CBA Chorus Williamsburg Trip

Will is in the CBA (4th, 5th, 6th Grade) Chorus at St. Albans. This year there are no 6th graders participating, so I guess it is really the CB Chorus. This past weekend the Chorus went to Williamsburg to sing and explore.

The boys were joined by the 5th and 6th grade girls chorus (Guild) from the National Cathedral School.

The boys and girls sang a total of five concerts, including St. Catherine's school in Richmond, St. Joseph's Villa in Richmond (in the photo at left), and in Williamsburg at the Chambrel Senior Living Complex, outdoors in Merchant Square and at Bruton Parish as the choir for a Sunday church service.

I chaperoned on the trip (hence so many photos) and thought it was a fantastic experience, both for me and the kids. All of the singing events were great, but outdoors at Merchant Square was especially memorable. A high school singing group from New Jersey happened to be touring Williamsburg and they listened enthusiastically to the young kids and clapped along to some songs, then gave a totally impromptu concert in return. Seeing kids from different schools and ages joined instantly by the bond of music was amazing.

In addition to singing the kids had a (very short) guided tour of Williamsburg Saturday morning, then Saturday evening listened to ghost stories and wrapped up as audience/participants in a staged witch trial that was extremely well done.

My full set of trip photos is at http://gallery.mac.com/wap1961#100008.  You can also view the photos and order prints at Shutterfly.

Will's Birthday

Will recently turned 10. His official birthday did not fall on a convenient day with school and everything else, so we held his party with friends a few weeks later. He went to play laser tag, then returned to the house for cake, ice cream, fudge sauce and presents. Will and his friends (and even Eva who went along) all had a great time. Some of the photos are posted below in the blog, and (in the interest of time) the full set is posted as a web album at http://gallery.mac.com/wap1961#100016.

Ice Cream Makes Me Happy

I took almost the same shot a few moments before this one and Kevin looked kind of blah.  As soon as the scoop of ice cream came out to put on the birthday cake he perked right up.

Garfield

One of the presents Will received for his birthday was a Garfield comic book. It is hilarious how many of the comics that I used to (and still) enjoy, Will now loves too.  He is especially a Calvin and Hobbes fan (as am I).   Will enjoys drawing and is now in his second cartooning class and is starting to create some very amusing comic strips himself.

Eva

I have been going back through a lot of photos from when our kids were younger (still pretty recent and much easier on the computer than sorting through shoe boxes).  Eva went for quite a few years before getting her hair cut back to shoulder length, but that was a while ago and she is a long haired girl again (and now so much better about taking care of her hair herself!).  

Eric

Eric and Will have been great friends since they were like six months old.   Now they are on the verge of teenager hood and it is amazing.  They are so smart, voracious readers and after ten years still awesome friends.  Eric is a scary good piano player and we need to get him on tape (I guess that expression is now meaningless) to post to the blog.

Future Teenager

Will too is growing up so fast.  It seems like the age phase go 1-3, 4-7, 8-9 and then 10-?  Will really seems to have grown older in 4th grade and I see more of the teenager he will be every day (mostly for the good).

Caldwell

This is Ross's brother Caldwell, one of Will's buddies who has been to many birthday parties.  

Legos!

One of Will's presents was a lego set from Indiana Jones.  He and his friends are all Lego freaks, and as they are getting older it is interesting to see their passion evolve.  The five boys sorted the parts for this Lego, laid them out on a towel and (to an extent) assigned sections for different boys to build.  It probably only took twenty minutes to put the entire Lego together.

Lyra is So Cute, round two...

Lyra was moving toward me and the flash froze just her face, with everything else blurred out.  It's nice when you get the effect you are trying to get.

Will's Cake Take Two

The first time Will blew out the candles on his cake I only got one shot.  We made it to about the third syllable of 'Happy Birthday to you...' and the candles were gone.  This was part of the re-staging to get a couple of decent (I hoped) photos.