Saturday, August 29, 2009

Two winners.

The challenge started in the beginning of the summer, in July, to be specific, whether you call it the beginning of the summer or not.

Ivana's and mine music teacher together with her Mom, who is a piano teacher as well, announced the competition for "The most hours practiced student", followed by the ice cream party.

Ivana is pretty competitive at heart, I should say, and she took up on the challenge with a lot of vigor! She had practiced her violin almost daily, sometimes even twice a day. I was trying to stay on track with my praticing, taking advantage of quiet time in the evenings when everybody went to sleep.

During the day time I used to enjoy playing the piano, but now that the baby is all over the place, crawling, getting up and reaching to the piano keys, he does not let me practice. I end up picking him up, holding him in fron of the piano, so that he "plays", and even then when I put him down on the floor hoping he'd have enough, well, he had not! He wants more. So, as lond as I am by the piano, he is there, too. I've learned to kind of pull my left leg forward and let him use the base keys, meanwhile trying to play the tune on the rest of the piano. Well, the melodies that we are producing together are far from being enjoyable! So, now I practice in the evenings. I'd put the piano on the soft pedal, close the door to the craft room, sit by the piano and gaze into the black hole that is in front of me (the dark window) and enjoy the tunes.

We had to put the minutes we'd practiced together for the big finale! The ice cream party!
In the morning Ivana found out that I had a bit more minutes than her, so she was not going to let me be first and picked up her violin and added another 30 minutes to her practice sheet, almost sure she had got me then!

There were about 20 students altogether at the mini summer ice cream recital and everybody was supposed to memorize a piece, perform it in front of the goup and then we had to announce the minutes practiced.

I went on to be the first at performing. This way I would have it behind me and didn't have to wait for my hands to start sweating (smile!). Ivana wanted to be the last to perform!

It was so wonderful to participate in an event like that! I was on the cloud nine! I felt alive and was so happy to be a part of a "musical community"! Let it be very small, young musical community, but my dream is coming true! I am learning to play the piano and enjoying every minute of it!

Ivana turned out to be the second in minuts, anyway. She got total of 1,528 minutes! I was very proud of her! But I was proud of myself as well. I got total of 1,535 minutes. We got both collection of classical CDs and"Symphony" chocolate as prizes. The third runner up had around 1,000 minutes. We set a very high standard for the rest of the students, and sure learned a great deal in just two months of very intense practicing.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Happy B-Day!

Ivana and Tata are sharing their B-day today!
Happy birthday to both of you!

Summer fun.

There are no words needed. Simple summer fun!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Wild blueberries.


Until this year we never have suspected that we've been living in a Wild Blueberries Paradise Land! Oh, my! This year they were so abundant all over the place! No need to drive anyway, no need to pay even a penny! Right by the lake there is one bush and almost everyday we were able to pick a few handfulls and ooops ... straight into our mouths!

The other day we went on a family wild blueberry picking adventure! In a little while we had all our containers filled, our tummies filled and the bushes somewhat empty.
The berries are not as sweet as the cultured ones, but it didn't bother us at all! The sourness was so refreshing and the aroma was so strong that we wanted more! And there was plenty!

We decided we wanted to freeze a part of the harvest, but with all those peaches and backing and more eating, there was nothing left to freeze. Oh, well! They are more valuable fresh, anyway. So, the kids got their"brain food" as Mirek called the blueberries. I am expecting them to be extremely smart this coming home school year!

Thursday, August 06, 2009

It's the Peaches season!

I remember being a child and approaching the peek season for certain fruits and veggies when your body is craving the vitamins and your mouth is trying to remember the taste. We didn't have the luxury of having the produce available all year around. Most of the fruits and veggies were seasonal. And when they were in season, boy!!! did they taste great! I still can't stand the plastic taste or no taste at all of those items reminding the fruits and veggies from the supermarket. Shiny, all sized up without any flavor or real taste. Brrrr ... Give me the real thing! Let it be once a year. I'll be fine! I'll eat them non stop until I want to look at them no more... till next year.
And that is what we 've been doing lately. Eating peaches till we can't look at them no more! It is the season and they are unbelievable! We are fortunate to have a local farmer's stand not that far from us and that's where we've been getting our fresh produce. Getting the peaches graded "second" did not spoil our appetite. The better ones we gobble, well, the kids gobble them up almost like a swarm of locusts, and with the more damaged fruits we experiment by baking and cooking with them. We have called it "the art of turning the second grade peaches into the first grade pies and tarts". We have baked a lot of pies already and I think we are about the have it for the season.
When Mirek brought a box full of peaches yesterday the girls were complaining, "Peaches, again? Why didn't you buy some apples instead?"
But when I suggested baking there eyes lit up again. They really enjoy spending time in the kitchen.