WG's first violin recital

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Originally uploaded by kgawne78

WG had her first violin recital Thursday. Considering the many many factors that could have proven disastrous it went pretty well. It was at 6:30 which is not a good time for WG. She was not hungry enough to eat a good dinner before we left the house even though I *knew* there was no way her little tummy would last the recital. She also fell asleep in the car on the way over. This is bad news because when WG is tired enough to fall asleep in the car she is incredibly cranky and uncooperative when she is woken. When I saw that she had conked out I almost turned the car around and headed home. But she did well despite the hurdles. She played the first part of Twinkle (so, "twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are"). She got very upset because a little boy who went before her played the same thing that she was going to play. She told me that she wasn't going to play Twinkle, she was going to play the "boat song." (Which wound up sounding remarkably like the first part of Twinkle....) When she walked onto the stage and turned to see the people in the audience she laid down face down on the floor and covered her head. Miss Maryanne convinced her to play and once she was on her feet she did a great job.

Her heart still beats strong for the tuba, though. Before the recital someone asked her what she was going to play (meaning what piece) and Alice said, "I'm going to play the tuba!"

The Granola Recipes

I always do something special for my section at the end of the symphony season. We always have a good group in the viola section and they make my job as principal easy. The past few years I've made fudge but this year in an effort to be healthier I decided to make granola to give. I still made some fudge (hey, if you were expecting fudge and you didn't get any wouldn't you be disappointed???) but not the five or six kinds I've made in the past. The granola was a huge hit. Everyone has said it is the best granola they have ever eaten. (Thanks, Dad!)


Here's my father's original recipe:

5 C rolled oats

1 C wheat germ

1 C wheat bran

1/2 C Cream of Wheat

1/4 C sesame seeds

1/4 C sunflower seeds

1/2 C chopped nuts

1 t cinnamon



*Mix all ingredients together in a BIG bowl. Then melt together on the stove: 1/3 C honey, 1/3 C molasses, 1/2 C vegetable oil, 1/2 C peanut butter. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Divide the mixture into 2 large greased baking pans. Bake @300 for 25-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. DO NOT LET IT BURN! Allow to cool. Add dried fruit as desired.



Here is my Gluten Free version (and the version I made for my collegues):

6 C GF oats

1 C pumpkin seeds

1 C sunflower seeds

1/2 C sesame seeds

1 C chopped nuts

(I missed the cinnamon. Whoops!)



For wet ingredients I used 1/2 C natural peanut butter, 1/2 C canola oil, 1/3 C honey and some brown sugar because I didn't have any molasses. I just eyeballed the liquid measurements. The rest of the procedure was the same as Dad's original recipe. When I made it for my collegues I doubled the recipe and used almond butter as well as peanut butter. For fruit I used dried pineapple, Turkish apricots, and craisins. Yum!

Future accountant?

WG has discovered money. And she really really likes it. She has taken over Tim's old bank and is constantly collecting change to stash in it. She knows the names of all the coins although she frequently calls dimes "diamonds." Don't we wish?! She doesn't know values yet. She does understand that work = pay. The symphony shot a commercial for a health insurance company last week and she asked me if they would give me a penny...... I told her that if I was really lucky I'd get a couple pennies.

WG also understands that you need money to buy things. This is where her change hoarding has come in handy. When we are out and she asks for something I have started telling her that we'll have to see if she has enough pennies saved for it when we get home. WG hasn't been pestering me too much lately because she is saving her money to buy a ball with Thomas the Tank Engine on it. She probably has enough to buy it now. I'm not really sure she'll be willing to give up her money for it, though....

Not a baby

WG is growing up. Sometime in the past few months she has morphed from toddler to little girl / preschooler. Physically she's looked like a little girl since before she turned three. WG has always been very very tall. Currently she is just shy of 43 inches tall which puts her at the 50th percentile for a FIVE year old. WG will not turn four until August. Someone asked her how old she was yesterday and she told them that she was five. They said, "Wow! She's tall!" Then I told them that she was three. (For anyone wondering, her weight is doing well. She is still a skinny mini but is at an appropriate weight for her height.) But it's more than her size. She knows how to write letters, how to spell our last name, we've "caught" her reading. Of course, with new skills she is a total turkey and won't ever let on that she knows how to do anything. (Mom, I can hear you laughing all the way from Northern WI. What can I say, she is my kid....) Someone asked her what her name was the other day and she replied with both her first and last name and then spelled her last name. When I asked her to do it later she grinned and said, "PRNULB."

Her intrests have changed as well. She is doing a lot of imagination play with her blue babies, aka the Russian stacking dolls that our friends brought back from their trip home. I broke down this week and put together a sewing box for her. I was tired of fighting her for straight pins. She loves to "sew." While I sew she sits near me on the floor pinning scraps of fabric together to make anything from a blanket for her friend to a jacket for the cat. These projects always require many many pins. WG is very pleased with her sewing box which includes pins, a tape measure, a hem marker, buttons, a zipper, some elastic, a bunch of really wild fabric that she picked from the remnant bin, etc. She did inform me, though, that she needed her own sewing machine. I told her we'd consider it when she could sit in a chair and have her feet touch the floor.

Along with the sewing notions, I gave her some beads and string. What a hit. I had forgotten that girls can sit for a looooong time making jewelry out of beads, embroidery thread, etc. We have many beautiful necklaces to show for her efforts.

RIP Gordon

We needed a veggie for dinner. Gordon was on the counter. I looked at him, he tried to run, but as he IS a squash he didn't get very far. He was delicious.

WG did not completely freak out but she wouldn't eat him either. I guess I can understand that.

Happy Father's Day, Mom!

This is what WG greeted me with when I got home from my church gig yesterday. A few minutes later she handed me a picture she drew for me and said, "Happy Birthday, Mom!" It was a nice day.