Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Piano Recital

Piano Recitals. What can one say about piano recitals. I LOVE hearing my precious playing. I love watching them walk on the stage, sit down and play their piece whether it be "Old MacDonald," "Star Wars," or the theme from Hercules. It is all music to my ears. I love being the proud parent holding the video camera and just beaming, "Yes, that's my little pumpkin up there." So wonderful!!
Last night the boys had a piano recital. Our middle son just started playing about 2 months ago, so I was a bit nervous for him to go on the stage thinking he might be nervous. He was the first one to go since he was the youngest (6) and the newest to lessons. He did a magnificent job! Can I say "magnificent" for a 6 year old with 2 months of lessons under his belt? Well, I thought he was magnificent. He walked up to the stage took a seat, played his 2 pieces and walked back down. He meant business. Serious business!
Our oldest played 3 songs. He's come a long way adding chords to his music, and has recently started making up his own songs. It's exciting to see him getting more and more comfortable at the piano and actually experimenting. He did a Stupendous job at the recital! (Gotta like those adjectives).
And our precious little princess...well she's not quite recital audience material. She kept getting up, going from the front row, back to our row, checking on the program, etc. It really is hard to sit through 1 1/2 hours of piano when you're barely 5. Luckily there were cookies afterward as a reward for the patient. She loaded her napkin with 3 cookies and marched out of the auditiorium. It was a good night!

Planning for the Future

Our oldest son, all of 10 years old, had his first meeting with a financial advisor today. WOW! I shared with our little man that I didn't even know what a mutual fund was until I was about 18.
He's had quite an interest in saving, investing, earning and the like for years now.
Last summer we read, Larry Burkett's Money Matters for Kids. He was crazy about this book. We discussed his skills, he worked on a resume. We talked about time management and when he could work on jobs. We examined what to do with the money he made and set up goals for tithing, saving and spending. We've researched and tracked stocks.
And today he took the leap and had a 2 hour meeting with a financial advisor. He learned about Money Market accounts, Mutual Funds, the law of 72, and much, much more. It was so exciting to watch his wheels turning as he was taking in the information. He's very excited about his future and leaping into diversifying investments. This was an important day in the life of our own Warren Buffet.