Aly's First Recital

We got back safe and sound this afternoon, in plenty of time to go to Natalie's piano lesson. I'm going to post a few photos at a time from this weekend, because we've got a few things going on this week. Today's photos aren't all about my family, but since my sister Cynthia's family is also important to me, I'll post about them here also.

On Saturday night, my niece Aly had her first piano recital. She's been taking piano lessons since last September and she seems to be learning quickly. She played very well during her recital, especially compared to all of the first year students that played before her. She was the only one that didn't make a noticeable mistake. Many of the others had to pretty much stop and redirect. Natalie noticed right away that the students didn't have to memorize their pieces like she has had to do for her recitals. That seemed to hamper the others, but not Aly. I was so proud of her!

My brother-in-law John played right after his daughter. He's only been taking lessons for three months. He looked a little freaked when we first arrived (he and Aly left earlier and were waiting for us) because the other adult student chickened out and wasn't going to play. He was the only adult student amongst "a lot of little girls", as he put it. He did great too. Afterwards he said that he was more nervous performing during the recital than during his presentation at work last week!

After the recital, people hung around to take pictures and to chat with the teacher. Natalie and Aly both played on the grand piano without any prompting from any adults. Natalie doesn't seem to get "piano face" when she's in a performance setting. She loves "performing" when other people are around, even when it's not an actual performance. Aly also seemed to enjoy it enough that she played her pieces again!

The recital was at 6:30pm, so we didn't have time to eat before going. We stopped at Pei Wei after the recital and then Tutti Frutti for dessert. Natalie and I had never been to a yogurt place like Tutti Frutti. You serve yourself one of the many flavors of frozen yogurt and then choose what toppings. In the end, you pay by weight.

I was surprised that instead of adding toppings, Natalie asked if she could just have extra frozen yogurt. That seemed like a good idea at the time, but she had a lot of Death By Chocolate frozen yogurt in her cup! I chose the Cafe Latte flavor with chocolate syrup. When I made the comment that there was a funny aftertaste, my sisters replied that I was used to higher fat in the ice cream that I usually eat.

Tomorrow I'll talk about some of the party decorations and preparations. Natalie has a swim meet tomorrow that I'll miss because I'll be on call. Patrick is taking Anthony (and Eric) to register for the new club soccer team, so hopefully he'll get to the meet in time for the first race, the freestyle relay that Natalie is scheduled to be in. Alex stayed in Houston with my sister so he can attend my nephew's birthday party next Saturday. I miss him already!