More music in the air

It was our first time at the Public Schools Band and Strings Spectacular held at the Spokane Arena.


And it was really quite the spectacle and musical experience!


Picture the 2,900 fifth and sixth graders from 35 schools and their instruments taking up almost every inch of the arena floor...


They played to a packed audience of mostly families, their greatest fans, of course!


And guess what?
We were also playing "Spot Wally"-- trying to find where dear Jon was!


Do you see him?  He's the one with black hair and a violin!!

Oh, there he is! 
Finally, we spotted Jon! We weren't close enough to get a good shot, but I happened to see him goofing around a bit, swopping out his violin with the friend next to him before getting it back, just before the concert! Boys will be boys? How does one do the tiger mom thing with an attention span like this? He thinks I'm at most a wannabe. But boy am I grateful the public schools give the older elementary schoolkids the chance and choice to learn an instrument. I hope it is more than an introduction and he'll keep it up.  


Glad also the hubs' worktrip this week did not clash with the concert. The youngest rode on his shoulders while I grabbed the younger boy's hand --  to push through the huge crowds to collect the older boy from the opposite side of the arena after the event. "How do you feel?" I asked him; I was still awed by the scale of it all.  His immediate thoughts, "What took you so long?"... Er...


That's my COOL son, alright! ;)

Yay for right notes!

Ben was part of the enjoyable first grade concert...

and we hung around a bit more -- for the kids to help themselves to some jamming on the marimba!


"Finally, breakfast!" joked Ben, when I doled out Round 2 of dinner after we got home -- toast with the egg-in-a-hole, a quick skillet fix. 


We had eaten a hurried Round 1 before the concert, kinda. Frozen pizza I'd popped into the oven, before running over to borrow the neighbour's iron when ours went kaput on me -- to press out the wrinkles in the younger boy's shirt. 

We were all so tired after yet another long day. A third night in a row of both boys' afterschool activities, that also included cubs, scouts, and more scouts (*overload*), and (good for me) their cancelled Bloomsday training session 'coz of snow. And after the concert, the hubs (glad he could be there) had his busy work to get on with still.


I was also feeling off... Off-kilter from my tooth with the failed rootcanal re-treatment, I'd only found out had cracked and would need an implant with a dental surgeon now, *sigh* . There were also the off-limit roads, that though I'd driven the alternate route every day since the roadworks started, I still managed to get the napless youngest (and she was as cranky as me) and myself lost -- and only to come to a second road that was closed?!!

Thankfully, there was nothing off-key about the first graders' singing and mallet-playing. Back at home that night, I was relieved also when things that day wrapped up on a lighter note...

"Oh no, 9 (o'clock) already? We're so late for school!" the elder son  played along, before digging in. Turned out breakfast for supper wasn't such a bad idea. 


His younger brother thought so, too. "Seconds, please," Ben asked, flashing me a toothy grin.  (It's missing the two baby teeth he'd lost in two days just before that).  


"Actually, it's thirds. We already had dinner!" ;p

***

As I write this, I think about how so much way off things were on that first Good Friday a long, long time ago.  But thank God for it and for Easter -- that most uplifting note when Jesus rose from the dead! Because He lives, I can face tomorrow...  I have this old song singing in my head. 


There's also the Dynamite one the boys sing that's caught on with their little sister. It cracks me up to hear her belt out this line especially: "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, saying ay-oh..."!


Like a reminder for me to hang in there during those off-key days and moments. And we can surely always use some laughs to lighten things up. 

"Just love me"

"You scream at me every day, I feel so loved!" trilled the eldest, after a full day for us, among more long days this week packed with afterschool activities that happened to come altogether. 


Actually I'm not sure if he was saying that 'coz he was still delirious from his scouts campout over the weekend. He was also muttering stuff like, how nice it was to see a laptop again, and "I can't believe I HAVE a bed to sleep on!"!


If you know this son of mine, he's a bit like Mo Willem's pigeon. The pigeon who wants to drive the bus -- with his "No fair!" and "But I have my dreams, you know" and "I don't get to do anything!" (BIG FAT LIE) ;p

"What should I do with you?" I gasped out loud. It was more of a rhetorical question. You know, the cries of this drama exasperated mama -- over how impossible the three kids can be. The youngest has her share of "No way, never ever!" when she acts out also, not just the older two. Being mom is a tough job! What should I do with them? 


"Just love me," came the son's reply. Short and sweet.


Not like I don't love each one of them, so very much. And I don't mean we don't give them consequences. Or we stop learning how to communicate with each other. I certainly hope they know me more than just their screaming mommy (yikes)!

But while it's true that the busyness doesn't really let us "feeling" moms sit around and be down for long, it's this that helped me GET. ON. WITH. IT...  

Just love them; love them for who they are! 

My tot, tyke, and tween-going-on-teen -- I am so wonderfully blessed with, to be their mom.

***

From cub to scout.  Jon joined a scouts troop last month, his choice to take cubscouts to the next level, with our support. It's a heavy commitment, not just a heavy backpack he has there. "Look who's a happy camper?!"  he chirped, and is looking forward to more outdoor fun than the two campouts so far, that was great his dad squeezed out time to take him for a start before the son will go for them on his own already. These, among other activities that keep his two sibs and me on our feet also.