We finally got a date night last Wednesday. For the last couple of months Jo and I have been bad about scheduling something or the other every evening and we haven't been able to do date nights. Even Jen complained that she had been dropped from the A-list when we met her for a lunch date at Buenos Aires Cafe a week before that. But on Wednesday we got our shit together. Sarah came over and we left. For Target. First item on the date night agenda was to buy a t-shirt with no writing or pictures on it for Vivian for her end of school concert the next morning.
The rest of date night proceeded just as nicely with dinner and drinks at the Violet Crown downtown followed by a movie by our neighbor Steve Mims. It was an odd but interesting movie called Arlo and Julie - I enjoyed it and Jo thought it was nice enough which is a huge improvement over our previous date night at the Crown when we saw Scarlett Johansson picking up unsuspecting boys in Glasgow and devouring them while she is naked (Jo said she would have left the theater if her seat had been any closer to the aisle. So this time I avoided Ex Machina).
Enough about us.
On Thursday morning we woke up slowly and made our way to the Norris Center and dropped Vivian off for the first round of performances. We had opted to be on time so we had to stand. With Evan alternating between riding on my shoulders and slumping in Jo's arms.
Vivian's class was clearly the best. They sang "Colores Esparanza" - a lovely Spanish song. Vivian is in the first row flanked her other short friends - Grace and Emmett. When the first round finished, we picked Vivian up from backstage and dropped Evan off, and his class did another very nice song "Carta Viento" - though they dressed rather dorkily for it. The song's title literally translates to "Wind Letter" and so did their outfits. And Evan's stature won him a place on the first row too - waving that green thing.
They have practiced their songs so many times that they know each other's songs well. And I have pulled the videos up on youtube so often for them that google now gives me results in Spanish when I search for anything.
In the morning when we were laying in bed before the concert Jo asked Evan what his song was about. He wasn't sure. So Vivian explained that it was about a boy who sent a letter on the wind. And she sang some of the lines and translated. Then we asked her about her song. "Oh - it's just like the songs on the radio".
After Evan finished, we snatched him up and chatted with Ms. Mara for a few minutes and fled. Here's a picture of Mara and the kids and Etseban and Sofia who are classmates of Evan and Vivian. As usual, Evan is trying to ruin the photo - by displaying a mint on his tongue.
This will go down as a very good year for the kids. Evan started his Spanish emersion and is very comfortable with people speaking to him in Spanish. He can read English slowly like a whale. His numbers are improving (though he still calls 9 'up-side-down 6') and occasionally baffles us by doing basic math, either by dumb luck of some deep intuition. Marisol was a very good teacher.
And Vivian developed a love for math and science and managed to make some improvements in reading Spanish and English and seems to have a flair for writing (though a definite unwillingness to write when asked to). Mara will go down as one of her best teachers ever and a lovely human being. And we got invited to visit her next year in Colombia.
Which makes me wonder what's with teachers our kids love - Mary, Mara and Marisol. Who's next - Marzipan and Marmaduke?
The rest of date night proceeded just as nicely with dinner and drinks at the Violet Crown downtown followed by a movie by our neighbor Steve Mims. It was an odd but interesting movie called Arlo and Julie - I enjoyed it and Jo thought it was nice enough which is a huge improvement over our previous date night at the Crown when we saw Scarlett Johansson picking up unsuspecting boys in Glasgow and devouring them while she is naked (Jo said she would have left the theater if her seat had been any closer to the aisle. So this time I avoided Ex Machina).
Enough about us.
On Thursday morning we woke up slowly and made our way to the Norris Center and dropped Vivian off for the first round of performances. We had opted to be on time so we had to stand. With Evan alternating between riding on my shoulders and slumping in Jo's arms.
Vivian's class was clearly the best. They sang "Colores Esparanza" - a lovely Spanish song. Vivian is in the first row flanked her other short friends - Grace and Emmett. When the first round finished, we picked Vivian up from backstage and dropped Evan off, and his class did another very nice song "Carta Viento" - though they dressed rather dorkily for it. The song's title literally translates to "Wind Letter" and so did their outfits. And Evan's stature won him a place on the first row too - waving that green thing.
They have practiced their songs so many times that they know each other's songs well. And I have pulled the videos up on youtube so often for them that google now gives me results in Spanish when I search for anything.
In the morning when we were laying in bed before the concert Jo asked Evan what his song was about. He wasn't sure. So Vivian explained that it was about a boy who sent a letter on the wind. And she sang some of the lines and translated. Then we asked her about her song. "Oh - it's just like the songs on the radio".
After Evan finished, we snatched him up and chatted with Ms. Mara for a few minutes and fled. Here's a picture of Mara and the kids and Etseban and Sofia who are classmates of Evan and Vivian. As usual, Evan is trying to ruin the photo - by displaying a mint on his tongue.
This will go down as a very good year for the kids. Evan started his Spanish emersion and is very comfortable with people speaking to him in Spanish. He can read English slowly like a whale. His numbers are improving (though he still calls 9 'up-side-down 6') and occasionally baffles us by doing basic math, either by dumb luck of some deep intuition. Marisol was a very good teacher.
And Vivian developed a love for math and science and managed to make some improvements in reading Spanish and English and seems to have a flair for writing (though a definite unwillingness to write when asked to). Mara will go down as one of her best teachers ever and a lovely human being. And we got invited to visit her next year in Colombia.
Which makes me wonder what's with teachers our kids love - Mary, Mara and Marisol. Who's next - Marzipan and Marmaduke?
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