And the award goes to...

Thank you to all 35 of our terrific pianists who did an amazing job at our 4th Annual Winter Recital last Saturday!

At the end of the recital we have a formal certificate presentation to our performers & 2 drawings for prizes! 

This year I have added a few for fun awards too!

So here are our winners:

"Practice Jar Winner" of a $25 gift card to Target = Miss Ainsley 

"Good Grades Jar Winner" of a $25 gift card to Best Buy = Mister Antonio

My dad counted 117 entries in our Practice Jar from 11/1 - 12/16.  He determined that those 117 entries equaled 1755 times a song was practiced!  And that does not even include the students who didn't meet the practice jar criteria!  WOW!

"The Technology Award" goes to the Parke Family for using Skype to share our recital with their family in Sweden!

My dad is the winner of the "Dedication to Renee's Music Award" goes to my dad  = 31 years later & he is still sitting through my recitals!  ;)

The "Furthest Distance Traveled Award" goes to Miss Kendall's Grandparents who came from Alabama to attend our recital for the 2nd year in a row!

The "Practice Dedication Award" goes to Miss Jaime W. for starting her recital songs first (over summer vacation).

The "Family Support Award" goes to Miss Elizabeth since her big brothers gave her a standing ovation when she finished performing "Believe" from The Polar Express.

The "Worker Bee Family Award" goes to Miss Emily & Miss Abigail's Family!  Once again they helped by unlocking & locking the church for us, turning on all the lights, being the sound crew, setting up, cleaning up & working in the kitchen!  They spent their whole day working!

Thank you to all of you who helped, volunteered & donated items to make the day a huge success!  Thank you to all of the performers for doing your best & working hard all year for this performance!  Thank you to all of the parents, grandparents & childcare providers who get their students to lessons, and encourage them to practice!  Without all of you, our recital would not have been possible!

Grant & I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Eyw5t2XgY&feature=player_profilepage

Above is the link to view Grant & I playing "Christmas Time Is Here" from Charlie Brown Christmas.  

We practiced for weeks & had a lot of fun!  Although it was not a perfect performance, we are still very proud of ourselves!


Thank you Grant!  I love you!

Miss Danielle

Congratulations to Miss Danielle!  Miss Danielle played a song for her music class last week & had the class guess the title of the song!  The song was "Frosty The Snowman"!  She said her whole class guessed it correctly!  Way to go Miss Danielle!  We are looking forward to hearing you play it at the recital on Saturday! 

Adrienne

Please join me in thanking my friend Adrienne for being my technical support!  (once again!)  Adrienne taught me everything I know about blogs!  She set my blog up and most recently fixed it up!  She also added the festive wintery background - which I LOVE! 

She also made Ellie her keyboard headband and keyboard hair bow that she has been wearing for the past few weeks.  (When she has not been wearing her Christmas themed hair accessories of course!)  Adrienne has an Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilsisdesign/  Please visit it to see all sorts of cute things!

Thanks Adrienne, I truly appreciate you!

Nursing Home Recital

Please join me for a standing ovation for the terrific piano students who performed their holiday songs for the residents of a local nursing home this past Tuesday!  The residents loved seeing the students dressed in their holiday outfits & listening to them perform.  In fact, it was our biggest audience to date!  Thank you to Carson, Serena, Sydney, Grant, Lailany, Antonio, Vincent, Cristofero, Claire, Emily, Abigail, and Jonathon for playing your songs.  Unfortunately, Ellie decided not to perform this time!  However, she did sing a long.  Following our performance, our resident friend, Mrs. Bernice played Silent Night & Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.  She invited everyone in the room to sing along and everyone did!  There were several sets of misty eyes in the house as it truly was a touching moment.  After Mrs. Bernice played, she reminded all of the students to practice every day!  When everyone was done playing the piano, everyone enjoyed punch and cookies.  Our students learned a lot of valuable lessons!  Thank you everyone!

Miss Elizabeth

Thank you to Miss Elizabeth for the donation of many stickers, including "scratch & sniff" stickers!  Our piano students will enjoy working hard for the fun reward stickers!  Thank you!

Miss Jackie

Congratulations to Miss Jackie for performing "The Juggler" on the piano at her school talent show today!  She said her friends gave her many compliments following her performance!  Hooray for Jackie!