot this one:

Jackson came running up to me the other day. He had been playing up in his room, and he was all out of breath. "Mommy! Mommy! There's a big ole bug crawling on my bed, and it's FREAKIN' ME OUT! Please KILL it!" Again, where did he learn how to use this correctly, and is this really something I want him saying? It was a big ole bug, by the way, and I don't even want to think about where it came from, or whether it has friends.

Sleep well, and don't let the bed bugs bite.