Halloween

Arowyn & Teagan were all pumped to get dressed up to hand out candy once again this year. Teagan decided to go with one of the cartoon classics for his costume this year and chose Batman. Arowyn on the other hand was a little more eclectic she was a ballerina fairy going to a masked ball.

 Arowyn the ballerina fairy

Arowyn sees the ghost of Batman

Arowyn & Teagan making the rounds 

Arowyn & Teagan headed home 

Arowyn & Teagan

Batman and the fairy ballerina dance the night away at the masked ball

2011 Fall Piano Recital

Arowyn & Teagan performed in their piano studios piano recital today. Arowyn played “Autumn Leaves” & “The Schumanns” and Teagan played “Autumn Night” & “Jumbo.” They both astound me with the confidence they have when they are up on stage. I never had that kind of self-confidence when I was their age in fact I still don’t. 

Arowyn playing 

 Teagan playing

Teagan can't help but give a wave to the ladies 

on his way back to sit down

YMCA Children’s Halloween Carnival

We made it to the carnival again this year and the kids had a blast. They ran into a couple of their friends from previous ballet classes and got to say hi. All the games were a lot of fun. The fishing game was a favorite because that’s the one that would hand out the biggest candy.

Arowyn & Teagan at the carnival in their costumes 

 Teagan in line for a game

Arowyn fishing for candy

Arowyn & Teagan lined up for the potato sack race

Flag Football: Game 1

Today was Arowyn & Teagan’s first flag football game. It was very apparent that my two weren’t exactly clear on the rules of this game but they did their best and had fun playing which is really what it’s all about.

Teagan

Arowyn

The coach going over the play

Arowyn on the left and is just inches away from getting his flag.

Teagan gets to play center and snap the ball.

Arowyn snaps the ball to the quarterback.

Teagan triumphantly holding up the green players flag saying "YES!"

Arowyn having fun out there.

Teagan gets the ball and runs for it.

Arowyn plays center and Teagan the quarterback.

Teagan runs for it with the green team hot on his tail.

Teagan keeps going.

And going.

The 2011 Truman State New Music Festival

Our friend Megan is now a music student over at Truman and played in her first wind symphony and cantoria concert tonight and it was the kids first time attending one. Both Arowyn & Teagan were absolutely entranced by the beautiful vocals of the choir. Unfortunately Teagan thought the music was so pretty that by the third song he was completely gone. On the other hand those on stage had Arowyn’s rapt attention the entire time with the only distraction being that of her brothers quite snoring and the fact that in her words “he is missing all of this!” 

The Program 

 The Epsilon Pi Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota & 

The Upsilon Phi Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

 The Cantoria

Teagan enjoying the singing

 The Wind Symphony Brass and Percussion

 Brass Choir

 Teagan's down for the count but Arowyn's soaking it all in.

Wind Symphony I

Arowyn's Art

Here is the product of last night’s escapades. In the painting to the right the black and brown shape is that of a cradle which baby Jesus is inside. To the left of the painting the yellow face is that of Jesus as an adult and in the top center of the painting the small yellow face is God up in heaven. The purple and brown symbolizes nature and all things beautiful. The name of this painting is “The God of the Beautiful.”

"The God of the Beautiful"

Artist Arowyn Meek 2011

My Dear Little Insomniac

Getting Arowyn to go to sleep is still a chore even though she is seven she still has such a hard time falling asleep a lot of times I think it’s a ADHD thing that it is just so hard to get her to wind down so my evenings usually turn into a waiting game of watching TV in my room or reading a book and waiting and checking on her about every 45 minutes until she is finally asleep. On a usual night this usually happens sometime between 10:30 and 12:30 and yes this is even when she is going to bed at 8:30 or 9:00 at night. Unfortunately some nights she waits me out though and I can’t keep myself awake long enough for her to fall asleep. This is obviously what happened the other night because this morning I woke up at 4:50 to Chamberlin heading out for one of his early morning flights with Nieman’s. When Chamberlin opened the bedroom door here Arowyn comes down the hallway saying “What are you doing up Daddy I haven’t even went to sleep yet.” In my sleepy haze I thought that was kind of weird but didn’t have enough brain power to think it through other than to tell Cham to have her lay down in my room so I would know that she wasn’t wandering around the house after I had went back to sleep. Anyway when I did get up a couple of hours later and fortunately by this time Arowyn was sound asleep, I walk into my living room where blankets and pillows are laid out on the floor into a makeshift bed and I think well that’s what she must have been doing when Cham left, trying to have a sleepover all by herself in the living room. But as I walk into the kitchen I realize that this wasn’t the half of it. As I take in my kitchen table I realize what those smudges on my dear little daughters face were when I checked on my little sleepy head this morning. Because spread out on the kitchen table I find her acrylic painting art kit and easel and they weren’t just sitting out but had clearly been used. When Arowyn woke up I asked her what she had done last night when everyone else went to sleep. Her explanation was “I couldn’t sleep so I painted!” She said this like it was just the thing to do when you can’t sleep. And the look on her face when she said it was that of “silly mommy.” It’s a good thing we homeschool because she still got the 8 hours of sleep she needed and her little project last night still counts towards her school today.

The kitchen table this morning

My little artist when she finally woke up. 

Notice the paint smudges on her cheek and on her shirt.

Piano Practice

Another week of piano practice has come and gone and set of songs learned.

Arowyn & Teagan playing Winter Fun

Arowyn & Teagan playing Naptime 

Arowyn & Teagan playing Winter Night

Arowyn & Teagan playing Scout Day

Arowyn & Teagan playing Thunderstorm

Arowyn & Teagan playing Stubborn Mule

Arowyn & Teagan playing Dinosaurs

Creative Writing

Today Arowyn got out my old Japanese Hidagana workbook and was looking through it. She then decided that she would make a story about a whale. Below is her story where you see the Japanese characters they make the word whale in Japanese.

The Dedicated Little Pianist

As the kids have been learning piano I’ve been trying to brush up on my own skills and learn some new songs. One that I’ve been trying to learn recently is the theme song from Pink Panther and when I practice sometimes Arowyn will sit with me and watch me play. The other day she asked me how to play it so I told her that it was something that would be hard for her because you have to play keys that are pretty far apart and I wasn’t sure if her hand was big enough but she wanted me to show her anyway. So today from the basement I hear this sound floating up from the piano and went to investigate. She’s still working on getting it every time and also playing with the proper hand but with the way she sits down there and practices on her own all the time I’m sure she’ll get it one of these days.

Piano Practice

Kites

Climbing

Hang Gliding

Summer Clouds

The Schumanns

Submarine Dive

Cooking With Teagan: Breakfast Tarts

We’ve been working on our cooking skills around here recently and by we I don’t mean just the kids but I myself am as well. I’ve always been very bad about choosing very simple and easy recipes so to push myself and teach the kids some cooking skills I’m letting them pick a recipe out of one of our cookbooks every other week and whatever they pick (as long as I understand or can easily google the cooking terms used in the recipe) we will attempt it. Teagan’s pick this week was to make some breakfast tarts. Fortunately it was slightly involved but very simple to follow and we only ran into one slight issue while making them, that of not having a small circular cookie cutter for cutting the circle in the front of the tart. After looking around the house we decided to try using the top of a Crayola marker as a cookie cutter which ended up working out perfectly. The tarts turned out great and Teagan was pretty proud of his creation. In the video Teagan walks you through his process of making the breakfast tarts. Oh and when he says Strawberry Jello he meant to say Strawberry Jam.

Piano Practice

The kids have learned a total of five new songs this week, here they are.

Arowyn & Teagan playing On the Bleachers

Arowyn & Teagan playing Circus Clown

Arowyn & Teagan playing Bluebird

Arowyn & Teagan playing Halloween

Arowyn & Teagan playing Drifting

Piano Practice

Another week of piano practice and another set of songs learned. Lately working on the technique is the harder part of each piano practice session than actually learning the song is. They continue to work on their dropping and lifting when they play which has been coming along nicely. Here are the songs they learned this past week.

Arowyn & Teagan playing Rollerblades

Arowyn & Teagan playing Playing Frisbee

Arowyn & Teagan playing A Secret

Arowyn & Teagan playing Rock Band