Tyler's Spring Piano Recital

Tyler had his spring piano recital Sunday afternoon at the chapel at Schowalter Villa in Hesston. It was a wonderful display of talented pianists. I once again realized what I love about Simply Music - a playing-based music education program. Tyler has seen immediate success due to the following aspects of the Simply Music process: 1) playing complete songs from the start with both hands; 2) blues, contemporary, classical and accompaniment pieces; 3) learning how to play accompaniments just from chords; 4) learning how to compose pieces either from a previous song or on your own; and 5) learning how to improvise. There are so many aspects of this method of piano that I wish I had learned at some point. I just feel blessed that Tyler has been able to be exposed to these concepts and learn them.

Here is the first song Tyler played called "Dog?"




This was the composition Tyler made up from the song "Dog?"






One other interesting part of the Simply Music program is that a parent is required to be at lessons with the child. This is so that an adult is aware of the concepts and what the child is to do during the week. Also, group lessons are encouraged, and Tyler is in a group with 3 other girls. It actually is kind of beneficial because you can then learn from each other and see others develop too.

This is the piece that all 4 of the students in Tyler's group lesson performed together. It was called: Storm and was performed as an ensemble. They played it twice, trading parts. The student in the middle position played Night Storm - a piece they've learned. Then one student at the high notes of the piano played "raindrops", which was an improvisation, and the student at the low notes at the piano played "thunder", which was an improvisation. The 4th student played cymbals to represent the "clap" of thunder. Each time they practiced it sounded different due to the improvisation, so that was interesting. You have to admit, it does sound like a "Storm".

Tyler chose to play the Night Storm part the 1st time and the "thunder" the second time.

Ryan's 1st Band Concert

Our oldest child, Ryan, started 5th grade this year which meant the middle school and BAND!!! He was very excited about this opportunity. We thought he might follow in Uncle Kent & Uncle Brian's footsteps and play the trumpet, or follow in his dad and Uncle Gregg's footsteps and play the trombone. Or another option would have been to follow his mom and play the flute, but he ruled that out quite quickly! When he came home saying he thought he wanted to play the tuba, we were kind of surprised. Concern also came to us as he kept saying, "Mr. Begnoche says we have to have a tuba player and there isn't anyone else doing it." Our concern was that he was just going to play the tuba to please his teacher because no one else would. Thankfully, we were wrong. He's done a GREAT job with it! Listening to him practice amazes me with how much he's improved and how "on pitch" he is.

Here he is - all smiles - with his large tuba!

Advantages of being the teacher --- being able to take pictures in the band room during practice before the actual concert. Here's part of the band.

"Enough pictures already, Mom"

The 5th grade band - he's in the middle back in the back, but can't be seen.

Tried to upload the video I took of 2/3 of the one song, but it wouldn't upload (it ran all night and still didn't). Sorry about that.

Amazing Abilene Athletes

Okay, how long have we had a blog now, and I have never posted on it? There is a first time for everything, so here goes. This past Saturday DeAnn and her good friends Cara and Melissa achieved a huge goal. These girls have been training together for several months to run a half marathon, and Saturday was the payoff. I must admit that at first I thought they were crazy, but we are all so very proud of them. They all did so awesome and finished the race in just over 2.5 hours (without walking at all!!!!)! Here are a few photo highlights from the big day.

Here are our three heros before the race- all smiles

Even I was smiling, up at 5 am on a Saturday when I was off work

Runners take your mark, get set, go!!

Not quite the Boston Marathon, but a cool site seeing all the runners at the start

The race started at 7 am. Since I wasn't running I walked about 3 miles out of town to try and catch the ladies at around the halfway point. As I looked off to the east, I saw the most beautiful sunrise, and just had to capture this wonderful site.

Almost halfway, ladies. Looking good!!!

Over halfway --- it's all downhill from here!!!

Only yards from the finish line. I think the smiles are from delirium.

Here they are after the race. WAY TO GO, GIRLS!!
Just look at those winners. It was a great day.

One more side note. The shirts DeAnn and I had on were again part of our family mission to raise awareness about ectodermal dysplasia and the NFED. She used this event to "run for a cause" and just through facebook raised around $1,125 for the NFED. Thanks to all who gave for the NFED. More importantly, thanks to all who supported, prayed for, and encouraged these dedicated ladies!

~Chris

What's Going On

It's taken me a while to update our blog. It isn't that things haven't been going on, but it just seems I haven't taken the time to post about it. So, I'll try to give it to you in a nut shell.

First of all, a teacher friend of mine always had the goal to run a half marathon, so she asked if I'd want to train with her. I told her upfront that I would be glad to train with her, but had absolutely no intention of running the half marathon. Well, guess what I'm doing this weekend --- running the Eisenhower Half Marathon in Abilene, Kansas. Here's the crazy thing --- I'm excited about it! I have adapted it now as MY goal, and yes, I think I'm crazy that running 13.1 miles at one time could make me excited. Luckily, there are 2 other friends in this with me, so that has made the training much easier. Today we did our last long run - 8 miles. To give this a little more of a purpose, I set up a Cause on Facebook for the NFED and am raising money for the organization through my half marathon. I had no idea if I would actually raise any money or not, but decided to try. Well, to my amazement, I'm currently at $900! Now that I've raised that much for the NFED, I am really hoping it might get to $1000 before Saturday, April 10 when I run. I am giving 10% for every dollar given. It has been pretty exciting. To really share my purpose for doing this, I had a shirt printed to wear for the race (and had one printed for Chris to wear on the sidelines too).

The front of the shirt - mMay seem like a strange statement - it was Chris' creativity. Since many with Ectodermal Dysplaisas can't sweat, we thought this would be appropriate. Hopefully, when people don't get it they'll ask, and then we can be spreading more awareness. I know, I get excited about the little things.

Back of the shirt

Yesterday and today as a family we decided to start working outdoors, since the days are finally becoming a little nicer.

Ryan
Hired lawn mower man

Grant
We'll call him the hired lawn mower man "want-to-be".

Grant headed out to the garden with his pail and shovel. The wind was really strong and chilly so I thought the hat was necessary.

Grant wanted to help plant the onions.
He liked "tossing" them from where he was standing.

Trying to get him to "place" the onion bulb in the correct place.

Grant out in the wheat field (I think he tried to escape).
Luckily, his wonderful brother Tyler went out to bring him back.

Andrew received a shovel and rake as an Easter bunny present from his Grandma and was very excited to work in the garden with me today. But, he had a fever all night, came to work for a short while, said it was too cold and went back in the tractor with his Dad. I'll have to make sure and post pictures of him helping "weed" the garden later. So, that's what we've been up to. Have a Happy Easter, as we remember the huge sacrifice Jesus made for each of us, dying on the cross, and then raising again on Easter morning. Thank you!