Day 1973. Last night I could tell the difference having Tammy and Emmy in bed with us, back in our small bed compared to the large bed in the hotel. Sammy was the first one up, as usual, and Randy shouting to him woke up Emmy next to me. The noise then also woke up Tammy. Soon Randy got up and made breakfast for the kids.
I had set my alarm for 8:45 am, and it woke me up. I got ready and got the kids dressed nicely for the special occasion. Just after 9:15 am we left the house.
It was actually just below freezing and snowing which was suprising. We took the subway downtown, then walked to the kids' music school. We got there just over 10 minutes early, the first ones to arrive, and it was still locked. Another family arrived just after us. We didn't wait long until the office administrator opened the gate for us and let us in. He said to still wait in the hallway, as they were getting the room ready. We took our coats and shoes off, and soon it was possible to walk into their biggest room, where they have a very good and very expensive and famous grand piano made by Bösendorfer.
We sat down in the last row, as I can get up and film the kids from there without worrying about blocking anyone's view. Sammy wanted to sit in his own chair. Soon a teacher arrived and went to the front with the kids to do some warmups. Emmy missed it because he was in the bathroom. When he returned, the teacher took him and the other performing kids to another room to continue the warm-up.
In the meantime the room was filling up with people and ended up being pretty full. When it was time to start, the teacher who had taken the kids to the back returned with them and took them to the stage, where they had chairs set up for them that they sat down on. They had handed out programs to everyone, and two kids from a class lower than theirs were first. They sang and played the piano.
Then it was our kids' turn, together with a girl from the same class but a different day. We have met her the two times the kids had a make-up class during the week with her. The girl had chosen a different song than our kids, but somehow that information got lost, and suddenly our kids had to do the same song as her, not the one they had picked. Well, we had not practiced that song, and they had not sung it in a while. During the second part they had forgotten some words, but they did well.
Then it was time to play the piano, and Emmy was first. They had to move the bench closer to the piano so he could reach it. He's been able to play the song really well for many weeks, even really fast, but he had to be careful to play a quarter note and a rest instead of a half note, and so he tried extra hard to make those rests, pauses, which ended up being just a little bit too long. But he didn't make any mistakes. When he was done, he stayed seated, and the teacher had to come and make him get up and reminded him to bow, which he did.
Tammy was next. She sat down and played it an octave higher than Emmy. There are a lot of keys on that big piano so it's not as easy to see where the middle is. But she played her song perfectly and even swayed in rhythm, which was impressive. When she was done, she got up and did a quick bow and quickly jumped back up to the stage to sit back down.
More students followed, and they were getting older and older. When they were all done, all the performers were asked up on the stage, and they each got a ribbon. That was a first! Then we got to take a picture of them all. The director had also said a few words in the beginning and the end. She founded the school and developed the whole curriculum that is really great. I recommend the school to anyone with small kids.
The recital was over, and it wasn't even 11 am yet. Sammy had asked in the beginning whether Santa Claus was coming as that's what happened last time we were there. I thought it was funny. After the recital, we got to go to the hallway for snacks and drinks, and they all ate and drank a bit. I talked briefly with one teacher. Their current teacher wasn't even there. And then I got to talk to the founder and director and had a great conversation with her.
Originally we had planned to go to McDonald's, but it was early and they had just had plenty of snacks, so we decided to go home. On the way we got off at a bigger station where they have a supermarket that is open on Sundays, as we hardly had any food at home, only having returned home from our vacation yesterday. The supermarket was very busy, but we were able to buy bread and some fruit. And Emmy was begging for us to buy Nutella, as he had discovered it on our vacation and loved it. And we found and bought it, much to his delight.
Back home, I put two lasagnas into the oven to cook, and by about 1 pm they were done, and we sat down to eat. After lunch, I turned my computer on and prepared for my 4 pm student. Yesterday a student had contacted me that they absolutely needed a lesson because of an exam coming up, so I made an exception to do the lesson on a Sunday.
Soon I was getting very tired and knew I had to lie down for a nap. The kids were all on their tablets, and Randy himself was falling asleep. I closed my door and lay down. However, the kids were making a lot of noise so I didn't get much sleep for the longest time. Only just before I had to get up did Randy take them downstairs to play. It's the second winter the heating downstairs is not working, and today it was 16.8 degrees Celsius there.
I taught from 4 to 5 pm, then I did some more work before going downstairs to do piano practice with Tammy and Emmy. They still have two weeks of lessons before the semester break. Emmy willingly came downstairs to practice, while Tammy did not want to come. But I could tell they had not played any of their other songs all week, as they didn't play them as well as they used to. So it was good we started practicing again today. And we also did music theory today, as we had the time.
Back upstairs I went to the kitchen to make their dinner. Tammy and Emmy ate, but Sammy kept saying "later". He then ate all his food in the bathtub. Emmy had already had bread wih Nutella (a hazelnut-spread) after lunch, and he wanted it again at night, and he got it as dessert. I prayed for Sammy and put him to bed, then I read a good-night story to Tammy and Emmy, prayed for them, and they went to brush their teeth and then went to bed. I then went to the kitchen to get my ready-to-eat salad I had bought at the supermarket today. After I was done eating, I downloaded my pictures to work on them, then wrote my report. Now it's 1 am and time to go to bed. I have an extremely busy Monday tomorrow, much busier than usual.
