Musical Mayhem!

Kellen had his piano lessons on Tuesday and was able to bring home full details for the Annual Musical Festival, which we already knew was being held today and tomorrow. I finally read through it all on Wednesday morning, and was rather glad that I did. Apparently, Kellen's piano teacher is a member of various federated music clubs and whenever he performs at one of their events there is an adjuticator (read: judge) who writes down comments on his perfomance, both compliments and things that he can work on a little more. Then he's given a score from 1-5 (1-needs improvement; 2-fair; 3-satisfactory; 4-excellent; 5-superior) and that score is kept on record, accumulating each time he performs at an event so that, when he reaches 15 points, he can receive a gold cup marking his achievement. His teacher is planning on calling us this evening to let us know what his score was today, but he did really well. He made 1 obvious mistake on his second piece (each child plays two songs), but he recovered fairly well and didn't let it rattle him. Playing in front of people takes practice in and of itself! In order to not distract students, and because the event itself is copyrighted or something, we were not permitted any photos or video of him performing today. However, he is going to play the same songs for church on Sunday so I will be sure to get something then :) We were really glad that Steve's parents were able to join us for Kellen's performance today, and we all went out for a brunch afterwards before they returned home, Steve went to work, and I took Kellen to school. Madison, due to her inability to sit still and be quiet, was at a friend's house playing all morning. This really worked out best for Kellen, because that made this event all about him and (let's face it) since Madison's arrival it's been really hard to make that happen for him! She goes everywhere we go, and there are things that he'd like to do that are limited because she can't or won't.
So the Mayhem part was actually yesterday. I picked Kellen up from school and took him to Wal-Mart for a new pair of dress pants and shoes. They were sadly lacking in shoes in Kellen's size that qualified as dress shoes, but we did manage to find a pair of glossy black shoes on clearance for $3. They're a little on the snug side but, even if he only manages to wear them a few times, for that price I figure it was worth it! We also bought a pair of nice khaki slacks for him in a 10 slim; that means the length is perfect and waist had to be drawn in just a tiny bit - thank goodness for the popularity of adjustable waistbands on kids' pants these days! While we were there, we also picked him up a pair of the now ever-popular crocs for summer wear. Once we got home, I had him try on the dress shirts in his closet to see what was really going to fit well and look nice, and threw the resulting combination of clothes through the laundry. Kellen finished his homework, we had some roast beef with rice pilaf and green beans for dinner, and then I cut Kellen's hair so he'd look sharp for his performance. Of course, we couldn't cut Kellen's hair and NOT cut Madison's, so she climbed up there, too. I trimmed her bangs and then went ahead and cut the back so that it's at her jaw and the nape of her neck. She looks so cute with this little cap of hair on her head :) I was cleaning up when Kellen, just having gotten out of the shower, asked me if we weren't supposed to be at scouts. Oh, no! I knew that the piano recital was Thursday morning, and that Thursday morning was the next day, but the thought had not followed that that meant it was Wednesday night and we had scouts! We were already 10 minutes late when he said that, but we gathered things up real quick and headed out the door (into the pouring rain) so that he could go to scouts. I'm really glad we went, though, because the group was working on their Communication belt loop. By the end of the evening, the belt loop was in the bag. We just have to mail the letter that he wrote to a friend of his to have it truly completed. I feel like I've been running since I picked Kellen up from school yesterday, and I finally get a break which will last about another 20 minutes. Then it's time to go pick Kellen up from school. What a day!