Speaking of Josh

WARNING:  Loads of pictures and proud mamma talk :)

Josh has been involved with a lot of orchestra stuff lately.

They had a concert at their school for the third graders.

This was my view of Josh...for once he wasn't on the back row but his music pretty much blocked his face.

Luckily, Mom was there and got a few better shots of him.

Josh also went into the first year orchestra class at his school to encourage them to become ambassadors next year.  Ambassadors has been a great experience for Josh although it sure has taken a lot of extra time...it's been worth it.

Abby says she's interested in doing orchestra next year.  I would love for her to do it although I have mixed feelings about which instrument I want her to do.

She says she wants to do the cello.

Pros:  1. We'd already have one in the home

2. Josh could help her

3. We could have the same private teacher and lesson time as Josh

Cons: 1. A lot of extra effort is involved as she can't take it on the bus...so there's taking her to school and picking her up on orchestra days...which can be tricky timing wise with getting Ben ready for school too.  This year, we've been very blessed with Josh's good friend's mom that has been so willing to take the boys in the morning so I can focus on getting Ben ready and then I bring them home in the afternoon.  It's worked out so well...at least for us :)  Thanks Tennille!

There's no guarantee that things would work out so nicely with Abby.

If she did the violin or viola...

Pros:  1. It's much smaller and she could take it on the bus with her

2. She could do violin/viola duets with Josh and his cello

Cons:  1. We would need to rent another instrument

2. We would need to find another private teacher and work in another lesson time to our schedule.

What do you think?  What's most important here?

My mom tells the story of how she always wanted to play the cello but her parents didn't think she was big enough to handle an instrument that size (she was small for her age) so she ended up with the violin :)

Am I way over thinking this?  Should I just let her do whatever she wants?

Anyone's thought on this would be appreciated.

Anyway, back to Josh...

He also got his "Hot Dog" reading award.

Only 2 or 3 (give or take) kids in the school get this each year so I'm very proud of him.  He's received it the last four years.

We also had the north and south end of the valley concerts at Utah State.

Wednesday night was the south end (which is us) but Matt had a soccer game and Ben was having a bad cluster of seizures so we attended the North end night on Thursday.  Being an ambassador, Josh was playing both nights so it worked out well.  

Once again, he was in the back.

These pictures make me feel like I'm looking for Waldo :)

Luckily, Josh is one of the few kids that often stands up to switch his music and readjust in between songs so I was able to get a few good shots of him :)

You can't see him in this picture but I thought it was a cute shot of some happy ambassadors when the conductor recognized the group.

All of the teachers surprised us with a classic Mozart piece.

Awesome job Josh!