My talented little squirts

Tonight my dad and sister came to visit for the weekend and tomorrow we'll be joined by my mom and brother. Chris and my dad went to Salt Lake for the Utah game (GOOOOOO UTES!) while Allison and I took the boys to USU for Tom's first piano recital. Oh my goodness, it was so, so cute! Before the recital, Tom told me that he was feeling very nervous, but once arrived and sat down and saw his name fourth on the list, he was excited. He had his song memorized and played a duet with his teacher, Cortni, just perfectly. I took a video, of course, so feel free to compliment my little pianist playing "Sailor Jack":



Ah, I love the little bow!

Thomas absolutely loves his lessons and his teacher. I don't even have to argue with him to get him to practice and sometimes, he'll just start practicing on his own. The main challenge he has now is learning to look at the notes-- he has a tendency to listen to the song once, then just play it by ear over and over. It's a bad habit that we're hoping to break in order to help his abilities develop. Most of his songs at this point are played with just one hand, so he has been making up a left hand accompaniment to jazz them up a little bit. It's quite cute, and we think very clever. I remember reading an interview with Billy Joel who said that he got in trouble as a little kid because he would improvise on his classic piano lessons. So, maybe we have a little Billy Joel on our hands? :)



Of course, after the recital, we had to go to Aggie Ice Cream to celebrate. Mmmm!



Earlier today, Chris took a video of Gordon enjoying his spaghetti lunch (an example of "how a cow eats hay"), which I thought I'd share because it's just kind of funny. And hey, eating is a talent, too, right?