Make a Splash!

We enjoyed a few more summer reading activities in the last few weeks. Above, the Kokyo Taiko Japanese drummers were super cool. It was pretty loud, so I was a little nervous about the girls freaking out. But they did great! Rebecca & Andrew were "drumming" right along with their hands on their legs. Teresa just kept clapping & squealing with delight. Their favorite part was when they were supposed to shout, "Heh!" at the end of the song. They talked about a drum large enough for eight men to play at once... Andrew asked if we could get one. ;) I love to see them sitting together so rapt with attention.
Jeff Quinn magician was fun, too. He had a LOT of varying scarf & disappearing water tricks but the kids didn't seem to notice the repitition. Andrew did catch on to the water ones though after we learned so much at Splish Splash Science. He asked,
"Does he have that stuff from Teresa's diapers in there?"
I'm assuming he meant the polymers...
The most fun was going to see Oscar Rios perform. We were in foreign language methods classes together 10 years ago & I've been impressed by him ever since. He's the leader of a band called Kusi Taki that plays Andean folk music. He brought along a few unique instruments to show, explain, & teach how to play. Here's Rebecca with the zamponas & Andrew with the chajchas that we have at our house. The charango was a cool little guitar that was made out of an armadillo's back! (Maybe Fr. Jon will bring me one back from Peru?)

At the end he asked questions about the instruments he had brought & Andrew answered correctly to win the CD he's so proudly holding. The instrument he identified was an Andean flute called a quena.
"Like the Wedding at Cana!"
he said to me. So THAT'S how he remembered it's name. :)