This is the beginning of a stressful day, and a stress-free (fingers crossed!) summer.

They are so handsome!!!!

Tal is another story. Tal has kind of horsed around, as he does NOT like to practice. He nearly gave me a heart attack. And his teacher gave him a Very.Very.Hard.Song. The Merry Farmer doesn't sound that complicated? But it is. The fingering is horrid. And it is justplaintough to play. This was all complicated with my being sick and going away right at the end. So we had extra practices and rehearsals and made him eat, sleep, and live at the piano (not REALLY, it just felt like it) for a few days.

So he is his father's son. Our teacher pulled some other students into the room on a hunch, and sure enough? The kid performs better with an audience. Darn him. So he practices some more, and we show up (early, for one more rehearsal), and guess what? He NAILS IT. Not as in, he does a pretty good job, or only a couple mistakes, or whatever. HE NAILED IT. He figured out the staccatto (Daddy says stilletto) notes and everything. He is pretty good, and I am so proud!

Each of these people played for about ten minutes. OMG. And some left early...there were MORE!

Okay, let's just say that kid on top right with the silver shirt? You're going to see him again. Like, on a CD. SURPRISE TALENT. As Travis said, the shirt was on purpose. The three little kids in green shirts? Are brothers, and yellow shirt is a brother, too. (And apparently there is ANOTHER brother, and another sibling on the way!) But I digress. The four cuties had big personalities and they wrapped up the recital (yay) with a quartet--eight little hands on one piano. The mom was beaming. So cute. Of course I'm searching for the music and trying to figure out how to work that out here, right? It was adorable. Another brother & sister (in the purple) did a cute duet, complete with clapping and stuff. Several students did their own arrangements--impressive, and Daniel's jazz proteges are always fun to listen to. Oh, and there was a grandpa learning jazz, too! I guess he opted out of the group photo, but he was really, really good, and seemed to be having a blast with it.

Everyone did a great job, and as always, Danielle and Daniel put on a sweet, meaningful time for the students. Thanks! And now I shall take the summer OFF. That was super stressful, and my little Reagan wants to start taking lessons this fall. Heaven help me.

I always find wacky pictures on my camera (when I can find my camera), but this one really cracked me up. I honestly didn't change anything here, not even the order taken. These were taken by Riley. I love, love, love close-up detail shots, but rarely have the guts to take one--I always do the boring centered 5x7 crop.

Whenever I see something like this? I really wonder what they will grow up to be.

Why is "Silly" my most common title? Oh.
Left: Tea party, with real chocolate milk (nightmare clean-up) and goldfish (thankfully not real, but still nightmare clean-up).
Below: Bought them sunglasses, which they had to wear for the rest of the day, including dinner. Yes, we had pancakes for dinner.

...got with the theme! We had barbecue beef (slow cookers ROCK), corn on the cob, salad, garlic bread, root beer (the kids' favorite part), backyard bug-shaped brownies (those mysteriously disappeared--the then kids went berzerk), and a key lime pie, because Gramma isn't picky about cake.

And peanuts in the cans and veggies on star plates (I love holiday stuff) and red, white, & blue decoratiions all over. It was so much fun. Christy, Tyler, and Dylan came over, but the kids mostly just ran around and played. It was a really relaxing time, and I haven't been sure if we would ever relax at a family gathering here.

And that is my new favorite summertime meal--summer Crock cooking rocks.