Makeup and Music

Yesterday was a busy day for our camera. Hillary's kindergarten class had "Mommy Makeover Day"--a chance to celebrate moms (a slightly belated Mother's Day event) by giving hair and makeup products to five-year-olds and letting them loose on the women who birthed them . . . and who then had to return to work displaying their children's handiwork. Susan was delighted to report for an after-school meeting and later to be seen on campus when she dropped the girls off for dance rehearsal. Wisely she chose to wear sunglasses to hide the "football player" look that Hillary had crafted for her (and nice hair, too):

Hillary displays a gift she put together for Mommy: a marigold planted in a bee flower pot with the poem, "A Marigold for Mom."

Hillary's class also sang their Mommies a special song (to the tune for "Sing a Song of Sixpence"):

My mom's number one,
the best mom in the world.
She is not a boy,
but she's kind of not a girl.
I don't know her age;
I ask, but she won't say.
I'll stop asking soon and wish her,
"Happy Mother's Day!"

Anyway, Susan got "made over," attended her meeting, shuttled all the girls to campus for their penultimate dress rehearsal for this weekend's dance recital ("Dancing to the Stars," 4:00 P.M., May 19 and 20, Stickney Auditorium, Dickinson State University), washed her face and repaired her hair, picked up food from Quizno's, brought it to campus for us all to eat quickly following dance rehearsal, helped the girls get cleaned up, and then ushered us all to the girls' 7:00 P.M. piano recital in DSU's choir room. Whew!

Suzanna and Abigail have been taking piano lessons from Leah, a college student majoring in music. Lessons have been right after school on Fridays in the music practice rooms on campus, making it easy for the girls to walk over (a five-minute journey), have their lessons, and then join me in my office (a one-minute journey) so that I can take them home. Leah's piano teacher, a piano instructor at DSU, had a recital last night for her students, some of whom (like Leah) give lessons to students of their own, who were also invited to perform.

Suzanna and Leah played a duet called "Colorful Sunset" by Nancy Faber, and Abigail and Leah played a duet called "Donkeys Love Carrots" by Nancy and Randall Faber. They each did very well and have a fine musical sense when it comes to maintaining tempo and playing dynamics (which were not high priorities for a majority of their peers last night). Another performer's mom came over to talk to me before the recital. She was Susan's bank coworker years ago, now living with her husband in Dickinson and a mother of three. It was nice to reconnect with her and will be nice to socialize with her family in the future.

Abigail, Leah, Suzanna, and Blanche (another student of Leah and friend of the girls)