Drama Kings

If I mentioned to my boys that they should be in a play, they would strongly oppose the idea. In fact, Erik doesn't even give talks at church because he so doesn't want to see everyone smiling up at him like that. Though, if you remember from some of the acts from Ward Talent shows, Erik does a great job on stage if he's not looking out at the audience.

Lately, Austin and Erik have been obsessed with Hamilton. They play the music repeatedly, much to Victoria's dismay. They listen to it, they watch it on YouTube with the animated versions, they sing while reading the words, they sing the words they already have memorized. We had two snow days this week and that was the first thing they did when they got out of bed, put on the soundtrack. They have started creating movement to the songs. I snapped some pictures of them doing it yesterday.

Last week, Austin's school held the 5th grade wax museum. He went as Orville Wright. He had planned that a couple of months ago, before his obsession with Hamilton. He wished, the last couple days before the wax museum, that he had chosen Alexander Hamilton instead, since he knew so much about him from the songs, but I assured him that he made a good choice, because now he knows about many characters from history!

Valentine's Day Excitement

 When we first moved into our home, we thought the butcher board countertop by the sink was the best. Cut veggies right on the board and slide the scraps right into the sink; it was the best idea! Well, we learned that butcher board by the sink is always wet. Combine that with the fact that it's always moist in Michigan, and we have lots of rotting wood and mold.

We knew we wanted to replace the countertops a while ago with granite or quartz, but we also knew it is very expensive. So we just kept on doing other jobs on our home that were more affordable and needed to be done as well.

My dad and Mary Lou encouraged us to replace the countertops now, with some support from them (thanks!) So, we researched and talked with a few companies and ended up with a great deal on our granite Black Pearl countertops!

I didn't want black at first, but after I saw what it looked like with oak cabinets, like ours, I was sold!

You can see the nice mold spot where the faucet was in the back of the sink- yuck!

Everything is the same color-washed out. It was Jason's idea to go with black.

Even the floors are the same color.

It's so shiny and chique!

It brings out the new appliances we've been collecting the past couple of years.

Erik and Luke approved! Actually, Austin and Erik say it's like we moved to a new house!

Starting to add my stuff. My Valentine flowers won't always be there, but they sure look good now!

Added all the office stuff. The kids' papers are on each of those trays. We go through them here and there, but they sure look like a lot!

Love my fruit basket!

 After the countertops were complete, Jason and I went to our friends' house for an adult Valentine party. We had dinner, played games, told stories, read poems we all wrote to our spouses, had lots of laughs (over the poems and stories), shed some tears (over some of the amazing poems!), and even danced. We'll have to make it a tradition!

Gimpy

We've started calling Karissa Gimpy lately. Why? Well, about a month ago, she jumped off the stage in the church gym and hurt her knee. I wasn't in there, but she said it popped and then it hurt when she walked. She walked around with a limp, but it wasn't consistent, there was no swelling, and she could still bend it back and to the side without pain, so I thought she would recover quickly. She's small, young, and flexible. How long would it take?

It didn't help that Victoria had rolled her ankle and was having to wrap her ankle for dance every day and Austin still had his cast on. To top it off, Erik has had this scratchy voice since a cold he had in the fall and it started to worry us a little, not to mention become somewhat annoying when he would read or sing with his voice going in and out. I had an upcoming appointment for him and I was pretty much tired of going to the doctor's office, which happened a lot more frequently in January and at the beginning of February. I didn't want another trip to the doctor when I was sure it would heal!!

Last week, after her tumbling class, her knee got worse. Her limp was awful and I decided to take her in. Just as I thought, the doctor didn't really know what was wrong, but he could rule out any tears in the tendons. He sent us to get an x-ray and gave us a prescription for crutches. The x-ray confirmed some swelling in the knee joint. We're supposed to hear from an orthopedic soon. In the meantime, in the week that she's been on crutches, her knee has been healing and she doesn't limp as badly when she doesn't use them. She's not going to go to tumbling again for a little while.

Victoria keeps wrapping her ankle, but it seems it's not as bad lately. She had gotten some planters warts removed from her foot that hurt when she did contemporary, which did the trick and the warts are finally going away.

Jason and I are preparing to go to Chile next month and went to get some check-ups/immunizations for that.

Erik had his appointment with the ENT. Turns out, he has calluses on the two nodules on his voice box because he's too loud, so no real worries there either. He's trying to drink more water and we're encouraging him to not yell every time he talks!

Austin's arm is all healed, but his break was on the growth plate, so we have to go back over summer to make sure he doesn't have any growth problems with his arm.

Maybe all my kids could be called Gimpy now!

 Here's Erik's voice box. Interesting, huh?

And Gimpy herself!

Orchestra

We have the most awesome orchestra teachers ever! I'm so glad my girls are a part of such a great program and that Austin wants to participate in it now as well. He will get to next year, when he starts middle school. As I've mentioned before, the middle schoolers go to the high school to meet with the same teachers that work with the high schoolers, minus the 6th grade orchestra teacher. She teaches the rest of the day at a middle school. The main teacher, Mrs. DePentu teaches the 7th and 8th graders at 7:00 am, then they go on the bus to their various middle schools and then she teaches the high school students, including an awesome symphony.

The winter concert was last night.

Victoria with her violin and Karissa with her viola. Austin wants to play cello. We just have to convince Erik to play bass!

Friends with similar interests!

Victoria is right in the middle. She's very proud of her spot as First Chair for the second violins. I am too!

Here's their songs. Enjoy just parts, or all. The creepy one of Karissa's is called Rosin Eating Zombies From Outer Space. The middle school orchestra plays it every year for all the 5th graders at a special concert for them to attend to decide if they want to join choir, orchestra, or band in middle school. It's one of Austin's favorite songs!