Performances Galore

Somehow, Aubree ended up being involved in three different performances last week.  The first was singing with a small group of children (Bryce included!) at our Relief Society Christmas dinner.  They sang "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem" and it was lovely!  Of course, we didn't get home till almost 9 pm, and Aubree said staying in the nursery was "boring," but they got a candy cane out of the deal so both kids were happy.

The next night was a school performance about Washington State with all the other 4th grade classes (since she's in a 3/4 combo class, she's doing 4th grade science & history now, and will do 3rd grade next year).  Her music teacher discovered she played the violin and asked her to play along with one of the songs, so Aubree got a bit of a solo.  

Though she's still working on playing at a higher volume level, I was impressed with her willingness and courage to play in front of such a large crowd.  Mostly, though, she was giddy-as-ever to spend time with her pals.  Mark and I got a babysitter to watch the boys/ put them to bed, which I think was an excellent choice.  I wish I could say these types of events are highly captivating, but alas...

The final performance of the week was at our Stake "Celebrate the Nativity" festival on Saturday night.  Aubree sang as part of a large children's choir, and they were wonderful!  At first Aubree was hesitant about joining, but once she started attending the practices she absolutely loved it and is sad it's over.

I did her hair in a fancy bun for the performance.  It wasn't hard, but took way longer than I'd care to admit.

As a family, we visited the festival earlier in the day and, as always, it is one of our favorite holiday activities.  Despite the fact that this is the third year we've gone, it still seemed like we saw new and different creche displays.  This year we even managed to display three of our own.

Bryce liked the miniature mice nativity

Thane randomly chose a "favorite" display

The kid craft room is always a winner.  

Thane loves stickers of all kinds.

Bryce is meticulous as always.

Graham, rebelling from being carried through the creche displays, kept running out the door.

This year we even dressed up for a family photo.  We thought it would be neat to wrap Graham up and pretend he was the baby Jesus.  He thought the idea was ludicrous.