Achievement Auditions and Party Prep

This afternoon, Patrick took Eric to UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) to perform in the "Achievement Auditions". What was explained to me in the past (when Natalie did the same thing) was that some piano teachers want to see if their perception of their student is the same as other teachers' perceptions. To the student, it basically means that they get judged by someone other than their teacher. Eric was all by himself with an "adjudicator" in a room, then they waited for the critique.

In this picture, Eric is holding his critique sheet and his ribbon. He didn't do everything perfectly, but he still got lots of "plus" ratings. One song they definitely thought he did a better job on (his faster piece called Rain Dance), but they must have thought he did very well over all to give him the "Superior Plus" rating and ribbon. I can't say that playing piano is Eric's favorite thing to do, but he likes it enough, and he's pretty good at it.

When Patrick and Eric got home, we had dinner then they both cleaned up the game room, getting it ready for the onslaught of seven and eight-year-old boys tomorrow. After I made dinner, I started making things for the party.

This was originally going to be a Minion-themed party, since Eric had decided to watch Despicable Me (the first movie) at the party. A year and a half ago, I made some candy-covered marshmallows for Natalie's birthday party, along with some cupcakes with twinkles on top made to look like minions. Eric mentioned that he wanted the minion cupcakes specifically, so Patrick and I got all the stuff to do that with again. This morning, he decided to watch "Penguins of Madagascar" instead of "Despicable Me". Uh-oh--I didn't have any penguin-themed treats planned. Eric apparently told Patrick that he was still okay with the minion treats.

What does an overachieving mom do? Well, she looks up how to make penguin treats from Pinterest and figures out how to do that without spending too much time or having to throw away all the stuff we bought already.

Patrick was a big help and made these oreo penguins for me that I will use tomorrow to top the cupcakes I made tonight. These are not as neat as in the Pinterest picture, but for the sake of time, I will go with it.

These pictures are just a preview of tomorrow's finished treats. I'll be sure to share what the final products look like.