Nolan and His Cello

 At the beginning of the summer, Nolan attended Orchestra camp for a week.  Now that school has started, he has been going to the middle school every morning so that he can participate in the middle school orchestra where he is learning how to play the cello.  Then he rides a bus back to his school where he continues the rest of his school day.  

When we first signed Nolan up, I wasn't sure that he would enjoy it, but he really does seem to love learning and playing the cello and that has been so fun for us to watch.

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Nolan put on a short concert over the weekend.  

Up to that point, he had not been allowed to use the bow yet as they were learning to play "pizzicato" or just plucking with their fingers while learning notes and where to place their fingers on the strings.

Both of his older sisters were home and were able to hear him.  They both loved it, to say the least!

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I took this picture on Monday when he was using his fingers to pluck the strings once again but he had taught himself two new songs and he had already improved over his weekend performance.

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On Tuesday night, he came home from school and was very excited because he had been given permission to begin playing with their bow.  He was taught how to care for the bow and how to use it on the cello and then he came home and played a couple more songs for us using his new knowledge.  

Here is the link if you want to hear his first song.   

I cannot wait to see how much he improves in the weeks ahead!

Nothing to See Here // Super Hero Edition

 Nothing to see here... just another normal day with Nolan.  

Because really, doesn't everyone have a piano playing Spider Man at their house?  If not, maybe you should.

The Great Penguin Presentation

Nolan was suppose to have his Penguin Presentation last Thursday morning in the STEM lab but due to the snow cancellations, it was postponed until Friday morning.  Then we had a two hour delay on Friday morning so they told the students to go to their rooms and then they'd all come back down to the STEM lab where parents would come in and join them.  When I walked in, I saw Nolan and his partner Milo standing patiently in front of their poster board over on the other side of the room.  Nolan seemed to be looking around the room searching for me and as soon as he saw me, he got the biggest smile on his face.  

I tried to be very "professional" when I approached so that they could do their verbal presentation and then I asked a few questions giving them time to give me their answers.  They both were really prepared and did a great job.  I was actually quite impressed with the work of these two first graders.  

After they did their board presentation, they took me over to the lego robot penguin that they had built and programmed.  Apparently it was suppose to make a penguin call of some sort depending on how they programmed it but I couldn't hear the differences because of all of the noise in the lab.  They seemed excited that it was working though so I guess it was doing what it was suppose to.

Good job boys.  I love to see you learning new things. 

Now it's time to move on to the solar system....

Nolan // Nolanism's

Oh how this boy keeps me busy and laughing!!

On Sunday I was getting ready for church.  Nolan saw me going through my jewelry box to find earrings and he wanted to see all of my jewelry.  The next thing I knew, he was trying to wrangle the office chair from the desk to get through our bedroom door so he could climb up to the full height of my dresser.  I saw the size of the leather chair vs the size of our doorframe and I said, "Hey buddy... why don't you put that chair back and just grab the small stool.  That chair is way to big to fit through our door.".  Unfazed, he found a way to get the big leather office chair through our bedroom door and then he proudly explained "And you said it couldn't be done!!!"  LOL  

A few minutes later, he asked me if I wanted to see any other things that "couldn't be done".  I quickly responded "no" with a laugh and headed downstairs to the car for church.  LOL

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My MIL posted these two pictures on her Facebook timeline the other day.  I think these pictures were taken with Grandpa about five years ago...  'My how things have changed.

An Imagination to the Moon...and Back!

I came home one night last week and walked in on this scene...

Nolan had taken a large box from one of Noel's work purchases and he creatively turned it into a spaceship that now sits proudly in our living room.  

He named it "The Noel 1000" and told me that if I want one, he'll make me "The Angie 999" when we get another large box.  LOL

Noel and Nolan have continued to take trips to many other planets in recent days and they continue to add features to the ship so it flies better.  It's fun to see the two of them playing and having fun together.

Student of the Month

I'm so frustrated with my phone's camera... but you get the point.

Someone was named Student of the month at his school for the month of November and I think he wants his certificate to hang on our refrigerator until next November.

Not to be outdone, Melayna was also named Student of the month but she already put her certificate away in her memory book.

I'm so proud of my "team Howett".

Nolan's Videos

Nolan has been having some imaginative fun around here these days now that the weather has turned colder and he's inside more.  I told him that we could make a couple of videos showing his fun.

The first two movies were originally in slo-mo but for some reason, I can't get them to stay in slo-mo when I transfer them to youtube so they're not quite as fun but you should get the idea.

Then, on another cold blustery day, he set up this ski jump for his cars all while I was trying to make dinner.  At least I talked him out of the water slide.  LOL

Some School Fun for Nolan

This past Tuesday, Nolan had the opportunity to go on another field trip.  This time they took a bus ride south to an apple orchard.  They learned how to plant an apple orchard and they also had the opportunity to taste a couple of different apples along with apple cider.  They also learned about bees and a few other farm animals.  The weather was almost perfect and he had a really nice time.

When I picked him up, he told me that he had really wanted to take a nap on the bus ride home but that he couldn't sleep because the kids around him were talking about who they had a crush on and then "they started dating on the bus ride.  It was SO annoying, Mom!!"

Later on this week, Nolan's class spent time in the STEM lab dissecting an Earthworm.  Nolan was totally grossed out and wanted nothing to do with that.  He said he just looked away the entire time because it made his stomach hurt to think about it!!  

Oh boy!  'Guess we can rule out any medical careers for him!!

Apple Week

All last week was "Apple Week" for the first graders at Nolan's school.   They were asked to bring in different kinds of apples and ingredients for several recipes and then they took time in class to bake apple muffins, apple butter, and some apple tarts.  They also made some apple crafts and talked about how the seeds could be planted so new trees would grow.

Nolan came home and asked if he could bake his apple muffins again at home.  He actually helped out quite a bit and the muffins turned out really good.

Then he took the apple cores from the apples he had used and buried them in the yard so that we can grow new apple trees.  Hopefully he'll forget that he buried them by the time the spring comes.  :-)

Nolan's 6 Year Pictures

I updated Marissa and Melayna's pictures on the wall a couple of weeks ago.  One night while we were finishing dinner together, Nolan looked up and noticed the changes.  He mentioned that he wanted to take new pictures as well since he was now a year older.  (I really liked last year's picture and wasn't sure he would sit still and cooperate so I hadn't bothered requesting a new one).  

I said, "Okay.  We can do that sometime, when do you want to take them."  

He said "right now" and jumped immediately down from the dinner table and ran downstairs to change his shirt.  He came upstairs wearing this Old Navy sweatshirt and he mentioned that he had also combed his hair.  Noel laughed and said that he and the kids would clean up the dinner dishes because I better go outside before Nolan changed his mind.

Once we got outside, Nolan mentioned that he wanted to have a couple taken of him on the trampoline and then we just took it from there.  After a couple of pictures, he would run off to a new location - all of them involving the trampoline or playscape.  'Not necessarily my idea but giving him control must have worked.  He sat still and smiled (sort of) and I got some really fun ones to choose from.

The first two pictures are the same pose.  I just left one as it looked coming off the camera and the second one, I edited it with a fall finish so the colors are a bit richer.  

I did the same edit with these next two.

After I loaded them all on the computer and let Nolan look at them, he told me that he wanted to pick his favorite for the 8x10 to hang on our wall.  Boy was I surprised when he showed me his favorite!!  So, here is the photo that will grace our dining room wall for at least the next year!!  But really, should I expect anything less from this guy??