Big Band

The KHA Advanced Band had the great opportunity to perform at the ACSI Honor Band Festival in Vacaville. NorCal Christian Schools are invited to play as one huge ensemble band. The students start at 9am to learn and practice 4-5 brand new songs that they would have to play that same evening. After six long hours of rehearsals, the fruit of their labor was so so sweet!!

I was in awe of how amazing the bands performed and they sounded incredible. Since some Christian schools bands are small this gives the kids the opportunity to be part of an ensemble the size of a symphony.

Emily and Shawna were part of the Festival Band which consisted of around 50 6th grade students.

They played four songs:
- The Blue Danube Waltz
- Faith of our Fathers
- Gollum's Song from the Lord of the Rings
- Laredo Mexican Folk Song (a short clip below)

Emily on clarinet

...and Shawna on flute.

The Honor Band which consisted of over 200 7/8th graders played five songs:
- Mission Impossible Theme
- Kaleisoscope
- The Water is Wide
- Meeting at Tryon Palace
- March of The Lost Battalion

In addition to the Festival and Honor Bands, the evening concert also featured The Festival String Band and Honor String Band.

Our KHA Advanced Band with band director Tony Bolivar: Irfaan (trumpet), Michael (bass clarinet), Ryan (principle clarinet), Courtney (tenor sax), Amanda (clarinet), Shawna (flute) and Emily (clarinet).

It was incredible performance and I can't wait for Emily to be a part of Honor band next year!

The TECH x Three

Emily's 6th grade class went to the Tech Museum as their first field trip of the school year.

KHA's 6th grade class

In Science, they were learning about the earth and the Tech Museum had a lab about Earthquakes. They broke up into small groups to construct structures and foundations that would withstand an earthquake.

The students had to create a structure out of popsicle sticks and glue. The structures were then put on a belt that simulated an earthquake. The one that stayed on for 10 seconds won.

Emily's group's structure. Unfortunately it was not able to stay for it's required period of time. The base was not heavy enough.

Back in 2010: Emily had her 10th birthday party at the Tech museum in this very room. All her friends each squeezed themselves into these window slots. Emily is second from the right.

TODAY:  Two years later, many, including Emily (5th from the left),  could not fit into these slots! Yes she's had pretty much the same classmates since Kindergarten!

The Tech Museum had all kinds of great hands on experiments they could freely participate in. This one was to learn how to grow jellyfish protein in bacteria. You can label your petri dish with a computer scan and when you go home, you can take your electronic ticket and look up your petri dish to see how it's grown!

The four of us squeezed into a water pod that Japan used when a tsunami hit their islands. The space was cramp for the four of us but it had a port hole on the top for air and it was supposed to float on water until help arrived. Not sure about those who are claustrophobic but if it's either life or death.. I would choose life...especially since I don't know how to swim!

Astronaut Emily

The 5 girls that I drove to the museum: Stacy, Shaleen, Emily, Anissa & Shawna

Fast forward one month... Emily's class went to the Tech Museum for the 2nd time. This time they went with the whole Middle School to see the new MythBusters Exhibit. My husband (a big MythBuster fan) did parent volunteer duties this time around so I'll let him tell you how it went.

I love the show MythBusters. A bunch of regular guys (and gal) like you and me set out to disprove common assumptions or myths, based on scientific experiments. The MythBusters Exhibit is a traveling exhibit based on the TV show, with a bunch of different stations to test many of these myths. Have you ever wondered if you get more wet by running or by walking through the rain? Or if a dropped piece of toast always hits the ground with the butter side down? Or if you could change into a costume in a phone booth? Or if flatulence is actually flammable? All these myths and more were tested on the show, and set up as testing stations here at the MythBusters Exhibit.

Can a blind man drive if given instructions by his passenger? Definitely not if they are middle schoolers from KHA!

Can a person dodge a bullet? It depends on the distance and the velocity...

Can you really hang on to a building ledge like in the movies? I could only last 42 seconds on the novice (fat) ledge, and 0.5 seconds on the expert (skinny) ledge.

Besides the MythBusters Exhibit, we also explored the rest of the Tech Museum.

When placed on the table, each object creates a sound wave that you can both hear and see visually. It varies depending on its location, orientation, and proximity to other objects. By moving the objects around, you can see and hear how the objects interact with each other.

Emily with the other girls in our car: Victoria (7th grader), Caryn, and Lily (8th grader). This exhibit projected light onto the ground. The spot where you stood would create multi-color ripples, similar to throwing a rock into a pond. The girls were trying to combine all their ripples into one giant one.

Recently Hannah's third grade class also went to the Tech Museum.. I, again, got the privilege of accompanying her this time around. Yes.. it IS a popular place for field trips!

Hannah's 3rd grade class... they are littler than Emily's class .. and it was Friday so it was free dress (no uniforms)

Hannah and her friend Sabrina also enjoyed the Lab... growing jellyfish protein in bacteria

Hannah's class got to enjoy a IMAX movie, Hubble, which ties in with their space themed curriculum. I got a jumbo tub of popcorn (which included one free refill) and feed the whole class of 16 plus parents! Pretty good deal for $7.75 huh?

Another great experience, the Earthquake Encounter..

I think we got enough of the Tech Museum for this school year... until next year...

Shark-Teeth

I dislike going to the dentist. I always have. I tend to gag whenever they put that suction vacuum in my mouth and it's just an uncomfortable experience having your mouth wide open for an hour. But I go for preventative care! Plus my dentist is awesome! I have been seeing him for 20+ years!

Both my parents do not have good teeth nor gums (since they never went as a child nor really as an adult) so I take full advantage of our dental insurance and go regularly (every 6 months) to get my teeth cleaned. I brush after every meal and floss daily. I am happy to say that I only have one cavity to date!

My girls also do not like going to the dentist. They go to an awesome pediatric dentist, Dr. Steven Chan. He's so personable, great with kids and translates 'dental/medical' terms to English so I can understand!

Emily had 10 of her baby teeth extracted by the dentist and 4 that were lost 'naturally'.

Hannah has had all her baby teeth pulled.. #7 & 8 was just recently. She is currently 9 years old and only has 'lost' 8 baby teeth. All of them being extracted by the dentist.

Now you see why my girls don't like going to the dentist? (Nothing against Dr. Chan though.. he's great!)

Hannah had a shark tooth (the baby tooth in front of the new permanent one).

Dr. Chan says that the permanent teeth technically 'should' push the baby one out (growing on top of the old one).. thus you get a loose tooth. But Hannah's (and Emily's) teeth don't tend to grow that way. Her permanent teeth tend to grow 'next' to the baby tooth thus the baby tooth does not get loose. And her permanent teeth are so much bigger than her baby teeth too!

A few hours after the 'extractions'.

She definitely 'looks' happier than she was after she came out of the dentist's office. That's fer sure!

SkYEEing

We headed up to Reno again to check out the snow once a year. You never know what you see regarding the weather... it's so unpredictable...

We headed to our usual resort, Mt Rose, to our usual spot in the lodge and snow play area. 

This was 2 years ago December...

This was 1 year ago December...

This was 10 months ago April...

This was a few weeks ago in February...

What a huge difference isn't it? We never know what we get until we get there! But we still had a great time!

This time we went up with our friends, Michael & Angela, and their kids Jessie, Brian & Rachel. We stayed one night at the Hampton Inn & Suites.

Now I try to travel 'light' but I admit, I do tend to overpack. I try to be prepared for any circumstance from a change in weather to swimming in the hotel pool to having to stay an extra night.  It's that Type A in me.

Our friends usually travel light... very light! One time Angela and Rachel shared a carry-on suitcase for a 5 day trip to the Grand Canyon! (My toiletries and necessities would fit a carry-on suitcase alone!) So I was afraid to be embarrassed by our one huge suitcase just for 'one' night but of course it did have everything for our whole family of four in it plus our ski clothing.

To my utmost surprise, our friends brought a little bit more than I had thought!

In their defense, they say they pack 'light' whenever they have to fly! But when they drive, they just dump their house into the car!

The weather was clear and warm even without the sun. But if you stand outside long enough, it gets quite cold!

Hannah opted out on skiing (did not want to take a lesson by herself) so she hung out at the lodge with me and Angela...

...while Emily skiied with her Daddy and...

.... Rachel

Jessie and Brian snowboarded... and Michael skiied

Mt Rose attracts many Asians (as you can see from this sign on each of the tables in the lodge). During the holiday season, many come and bring their own food.. cup of noodles, sandwiches, hot pots and rice cookers. Yep. I saw someone bring a rice cooker once!

After a full day in the snow, we headed to a new japanese restaurant that we had not tried yet...

They had an all-you-can-eat option for $24.99. Our Jessie, our honor-student-track-runner-health-conscious-senior, surprisingly decided to go for the all-you-can-eat-option (to the definite surprise of her mother). It wasn't the amount of food that she wanted to consume but the cost of it. She had calculated that it was more cost efficient to take advantage of the all-you-can-eat than to order a la carte the items she wanted to eat.

So she ate...

...and ate...

...and ate! She ate a total of 3 appetizers and 6 rolls! All coming out to $62!!! For only $24.99! What a great deal!

The restaurant has this cool 'call button' on the table that you press whenever you want to order more food.

Afterwards we headed down a few shops to get some yogurt... you got to have dessert on vacation right?

This cool yogurt place had a wall full of flavors plus on the other side was a wall full of toppings.

We rolled out of Reno quite full and happy the next morning!

New, Big and 600CFM!

So our old microwave died... I was reheating up a dish for two minutes and it was still cold when I took it out... (one of many appliances that we will probably be replacing this new year! Sigh...I guess it's that time.)

So my husband researched what was the best available that had a strong fan. Yes... I needed a strong fan that would not smell up my whole house when I cook! Most microwave/fan combos are 300-400 CFM (cubic feet per minute) or the amount of air the fan is pushing. Our previous fan was probably 300 CFM. A wimpy little thing!

After reading reviews and checking out Consumer Reports, we went to good ol' Sears and got us this bad boy!

The Kenmore Elite 30" Microhood Combination

We were so thankful that our friend, Greg, came and helped Matthew install this very heavy appliance. Of course we also bought him a nice dinner and I did his laundry (he was back in the States for business).

This microwave has an extra wide cavity since the positioning of the controls were on the bottom instead of on the side.

Unfortunately it was deeper than we expected but I was willing to sacrifice that with.. as Tim the Tool Man Taylor says... MORE POWER!  This bad boy has 600CFM ventilation power (which is twice as much as our previous one!)

It also has duel swing doors that you can open on the left or the right!

The tray glides (moves back and forth) instead of spinning a turntable tray. This maximizes the usable space within the microwave.

Check out the happy and proud faces of a job well-done! It took them three hours... Greg finally left our house at midnight to go back to his hotel!

THANK YOU Greg!!