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Leah's team, the Quarantween Readers, had a great time in Battle of the Books.

I was worried she was going to miss out on this fun experience since it was over Zoom instead of in person, but it was great! In some ways, it was better than the in-person experience. The girls were very into the competition, and spent every spare moment dancing and laughing. Afterward, Leah said it was one of the best days of her life.

Our girls have participated in the county's Solo & Ensemble Festival most years, but this year's was very different. It was held over Zoom, and it went really well. In the elementary school festival, Leah played great. Thanks to Jen Retterer and Mr. Henley for some great teaching, and Joanne Alme for recording some great accompaniment.

And here she is playing the song, recorded after the festival.

A week later was the countywide virtual Solo & Ensemble Festival for middle school, and Molly played Concerto in Dm (transcribed from Concerto in A Minor, Op. 3 No. 6 for violin), 1st Movement on viola. Thanks to Margaret Lang for excellent teaching, Ben Denne for great teaching and providing the accompaniment track, and Chris Jenkins of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for some very helpful feedback.

Separately from playing for the adjudicator, we recorded her playing the piece for all of you to view here.

Leah turns 11 this week. That should have meant her big Harry Potter party, but we all agreed that was a bad idea with the pandemic. So we delayed it till next year. After all, with a September birthday, she wouldn't actually start at Hogwarts till next year anyway. But things have calmed down enough that we decided a small, outdoor gathering was OK. Leah had 3 friends over for some fun on the back porch. They played a couple games (Telestrations and Uno Attack), decorated cupcakes, ate cupcakes and ice cream, opened presents, and did some rather slow grass sledding. Leah said it was great!

In this week's installment of Praise From Home, Leah takes the lead with a song of her choice - Unstoppable God. And this is as close as we’re going to get to having 3 kids.

And now the second in our series of praise songs. This time, Molly takes the lead in a song chosen by her.

This will hopefully be the first in a set of praise songs from home by our family. The girls are now able to really contribute to praise songs, and it is awesome! This is the first praise song Leah has played on piano (and the first song she's played from a chord sheet), and she did great! I hope it warms your heart as we're all stuck at home.

Leah had a very busy concert evening in January. The evening began with Leah singing with the school Chorus.

After singing with the chorus, Leah transitioned to the stage to play her cello in the Advanced Orchestra made up of fourth and fifth graders.

Leah still wasn’t done, though. Next, she played her cello in the Symphony Orchestra as well.

Nice job, Leah!

For Halloween this year, Molly decided to be Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles series. So, she’s a sci-fi take on Cinderella, where Cinderella is a cyborg mechanic with a robotic hand and foot. Leah is a ghoul, and even got red bands on her braces this week to look bloody.

The orchestra/band director at Leah’s school held a practice night for parents to come and learn how to help their students practice. He asked a few students to come demonstrate their instrument for the parents to show proper technique. Leah was selected to be the example cello, and was very happy to help out.

This week is Kindness Week at Leah’s school. Leah was asked to be part of a small ensemble to play as folks arrived at school to kick off the week.

One of the songs they played was a rock medley, including part of We Will Rock You. For part, the violins stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the cellos took the lead. Then later the cellos stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the violins took the lead.

You can also see here that the cellos and basses struggled with the morning sun in their eyes, some resorting to trying to hide behind their stands to block it.

They had quite a large crowd gather to listen before school. The crowd only dispersed when the Assistant Principal came to tell them they all needed to get to class as the bell was about to ring. Nice job, Leah!