A little bit of culture!

Last night our ward had a "Royal Variety Performance" with various singing, dancing and other acts from different ward members. The third performance was The Kruger Girls! Since having their ballet class each week with Pauline from church they have never had a show even though it nearly happened a couple of months ago. So last night, we had Rachel and Hannah dancing to the waltz in Coppelia, and then Sarah and Rebekah dancing to/being Little Bo Peep. We were surprised that Sarah and Rebekah at 5 and 3 wanted to do that in front of so many people, and at bedtime too - not the best time of day for them! They didn't falter either, even though they had a problem with feedback at the beginning - Sarah picked up the singing perfectly. I did see Rebekah trying to hide behind her sister just a little bit though, whereas normally she sings out bold and strong. Apparently Rachel's favourite part was curtseying at the end (to the king and queen!), maybe because of the huge applause they got?!

It was really fun for us seeing them enjoy it so much, and feeling so confident. Also hearing all of the aaahs when Sarah and Rebekah came on stage. They had fun, and so did we. We hope you enjoy watching them too. Oh, Michael says sorry for being a bit abrupt with the zoom to start with, but hopefully you'll see just fine. So without further ado, here are THE KRUGER GIRLS......






Can you also recognise one of these lovely ladies who graced the stage a little later on?



The girls have enjoyed seeing themselves and Rachael on these video clips this afternoon, but have also really been wanting to see the other acts again that they enjoyed. It's a shame we didn't film them all!

We've had a few problems today from having such a late night last night, and from having lunch too late (after church and choir practise), but it was worth it for how good they feel about what they have done. Choir properly began last Sunday after a break of many months, and Rachel and Hannah are now joining the soprano section. Rachel is an especially good soprano. I am quite a solid alto, and Michael prefers bass. We all took a turn to sing individually with the new choir director a few weeks ago though, and she has asked me to join the altos for a while and Michael the tenors. Our range nearly goes that high, but she was excited (as she is about many things) at the vibrancy in our higher notes, and so wants us to try to develop that more. It is nice for me to be able to sing along with Rachel and Hannah and perhaps be able to support them in that if we come to any more tricky music. After our first practise last week, we sang for the first time in sacrament meeting today - The Lord Is My Light. Rachel and Hannah have been singing it through the week which is nice. They know so many Primary songs really well, and this will be a good opportunity to really get to know some of the hymns of the church more. Good for Rebekah and Sarah too as they pick up music pretty well while it is played or sung frequently. Rebekah fights pretty hard normally against singing anything in FHE that she doesn't know herself, which can be a bit limiting, and does sometimes mean that although we've tried to work with her we end up singing a different song with her bawling in the background!! Of course she'll have more Primary songs she'll know soon from singing time (from this January when she moves up into Primary), but I think we'll be able to happily sing more hymns together as a family along the way too. :o)

Brum brrrrrum!

We went to the transport museum in Coventry a couple of weeks ago while Edan had his half term break. I thought Peter would be fascinated by the cars and buses. He didn't see them all, but took it all in his stride really. He was really tired though as he wouldn't go to sleep! The thing he loved more than anything though was all of the toy cars. He really wanted them! Actually, when I just showed Peter this picture, he gasped in wonder as he did when he first saw them - a sort of "WOW!"



Peter liked the bikes. He kept standing by this penny-farthing trying to get onto it. Doesn't he look diddy on it?




















We finished off in a play space including some soft blocks that were shaped so that you could make your own car from them. Hannah was chief designer when it came to this. She suddenly gets so animated in these situations and her creative energy runs wild! :o)


We had just about everybody in all together. Peter mostly just got knocked down a lot by people walking around by big blocks, or jumping and landing on him, but he held up fairly well!





I was exhausted by this time, but had a go too after sitting down for a while. So this is my racing car, made for Rebekah, with Rachel as the expert driver.