Suzuki method

Nicky started violin lessons this past summer and he's doing pretty well.  At yesterday's lesson, he had to pick a card to determine which "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" rhythm he'd play for a warm up, and then pick a card to alter the rhythm somehow.  One of the alteration cards he picked was "Who What Where Why When" or something like that.  Nicky wasn't sure what that was about, and neither was I.  His teacher said she'd ask him questions while he played.  He said, "What... like 'who invented Microsoft?'  Like Bill Gates?"  Ha!  What a goof.  She just asked him things like "what month is Christmas in?," and so on.  No Jeopardy! stuff.  When he figured out he was just supposed to play through the distraction of her cross examination, he did okay.

'Prolly will get our Christmas tree this weekend.  If we win half a billion dollars tonight, maybe we'll spring for one of them spendy $80 trees at the tree farm.  On the other hand, maybe craziness like that is the slippery slope to bankruptcy.

Men's wear milestone

Michael and his 8th grade band compadres looked way too old at their concert last week.  And while out shopping recently, we realized Michael can fit into men's size small.  My 'lil baby, all grown up and wearing men's clothes.  And he's more and more particular about what he'll wear, of course.  He also complains about his 6th grade sister yelling "Hi Michael!" in the hallways at school every time they cross paths.  Awkwaaard.  6th graders are lame-o, and heaven forbid you're related to one of those peons.

Anyhoo, Thanksgiving's around the corner.  Have a good one!  I'm thankful for all sorts of poetic and sublime things, like Cold Stone Creamery's cake batter ice cream and Cinnamon Fire Jolly Ranchers.  And turkeys just taste fantastic.  And pumpkin pie.  Ahhh.

All Hallow's Eve 2012

We're getting a lot of mileage out of the werewolf mask.  That'd be Mikey in there, of course.  Adrienne is a vampire girl or whatever.  Nicky - 'arrrr, matey!  And Zach the proctologist.  Ha.

We had a groovy time trick or treating with some neighbor friends for an hour and a half.  That wasn't long enough for M and A though, so they went back out with dad for 45 minutes to rake in more loot.