Concerts- Maeystown, SCCCHE, Mascoutah...

This past week, we were asked to sing for about 30-45 minutes at a Christmas celebration in Maeystown (about an hour away from where we live). We didn't have a whole lot of time for rehearsals and learning new pieces, so we pulled out a bunch of pieces we'd done in the past, added some that we were doing in TLC Singers and Choir, and added some instrumental pieces that we were working up anyway... and voila! You have 30-45 minutes of music. ;)

Two of the pieces we did...





We were performing in the "ballroom" of what used to be the St. George Inn but is now an antique shop. It was a lot of fun! :)

There was a news photographer snapping photos of us throughout most of the concert - like the one above. We met up with him later, and he told us he had considered asking us for the names of all the kids to put in his newspaper along with the picture, but then decided against it because there were so many of us!

Last night was the SCCCHE Christmas Concert! We nearly had to cancel because of the weather, but despite a few people being unable to make it, everything went well.  The TLC Singers and Choir performed their full repertoires.  Peterson Family Singers performed two pieces - an instrumental arrangement of Once In Royal David's City with chimes, flute, piano, and violin, and our vocal One Minute Madrigal.


This Sunday, December 8, we'll be performing Once In Royal David's City again with our much-requested and very fun Christmas Tree Feud at the Mascoutah Community Christmas Concert. It's held at Zion Lutheran Church, 101 S. Railway St in Mascoutah. I believe the concert is at 3:00. In addition to our family, TLC Singers will be performing some pieces, as will Zion choir, several other church choirs from this area, and a variety of other musicians. It's always a lot of fun and great music, so please come! :)

A Typical Day for the Peterson Family (video)

Our family performed this skit for the SCCCHE meeting last night:



Everything in this video is true! The following things happened as we were writing it:
-The call about Grandpa shooting squirrels after having eye surgery
-The call from Papa about inviting people over to lunch on Sunday (people whom we didn't know previously)
-Leif tried to escape upstairs

A couple days after we wrote this skit, we forgot that we were supposed to bring snacks for FLL, so the team went without snacks (and somehow survived, thankfully...).

Although Knut doesn't order electrical fence wire and have it shipped to our house, he does buy it to work on his chain mail armor and brings his chain mail making supplies EVERYWHERE he goes!

The argument about 10:00 or midnight for English Country dance practice is an ongoing discussion/debate... ;)

The sword fighting happens quite regularly... during school.

And... trust me; everything else is completely true as well!

EDIT: Jael brought the one incongruency with real life to my attention: we've never had the problem of the CLEP testing center being closed on a Monday. It was closed over the summer, but we were able to go to the other testing center nearby, so it wasn't a problem. ;)
EDIT #2: ...Then I found out that the usual CLEP testing center really IS closed on Mondays, and Monday is when I was hoping to text next.


Thanks to John for being our impromptu videographer.

TeenPact

This week was so full... I can't even begin to write about everything that happened. So many special times:
Deepening old friendships and making new ones...

Talking and praying with other girls in rendezvous...

Beginning and ending each day with worship...

Staying up late working/playing games/talking with awesome people (and being in the car for hours with most of them)...

Getting an average of 4 hours of sleep each night :D...

The bill skit...

Ninja...
(Apparently I have a reputation at TeenPact for my Ninja skills... >:D)

Prayer walks each morning...

English Country dancing in the parking lot of the hotel...

Playing Devil's Advocate and arguing against a bill that would give more freedom to parents and reduce government interference in parent-child relationships...

Both a pro and a con speaker were required before a bill could be voted upon, and we had not had a con speaker, so arguing against the bill actually helped speed along the process of its being passed... interesting! 

TeenPact Legislature (note the campaign posters in front of the table :D)...

Interviewing "random, everyday citizens" about their opinions on protests, the Tea Party movement, and religion in politics...

Listening to speakers...

Walking through Wal Mart at 10 p.m. looking for posterboard and blueberries and videotaping four friends all wearing moustaches. :D
(Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FibTZzWJVA8&list=PLjcO03e4DXsHmZt2wB93_p-kasDcTVMex&index=12)

Watching a few of those friends getting a little crazy by the end of the evening (okay, so we were all more than a little crazy at that point)...

Making posters...

Committee meetings...

Writing a bill to fix the problem of a too-tall podium for too-short people, and presenting it on Day 2...

Seriously, the podium is nearly as tall as I am... (Okay, so maybe that doesn't take much. ;))

The amazing staff team...

Elections...

The 12 Senatorial Candidates

The Elected Officials: 3 Senators and the Governor

The Political Communications Workshop:
Cross-Fire Debate - arguing the opposite of what I believed...

A resolution to make "Smeagol Speak" the official accent of Illinois (That was priceless... email me if you want to see the video! ;))


Coming soon: Group photo post! :D


Photo Credits:
2: A random person who happened to be walking past and kindly agreed to take the picture.
3, 8, 11, 16, and 17: Austin 
5, 6, 15, and 21: Katie Lynn
18 and 20: Kaylee
1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12, and 19: Camryn or myself

(Thank you so much, photographers!)

As a side note, I was able to capture most of the senatorial and gubernatorial candidate questions, the elected officials' speeches, and the bill skit on video. If you would like to see them, please contact me!

December Overview

This has been quite a busy month! Let's see... the last update was FLL... what's happened since then? *gets out calendar* 

Thursday the 13th was rather busy! Gloria and I had a violin lesson in the early afternoon and Mom taught an organ lesson a bit later, but the big event was the SCCCHE Christmas concert. Glorpes Galore (including Cecily and Thor) performed two dances, Knut sang I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas with Joe Phillips, Cecily performed a flute duet with Eleanor S. and her flute teacher Mrs. King, Peterson Family Singers sang Shepherd's Joy, and the SCCCHE pickup orchestra accompanied two audience carols. 

SCCCHE Pickup Orchestra - Photo Credit: Tim Jones

About an hour after we got home from the concert, Knut, Thor, Papa and I went to the O'Fallon movie theater for the midnight premiere of The Hobbit! As to WHY we decided to go at midnight of an already-hectic day... we're crazy. ;) As to HOW my father actually agreed to such a ridiculous plan... let's just say that Knut and Thor have amazing persuasion abilities! It was nearly 4 a.m. before we got home. :) 

Discussing the movie in the car on the way home, we each had quite different opinions. Thor said, simply, "Wow." Knut loved it as well. Papa was disappointed by the movie; he said there were too many orc battles and not enough storyline. I agreed with him about the overabundance of battles, but overall, I thought it was very well-done. Usually I'm something of a book purist, but though the movie deviated from the book in several significant points, material was added, not taken away. These additions brought in some really neat elements to the story, as well as background material for The Lord of the Rings. If it weren't for the excessive orc battles (I closed my eyes at several points) and some unnecessary crude humor, this movie would have been just about perfect. :) 

The next day- Friday the 14th- was much less busy. ;) The only thing on the calendar was a cookie exchange in Mascoutah that I was invited to. It was quite fun indeed! There were some astoundingly brilliant girls there... while playing trampoline Ninja, they shared their ideas for how Ninja can solve the problems of the world... specifically in the realms of war and energy. *solemn nod* 

Sunday was the Mascoutah Community Christmas concert! Peterson Family Singers sang Shepherd's Joy (again), and the senior choir from church (including Knut and me) sang John Rutter's Angel's Carol. (Beautiful piece...)

Cecily and I were invited to the Christmas party for the Bright Lights Belleville group on Monday. It was awesome to catch up with girls we hadn't seen for quite some time. (Thank you so much, Allison, for including us!) 

On Tuesday, Bright Lights and his Lighthouse came together for a caroling party. After singing at a nursing home and an assisted living center, we came back to Shady Oaks where Grandpa and Grandma Davis bravely hosted the group of about 50 people! 

We had family photos taken at Portrait Innovations last Thursday! Miraculously, everyone is actually smiling for this photo! Even li'l Leif is smiling in his sleep. :) 

Grandpa and Grandma Peterson arrived yesterday afternoon! Sadly, they're only staying for a few days, then heading down to Florida to spend New Year's with the Travis Peterson family, and then moving on from there to Texas to visit Noah and Marina. We get them for Christmas, though! :) 

Peterson Family Singers will be singing at Gloria's and my violin concert tonight. The piece will be... you guessed it... Shepherd's Joy. We'll also be singing it at church on Christmas Eve! It's quite a fun piece. :D

A dose of cuteness:

Leif (actually set down! *gasp) 

Drama and FLL

The Lyceum Drama performance was on the 10th, and it was AMAZING! There were four plays, so the performance was pretty long, but it was worth staying to the end! We're so blessed to have such fantastic directors and actors in our group. Ms. Jo, the head director, puts an enormous amount of work into Drama each year, and the performances just get better and better! She's taught all of us so much.

A few pictures...

Sarah, aka Trouble Maker (The 'Urloined Letter) She received a huge round of applause during her play for saying Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers (etc.)... without the letter "P". 

Noah and Shelby, aka Jean Valjean and Jeanne (Valjean). These two did an AMAZING job! 

Noah made me cry at least 4 times during the play... once onstage. :) Shelby's main role was in a different play, but during the short time she was onstage for Valjean, she managed to bring me (and I would guess a good portion of the audience) to tears. 

Katie, aka Madame Ratigniolle (Valjean), also did a fabulous job. 

Johnathan, aka the Sergeant (Valjean)

Kalei, aka Madame Magloire, having grey put into her hair. As usual, her character was a cross old lady. ;) 

Playing cards before the performance

Sophi missed several rehearsals due to illness, but even so, she did an AMAZING job! She was an innkeeper (and a very mean one at that). ;)

I am currently trying to find someone who was able to get group pictures at the end of the performance. When (and if) I manage to do so, I will be sure to post them!

FLL

The Robo Raiders had their qualifier the same day as the Drama performance, so Knut and Grandpa were the only ones to be able to go. :( Of course they advanced, but they also got the Champions award... meaning they were the best team there!

VX3 competed at a different qualifier, which took place last Sunday. Since they're a first-year team, we didn't expect them to advance... but they did, and also received the Judges' Award! Their team is extremely excited to be heading to Chicago in January for the Regional competition!

Zoe, Zerah, and Cecily passing out candy

Thor making balloon animals and hats for kids on other teams 

Waiting for Core Values judging 

Research Presentation 

Robot Run 

Photo credit: Mrs. Phillips

The Robo Raiders team volunteered to help out at the competition. They reset the mats after each robot run, as well as helping in any other ways they could. (And I don't know what was the deal with the hats. ;))

Knut waiting to reset the mat

Cecily writing down the referee's comments after one of the robot runs

The team, with glorpes! 

Lots going on at the Peterson household!

Papa just got back from Texas! He was there for about a week helping his brother Noah fix up a new house. Of course, while he was gone, the car broke down. ;) 

We did a lot of shuffling around to commute everyone to events. What a blessing to have Grandpa and Grandma living a block away with a six-passenger car we can borrow, as well as to have the Claytons down the street and willing to take a couple extra passengers in their van! The arrangements tended to be a little complicated, but we got everyone to the homeschool meeting on Thursday the 20th and Lyceum on Friday the 21st. 

Happy to say, the car is now fixed! 

This past Thursday, two days after Papa returned, we went to the City Museum with the homeschool group. It's probably our family's favorite field trip of the year. 

Just about the only pictures I got were on the roof: 

Cecily and Thor on the Ferris wheel 

The slides, as seen from the top of the Ferris wheel-

Papa, Mom, and Rosemary waiting in line

Friends of ours: Abi and Johnny T. 

Bjorn climbing up the slide 

Knut 

Kalei and Gretchen; Darcy and Shelby; Mrs. T. and Jael 

Those of you who know me may be familiar with the fact that two years ago, I was pushed down the ten-story slide at the City Museum by Kalei and Shelby Swogger. Well, I have now had my revenge! >:D Both Kalei and Shelby dislike heights, but by persuasion and physical "urging" by myself and other helpers, they both went on the Ferris wheel... on the roof. 

(And yes, girls, I'm very proud of you! :D) 

Kalei and Gretchen 

Bjorn on the little train... one of my few pictures from somewhere other than the roof! 

Lyceum is going well! Everyone is most pleased with their classes. 

Melissa and Amber 

The "crazy table"

Labs: 

This week, I decided to be crazy.

Well, crazier. I wore my duct tape skirt to Lyceum. :) Needless to say, I received a lot of comments, ranging from "That is sooo cool!!!!" to "...Why? Just... why?" and many times, "Is that... duct tape??"

I did change into "normal" clothes before lunch so that I could play Ninja. :D

Lunchtime!

Papa came to Lyceum Singers this week! He took the tenors and bases to a different room to work on their parts while Mom worked with the Sopranos and Altos in the usual room. The whole choir sounded so much better at the end! :)

I am now signed up for TeenPact and quite excited! :D I started writing "funny" bills in my free time last week... now my problem is choosing which ones to bring.