Spring Recital

I recently had my Spring recital for my piano and violin students. I actually prepared a piece and performed it for my kids. It's by far the hardest thing I've ever played, and my pianist said it's the hardest accompaniment she ever played. Lucky for her, she could leave stuff out or edit her music. I'm glad I gave myself that challenge, but I think it's the last time I do a solo act for a while. I cried in my room for about 30 minutes that morning out of sheer terror. Then I went to the ER the next day for heart attack-like symptoms and all tests showed I'm fit as a fiddle. Anxiety? I'll say yes.

This is my hilarious son, Gabriel, performing on his own for the first time. He went out for a drink right before it was his turn, and so when it was his turn, he came running down the aisle, grabbed his violin, and rocked the house. I love his confidence! Also, I love his old man gut poking out while he plays. I'm so proud of him! 

These are all my violin students about to perform a few variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They all started this year, so only 3 of them are beyond Twinkles. They're so funny when they get together to practice. It's like something crazy happens to them and they all get this surge of "violin arrogance". They all play what they're working on at the same time, all bows turn into swords, violins turn into guitars. Luckily, they all behaved perfectly when it came time to perform. 

My older kids are in Let's Play Music, a 3 year music program that introduces them to theory and keyboards as young as 4 years old. We've made it our Wednesday evening tradition to eat at Panda Express (which always comes out of my mouth as "Kung Fu Panda") because I don't want to cook on our busy night. Their year end program was last week, too, so this is the last time we got to go to Panda. Knowing this, Claire asked me to take their picture, as if Gabriel, Claire and Ruby were all roommates about to part ways. I love that they're friends and that they have each other.