Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts

Thursday, April 30, 2026

April Happenings

 April was a month! We had lots of fun times! And nice spring weather, unlike March which was HOT.

Megan and Me saw this mom and her ducklings while Megan driving. It was very exciting!

Megan and Matthew with their Easter baskets.



Matthew's first time shaving.

U, Matthew, Me and Megan playing Life.

Megan and Matthew helped out at AZCEND on their late start day.

And they got to bring home some stuffed animals that were leftover Easter donations.

So much Easter stuff at AZCEND!

Artemis turned 4!!!
Investigating her new bed.

Yeah, this'll work....

U, Me, Megan and Matthew enjoying our Italy Yum Box.



Me, Megan and Matthew on mac and cheese tasting night.

The 6 types.

Our rankings.

The kids had their end of year band concerts.
Megan playing during the concert band concert.

Matthew during the concert band concert. (Someone was taking pictures from the mezzanine which is how he could be seen at all.)

At the jazz concert the next night.

Matthew playing jazz.

Saturday, February 28, 2026

February Happenings

 Looking over our photos for the month, it appears that we ate and had a lot of band stuff. Which is true although not as much band as during marching season. 

We enjoyed the Germany Yum Box.


Our friend Jason from Mines visited us for a few hours. It was so nice to see him!

Jason, U and Me

The kids had the concert band concert one evening. Both Megan and Matthew played in the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble. First up were solos by five students who received superior ratings at the solo festival in January, including Megan.
Megan playing her solo with Anne Kirkham accompanying. She played Allegretto Grazioso by Brahms and did an amazing job!

Wind Ensemble playing "The Great Rubber Chicken Gallop" which is a fun song! If you look closely, you might be able to spot Megan. Matthew, on the other hand, is very hard to see due to his seating location.

Bowing at the end of the concert band concert.

The next night, we were back for the jazz concert.
Jazz Maroon

Matthew playing with the band.

Matthew during his solo.

Megan and U painted toenails and fingernails together. They are quite fancy!

We enjoyed the France Yum Box.


We went to the Count Basie Orchestra concert. Matthew and Megan were both super excited to go as they are one of the oldest jazz bands (91 years!).
U, Me, Matthew, Megan

The Count Basie Orchestra

The jazz bands had their area festival. Jazz Maroon got an "Excellent" rating which is the second tier rating and good for a lower jazz class. Jazz Black got a "Superior" rating which is the top rating.
Mr. Bullock conducting Jazz Maroon.

Jazz Maroon including the rhythm section.

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

London Day 4: British Museum, Wicked

Uriah's step count for the day was 11,700. 

Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast in the room. While eating her cereal, Megan wondered if the fact that Matthew's daily dose of peanuts had been sitting by her cereal could make it taste like peanut. Matthew went and checked the ingredients on the cereal box. Peanut was the third one!!! Oops! I virtually always check ingredients but it was late when we were getting back from Harry Potter Studios and so I guess I did not check. We just had Matthew skip his peanut for the day since the amount he got in the cereal would have been less than his daily dose (currently at 9.5 g) and there were no issues.



Also on the cereal box was an ad for Legoland Windsor. The kids asked if we were going and we said not on this trip. They said the Adams would probably take them...

We walked to the British Museum. Our route included Drury Lane which was cool even though we did not see the Muffin Man. We really enjoyed the British Museum. We were only able to see a small fraction of what was there (it has the biggest collection of any museum in the world with over 8 million items) but definitely saw some highlights. Megan was our tour guide for the Egyptian part of the museum, telling us all about the history, gods, etc. For example, Amun is a head god and he has the head of a ram with 2 cobras for horns. A scarab (beetle) is one of Ra's forms, meaning "to come into being" and is a symbol of resurrection. Megan really knows a lot! I enjoyed learning from her.
Megan, U and Matthew with Hoa Hakananai'a from Rapa Nui

Rosetta Stone

Egyptian stone mummy

Writing on the head of the stone mummy

Megan, Me and Matthew with the bust of Ramses the Great.

More Egyptian writings

The Gayer-Anderson cat. Cats were considered guardians of a happy home.

A few parts of scenes that were on Nebamun's tomb-chapel.


More Egyptian items.



Cuneiform. Megan and Matthew had learned about this at school and Matthew decided to start learning more about it online.

There was lots of jewelry from Ancient Iran.

This is a torc for wearing around your neck.  Can you imagine wearing that?!?  

Pieces from old chess sets.

Celestial globe, astrolabe, quadrants

The Lewis Chessman were made in the 12th century and discovered in Scotland. It is so interesting to look at the individual figures.

Fancy shield!

Muse from 2nd century Rome

Portland vase and cameo glass disk from around 0

Cool mosaics along the stairwells. The fish are dolphins.  We found a lot of different depictions of dolphins.

Piece of the beard of the Great Sphinx.

U and Megan in front of the false door and architrave of Ptahshepses. It gives an account of his life. 

Matthew, Megan and Me with a human-headed winged lion.

Some of the relief panels from Nimrud from around 870 BC.

Assyrian lion hunt panel reliefs from around Nineveh from around 650 BC.

We went to see Wicked! We all enjoyed it although Matthew thought the British accent made some things sound weird or wrong.

Matthew, Me, U and Megan before the show

We peaked into the pit after the show. It was interesting to see. The drum set was in its own soundproof room.

Matthew, Me and Megan after the show.

Elphaba's dress from the second part of the show.

We had dinner at the restaurant at our hotel.
Megan and Matthew were happy to get garlic bread with their meals.

Matthew got veggie sticks and corn on the cob with his pizza.

Megan got veggie sticks and baked beans with her pizza.

U had beef and ale pie.

Me had beef lasagna with a salad.

Matthew, Megan and U with their ice cream sundae with milk caramel nibbles.

Me had sticky toffee pudding.