scholarship audition

chanda had a scholarship audition today. but she wasn't nervous at all because we know she can't get it anyway . . ! she needs to be in the chamber group, along with orchestra, in order to be up for winning it. so she just went and had fun playing the latest piece she's working on.

it's the same piece she did for music hour a month or so ago. today she came out of the audition with a big smile on her face. it went well and i felt relieved, because this piece has not been easy for her to learn! she plays it again this tuesday at her end of year recital.

under the lilacs

the japanese cherry blossom festival is happening this weekend at the brooklyn botanic garden. we actually won't be able to attend, so we decided to visit this morning instead. korrina, too. it was nice to all go together. i don't think i'd been to the garden in over a year . . . i was really going just to see and smell the lilacs! the lilacs are my favorite . . except when the roses are in bloom!

we all took turns taking pictures . . i took the photos of them . . and they took all the flower photos shown here.

it felt so wonderful to just lie on the grass with eyes closed and smell the lilacs.

take your child to work day . .

morgana and chanda left early this morning to spend the day at greg's work. his office has been doing this for awhile now, and it seems to have become national! usa today had a nice article with first lady michele obama hosting a day at the white house, and answering white house workers' childrens' questions. you can read the article here.

i requested lunch pictures!

we always enjoy eating in the time warner cafeteria as the food is good and the prices aren't too high.

the cafeteria is always a bit more exciting to us than to greg.

korrina stayed home to finish her lab report. she redid the experiment to make sure her findings were accurate.

her experiment measured the rate of a chemical reaction, working with hydrogen chloride (toilet bowl cleaner) and calcium carbonate (an antacid tablet).

i managed to get a good dinner of chile on the table when they got home. we didn't have a lot of time, since morgana had a guitar recital to run off to.

but first we had to eat and explore the goody bags greg's office sent home with them. enclosed in a really nice canvas tote bag was a little camera, a rechargeable radio, a puzzle book, an umbrella, a basketball, a children's time inc. almanac, and a group picture of the day. and i got to hear about everything they did: morgana loved helping with the little ones (and was rather amused at the rambunctiousness of the many little boys that were there); chanda's highlight was filming an interview with one of greg's colleagues.

for helping with the little ones (there were twenty eight of them!) morgana and the two other teenage chaperones each received a gift certificate to amazon.

the final event of the day . . the guitar showcase recital. morgana had a solo, a duet piece, and a quartet piece. luckily, the rain held off on the way home (it always seems to rain for guitar concerts).

too darn hot!

the trees are green. everything is blooming. and it was hot hot hot today! 81 degrees!

everyone's sidewalk gardens are filled with tulips and pansies and daffodils.

chanda and morgana played a right angle math game from morgana's cosmic calculator math curriculum, and korrina went out to coney island with her friend after writing her chemistry lab introduction. i managed to get in a load of laundry and take chanda to her violin lesson. we found out today that her class recital is next tuesday!!!

easter sunday

we attended easter services at the montauk community church. they have the only stained glass window i've ever seen with an ocean scene . .

after all the rain yesterday, the dandelions were out everywhere. they were in nana and nonno's yard, and in the church yard. korrina decided to go home to take care of the cats and work on her lab report. she was worried about getting it done on time for thursday, since she had more stage work to do before then.

we also visited aunt evie's grave on the hill, to check on the daffodils and take a picture for aunt cindy.

we then went to hither hills to swing and walk along the water.

and to read our books . .

and play tetherball . . hmmmm . . they went to play a little longer for the camera . .

and chanda ended up getting bopped on the head . .

maybe it's more fun to run and dance in the sand . . and walk along the shore.

we went home to nana and nonno's to get some yard work done. we sawed off a large branch of the holly tree, and clipped the sides and top . . trying to turn it into a bush. we also clipped the bushes next to it. everything was growing into each other. it looks much neater now, and we felt good about our work for the day! after all the clipping, we thought it looked rather cute! i hope it does well now, and i need to make sure and prune every autumn.

surprisingly, after this busy day, there was still time before dinner to jump rope . .

and just have fun playing in the rain.

a saturday before easter

today was a very rainy day! beautifully grey, brown and wet.

daffodils are so pretty just popping up out of the grass like yellow jack in the boxes.

chanda set everything up for pysanky work this morning. korrina had her breakfast while we began working. nana had bought eggs for us to dye, so we all got busy.

chanda and aunt kathy enjoyed showing nana how to do the pysanky work.

meanwhile, the rain kept pouring down outside! it was cozy working around the table.

a mixture of decorated easter eggs just waiting for the easter bunny to hide them.

a rainy day jam sesson . .



(morgana's book)

(greg's book)

(chanda and morgana's book)

these are some of the books we read on this rainy day. the one directly above is a book i found at the library's book fair. all of us enjoyed reading it!

when we return home, morgana has a special guitar showcase recital. she brought her guitar with her to get in some practice time.

nana kept busy in the kitchen while listening. she always enjoys the girls' practice times.

the table is ready for the holiday dinner.

our feast featured salad, free range chicken, a honey ham, green bean casserole with onions, and new red potatoes sauteed in butter. for dessert we had fruit pie and lemon meringue pie.

nana has always liked hiding gifts for us at easter time. korrina is putting on the lovely blue sea star earrings nana found for her in one of the stores on gosman's dock this past winter. she always gets to the end of season sales.

aunt kathy put together a lovely care package for nana and nonno: tea, cheese and cookies.

and then it was time to put out the easter baskets . .

and put out a carrot for the bunny . . and go to sleep.