Catching Up...

It has been awhile since I last posted and so much has happened I can't possibly write it all here. I will give a little recap of the most exciting events here. The kids had lots of performance opportunities around St. Patrick's Day. They were asked to play for the retirement home where Haley performs monthly with her Suzuki teacher for their first paid gig. Things just exploded from there. I keep likening their music to a snowball that keeps gaining momentum. They played at the coffeehouse with a local strings group...did their own 15 minute set in between the other group and received a standing ovation, played at a retirement community, played in bars (okay, we only took Haley to hang out in bars), and had the opportunity to play with a new set of "adult friends" (Haley's title for the people she plays with at adult sessions.) at the Charlesworth in Fortesque and then with a few just last weekend at one of their homes. That was a beautiful afternoon...peach blossoms everywhere, warm weather, playing in a garden, and Irish music.



Haley finished up Book 3 and played a mini concert for her teacher and I. She is now working through Book 4. She will play her first polished piece from the book at their retirement home concert on Friday. We are very excited that she received a full scholarship to the fiddle camp she begged me to register her for...Kevin Burke will be her teacher for the advanced fiddle classes. She emailed him to let him know she was excited to be coming and he emailed back saying he couldn't wait to see her (very cute!!) We are at a crossroads now with her violin playing. Her music is getting more difficult for me at the speed she is moving and we are considering options like an extra lesson or a practice partner to help.

Dylan saved and saved his money for months and months and last week purchased himself a new Fender (1X12) amplifier. He practices all the time now and is getting really good. This weekend I heard him calling out the chords for another guitarist and even though the other guy probably may have known them anyway, it was neat to see Dylan able to do that.

Newt was very excited that Poppop and Grammy bought him an electric drum set. It is very light and portable so when the kids perform as a "band" he can take it along. He gets bored just playing the bodhran and loves being able to "show off" his skills with the new drumset.

The kids have been having a great time "writing" their own music and recording it at the studio. It is neat that they have the opportunity to explore that side of music. I am so grateful to Frank for doing that for them.

Playing for St. Patrick's Day #2...

Today the kids had their first paid gig for a St. Patrick's Day party at the retirement home where Haley plays once a month with her Suzuki teacher's students. They were a huge hit and did a great job playing.

Check out their clips on youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/user/ptmom343

The kids have been working hard in the recording studio once a week to arrange their music and record their music by laying tracks. They are learning so much about how recording works and what is available to them in their music.

Playing for St. Patrick's Day #1...

Yesterday afternoon we took Haley to Fergies to play with an adult Irish session. We went there a couple weeks ago and she had a great time. This week, being St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday, there was a huge crowd and the session was being held upstairs with mics and amps and everything (unlike last time when they sat at a little table and just played). No musicians were there when we arrived so we snagged a table near the little stage area (luckily a group was leaving as we arrived upstairs). The owner noticed Haley's fiddle case and thanked us for bringing her saying he had heard all about her from our last visit.

The musicians who did arrive we had never seen before. There was an accordian player who seemed to be the most likely to be in charge so I approached him and asked if it was a session or a band then told him I had brought Haley to play. Haley took a seat on the other side of the stage from him. They started out playing a few songs Haley didn't know then the accordian player asked her to come sit by him, she handed him her tune list, and he asked her what she wanted to play. At first they didn't mic her and she played with him playing softly next to her. After he heard her play, he turned the mic toward her and asked her to play something else.

The crowd was crazy about her. They gave her standing ovations, cheered, clapped along to her playing, and cheered every time she went back to her seat to play again. People were just amazed by the tiny little girl kicking her feet that barely hung from the seat playing away at the fiddle. People took photos and videos of her, including the other musicians. As the afternoon wore on, the crowd became rowdier and rowdier so we decided it was time to leave after a couple hours. As we were getting ready to leave a number of people asked to have their pictures taken with her and the owner thanked us saying more people were there because of Haley than because of St. Patrick.

Status Quo???

It has been over a month since I last blogged. It hasn't been that I haven't had anything to say. It is more that I have not been able to decide exactly how I want to say it.

I have been a bit overwhelmed lately with Haley's music...the speed at which she is learning material, the difference in her playing, etc... I can't even allow myself to think about what she will be doing a few months from now so I have to just take each day as it comes. She is all signed up for a fiddle camp with classes given by Kevin Burke. If you know anything about Haley, you will know that this will be the highlight of her summer since he is her fiddle hero. We also have Suzuki camp planned in August.

Haley has also been working on learning piano. It is mostly hit or miss as to whether or not I give her new material but no matter, she just practices her old material or works out melodies on her own.

This month being March and St. Patrick's Day is a busy month for my musicians. They have quite a few performances scheduled, even a paid gig! They are also working in the recording studio to arrange some of the songs they play to do a more "professional" recording rather than one that is like a live performance. I continue to be amazed at how their musical lives are expanding in ways I never would have imagined.

Musical Weekend...

It seems that musical performances around here tend to all come at once. That was definitely true this weekend. Friday night, Haley had a "dress rehearsal" at the retirement home for the biannual Suzuki concert. I was a little worried about her songs because she was still learning to shift for Humoresque and her Gavotte in D Major still needed a little work but we took a "calculated risk" as her teacher called it and assumed that she would perform better with a crowd than she had so far for practice. This turned out to be the case...we should know by now to trust Haley. LOL


Saturday, all the kids played with Next Generation Kids at the Garden State Discovery Museum. It was a nice venue and all the kids did a great job! Here's a link to pictures of the event... http://ballyphilly.ning.com/photo/albums/next-generation-discovery


Sunday was the biannual Suzuki concert for her Suzuki teacher's students. All her teacher's students did wonderfully. Haley performed so expressively. Everyone said she looked like a "real" violinist. (At home, I have to hold her scroll still so she doesn't move but on stage there was no one to stop her from doing it her way.) She so at home on the "stage." After playing, she calmly waited for the applause then motioned to the pianist to stand for his applause.

Tinks...

A couple years ago as our sweet 12yo yellow lab, Skeeter, was declining in health, we decided to purchase another dog to ease the loss when it came. We wanted a smaller dog so it would be less of a hassel to take her places, less hair in the house, and less damage to property.

While looking at various doggy types, I fell in love with Toy Fox Terriers. They seemed like the perfect breed for our family...small but with the terrier attitude and playfulness. I searched and searched for one locally but came up short. I finally found a breeder in AL who had pups and was willing to allow us to pick ours up at her friend's in FL near where Uncle Karl was stationed. We made the trip down determined to only take the dog if she had the right "personality." As I walked up to that cage of puppies, one puppy ran and hid in a tent and the other came right up, jumping onto the side of the cage wanting to lick me...she was our pup.

The only problem...she was sooooo tiny....2lb. I was so afraid we would step on her. We took our spunky little puppy home. She made us all fall in love with her during the ride. She climbed into our shirts to sleep, played like a large dog, and kissed us up every chance she could.

That was 3 years ago. Skeeter died about 2 months after we brought Tinks home (cancer in her brain). Tinks was there to help fill the void. Now she is a fixture at our house. She loves to sleep under my laptop while I sit typing or sleep on any soft blanket she can find. She hides under my bed during thunderstorms and hates the sound of the bodhran playing. She looks forward to her Greenie every morning and has learned a number of neat "tricks"...sit, down, stay, wait, stick em up, shake, roll over, dance, etc... She barks and growls at anyone who acts menacingly toward Haley or me and loves to go with us in the car.

I just wanted to post about all the members of our family.

Judo...

Yesterday, Newt attended his very first judo tournament. He placed second (out of two people) but he did a great job considering his opponent was significantly bigger than him (probably closer to my size than his), had been doing judo since he was 5yo, had a father from Russia who competed in the Olympic trials in his country, and had the highest belt rank an under 16yo can have.

Newt only lost by one move in each match and didn't get nipponed (thrown for an automatic win). I don't understand the scoring in judo so the score was either 1-0 or 10-o (it was difficult to tell how many points were awarded for the one move the boy got on him each time). Newt attempted many moves but refused to use any of his wrestling skills/moves ("I wanted to try out only my judo moves.").

I enjoyed the fact that they started at 1pm and we were finished fighting with medals awarded and out the door by 2:30pm. They certainly know how to move people and get a tournament finished. I also enjoyed the fact that I know nothing about judo. It was way less stressful that way. I could just sit back and watch. (I do think I will look up the scoring rules so I at least understand how they score for next time.)