Remi had his spring concert on Monday night. All the bands and choirs from his school performed at the local high school. Here he is all dressed up, ready to go.

And here performing:

Rem's in the advanced band and they played:

To a New Beginning

Do-Re-Mi

Surfin' USA

Bb Blues (which included them all standing up and doing an improvised solo-the photos above)

It was a good night and the choir was particularly good fun, but they are just NOTHING compared to the bands at the kids' old school in Sydney. Admittedly there's only 15 Remi's band here, compared to the 82 in his beginner band in Sydney, but they are just not in the same league. It's just one of the things I really miss about the schools in Australia. Even so, Remi enjoys playing clarinet still and will have another 3 years of it at least when he goes on to Middle school next year. We have Oscar's concert on next Monday.

Today I went up to school as guest reader for Ella's class. I took along (amongst others) one of our favourite books Olivia,

by Ian Falconer

(I know that's not the cover, but the best I could find)

While I was reading it, the teacher just happened to mention that the real Olivia and her siblings actually go to their school. So there you go! I thought that was a pretty amazing thing. The kids kept saying "they really do have a dog" and "I know Olivia and Ian" etc. So our little town is hot spot for celebrities. We found out last week that the parents of Remi's best friend (who are the nicest people ever and adore Remi) are both huge stars on the day time TV soap "As the World Turns". Wonder who else we'll meet?

(and no, I didn't drive. Matt still has to use the car to get to work and I haven't picked up my license yet.)