Sneak Peek

The girls and I got to go along on Aunt Melanie's bridal portrait shoot. So much fun!

Stunningly gorgeous. A beautiful bride. Can't wait. Lucky Jeff. Lucky Melanie. Happy couple.

1/11/11

She turned 11 on 1/11/11. Kinda Cool.
And her sister will turn 10 this year on 10/01/11.
I'm not sure how I keep these binary girls straight.

Which Way Should She Go?

Band, Orchestra, or Choir?

The 6th graders must take one of these in order to fulfill their International Baccalaureate (IB) Fine Arts requirement. The band and orchestra both offer an Instrument Try-Out where every instrument is available for the students to try. So cool! The students are rated from 1-5, with 5 being ideal, on each instrument. Essentially, if they score a 4 or 5, they are allowed to play that instrument. Madden tried out the flute (4), clarinet (4.5), trumpet (3), euphonium (4), trombone (4), saxophone (3), percussion intruments (5), violin, viola, and cello (no ratings on orchestra instruments).




So what did she choose? (Drumroll please....)



PERCUSSION!!!


Yes, I now have a drummer in my house to go along with the guitar, piano and endless singing. We've got our own family band. Help me! I'll have no choice but to go shopping during band practice. (I know Uncle Glennie must be so proud to have someone carrying on his legacy!)

Science Fair 101

Thanks to (almost) Uncle Jeff for volunteering to help Madden with her Science Fair project to determine which roof type and house color will keep your house coolest in the oppressive Texas heat. He purchased supplies and spent many hours readying the bird houses for their tests. The brownie points he earned with his future sister-in-law for these acts of kindness are NUMEROUS.

In case curiosity has the best of you, the winning combination of roofs/colors was the metal roof with the black paint. Which led Madden to the conclusion that paint color doesn't matter much, but metal roofs reflect lots of sunlight.

Lake Tahoe

We extended our Christmas vacation an extra week and headed to Nevada/California with my mom and dad. We were lucky that Aunt Wendy and Tosha and Anna and Dell were also able to join us! How fun that the girls got to ski with both Granna and Grammie on this trip! Dad didn't ski, but held court at the Blackjack tables at Harrah's! He and Dell took a casino road trip which I'm told involved peppermint schnapps and fresh snow. We skied the majority of our days at Kirkwood - fabulous mountain, tons of snow, empty! We also spent a day at Heavenly which, not surprising, has the most heavenly views of the lake.

Washing in a Winter Wonderland

1st load is in. Merry Christmas to us! Good thing we didn't get each other presents this year. The old front loader went kaput the week before Christmas (lasted 8 years). It would have literally cost us more to repair the old one than to purchase the brand new, much bigger model. As a bonus, we got the matching dryer and will offer up the old one on Craig's List to partially offset the cost. So, they're not the cherry red ones that I covet, but I just couldn't convince myself to spend an extra grand just for the pretty color. In the loving, supporting way that Porter has, he has found red polka dot decals to apply to the sides of these to appease me.

Bruce and Kelly

Porter and I didn't exchange gifts this year. Instead we treated ourselves to a date night out with friends which included dinner at Gumbo's followed by the Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis Christmas show at the Paramount Theater. They are our Austin favorites, and always deliver the goods. Their opening act this year was The Band of Heathens. We knew of the band, but had never heard them in person. Quite a treat! They have some powerful good singers, and are on our list to go see again in the New Year. It was a lovely evening. Our tickets came with an opportunity to meet Bruce and Kelly after the show. We felt a bit cheesey waiting around for our photo op, but we did so nonetheless. They are a sweet and genuine couple. And Oh My Lord, he is TALL.

Apparently, great minds think alike, because less than a week later, Bill and Paula went to their holiday show in Temple! They too had a photo opportunity and found Bruce and Kelly equally as gracious. Plans have been tossed about to all see the show together next year!

5th Grade Mom Party

I hosted our annual Mom's Party this year. All of the moms of 5th graders were invited. Someone in Madden's class has hosted the party every year since Kindergarten. This year, our kids' last year at Doss Elementary, was a little sentimental. This was the group at the end of the night - some fun ladies! We took donations and raised over $300 which was donated to Austin Pets Alive, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, and some families in need at our own school.

It All Happened in the Country

The girls participated in our church musical a few weeks ago. Madden played Uncle Yuletide, the starring role. So Proud! Callie and her buddy Lettie did a great job on their duet as well. (So sorry about the sideways video - can't figure out how to rotate it!)

Wilson Family Christmas