Santa At The Symphony & Elf The Musical

 We went to the symphony's Christmas concert again this year.  The girls love it when Santa conducts.  Red Fish said that she likes the symphony better and New Fish thought the ballet was more fun this year.  I'm glad they both enjoy cultural events for the most part and it is fun to see their own tastes develop.

 We straightened Red Fish's hair for the first time and I couldn't believe how long and pretty it was.  I love her curly hair but it was fun to see her with a different look.  It made her look much too grown up.

After a day out with the girls seeing the symphony and hanging out downtown Two Fish and I had date night.  We went to see Elf the musical.  We have never seen the movie but we loved the stage production.  It was kitschy and funny and a great Christmas activity. We had a fabulous time.

Symphony Date

We spent Saturday at a children's concert at the symphony.  It was an awesome family day. Red Fish was overtired and struggled to sit through the concert but New Fish was completely captivated.  We never know who is going to enjoy the concert most. The last twenty minutes were presented with a silent movie in the background.  Both kids were completely caught up in watching the symphony play a long with the film.  The expression on their faces was totally worth the hard parts of taking them to these types of cultural events. 

After the symphony, we went out to lunch and then walked around the temple and visitor center.  It was a perfect activity for Easter weekend. It's always neat to see how the children are just drawn to the statue of Christ.  Red Fish lead us around the visitor center explaining every painting to us.  It was sweet to hear all of the things she has been learning in Primary.

Santa Symphony

Chrismtas outfits for the girls were gifts from their MeMine.

Today we went to see the Children's Symphony concert.  It's perfect for my kids at this age.  The concert is less than an hour long and there is singing and audience participation and Santa Claus.  They played Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Red Fish was in heaven.  Santa conducted the orchestra for a song and had all sorts of crazy moves to cue the musicians like kicking his leg in the air and shaking his bottom.  The girls thought that was hilarious.  They also enjoyed singing along to one of the current favorites, Rudolph The Red Noses Reindeer.  Afterwards, we went to lunch and then to a fancy hotel downtown.  The hotel had Christmas windows from around the world with little passports to mark each country down and then rewarded us with gingerbread cookies.  Our plans tonight are to watch The Polar Express and drink hot chocolate.  Awesome family day.  Now I just need to get my presents wrapped up, finish my laundry and get my house picked back up a bit and we will be ready for Christmas!

Date To The Symphony

 Red Fish is off to the symphony with her grandparents.  Tonight will feature Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.  One of my favorites.  I hope Red Fish loves it as much as I do.

Belle needed her picture taken too.

Random Bits From The Last Few Weeks

I went on a girls overnight with my book club and Two Fish took the girls to the children' museum on a "Daddy date." I love that he is taking time to take them on special activities.  I'm sure they will remember it someday with  They had a fabulous time.  They played at the water table, built towers in the construction area, rode a plastic horse, planted a pretend garden, played in the child size market and played on the ball track.  I end up taking the girls a lot of places on my own throughout the week so it's nice that they get to do some things just with their Dad.

The girls and I went to visit my Dad at work and took a little tour of his office.  Red Fish has been asking to see where my Dad goes when he is working so I think it will help her visualize it in the future.  She liked meeting all of his coworkers and said that "Pop pop sure has a lot of friends."  We went to lunch with my Dad afterwards at Arctic Circle.


We went to the symphony to the Carnival of Animals.  There were dancers and it was supposed to be fun but quickly devolved into a complete disaster and we were forced to flee.  My kids do really well and are well behaved most of the time when I take them places.   This event reminded me that they are four and two years old and sometimes our outings are bound to fall apart.  I guess I can't fully appreciate the good behavior without the bad behavior sometimes.  We ended up at the Temple and the girls walked around and really enjoyed themselves (and I had some time to stop being mad) so the day wasn't a total wash.

I went shopping with my sisters in law and my Mom last night so that I could get Red Fish some spring/summer clothes and get myself something to wear to my convention next month.  It was fun to go shopping with someone above the age of 4. 

We had our adoption home check and interviews for the year.  Having a social worker come to your house to literally judge your fitness as a parent, based on the cleanliness of your house is stressful.  We needed the whole house to be clean and it almost proved to be an impossible task.  As soon as I would have one room totally clean the girls would have destroyed another room more than usual. 

We've been to the park, dinosaur museum and aquarium as usual aside from last week.  The weather is starting to warm up so the girls have been playing outside the last few days although we spent most of last week in bed.  Two Fish even had to stay home from work for a couple of days because all of us got a terrible stomach bug.  I don't think any of us have been that ill in quite awhile.


We attended a puppet show at the library.  The girls loved it.

We've been trying a new way to study scriptures with the girls.  We've been reading scripture stories with pictures but I don't think they were really getting anything out of it.  My visiting teacher dropped off these cute lists with monthly scripture themes.  Each day has a few verses to discuss as a family.  I cut up April's list and put it into thirty plastic eggs.  The girls take turns choosing one for us each day.  So far, I think they are actually getting something out of the experience although Red Fish announced that she would explain tonight's scripture and told a long story and about milk and unicorns and prophets.  She might think we are just making up a story after we read something out of the scriptures. 

We're also trying out a sticker reward chart to help the girls get chores done and to make difficult parts of the day go more smoothly.  For example Red Fish gets a sticker on her chart if she will get dressed for school without complaining.  New Fish gets a sticker for staying in her crib during nap-time.  Red Fish wants to earn a lego set and New Fish is working toward a buzz light year toy.  So far, the sticker chart is heaven sent.  Hopefully the novelty won't wear off.

We are taking a break from formal speech therapy for a little while.  I bought a ton of stuff to do at home (95% of the work gets done at home anyway) and then we will go back in awhile for an evaluation.  It is a little overwhelming to have to whole responsibility of helping Red Fish but sort of necessary right now.  Two Fish helps too but I'm really the one who does most of it and is sort of in charge of it.  Her speech therapist was in favor of us taking a break and helped me pick out our supplies.

New Fish is growing up so fast I can't believe it.  She promises to always be my baby.  She is LOUD as ever and talks nonstop.  When she really wants something she says: "Puh-weese!  Puhweeeeeeese."  It's hard to resist the little blond beauty and she knows how give the saddest face in the world.

"Mom- will you show me where my feelings are? I think they are hurt."- Red Fish

Whenever Red Fish is talking about a previous day or time she refers to it as "yesteryear." Yesteryear I was thinking about that... Yesteryear I was wearing that shirt. Etc.

Two Fish: "Do we need to buy a coffee table so we have something to put our feet on in the family room?"
One Fish: "You aren't actually supposed to put your feet on tables. Do you mean an ottoman?"
Two Fish: "Sure that would work if you don't want a coffee table."
One Fish: "I'd like an ottoman but I don't want to take up all of the space we have in there."
Two Fish:" We can just move the couch back farther."
One Fish: "It would be a lot farther from the tv... hey are you just trying to convince me we need a bigger tv?"
Two Fish: "Dang it. Yes."

Weekend Away

Our friends the Buddies invited us for a weekend away with all of the kids.  We went to a cabin in the mountains and had a great time.

 There were plenty of games and building with blocks and a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

 We took the kids to see the Santa Symphony downtown.  The usher flustered me because we got there just before the show started.  I didn't get the kids as settled as usual and so they weren't quite as cooperative for the concert as usual.  Luckily, as soon as Santa came out they were totally mesmerized.  They symphony played all Christmas music with three vocalist.  O Holy Night was especially beautiful.

 The was plenty of reading.

 The Buddies made houses out of rice crispie treats for the kids to decorate.  The girls loved it.

 

 We spent a little time on mainstreet.  We had carmel apples from my favorite chocolate factory.

It is so fun that our kids are such great little friends.  There is nothing better than great friends!

Spooky Symphony

 The wicked witch and Glenda the good witch. Yes, I know she is supposed to wear a pink dress but at the time we bought the dress, Red Fish was going through a blue phase.  Red Fish decided to carry a little cat in a bag because she said: " Even good witches need cats."  New Fish carried my Toto dog most of the time.

Last night we went to the "Spooky Symphony" concert.  It was great.  We wore our costumes.  My Mom was  good sport about putting together a scarecrow costume to go with our Wizard of Oz theme.  Two Fish has a tin man costume but wasn't here to go with us.  The concert was a little too long- I wish it was 1.5 hours instead of 2.  New Fish didn't quite make it through the whole concert.  They played some fun John Williams' themes from E.T. and Star Wars mixed in with other pieces.  The kids loved seeing everyone in elaborate costumes.  We had a great time.  It was a lot of work to get the kids dinner early and into their costumes, make it through the concert and get them back in bed.  Thank goodness my Mom came with us to the show.  Two Fish has been out of town and I miss him!

*The best part of costume party was that, I didn't see ANYONE who was scantily clad!!  I'm so tired of Halloween costumes becoming an excuse to bare all.

Symphony Night

My obsession over when/how to educate my children continues.  Music has been a real point of worry for me.  I spend a lot of time thinking about how best to instill a love of music in my children and when I should start them in formal music lessons.  We do a lot of singing and listening at home but music never quite gets the focus and attention I would like it to have.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  My newest musical effort is to introduce them to more music by taking them to concerts.  We attended concerts in the park over the summer and we go to some of my brother's concerts.  We also bought tickets to all of the family concerts our local symphony puts on.  The symphony is making an impressive effort to reach out to the younger generation with these family friendly (and surprisingly affordable) set of concerts.  Some of them I will take New Fish to but not all of them.  Tonight, Two Fish and I took Red Fish to the "Salute To Youth" concert.  Young musicians ages 11-18 soloed with the symphony.  I think it was great for Red Fish to see these very young and accomplished musicians.  She really enjoyed the music.  We didn't quite make it through the whole thing because it ended up being quite lengthy but Red Fish did a great job being quiet and respectful.  She is, after all, only three.  Red Fish's favorite part was the piano solos and getting to go out with mommy and daddy by herself.  Next month we get to wear our Halloween costumes to the concert.

Peter And The Wolf

Today we went to see Peter And The Wolf with the local symphony and ballet company. When I saw an ad for it last weekend I knew we just had to go. I had a record of Peter and The Wolf when I was little that was my Dad's when he was little and I used to play it all the time and dance to it. The girls are very into dancing right now and I've been wanting to infuse more music into their lives so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The concert was fabulous. It was the girl's first professional concert and they both did great. It was an all ages concert so they didn't have to really hold still or be silent. We will definitely be go

ing to more of them. New Fish might be a little too young unless there is something going on onstage and not just music. She needs the action to help her focus. The symphony played: Holst - St. Paul's Suite, Britten - Simple Symphony and Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf. I thought we might lose New FIsh during the Simple Symphony but as soon as the dancers came on stage she was enraptured. Red Fish loved the whole thing, especially because it starred "the big bad wolf" and she is fascinated with him right now. I think she just likes the whole archetypal bad guy thing. She is very into talking about good vs. bad right now. When I asked Red Fish what she liked best she said: "the bird, the big bad wolf and the horns. (The horns play the part of the big bad wolf.)We took Two Fish's Mom with us since she loves Peter And The Wolf. The girls wore their matching sweaters from Cannes and they looked so adorable all done up to see the symphony. After the

concert we walked around downtown a bit because we are loving the spring time weather. We talked about the crossing signals and saw window washers up high on the buildings and walked past an LDS temple. Then we went out for lunch. It was a fabulous morning.After lunch we stopped by my grandparent's house and the girls got my grandparents to play peter and the wolf with them. They took turns being Peter, the Wolf and the Bird. It was pretty hilarious. I think the concert sparked a lot of creativity for the girls and we will definitely be hearing about it frequently.

This little wolf gives big kisses.

I bought a recording of Peter and The Wolf tonight. We will be listening to it frequently and dancing around the house. The narrated version is a must.

Red Fish rode her bike for a bit when we got home and then we played "go fish" with her medial "s" sound flash cards I made her and had a blast. We've played go fish almost every night this week and played some memory with them as well. It's a fabulous way to get her to use the words and she just likes playing. What a great day! I love weekends like this.