family music day

this is what we did on sun! unfortunately, i did wake up thinking that i might be dying, the tooth nigglish hurt had turned into a tsunami of pain. wasn’t quite sure of the up and down of world, so heavily self medicated with everything we had in the cabinet, slept until 10 mins before we were due to leave – that is my excuse for the fact that only later on in the day did i notice that the top was burgundyish and the bottom brown! oh well!! [have done worse].

We got to park fairly close – woohoo! and children didn’t moan TOO much about having the window down while it rained… They were happy listening to salut serge. i was a bit doubtful about this french purchase, but both girls join in happily, and for bb to spontaneously join in [when its not katy, as apparently only katy can do french - though yes, i know she does it far better!!] has to be a good resource!

it also seems to be the cheapest i have ever seen it currently!! Anyway, we parked really close and went in and got organised. SB was keen to show bb where everything was from holiday orchestra. Our first session was percussion, which we all really loved – would def recommend! so we bashed rhythms with a v good group leader. All the group leaders were good in their own way, but he had class control without you noticing it off to a really fab T! we have a pic of him, as SB and chris recognise him – I don’t. we overran that session, and then moved onto a short cake break before making our own instrument. another fab session!! After lots of careful thought, SB made a combined percussion and stringed instrument, i only suggested how to close off some of the opening so that bigger sound. She was v happy. i assisted BB – in lacky role! i didn’t always get it right, and she was still fragile, but luckilly we pulled it together, and we have a rattling and shaking drum she is happy with. phew!

At lunch it became clear that BB was not so much fragile as not quite well. a quick conflab – we had only 1 car and SB desperate for her gamelan session – saw me take first bB watch, colouring in and drinking plenty of fluids, whilst SB was introduced to the wind section. All the sessions were fully booked, and i was feeling bad, when overheard a parent tell her daughter they would ask if any gaps so i oftered ours, and the girl was so excited and happy i let her be BB. I had arranged the sessions before gina introduced SB to the clarinet to see what might take her fancy as an alternative to violin, currently we know it is clarinet! she still enjoyed it! actually, if i had know how low the bar was for performance skills, i would have popped her in with performance woodwind with the recorder [hadn't thought of recorder!] instead. BB was fine until i left her to go with SB to gamelan, when she was v shrieky momentarily. Sb loved playing the gamelan, and as there were a couple of dropouts, i and a couple of other parents jumped at the chance of joining in too!! me and the dad I sat next to were WAY excited! the musician running it was slightly afeard for the safety of some of the gamelan instruments, as some of the children were younger than i thought they were supposed to be. But it went really well, and the kids each played 3 diff instruments, and us adults 2. [we got to go 2,3,2,3,2,1,2,6 - i should have videoed a bit!]

We went back to join chris and then went in for the concert. it was a good concert, but actually we should have left as BB fell asleep in my arms all hot an bothered, and SB was pooped too. live and learn! would really recommend it to anyone next year. entirely worth the money!! home with more serge, i doped up again as feeling totally dreadful, and i have no idea what happened the rest of the evening?