Jacob's Orchestra Concert

I was a bit surprised when Jacob asked last fall if he could play the viola at school, but happily said yes.  We went to the first meeting a few days later and learned where to rent an instrument, how much daily practice time was required, who would teach at Jacob's school (we were lucky enough to have the same teacher as our high school), and when the concert would take place.

WHAT?  They are going to have a concert in four short months after starting a string instrument?

Yes and it will include 200 students, all 4-month novices as well, from 3 or 4 different schools who will only practice together 2 times before the big event and will include violins, violas, cellos, and bass.  Oh, and it will sound good.

Really?  Are you kidding me?  I mean, come on - really?

Really - they sounded good.  Really good.  Impressively good.  Surprisingly good.  And we enjoyed it.  Ah, the doubting Thomas over here - tsk, tsk, tsk!

And to make things even better, we had an 'incident' that we can laugh over now.  Jacob needed to be at the concert hall/gym early, so David took him and I followed 30 minutes later with the girls.  Jacob willingly dressed in his white shirt (no tie) and black dress pants we use on Sundays.  He looked nice.  He felt good.  Then he arrived at the Junior High.  He didn't want to go inside.  He didn't like the way he was dressed.  He was convinced he would be the only kid dressed up.  David made him go inside.  Jacob started to walk away in a huff.  David called him back.  "Give me your coat."  "NO!"   "Oh yes, you are giving me that coat before you walk away!"  "NO!"  "Jacob, I am NOT letting you take your coat back stage," knowing full well that if he let Jacob take that coat, we'd see it in the concert - a big green MN WILD hockey coat.  "You are the meanest Dad EVER."  But he left the coat.  And happily, it turned out well.  Jacob wasn't the only kid dressed up.  His good friend Tyler, who also plays viola, showed up in a white shirt and dark dress pants (probably what he wears to church too).  And as you can see from the pictures below, Jacob enjoyed the concert experience.

Do we have a virtuoso on our hands?  No.  Does he practice as much as he should?  No.  Are we concerned?  No - he's enjoying it and we're happy that he's happy.  And that the elementary orchestra sounded really good.  I guess the teachers knew what they were talking about!