Day 1986. We all left the house at 10 am this morning to go to their last piano class of the semester. Yesterday our friend brought some clothes over, and Tammy wanted to wear one of the hats right away, as you could make the ears stand up, which she thought was really funny. We rode the subway downtown, then walked to the music school.
At 10:30 their class started. For some reason just one of the other 3 students was there today. And because it was the last class, they just played all the songs of the semester again. But it went way too slowly for Emmy again, as they'd first sing the song, then sing the notes, then play it with the right hand, then the left hand, and only then with both hands. They also got to choose a song to play up front each. Emmy did his concert song again, Hot Cross Buns, and Tammy the one she did last time, Sea-saw Motion. The other girl first played Hot Cross Buns, then Emmy, and the contrast was really stark, as our kids played the songs so very well while the girl struggled.
By the time the teacher called them up front to do a singing song, Emmy was in a very bad place already, not wanting to go up front. I had to go with him. He then got into the song, and I was able to sit back down, while he was fine again.
The teacher did a story in the end, then it was time for the final sticker of the semester. And as it was the last class of the semester, they also got to choose a gift out of the treasure box. Both Tammy and Emmy picked the same - a candy bracelet. Then Emmy went back to the teacher and asked whether she could pick something for Sammy and brought him some chocolate. That was really sweet. Sammy had stayed in class for the first two thirds of it and had had fun.
At the very end, the teacher handed out the certificates and report cards. Tammy had perfect scores, while Emmy had lower scores in "Listening" and "Focusing". The teacher also wrote a few lines about each one of them. We took a picture of the students with their certificates and the teacher.
It was time to get dressed and leave - it will be two weeks before we'll be back for the next semester. We walked to the subway and got off after three stops to go to the McDonald's there for lunch. We had a good time, but were under time pressure. At 12:45 pm we left, rode the subway for one stop, then walked a little.
I had registered us for a one-time event at 1 pm, visiting the facilities of the harness horse racing organisation in Vienna. I thought it was just the horses in the stables, but it was much more. We all met in front of a school, where we had to pay. I was surprised by the big number of people showing up. We walked to the facilities, where they split us into three groups. Our group started in a room, where there were lots of throphies and pictures on the wall, and the guide told us a lot about harness racing. The kids were a little bored there. Then we went up the stairs, where they had an old fashioned board room with a long table and old furniture and some interesting artifacts, like a voting machine that the kids tried out. We also got to go on the balcony from where you could overlook the racing grounds.
Then the time had finally come to go to the stables. I was surprised by how scared Emmy was of the horses and put him on my shoulders, but I had to stay away from the horses. We had brought carrots to feed them, and Tammy fed quite a few carrots to the horses. Sammy was just a little scared, but Randy helped him feed the horses as well. In the end even Emmy worked up the courage to feed a carrot to a horse. We then left the stables, and the kids looked at all the horseshoes they were selling there. Then we left for good.
We walked back to the subway and rode it home. Originally we had planned to go to church, but then I found out it was a special weekend so that there was no service today. So we all rested at first, and I got a little nap in, though not a good one as the kids and Randy made lots of noise. Then I got up, and we still had an experiment box we hadn't done, so we did the three experiments together. Then Emmy wanted to show me how the game works they had received from my friend yesterday. I watched them for a while, then let them play by themselves. Instead I turned my computer on and scanned the papers from the piano class. By the time I was done, it was time to go to the kitchen and make their dinner, which started our evening routine.
