Adventurous kids – Page 51 – Letters from Home

Becoming

Paige has finished her 8th grade work. We celebrated her accomplishments at the public library on Saturday. While honoring these accomplishments, we hope to make it clear that we are most proud of the young woman Paige has become in the process of her education.

She retains that sparkle that we’ve always loved in her countenance and the grace in her demeanor. We know that she will do very well in her high school studies.

Timothy at bat

This little guy loves to play baseball. His round cheeks get rosy in the heat and he can run so fast!

Dance recital

Paige is pictured second from the right.

My photos of the event are ridiculously poor. This one makes me look twice, though.

Congratulations on your 8th dance recital, Paige. It was beautiful.

A Good Night at the Ballpark

Daniel played a great baseball game the other night. A few of the highlights:

His team won decisively (10-3 or something).
Daniel pitched the entire game (4 innings, 73 pitches!).
In the first inning he struck the first two batters out and the third batter was thrown out at first.
The second inning was a repeat of the first with two more strike outs and a quick out at first.
At bat, he hit a double and two singles 🙂 and struck out once 🙁

Would you like to see him in action? See below for a video recap.

Piano Ensemble Year 3

Tonight was a Big Event in our family. The annual piano ensemble concert took place at Centennial Hall in Tucson.

Preparation for the piano ensemble concert began around September. Paige and Daniel learned the primo parts to their duets and then memorized them. For the last month they have rehearsed each Saturday at the University of Arizona with their piano ensemble groups. There are 12 pianos on stage and usually 24 performers per piece.

Paige and Daniel worked very hard to achieve this night. Here’s a little photo essay of their special night.

The performers must look their best.

Daniel plays Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus on a concert grand piano.

Daniel smiles to the applause of 2500 people.

Paige’s turn was next. She played a Russian Dance. Her dress is a little bit Marie Antoinette but with an empire waist.

The little brothers gave their all to support the performers.

We’re proud of you!!

Rushing and Racing

Last Saturday’s schedule:

5:45a.m. Drive to airport (1 hr round trip)

7:10 Drop off Timothy at neighbor’s

7:15 Drive 30 minutes to bring Paige and Daniel to the U of A for piano ensemble practices

8:00-8:30 Wait for Daniel’s rehearsal to end; leave Paige

8:30 Drive 30 minutes to bring Daniel back to Sahuarita for team pictures

9:00 Meet Timothy at the ball field, drop off Daniel for practice

10:00 Drive 30 minutes back up to Tucson to pick up Paige

10:30 Pick up Paige and drive 30 minutes to ball field in Sahuarita

11:10 Pick up heat-exhausted Daniel, race home to eat lunch and let Paige change

12:00 Pick up produce co-op order

12:30-1:30 Paige’s dance performance. One of her songs was Slow Me Down (amen)

2:00 Mark, who has been my companion all day, is ready for an ice cream date

3:00 I take a rest and then get back up again.

Scout-o-Rama

Before you read on, here are some helpful definitions:

o-rama: a greater-than-usual number, volume, or variety of a specified thing: used to form commercial names and other words for events and displays. (Dictionary.com)

Dutch Oven Dump Cake: 3 ingredients. 45 minutes. Bliss. (7-up, cherry pie filling, chocolate cake mix)

Council: Boy Scouts are organized in geographic areas called Councils. There are 2 Councils in Arizona: Grand Canyon and Catalina; we are a part of Catalina Council.

Today we went to the Catalina Council Scout-o-Rama. Our Pack did a booth on cooking. We had 4 Dutch ovens going at one time and we cooked biscuits on sticks. The hit was the dump cake.