Wednesday was the 2nd Grade Music Concert at Booksin Elementary, part of the end-of-year ceremonies for Felicia’s school.

If you can’t find her, she’s in the third row, slightly to the right of the literal shiny star. We all know she’s also a shiny star. Enjoy:

Shhhhh. The password is “milleryoungmusic” [without the quotes].

It’s really just the beginning of the “May Memory Season” of capturing end-of-the-year pictures and videos for school activities and everything else. This weekend’s entry is the annual children’s musical performance at Campbell United Methodist Church.

“Once Upon a Parable” is a compilation of six Biblical stories, woven together with song and dance. Jocelyn, Felicia, and Kiana all has roles scattered throughout the show, including witty one-liners, narrator turns, and solo performances.

If this embedded YouTube playlist doesn’t work for you, you can also find the individual stories at the YouTube playlist site. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to everyone! As a special holiday treat, Jocelyn taught herself to play the “Carol of the Bells” on the organ at our Cabin in Tahoe.

And she recorded it on her new Creativ Vado HD pocket video recorder. We hope you enjoy it!

Felicia performed in the big “Mini Show” at our local Center Stage Dance this weekend, including the standard array of musical numbers, cute costumes, and entertaining miscues.

This song is one of the newer dances, and Felicia (generally far right in the video) became really attached to it:

And an apology for the lousy camera angle and the lack of complete focus on Felicia. The studio is a challenging video environment, and it didn’t help that Felicia’s sister and mother kept telling her to stand in front of them.

One of the biggest extracurricular activities Jocelyn has each year is the annual Children’s Musical at Campbell United Methodist Church. The show is always an excellent production and showcases the kids with some great talent and jazzy singing numbers. This year was no exception, as the kids put on the show “Oh Jonah” … about that guy and the whale … and responsibility.

Here’s the Finale of the show, as captured on video …

And if you thought that was interesting, you can check out my amateurish video of the rest of the musical on Motionbox (ask for privileges!).

While technically, the song says “Go West, Young Man” with a “Young Women” echo response, you get the idea. This was Jocelyn’s Fourth Grade production this week, featuring scripted lines and singing performances for all 140 kids. See if you can find Jocelyn:

With Christmas nearly upon us, the various performances of the Holiday Season have begun. First up, Felicia’s ballet class (Center Stage Dance) has been enjoying music and stories from The Nutcracker. Earlier today, they got to do their own interpretive dance to the famous music.

Feel free to dance along!

Sorry … it’s not what you think.

First of all … When Jocelyn asked Ann about the three X’s on a lot of buildings and flags across Amsterdam, we could have been in some trouble. But it turns out that red XXX symbol is the official Coat of Arms for Amsterdam, not at all related to the famous Red Light District, which we managed to avoid visiting. The X’s are officially St. Andrew’s Crosses, and the three of them are said to represent charity, resolution and heroism … and/or “Heldhaftig, Vastberaden, Barmhartig” (“Valiant, Steadfast, Compassionate”).

OK. So what about the Barenaked Ladies part? For my birthday — observed concurrently with the Martin Family stay in Tuscany — Jenni, Kiana & Ange gave me the new Barenaked Ladies CD Snacktime, which has been played way more than 40 times on our various cross-country driving trips since. The band is from Canada, and the CD is really very good, featuring some great wordplay and a clever alphabet song. Definitgely not XXX.

By pure coincidence, the song “Simple Gifts” seems to recurring in our lives.

A few weeks ago, it was the highlight of Jocelyn’s piano recital. And today it reappears as performed by the combined bell ensemble at Church … this time being performed by both Karen and Jocelyn.

Simple Gifts – CUMC from David Keller on Vimeo.

If you can’t get enough of the song, skip to the comments section of the original Piano Recital post. I’ve added a link to an additional camera angle of the recital, provided by another parent. Enjoy!