music in the morning

I'm sure our upstairs neighbor was thrilled as she works until midnight at a local ER.... but apparently the kids needed a musical start to their Monday morning. :-) (she claims that she can't hear them, but I still feel a little bad anyway)

When Clara got the music for Hot Cross Buns at her last lesson, Alex was all excited because he had once played that song on the piano back when he took lessons last year. This morning he got the itch to see if he could still play it. Amazingly enough, he still could! So, Clara decided that she should get out her violin and play along. My goodness... it was a musical mess!!!! They both played their parts well... however, our piano hasn't been tuned in AGES and, although they were both playing the same song, their versions were in different keys! This didn't stop them from playing it over and over and over and over again...
I just sat back and enjoyed the chaos as I so enjoy the fact that they like to play their music together.

Oh... and to prove that it was not only a riot of noise but a riot of color as well.... here's a color photo...

I honestly would love to see Alex keep playing the piano. We won't add lessons again any time soon.... but I like that he still has an interest in playing. I think it has helped perpetuate his interest by seeing that Clara's violin teacher also plays guitar and piano. Violin is her passion and her main focus... but she can pick up and play other instruments as well. And given that my only desire for them in relation to music is that they enjoy it, we're keeping everything very low key.

What else is going on here? Well... let's see. The work they were doing on our house is done. Alex has moved into Clara's old room, Clara has moved into what was a guest room/Jeff's office and what was Alex's room is now my office with a daybed for guests. We had thought we had the room arrangement thing worked out when we moved in, but after living here two years we thought a change might be in order. The kids wanted desperately to share a room, turning the extra bedroom into a play room. We let them do a trial run... it lasted one week and now they're happily in their own separate rooms. Their bathroom is painted and the new shower curtain has been hung. Oh... and new closet organizers built. We've been working on a major sort and purge so once things are a little more under control I'll have to take some photos!

Saturday afternoon, Clara and I went with some of her friends from dance to see this....
... the Joffrey Ballet's Winter Program.

It was absolutely amazing! Clara and her two friends sat completely spellbound the entire time! Her favorites were The Rite of Spring (click on the Joffrey link above and you can see a video about this piece) and Mobile.

Okay... gotta run.... I need to make a purchase or two from Alex and Clara's pet shop! :-)