The boys are finally out of school (through June 23rd). They had a good year, learned a lot, and they're pretty happy all in all. Their Hebrew is quite amazing; I've long since been left behind (though I do have Pimsleur and am very slowly learning conversational Hebrew). Philip's writing this year was great, fun, creative, and of course amusing. His choir was also pretty neat, and he looked so awesome in his suit (see below) for the concerts.
Joseph's dance season was great, even though the weather for the Nutcracker was audience-unfriendly. The Oregon Ballet Theater ran into very, very hard times due to the economic meltdown combined with an untimely (in retrospect) ambitious growth plan. By the end of the season they were $3/4 Million in the hole and within 30 days of having to cease operations (!). So they did a PR blitz and put together a benefit gala with dancers from San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, National Ballet of Cananda, and more, all of whom volunteered their time & skills to help OBT. Thankfully the Gala and campaign were a huge success and OBT is intact for their 2009/2010 season.
The school was not in direct danger of closing because they operate independently, but obviously it would have been a serious blow to the school since the company provides opportunities for the children to dance in professional performance (Nutcracker being the biggest of course) and access to internationally recognized dancers and choreographers. And of course good dancers and support folks losing their jobs was not a nice prospect. So we were all quite relieved when they exceeded their goal.
I'll let Claire post her own update... on to the photos!
Good times to all,
Peter & Family
Pictures from Spring Break Vacation in 2008 (Yachats)
The boys... even though it was cool they were in the ocean just about every day.
Action on the Yachats shoreline (click to see full size)
View from ... some overlook somewhere...
Friend at the aquarium
Sunset <---- Oooooh!
Spring 2009, NW Portland
Christmas at John & Karen's, 2008
Family portraits (amateur of course)
Father's Day 2009
This is the extremely cool burr coffee mill which Philip remembered I said was the only gift I could think of that I wanted many, many months ago.
Philip's "card" ;-)
And this is Philip's abstract art piece inspired by waffle-making this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment