Langley Ukulele Ensemble

Damon and I just got back from a concert by the Langley Ukulele Ensemble from Langley, BC, Canada. Yes, we went to a ukulele concert. Believe it or not, it was amazing!

The group, made up of 20 ukulele players aged 12-20 (plus the leader, who is actually the 20th player, plus a bass player), opened with "The William Tell Overture" and then went on to play songs on the theme: "If so-and-so had known about the ukulele, this is how [insert song here] would have sounded..." They played "Johnny B. Good" by Chuck Barry, "Help" by the Beatles, "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys, "The Washington Post" by John Philip Sousa, and more.

The group leader was quite a ham and they had tiny bits of choreography built in that always gave us a chuckle. It was very entertaining. There was also singing with most of the songs, which just made the musical ability of these kids more impressive.

After intermission, they came back to really show us that the ukulele (pronounced ooh-koo-lay-lay, we learned) is a legitimate instrument. By this point, I did not need to be convinced, but was nevertheless further wowed by Mozart's "Turkish Rondo," Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," Tchaikovsky's "Russian Dance," and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee." There was also a bit of traditional Hawaiian music and a Portuguese song where they actually crossed hands and played one hand on their own instrument and one on their neighbors'! And then they switched and did it with the other hand!

As we exited the auditorium we spoke to one of the players. Damon asked how much they practice each week. She said that they spend two hours each week practicing together. Two hours--that's all! The ukulele is actually taught in the elementary schools in Langley (like our recorders here?) and there are 6 younger groups that gradually train them and funnel them into the traveling ensemble that we saw tonight.

What a treat! Check it out at http://www.langleyukes.com/ or do a search on YouTube. I couldn't decide which video to post (and I haven't learned how to do that yet, either)!

Say it in Signs

Yesterday Adah and Maggie, who share a room and bunkbed, were not getting along so well. As Adah does more reading and writing in school, she increasingly likes to express herself with the written word, so she made this sign for her bed: "No Maggie [crossed out] up [arrow]. OK!"

Indignantly, Maggie asked me to spell the following:

Last night I was at a Young Women activity when the final sign was added to the door (which made me laugh out loud when I realized what it said):

Translation: "No Maggie allowed to watch Adah read."

This morning, all was forgiven as Adah tore down her signs and said, "Maggie, may I get on your bed now?"

Family Home Evening Board

Yesterday I finally finished our Family Home Evening board for organizing assignments. Damon made this magnetic board a LONG time ago, framing metal flashing with material leftover from our countertop. We didn't really know what to do with it until I decided to add some vinyl letters and . . . voila!
Our names are on wooden plaques that I spray painted silver and then roughed with steel wool. Then I just attached adhesive magnets to the back. The vinyl letters are from http://www.thelettercafe.com/. She'll customize to your choice of font, color, size, etc. for a good price. (And she gives discounts for Church projects. I've ordered things for Young Women.)

We hope this board will help us be better prepared for our Family Home Evenings. The girls argued over who got to be in charge of the activity. Hopefully it won't inspire family arguments!

Pinkerbelle

Have I mentioned that Maggie likes pink? After having two girls, I can honestly say that these color preferences are not a product of their environment. They just come this way! Adah also had a pink/princess fascination when she was younger, but Maggie's seems to be much more intense.

Exhibit A:
This photo from Maggie's 4th birthday party. She got the princess dress from Mom & Dad. Notice the pink table cloth and super-pink (and really cool, if I do say so myself) castle cake.














Exhibit B: Just one example of her very pink playtime.











Exhibit C:
She has the book Pinkalicious completely memorized. It's about a little girl who eats too many pink cupcakes, turns pink, and thinks it's the most wonderful thing in the world until...well, you'll have to read it.

Toddlers vs. Yogurt

A few weeks ago I decided to let Gunnar try feeding himself. He loved the freedom and now will rarely let us feed him anything. It works okay with yogurt (just messy), but try watching a 16-month-old keep rice a spoon.

Please notice the yogurt on his forehead: a nice little half-moon from when he tried "drinking" it.

And for comparison, here's Adah's first attempt at yogurt when she was Gunnar's age:

Come on in! The water's fine!

Jillaire, this is a blog.

Everyone, this is Jillaire's blog.

Now that the introductions are complete, let's dive right in.

To be honest, I suppose "diving right in" isn't really what I'm doing. I've been talking about starting a blog for months now. I've been hesitant to do it because I was afraid it might be too impersonal, that I wouldn't be keeping up with friends and family on an individual basis. I was afraid a blog might be pretentious, assuming everyone wanted to see photos of my kids and read about my life. However, I realized that I wasn't really doing a good job of communicating on a large scale anyway, and even those efforts I did make could be enhanced.

I think I was mostly convinced by enjoying the blogs of so many of you, realizing that it really is a fun and easy way to keep up with everyone. And, I like seeing your photos and reading your news. So, maybe you-all will like mine. And this way they're not invading your in-boxes uninvited. You are invited to visit here and view as much or as little as you want. I hope you'll leave comments and that this will really prove to be a new way to keep in touch.

So. . . here goes: CANNON BALL!