Timothy finished his stint as a safety patrol volunteer at his school. He received a Twix bar which he added to his enormous stash of candy acquired at school. In the past 8 days, he has been skiing 4 times. He is reading something with a huge salamander monster illustrated on the cover. He is devastated that his friend from school will be leaving for a year. He’s good with fractions and only asked me for help with maybe one homework problem this week. He’s really sounding good on his piano pieces, but he’s not enthusiastic about practicing. He should finish earning enough money to buy the Lego set he wants this week. I ordered it and it has been sitting unopened on the shelf for a month, taunting him.
Mark has skied 2 times this week. He’s reading Harry Potter #4, Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary, Hard Luck (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), and an Ed Emberly thumb print art book. We spent an evening making thumb print animals and faces. He spent the morning in an indoor tent full of pillows, stuffed animals and books. He spent his hard earned cash on a book called Potterwookie, which has elements of Harry Potter and Star Wars in a Diary of a Wimpy Kid type format. He and Timothy can quote the The Lego Movie’s best lines even though they only saw it once. I can’t quote anything but, “Spaceship!”
Daniel made a video presentation for a group project at school. He edited and produced the movie with Richard’s software almost on his own. The middle school critics gave it 4 stars. Daniel has skied 4 times this week, too. I have no idea what he is reading, but it’s from a teacher’s classroom library. He played the cello in a concert at the high school. My favorite piece was a Brandenburg concerto. He helped Richard install a new fence post since we lost several in a recent wind storm. My favorite piece to hear him play on the piano lately is The Maple Leaf Rag, although if I am in a brooding mood, I enjoy hearing him play Chopin’s Prelude in G Minor. He spends his free time watching Piano Guys videos.
Paige finished an art project using colored pencils. It’s two portraits, one of a porcelain doll’s face and one of her own face. I haven’t seen the finished product, but she took a picture of it for me. She took a math final and stressed over DBQ essay in English. She went on a field trip to the Springville Art Museum and the BYU Art Museum on Friday. She’s playing Reverie by Debussy and Humoresque by Timothy Brown? for judges next week. She spends most of her time in her room doing homework. We went shopping for a frame for one of her pieces of artwork last Saturday and wow, I love how it looks in a frame.
This time next month they will be working on new piano pieces, no longer skiing, and on to other adventures. They are great students, talented and expressive pianists, and involved in so many things. Posts like this help me to capture some details before they are gone.