The Speech Project

Kids and school projects, it's just the way it is. I can't recall how many school projects I have worked on with my kids. Everything from posters and dioramas to mini books they have written with full color illustrations! I have also been up till all hours of the night the night before these little beauties were due trying to help my child who chose to procrastinate.
This project took off on a whole different direction.

Hailey's assignment was to write an informative speech and do either a power-point presentation or make a poster but it must be able to be seen at the back of the classroom. We don't have power-point and Hailey was very much NOT interested in doing another poster. She emailed her teacher to see if she could do a diorama. He was excited by her ingenuity in thinking up another type of project but reiterated that it must be able to be seen at the back of the room.

Hailey chose the topic of "Light and Sound Technician" - due to the fact that she has worked with her Dad in this and finds it interesting.

My idea was to use a large box and some BBQ skewers wrapped in Aluminum foil to make a front visual of a truss and we would go from there with my craft staples of glue, construction paper and dress shirt cardboard. . . . I asked Kurt to help cut the big box in half because it was too deep . . . this wasn't good enough for Kurt. He had his own ideas. The cool thing about it was, for the first time EVER I didn't have to do a lot! Yippee!
There was going to have to be a complete replica of an actual stage . . . Mind you, this took TWO DAYS to complete!

Kurt is trying to center a shoe box lid for the main part of the stage.

Drilling holes for the dowels for the beginning of the truss system.

I am amazed at how good of a job Hailey did at building these trusses!

I asked her if maybe she still wanted to be an architect after all! She did all the cutting, fitting and gluing. . . quite impressive!

Kurt is out in the garage with these little wooden biscuit things shaping some speakers that are going to hang from the trusses!

Here he is spraying Hailey's truss setup with metallic silver spray paint to look like aluminum. It looked just like it! Even where Hailey used the hot glue on the edges gave it a soldered look.

Here is Hailey painting the speakers that will fly from the truss.

There they finally are! These are probably the only flying speakers that our friend Tanya won't be afraid of!!! Kurt is starting to install the "lights".

Wooden blocks made into Mains.

Lights are on and ready to go!

Here it is finally all finished . . .working lights, canopy, backdrop. Stage and drum riser have fabric skirting. There are toothpick mic stands and little wooden monitors for each musician!

You can't see that they also made a Monitor Board that sits off to the side of the stage.

Now where are those musicians . . . They are never on time!

Sure can't beat that with construction paper and BBQ skewers! It looks great! In case you wanted to know, Hailey and Kurt got an "A" on their project!

When Grandma Comes To Town!!!

We had a really nice time with Grandma who came to visit last week! We only had her for about 3 1/2 days but we were all glad for the time! I didn't capture pictures of everything we had done (trust me, I wish I had a picture of Grandma and Hayden sitting in the dressing room waiting area at Kohl's while Hailey shopped for jeans) but I will share some of the things that we did!

Hailey and Hayden worked on some duets to play for Grandma to show her how they are progressing with their music! Although Hailey plays piano and violin and Hayden the Cello, they decided to mix it up a bit and play a song with Hailey on the Cello and Hayden the violin!

They also played a duet with Hayden on Cello and Hailey on the piano and then Hayden played some songs he has learned in Orchestra. I believe Grandma enjoyed this a lot.

Tyler wanted his picture taken too!

Kurt actually took time off of work where he didn't even run into the shop!!!!!!! Wow, I was astounded . . . here is Kurt relaxing!

Grandma had brought down some gifts for the kids and they enjoyed them!

Here they are eating some licorice!

Grandma also gave the kids some really great Boise State Stuff! They loved it!

This gift was an answer to a plight. . .

Notice the fear in Willow's eyes! I have a feeling we will not have to be dealing with the dog and her garbage can shenanigans anymore!!!! Woo Hoo, Thanks Grandma!

Friday morning Grandma took the time to teach the kids how to play Pinochle. I was busy in the kitchen trying to clean up breakfast and was listening to all the instruction. . . I think I will just stick to doing dishes! It sounded very complicated but the kids seemed to pick it up.

After the instructional time, Grandma and Hailey, Kurt and Hayden decided to play an actual game.

This looks almost too serious for me . . . game of slapjack anyone?

Well, Saturday morning rolled around too quickly but we decided to have a little photo shoot before Grandma left for home.

Kurt isn't one who likes to pose for pictures much but hey, it's your mom!

After that it was time for pictures with the kids. This was harder than it looks. Trying to get them all to smile and be quiet at the same time.

I don't know if Hailey realizes that we can see what she is doing to her brother . . . and the picture is proof!

Grandma is sure that someone is having gas issues during this photo session. It was hard to control the group after she said something about that!

The kids are also wearing the hats that their Aunt and Uncle had sent down. They loved these, warm and snuggly!

We all had a great time visiting with Grandma. Hope we can do it again soon. Thanks for coming down for a visit and making some memories with us Grandma!

"MAN LOGIC" !

Sometimes there are things that happen in life that you just have to share with someone. I have decided that "someone" is my blog audience.

If you have kept up with the blog you will have gotten the idea that we are having issues with our dog getting into the garbage can. She is either shoving the lid up with her nose or just plain knocking the whole thing over so she can "help herself" to the goodies located within.
Our fix to this is to make sure that the door to the pantry (which is where the can is located) is closed. This has created yet another problem . . . now if there is something "aromatic" in the garbage it then creates an interesting aroma in the pantry.

Today when Kurt went into the pantry such an aroma came to him. He decided to open the door to the pantry to air it out. But what to do with the dog? Kurt used his "man logic" to fix that situation!


He did the only reasonable thing a man could do . . . tape it shut with nice heavy duty tape!

I laughed really hard when I saw this! It never occurred to my sweet husband to just take the trash out!

Life In The Cave! - Random Thoughts

Wow! It has been a long few days. Kurt had an unfortunate incident happen to him at his last job. Somehow a piece of dirt or sand had gotten into his left eye and really irritated it. When he returned from the job Saturday it was quite red - bloodshot looking. By Saturday evening his lids were actually swollen looking and wasn't all too pretty! By Sunday morning he couldn't take it anymore and went to a quick care place. Turns out that he has a scratch on his retina! Poor guy! Quite an unpleasant situation!

The house at this point turned into a cave! We needed to keep the blinds all closed because the light irritated it, well, I think it actually hurt like the dickens, anyway the house remained quite dark. And, if you know me, this is a tragedy. I am a window person and a sunshine person, it's amazing what you do for love, isn't it (tee hee).

I am surprised at how the lack of light really sucks the life out of you! It didn't help that the t.v. was on constantly too so Kurt had something to entertain him in his convalescent state. You have a tendency while passing through with laundry or such to stop and see what's going on! So, needless to say, it has been like living in a cave and thankfully Kurt ventured out today for a little while and seems to be doing alright. I didn't hesitate as he drove away to run around and open all the blinds and bask in the golden glow . . . ahhhh - Glad your doing better Kurt!

Roseberry Summer Music Festival!

Here are some wonderful pictures that Hailey took of her trip with her father to the Roseberry Summer Music Festival! I was hoping to go this year but my schedule didn't match the schedule of the transportation there and back so it didn't work. I am hoping it might in the future because it looks like this is a fun event and you sure can't beat the scenery! Hayden went with Kurt on an earlier date but they didn't have the camera so, here goes . . .

On the way up to Roseberry . . .


I am pretty sure that my cabin should be sitting right in that little grassy spot there! (they would have to move the highway though)!

I love scenery like this - could just sit and watch it all day!

Hailey always has to find a funky way to get herself in the shot! Good job Hailey!

The stage for the festival.

I think Hailey said this is a shot of the town of Roseberry. . . hmmmm - pretty interesting if you can get the whole town in one photo! Sounds like my kind of town - no left hand turns at the light!

Seems like a good crowd!

Believe it or not this is an instrument! It is called a (name to come). Kurt said that it was very expensive. I think I just need to put a violin, a guitar and some other instruments in the driveway and run them over with the car a few times and then proceed to glue them all together in one it might be pretty close!

Wonder if Hailey tripped with the camera here?

The soon to be ghost town of Tamarack!

I believe this is Cascade Lake.

Beautiful!

This is the motel that Kurt and Hailey stayed in. Hayden wasn't too happy to hear about that because when he was with Dad they slept in a tent and nearly froze to death. I think he said "Hey, no fair"!

Interesting shot again, Hailey! I didn't post the two pictures Hailey had taken inside the room because one was Kurt brushing his teeth and the other one had two nice, warm beds that would have made Hayden sad.

They were really nice rooms so am not sure what was up with the dilapidated door number!

Pictures taken on the way back home.

Kurt and Hailey arrived looking road worn and exhausted. A normal 1 1/2 hour trip ended up taking them over 3 hours because the traffic was so heavy coming back down from the mountains! Although I missed out going on the trip, that is one area that I feel like I was glad to have missed!