End of Year Mayhem

The school year is winding down and life is in field trip, race, concert, and tournament mode.  I did sneak in a 41st birthday and a 16th anniversary in the middle of all this, which were great, but not sure will ever get a post to themselves.  But for the record I was gifted with a birthday trip to the temple with Jared, an amazing scrapbook from my sister Hailey with some memories I had long since forgotten but needed to remember!  Thanks Hailey.  I also received numerous kitchen gadgets that included new knives, replacement parts for my broken Vita-Mix, and Cuisenart, and my all time favorite surprise for our anniversary:  a Breville Juicer.  This baby makes the best juice in a matter of seconds, so when I'm out of time to prepare a veggie for dinner, I just juice one!  I gross out the kids by eating the pulp, but I cannot let myself throw away all that lovely fiber for crying out loud.  Good thing I have a good carrot cookie recipe from Emilie Harris to make use of some of it.  My gift to Jared was this Brian Kershisnik print to be the first piece of art in our bedroom.

The Amazing Breville Juicer:

On top of all the end of year activities, we've already started up with swim team, which hasn't been pleasant until this week when the temps finally made it above 65 degrees!  When the boys swam last Friday it was about 63 degrees and even though the water was a balmy 85, getting out of that pool into the cold and gusty air was painful, especially for Jonah who refused to get out of the shower in the mens locker room after 15 minutes!  And how could I stop him, really!  When he finally emerged I wrapped him up in extra towels that I borrowed from the lost and found and cocooned him in a nice bundle where he fell asleep for Caleb's practice! I told him he was snoring, which like his father and paternal grandfather, he adamantly denied! So funny how even little traits like that get past though our DNA.

Two weekends ago Gavin ran in his 4th Discovery Dash relay race by maintaining his status of fastest 3rd or 2nd grader.  Because of his late birthday he always runs in the second grade spot.  But this year they did not prove to be successful as a team when their lead runner was unable to race at the last minute.  This left Gavin with nearly a half-lap deficit which he made up by the skin of his teeth, but it wasn't enough to get them the win!  He's got one more shot next year where he'll finally get to anchor the team, something he's been looking forward to since kindergarten!  Nice job Gavin.

This past weekends soccer tournament was fortunate in that both boys where playing in Richmond.  Yet, unfortunate in that we had to split up because they weren't at the same field.  I paired up with Liam and Jared got the be with Caleb.  I learned that Caleb had a great game and he played well, but lost 1-0.  The second game was also a loss, but that was o.k., he still payed well and most importunely had fun with his buddies.  Liam's games on the other hand, were total nail biters!  In the first one Liam made one of the two goals and then they ended up in a tie, and their second game also ended in a tie when a corner kick was headed in by our goalie with 10 seconds left in the game!   That was a seriously intense moment.  By the end of the second game Liam was limping quite a bit from Sever's disease, which not to worry, is a growth related problem that we are hoping will let up soon.  It's an inflammation at the growth plate in the heel.  Gavin is also suffering from it interestingly enough.  But it's painful and he was a trooper throughout the day.  Sunday was the second day of the tournament and we were not at the games, but learned that Liam's team won, which was a huge surprise for him being that they never won a single game their entire season (Fall or Spring)!   Yet, they played everyone one of those games like they wanted to win, which is what really matters.  This team never gave up and totally deserved this final big win!  Nice job Caleb and Liam!

Jonah and Gavin were with me at Liam's game and fortunately for Jonah his two best buddies, who are twins, were there to play their favorite game:  Stufties.  There was no plan to meet these friends and no plan to bring stuffed animals to the game, but here they all are, peas in a pod!

This past Wednesday after trying to fit in two cello lessons, one piano and two swim practices on top of getting a speeding ticket ( my first in maybe 10-12 years) in a speed trap by the middle school which I'm totally annoyed about and plan to tell the judge so in a month when I have to appear in court, we finally made it to Caleb's final Jazz and Symphonic band concerts.  He was a rock star and when he played Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" with his double base pedal he brought from home, the crowd went crazy in applause!  It was awesome!

This coming weekend will bring a end of soccer season bon fire for Liam and his team, Caleb's Jamboree "shake down" where he'll spend a night with the scouts in preparation for the National Jamboree event this summer, and Gavin and Jonah's final soccer game and the last time they will play on the same team for two years!  8 days of school and counting!

Mother's Day 2013

I like Mother's Day.  I love that for the  first time in several years I got the kids to make homemade cards for grandmothers Harris and Hill and great-grandma Knight in a timely manner......granted, they were FedExed, but still, at least they got them by Mother's Day!  I like getting breakfast in bed (the past few years) surrounded by little boys with homemade cards and requests for bites of my toast.  I didn't like sending Caleb off this morning of all mornings on a 3-night 4-day field trip with his 7th grade class, but I like that he is capable of being a great boy without me.  I like reminding them what it was like on the day that they were born and how much in love I felt with them.   I like getting a new card from Liam with coupons for free massages and bathroom cleaning days or other random freebies.  I love getting new kitchen tools and I love that Jonah really thinks I should and could be a professional chef and would like me to do it ... except for the fact that I wouldn't be here when he came home from school ... or when he went to bed at night ... so maybe not.  I love that in addition to the traditional singing in church today from the primary kids, I got to watch Liam and Gavin play an instrumental duet on their strings of I Often Go Walking.  I loved that (for the most part) dinner was made without me and (for the most part) it was cleaned up without me.....I can't really ever escape the kitchen to be honest.  I loved that tonight we took a walk on my favorite trail that leads to Jefferson's Monticello, past the huge tree stumps, and that Jared told stories of our honeymoon.  I love that I got to lay by Jonah and then Gavin in our nightly routine, and listen to what they care most about today:  Jonah:  " I really want to go to the zoo in New Zealand to see a Tuatara, can we do that?"  Gavin:  "I have to go to bed because I have SOL's (standards of learning test) and I'm kind of worried".  Me: " but they are really testing your teachers Gavin".  G:  "Then I'm going to do my best because I don't want Mrs Robinson to make us do any more of those stupid practice sheets!"  I love that I get to spend the rest of the night sitting with Liam while he finished reading another thick book "Under Wildwood" by Colin Meloy (lead singer of the Decemberists), while Jared played one of their songs, Rise to Me, on guitar.  I love being a mom, love it.  It's hard, yes, and some days (more than I would like to admit) I'm really pathetic and totally off my game, but some days I'm on and I like that too.


Photos from the walk tonight:

Youth Orchestra

This is our 3rd season of Youth Orchestra of Central Virginia which is made up of three separate orchestra groups: Junior Strings, Rita M. Evans Orchestra and Youth Orchestra.  This was Caleb's first year in Evans Orchestra and Gavin's first in Junior Strings.  Last night they participated in a combined final performance at what we affectionately call the "Milk-Pack" but is technically known as the Martin Luther King Performing Arts Center (MLKPAC).

Junior Strings played first and did a stellar job in their two songs:  Kings Bridge March by William Dyson and Arlington Sketches by Elliott Del Borgo which was a lengthy piece with a great deal of rapid finger movements. I loved watching Gavin in his true to ultra-focused form shifting those little fingers into all their positions, and all the while his tongue is moving around outside of his mouth.  Caleb had (still has on occasion) the same trait, and at age 6 yrs had a Suzuki teacher tell him to keep his tongue "in the cage". :)

Liam played exceptionally well and I must note that something has clicked with this child.  There is passion in his playing, there is strength and confidence in his finger movements, and there is this sense of self-assurance that he's playing very well.  I credit this mainly to his amazing Suzuki teacher who seems to have taken his playing to a whole new level the past two years.  She expects great things out of him which she communicates clearly to him, and he keeps rising to and even exceeding her expectations.  She has decided to put him in a summer Ensemble that meets twice a week for 90 minutes (on top of his lesson) and he will be the youngest student by a few years.  She has been working with him to try out for the Evans Orchestra in May by perfecting his Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor piece. During lesson the two of them always go through it once and it takes my breath away it sounds so amazing.  What I'm excited for next is that we'll get Jonah's 1/4 size violin this week and he gets to start with Ms. Julie this summer.  Twinkle, twinkle, anyone?? :)

Next was the Evans orchestra, which is the middle group of the three, Youth Orchestra being the most advanced players.  Caleb was tucked towards the back next to the other 1st season cellist and played very well.  They played four pieces with their grand finale being the James Bond Theme song and the Junior Strings members joined them on stage for this piece.  Although, Jonah was most excited about the Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring arrangement which too was amazing.  A note the next day from the director talked about how there were moments when he could hardly believe they were a youth orchestra (middle schoolers none-the-less) playing these pieces and Caleb's cello teacher was there and he too felt they played exceptional, even better than the more advanced Youth Orchestra. Bravo Caleb!

There was a moment when I was watching them warm up that I thought to myself that I never imagined the orchestra being such a big part of my life, ever.  I don't play a single instrument, or know how to read music beyond the basics.....thanks goodness for Liam who helps me out a great deal in the ward choir! But here I was in the MLKPAC watching 3 of my 4 kids perform with a string instrument in an orchestra!  I'm grateful for their musical talents and gifts and I'm so grateful that we can provide this opportunity for them.

We have good friends in the neighborhood who we share carpooling with and between the two families there are 4 violinists and 2 cellists.  All the violinist have the same amazing teacher.  Their oldest Isabella is the Concert Master and when she told Gavin she practices for two hours every day he decided (on his own) to start taking his own practicing more seriously :)

 Orchestra kids:

Violinists:

Evan's players and carpool buddies.

The whole crew lined up by height and I think age:

Jonah Turns 7

It's always hard for me to watch my children grow up and despite my pleas to stop, they still keep doing it :)  We have a tradition in our family of celebrating birthdays with friends only every other year (on their even numbered birthdays).  But for a few months Jonah has been very sad that he would not get to have a friend party this year simply because it was an odd numbered birthday.  The mere fact that it happened to be an odd year was lost on him and oh the tears were plentiful.  So we put it up to a family vote and the boys agreed to let Jonah (and Gavin) have a friend party this year.  Caleb and Liam decided that their big trip to Utah with Dad was worth agreeing to a friend party for the other two.

Jonah was thrilled and immediately decided to have a dinosaur party.  Now mind you, this decision to have a party was put off  until 10 days before his birthday, because I believed I had explained clearly the rationale for an every-other-year friend party.  Silly me!  All I can say is thank goodness for Amazon Prime (free two-day shipping), PaperlessPost where they had a free dino invitation, and the fact that dinosaur parties are pretty popular for kids.  Jonah wanted "stations" where we made fossils with model magic clay, dug for dinosaur skeletons in the mulch pile (good thing we didn't get it all spread yet), set off Diet Coke/Mentos "volcanoes", broke open the T-Rex piñata, and played "t-rex and pteranodon"......like the game "sharks and minnows" for those up to date with their elementary school recess pastimes.

Some of the adventures:

Today (his actual birthday) we'll celebrate with family with a Cinco de Mayo fest of street tacos with all the fixings, non-alcoholic Sangria, and angel food cake with strawberries, per his request.  He's very excited about "chasers" and just hopes that Jared won't send him all the way to the mailbox (it is a 10th of a mile walk, mind you, with a steep hill both going and coming).

For weeks he has been wanting a real live animal for his birthday and settled on a guinea pig, but Jared and I had to let him know that this was not going to happen this year.  We are bringing home two chinchillas for the summer from Liam's classroom and that truly is enough rodents for me inside the house.  I'm encouraging a rabbit hutch that we can keep outside and I think I might be making some traction!

So after spending about 30 minutes in his room waiting for the chasers to be placed he was off to to the races and only mildly complained about having to go to the mailbox! It's part of the package deal with chasers, really.  He was excited for all his gifts, and there were too many.....I think we were feeling guilty about not making the guinea pig pet happen this year!

But before the pictures here are some things that I want to remember about Jonah being 6 years old:

*  He LOVES animals (real, stuffed and prehistoric) and is clear that he wants to be a paleontologist or a zoo keeper when he grows up.

* His favorite foods include quesadillas or most things wrapped in a tortilla, toast with butter and cinnamon sugar (he can now make his own), hot cereal, hamburgers, sugar cookies with and without frosting, cinnamon rolls (I made 75 for teacher appreciation and his class this weekend), most fruits and a handful of veggies.

* He loves to read books about animals, especially the ones by National Geographic, and is drawn to the stories about animal relationships:  odd friend parings (monkey and dove) as well as mother/child relationships.

* He's brave and adventurous......this year he insisted on going down the blue square (intermediate) ski runs by himself to meet Gavin and me at the bottom of the hill, he gave his first talk in sharing time and a great speech (on Tuatara reptiles) in the 4-H competition, he gives the kids 2 feet taller (literally) than him on the soccer field a run for their money (he plays "up" on Gavin's team with the 8-9 year olds), he tells his "girlfriend" that she's cute, and he is never shy in meeting new friends.

* He's desperate for us to buy a motor home so he can sleep while we drive.  He wants Ruby to sleep up there with him.

* He is the first of the Harris boys to be a Tiger Cub in Cub Scouts.

* He still asks me to lay by him every night.

* His favorite movies are Planet Earth, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars the Clone Wars (not a movie per se), and Avengers.

* He is desperate to see Taylor Swift when she come to C-ville in the Fall (tickets are sold out).  He sings to all of her songs and knows all the words.


Here are the photos of chasers and finding gifts.  The first three are there so you can see Gavin's little dance ditty going on in the background.....so funny to me:)

Making the trek back from the mailbox!

Of all the boys it is hardest for me to watch Jonah grow up.  I threw out the #7 candle out after he made his wish because it had done its job 4 times over.  I will never have another "big 6" in my house.  Soon, I won't have a boy who wants me to lay by him at night or hold my hand in the day.  He asked me if I would be sad that he got a year older when he turned 25 and I told him that yes I would!  He will always be the marker of time for me.... the last to pass through the milestones.   I love you Jonah Rawl!