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Molly was selected to attend the Junior Summer Strings Institute put on by the National Philharmonic this year. This is a week long summer camp put on by folks from the National Philharmonic (who play at the Strathmore in Bethesda). Last year, Molly was in the Prep Institute (for 4th-6th graders), but this year she moved up to the Junior Institute (for 6th-10th graders). They only take really advanced students, so Molly was excited to be selected.

She had a great week working on lots of skills and some really challenging music. They put on two concerts at the end of the week for families to attend. Thanks to Grams and Aunt Caroline for joining us. Here's Molly with her Chamber Ensemble performing in the afternoon.

The evening concert was the full orchestra concert. Molly it very seriously, as you can see from her sticking out her tongue at me.

And here’s the full evening concert.

Here’s Molly and her entourage after the second concert (Aunt Caroline was unable to stay for the second concert, and we failed to get a picture at the first).

After the concert, we went to The Baked Bear for ice cream sandwiches. This place lets you choose two fresh baked cookies or brownies (fresh like still on the cookie sheet) and an ice cream flavor to make you a delicious ice cream sandwich. It’s as good as it sounds. I cannot understand why these places aren’t everywhere. These places should be as plentiful as fro-yo.

For the first time ever, our 4-person family formed a band for worship at church. August is family worship month at Glen Mar, and we were asked to do the Anthem and the Offertory at the 8:00 and 9:30 service. We were happy to do it, and can't wait to do it again!

Leah had her first cello recital. She’s been playing for less than a year, and is doing really well.

Here are all the cellists from Leah’s recital. She was the youngest and smallest.

Leah really likes her cello teacher, Mrs. Jen.

Molly’s in two different orchestras at school, so she wasn’t done after her Symphony concert. Five days after her Symphony Orchestra concert, she performed with the Concert Orchestra, a strings group made up of sixth graders.

The music is great, but the best part of the video is Molly’s reaction after the 5th song a bit after 12:55, so make sure you don’t miss that.

Also, if you’re trying to find Molly throughout the video and having trouble, it’s not your fault. In order to give the kids different perspectives, Mr. Denne had them switch seats around throughout the performance. Molly was happy to get to her final seat up front for the last two songs.

Four days after their performance in Hershey, the Symphony Orchestra performed their Spring concert.

Molly’s middle school sent 8 busses worth of kids to Hershey, Pennsylvania for Music in the Parks. While the 6th grade groups did not make the trip, Molly got to go with Symphony Orchestra, which has kids from all grades and meets before school at 6:50 to practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I chaperoned the trip. Molly and I had to be at her school at 4:30am to organize ourselves, our stuff, and load into the busses for the trip. We arrived in Hershey a little after 7 and split up to go to 3 different local schools where the different groups would perform. Then the kids performed all morning.

After performing in the morning, the kids changed clothes and headed to Hershey Park for some fun. Here’s our group of 6th grade girls.

They played around in the water park, rode a couple coasters, ate some food, and had a great time. I think their favorite ride was Tidal Force.

After the fun at the park, we headed into the arena for the awards ceremony. Molly’s group took 1st place in their division, as did several other groups from her school.

We then boarded the busses and headed home. We got back to our house a bit before 9pm, exhausted and ready for bed.

Leah played her cello with the Beginner Orchestra at school. Almost all the 3rd graders in the school are in the orchestra, and they sounded great (as did the 4th and 5th graders)! Congratulations to Leah for a great concert and for being the 1st chair cello!

Leah's only been playing cello for a few months, but she's already doing great! She participated in the county-wide Solo and Ensemble Festival and did a fantastic job!

Leah and her choir sang again this past Sunday.

After watching Leah sing, Molly headed off to Sunday School. We were surprised to see her a few minutes later serving as the acolyte. Apparently the girl who was supposed to do it didn’t show, so Molly was recruited on her way to Sunday School.

Leah sang with her choir in February.