Springtime this year came on fast! February felt like March, March felt like April, and April felt like full-on summer. It was lovely! The gorgeous weather allowed for lots of days walking to and from school, especially for Theo, whose play practices ramped up as the
Snow White performance approached. He cracked me up frequently by dragging his feet getting there on time and then justifying it by telling me which other person was late for the last rehearsal, as well as by trying to get away with wearing the same thing for days in a row. My very favorite part was when I would tell him he had to go change, and he would look me straight in the eye and tell me that the clothes he was wearing were clean and he hadn't worn them this week. He could not quite believe that I would pay attention that closely. If his clothes start melting into his skin, don't blame me!
We enjoyed a lovely spring break this year, though we kept close to home (since it inconveniently did
not coincide with Aaron's spring break). The kids spent plenty of time outside, making friends with the fish in our pond, who seem to know them by sight. They'll go outside with a few crusts of bread and stand on the bank for a few minutes until a couple of fish catch sight of them and pause, tails swishing from side to side, waiting for their daily feast. Every now and again we can entice a goose or two over for a few crumbs of bread as well, but the ducks tend to turn in the opposite direction the minute anyone tries to lure them. Another favorite outdoor game the kids have come up with is "Thanksgiving," which involves a (very loose) reenactment of the Pilgrims' and Native Americans' first Thanksgiving. Climbing trees and eating the mint leaves that infest one section of our flower bed make up prominent parts of this game.
Theo used the break from school to crank into gear on the money-making front. After going into debt when Aaron made him pay for most of the bill for the two cavities he had sprouted at his last dentist visit (I was reticent to agree to this plan, but Theo had strongly resisted being consistent about brushing his teeth well, especially in the mornings, and we had found far too many snitched and sneakily devoured sugary treats in his bedroom), he had closed the gap and was back into positive territory, and wanted to start saving for an iPod touch. He came up with the idea (along with some help from Addy, our resident entrepreneur) to make and sell some Easter treats. With help from Addy and Emerson, he made rice krispie nests, filled them with jelly beans and chocolate eggs, and topped them with Peeps. He made the rounds in the neighborhood to take orders, then made and delivered them the next day. They turned a pretty good profit--about $50 total, about half of which he paid to Addy and Emerson for their help. It's so good to see kids take initiative, and have ownership over their things.
So many of Theo's friends get cool technology gadgets for Christmas and birthdays, and while there isn't anything particularly wrong with that, I think Theo will really benefit from knowing that his possessions are something he worked for and earned. And it will hopefully help him care for them better (he's not always spectacular on that front).
While the kids and I enjoyed the lovely spring weather and the break from school, Aaron was chest-deep in concert preparations. We attended his choral concert, which was held in a local church (incidentally not my favorite church--I'm a fan of stained glass and arched naves, and this was a much more modern affair with a bathtub acoustic), and I have to admit that while the choirs did beautifully, our kids, who are fully capable of concert behavior, had a less-than-spectacular showing. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I spent more time wrestling with them and trying to head off actual fights (like, with hitting) between them than actually listening to the concert. Aaron had his own complaints, as his organist had been unable to coordinate with him on a rehearsal time, and wound up with some unexpected registrations and tempos. Luckily, the best part of the concert, Mozart's
Requiem was reprised in collaboration with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic a couple of weeks later, in a gorgeous concert that also featured Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring. To prepare Theo and Addy (who accompanied us to the concert), I explained the background of
Rite of Spring by calling it
The Hunger Games of the 1910s, and told them about the rioting that accompanied its premiere. Although neither of them have chosen it as their new favorite musical work, they listened enthusiastically and were interested in the music history details that I couldn't restrain myself from whispering in their ears throughout. Mozart's
Requiem was performed beautifully, and Aaron received many compliments on his excellent preparation of the choirs. He really loves choral-orchestral music and having opportunities to prepare and conduct it.
On Easter morning, we woke to beautiful weather, flowers blooming, and Easter baskets (Aaron and I were a little annoyed when we woke to the noise of baskets being discovered just before dawn and had to send everyone back to bed--we really thought we were past that stage . . . but after that). The girls got to put on their pretty new dresses and I had new shirts for the boys. We managed to squeeze in a family picture before church, along with a living room egg hunt. After a lovely morning at church (although I have to confess that Easter Sunday is the one day in all the year when I really long to attend mass in a cathedral), we came back home and hid over 100 eggs in our yard and the common area next door in preparation for our second annual Easter egg hunt, with four other families from our neighborhood. It was lovely! I didn't quite get all the pictures I wanted (is there any such thing as too many pictures of adorable children dressed in their Easter best searching through spring's buds and blossoms for colored eggs?), but a fine time was had by all.
Finally, at the end of April, we finally got to see the fruits of all Theo's hard work on his fifth-grade musical,
Snow White. He did a brilliant job playing the part of King Absentminded, getting some good laughs with his comic lines: "yes, yes, my daughter, White Snow." "Her name is Snow White, your majesty." "That's what I said: Snow White." He has awesome comic timing, and the same skills that helped him pick up French inflection quickly in Canada came in handy in helping him develop his character voice in this role. After the performance, he received a basketload of fan mail from children in other classes complimenting his performance. He is still hard at work replying to all of them, a job which is giving him experience for his future career plans of "being famous."
Summer is coming on fast--too fast, it sometimes feels like--and we've been going a little crazy trying to plan ways to sustain our income over the summer (one of the drawbacks of Aaron's current position is that they don't pay him over the summer). I have some summer music camps planned, and was pleasantly surprised when I got quite a few registrations right off the bat, but it was Aaron who, as usual, figured out how to get the real money. He stumbled on some eBay promotion on a news website, where a larger online car company was selling 15 new cars at half price over the course of a week. Against my advice, he kept drifting back to the site until he caught a new posting and bought it immediately without even really registering what he was buying--they were going really fast, and the fastest fingers won. Well, when his speedy fingers were done with their job, Aaron was the proud owner of a brand new shiny black Mustang! The plan is to sell it closer to its initial value, and use the moolah to make it through the summer. But I'm not entirely sure that's going to work out--it's a pretty hot little number, and Aaron has always been a car guy. And who am I to complain either way? He could easily drive the thing for a few years and sell it for what he bought it for. Alas, if only my income was higher, as he has taken to reminding me frequently. I
am working on that. While I can't guarantee a particularly lucrative summer, I am looking forward to hopefully create a successful career for myself next year when
all four of our kids are settled into full school days. For now, we're all enjoying the beautiful weather and looking forward to some real family time once school gets out!
