Happy Halloween!

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

Payton and Aven were ready to bring home buckets full of candy.

Payton's dad ate WAY too much candy before we left.

After trick-or-treating we enjoyed our spooky jack-o-lanterns before bedtime.

Little Devil

Ian and I decided to transform Aven into a devil for Halloween this year. As a two-year-old, a devil was the easiest most natural transformation we could think of. Enjoy a couple of great pictures of our little devil:

Aven in an ironically angelic pose.

Dancing around under red lighting at Garden After Dark.

Fall Fun with Cute Kids

It's fall break, so some friends and I decided to take the kiddos out on the town for some fall fun:
We started at a pumpkin patch in Sandy but it was more playground than pumpkin patch, so after playing for awhile we headed to a different pumpkin patch in West Jordan. My favorite line of the day came from Payton, my friend Amber's son. When they were running to get on the airplane pictured above he said "Aven you get in back, I'll drive!". Typical man.

Zachary, Aven, and Payton

It doesn't get much cuter than that.

Again with the cuteness.

We had a really fun morning. Thanks Amber, Payton, Natalie, Zachary, and Baby Jacey!

Popcornosaurus Rex

Ian and I went to a movie last night and came home to find that our dining room had been invaded by popcorn-eating dinosaurs. Pretty Cute.

Kids and Opera

Today the Utah Opera Education Outreach Program visited the middle school I teach at. All students with a fine arts class had the privilege of attending. I spent a portion of every class period this week talking about opera and trying to prepare the students for what they were going to experience. The overwhelming consensus was that opera was boring and for old people even though not one kid I teach had ever seen an opera. I was ready for this presentation to bust some of those preconceived notions wide open.

Freeze Frame: Dr. Miracle was performed and was designed for junior high and high school audiences. During Dr. Miracle, a short comic opera by Georges Bizet, a clever young man disguises himself several times, each time attempting to win the girl he loves from her protective papa. The performers occasionally stopped the action with a "Freeze Frame" device to highlight elements of drama and opera right as they occurred during the opera.

After the program I had my students fill out an evaluation. I was pleasantly surprised to get many thoughtful responses but I did get a good laugh from other responses.

Here is a sample of my favorite responses:

Question: On a scale of 1-5, 5 being best, how good were the performers in their presentation?
Responses:
-"I rate the performers a 5. They were very loud and knew what they were doing."
-"4. They were not bad singers, but the "tenor" was way too high to be a tenor" (thank you 14 year old voice expert)
-"2.5- it was ok. I only connected with the omelet" (an omelet was a key part of the story)

Question: What did you like about today's opera assembly"
Responses:
-"The romance part. I think it was the best."
-"I like that the opera was funny, that made it better"
-"Eventually, it ended."

Question: What questions do you have about opera or about today's performance?
Responses:
-"What did they say?"
-"How did they discover their talent?"
-"None, except why it exists."

In the end I feel like most kids got some enjoyment out of it and were surprised to see young attractive people performing an art that they thought was reserved for boring old people.

Drawing with Aven

For the last couple months the only thing Aven has been interested in during drawing time is the ABCs. I have written the ABCs more times than I can count, which is why I was so delighted today when she wanted me to draw skeletons:

She has been really interested in Halloween this year and she loves the skeleton decoration in the front yard. Aven created the beautiful scribbles on the right side of the page while I drew the skeletons and added all the details she requested. I did take some liberties with the shorts and the brand name of the watch, however.

I love my silly little kiddo :)