Tubas! and a kangaroo who loves to read!

You know for some reason, we love tuba concerts. Really? Who doesn't love tuba concerts??!! We started with our Tuba Christmas concert each December which is held in the local shopping mall. The kids did really well focusing and enjoying that, so last October, when we read about Octubafest we went. I learned of that concert through the local parenting magazine, so we expected it to be very much like Merry Tuba Christmas with floor seating, people mingling, not pin drop quiet concert hall type atmosphere. Well, we assumed wrong. And, you all know about making assumptions... so no need to write that all out, right? It was, in fact, a tuba recital. And the kids did amazing sitting through the whole thing!

So, 2 nights ago, Lew happened to be reading the paper - which is odd, he normally lets them stack up so long, he is not reading current events - and he found a new concert listing: Tubazalea.

Oh, We're there.

It's tonight at 7:30 and Carl is telling anyone he can get to listen about it! He really confused the guy at Home Depot today when he walked up and said, "We're going to hear the tubas tonight." Not exactly what you are expecting to hear out of a 5 year old's mouth, is it? We were in Home Depot buying a new mailbox because our old one is broken. We cannot truly point fingers due to lack of witnesses, but let's just say, the mailbox was standing when I left that morning and all the garbage cans and bags were out by the end of the driveway. Upon return, the garbage bags and recycling were all gone... and the mailbox post was on the ground. The door to the mailbox broke off in the fall as well. So, $100 later at Home Depot today and by Monday, we should be able to get mail at the end of our driveway again.

But anyway... so what? We're going to a tuba recital tonight! The paper said it will be polkas and marches! Yes! Sousa and tubas! Actually, the very best version I ever heard of JP Sousa's Stars and Stripes was the one I heard back in college (Crane School of Music for those of you who don't know what I studied in college) where rather than piccolos for the highlighted part, there were 8 or 9 tuba players who played it. It was really cool! I'll also throw out the information that the loudest concert I have ever attended in my life was a percussion recital at college. Or perhaps, the bagpipe lecture I heard in one of the dorm lounges once. Not any rock concert.

Here's what we did this morning. We headed over to the Children's Museum with 9,736 of our closest friends and neighbors for a Reading Event. They had story times, a Book Walk (not a cake walk...mmmmm...cake) which Carl won his first round on and got to pick a Miffy book - super happy boy, free books for all the kids (Gretchen picked a Curious George book and Carl picked Frog and Toad are Friends), a magic show and lots of free food.... Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Papa John's pizza and popcorn from our fancy local popcorn store. Carl was in heaven! Popcorn! Gretchen was in heaven! Doughnuts!

But, the whole reason we attended was because we saw the signs several weeks ago and they mentioned an appearance by our PBS mascot Read-A-Roo. And Carl wanted to meet read-A-Roo badly enough to brave the day with tons of families there.

No, I don't know that lady, but she did try to get out of our second shot... of course, the kids were cuter in the first one and honestly, I don't feel like spending a lot of time photoshopping (the spell checker won't like that word) their faces from one to the other. I have to get ready to go to a tuba concert!