Field Days and Recitals

It's time for Field Day 14!  This is the day the kids look forward to, where you don't have to go to classes, instead going outside to run around, listen to music, and just generally have a good time.  Check, check, and check.  Madison did have a good time, although it was pretty chilly first thing this morning.  Some people were wearing jackets, which is surprising considering how close we are to summer.  Madison dressed in layers, and wore a great big smile.

And so our busy weekend begins, this morning with a field day.  The school's field day had a theme of cowboys and the wild west, complete with these fancy yellow t-shirts.  Mommy put beads on the one that Madison wore.

As you can see, there were plenty of things to do at Field Day 14, different stations with sack racing, tug-o-wars, hoop tosses and one of Daddy's favorites, the parachute.

Daddy was able to drop by and see Madison today, following her group around from place to place.  I took plenty of pictures, some of which had Madison and her friends posing for.

It was a short visit for Daddy, but it was clear that Madison was having a great time with her friends.  Her teacher even got involved in the tug-o-war, helping the girls have a victory or two with the team events.

Only one more week of first grade to go.  The kids can sense it:  summer is on the way, and that's exciting.  But Madison confessed that she'll be a little sad to say goodbye to her friends this year.  Her friends - the one that were in class with her last year as well - were all sad at the end of the year last year too.  So it's a "everyone's sad" sort of thing, but it is bittersweet, because summer is a lot of fun too.

Speaking of lots of fun, the big thing after school today was the Music Recital!

It's the Magic of Music, and here's Madison playing her solo part flawlessly.  It's the song, "Stately Gavotte."  I knew what "stately" means, but not "gavotte."  You might not know either, so here goes:  the gavotte (also gavot or gavote) orginated as a French folk dance, taking its name from Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated.  See?  You learn something every day!

She's been practicing this one song a few times each day, getting quicker and quicker with it.  The other piece she was working on was her group number, where she tackled the solfege of "Puppet Parade."  Here's a photo of some of the kids playing together.

But the magic didn't end there.  There were also plenty of songs to sing, which our young magician musicians lined up to sing rather well.

The costumes looked very nice.  Madison brought a white shirt and black pants, but Mrs. Pam provided the capes, canes and top hats.  The end result was a magical performance!

Ta-da!  Everyone had their cameras rolling to capture their child's performance, and all of the kids did rather well.  It's been a great group of friends - these children have been together for three years now, each one of them above a student of Mrs. Pam's since an early age.  And they all played rather well.  Mrs. Pam noted that the average age a person starts to play the piano is eight years old.  Madison is not even eight yet, and she can already play a few pieces rather well.

Mrs. Pam has been a wonderful teacher, giving lessons on playing as well as teaching many other concepts about music and instruments around the world.  It's been a thrill to be in her class, and we're of course excited to continue next year with more on the piano.

One recital down, one to go!  Time to get back to work for Daddy though - he's balancing all this and work on this Sunday's skit.  It's going to be an incredible weekend!