Sing, Play, Love Music

At the end of the school year and start of the summer, Bethany and I embarked on a new creative project-- a summer music camp for kids.  

As we explored the idea, we got so excited thinking of all the fun musical things we could do with the kids--a choir, handbells, ukulele, music theory, and boom whackers.  And although, the two of us are more than qualified to teach such a camp-- we felt very brave.  Very brave, indeed.  It is scary to put yourself out there, in the hopes that others will respond and value what you are offering.  

We decided the camp would run July 6-10 and we would have two age groups.  5-8 years old in the morning from 9-11:30  and 9-12 years old in the afternoon from 1:00 -3:30.   On the last day we would have a Showcase of everything we worked on for parents and families to come watch.

 Spoiler alert:  It was a great success! 

Here is the older group-- they were an absolute JOY to work with.  

And the younger group were ADORABLE and ENERGETIC and so much FUN!

I quite enjoyed thinking about and designing the logo and then making the shirts.  

For their choir number, the older group learned an Armed Forces Salute.  They loved it!

How cute are the little ones with the ukuleles? They slayed "The Eensy Weensy Spider"!

The older kids had a blast with the ukuleles-- They did so well!  Their favorite was "An Austrian Went Yodeling"

 Now you might wonder, from whence came all these ukuleles?  

I scoured Facebook Marketplace for several weeks to acquire such a beautiful collection.  This year was an experiment of sorts.  We invested in lots of supplies-- ukuleles, handbells, boom whackers, etc. I figured if the whole thing was a flop, I could resell the ukuleles.  But since it most definitely was not a flop-- we have them to use next year!  

The little with their handbells.

The little kids singing "This Land Is Your Land" was the best!

A little 9-square before the showcase.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the week:

The Boom Whacker Army

George designed and 3D printed the ukulele holders

Clark is the Birthday Boy

 
Sunday, July 5th was Clark's birthday.  So even though we were all EXHAUSTED from the many 4th of July celebrations, we threw out the invitation to the family to come and celebrate Clark's birthday.  

 Side note:   Abe got this American flag and holder for Father's Day, he wanted to take pictures in our churchy patriotic clothes after church.

It was planned at the last minute, but amazingly, everyone came!  Getting to have all of my people together is the best thing in the world.

I'm not sure what it is about 9-square that brings out the absolute WORST in Cannon.  It's quite comical.  Well... I think it's funny.  Maybe not everyone does.

I will miss his sense of humor when he leaves on his mission.  I hope his companions are amused by him:)

One of my favorite family traditions is everyone sharing about they love about the birthday guy or gal.  Everyone shared such wonderful things about Clark.  He holds a unique place in the family and we LOVE who he is and what he brings to the family.  

We love Clark and Brianna together and I really like this picture of them