Recital and Rewards

It was with a great sigh of relief that we attended the kids' spring/summer piano recital. Getting the boys to this point had been extremely difficult - they had both lost their enthusiasm for playing and refused to practice. Both David and I hate throwing money drown the drain which is what paying for piano lessons had essentially turned into. Although I was fine with both of them ending their piano careers, I was not fine with quitting a month before their recital. David and I have never been above a little bribery so that's what we pulled out here: practice every day and perform in the recital and then each of them would earn a family dessert night. Three different nights, three different desserts. That did it! The kids were all on board and we got them to that final recital!
It's not like Xander was still thrilled about playing in the recital but at least he was there.

We never had any problem with this girl - she's practically perfect in every way, wink, wink.

The whole group waiting to get this thing started.

The theme of the night was Disney and Xander's piece was "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from "The Lion King".

As usual, he wasn't nervous one bit.

Noah had initially been assigned the song "Under the Sea" from "The Little Mermaid" but that was a "princess song" and he refused. After a brief powwow with Catherine about this hiccup, she selected him to play "The Imperial March" from Star Wars for his first, and last, piano recital (thank goodness Star Wars is now a Disney thing).

He played it on the keyboard to give it the right sound and he absolutely rocked it! I was so proud of him!

And for some odd reason I have zero pictures of Savannah announcing her song or playing it. Hmmm, I wonder what happened there. She played "Reflection" from the movie "Mulan". What a beautiful, haunting song.
 The whole crew breathing a huge sigh of relief!

And getting a little silly.

My cuties.

The kids with their teachers: Savannah with Catherine.

Xander with Christian,

and Noah with Jonah.

Time to pay off some rewards! Noah chose Menchies, a frozen yogurt joint;

Chick-Fil-A shakes were Xander's pick;

and ice cream from Baskin and Robbins for Savannah. We all definitely benefited from the kids' perseverance!