Kevin attended Sunday School at the Children's School while I was blessed with a phenomenal Morning Worship experience. He was playing on the playground when I arrived for him.
On the way home, we saw some art students working on Chautauqua scenes. As we watched the first one, his canvases blew over in the wind and his palette blew upside down. ugh! This smart girl had hers anchored with a heavy backpack. Her sky is particularly expressive!
We passed a white birch tree. I was sure Kevin had never seen one before and pointed it out. He heard about white birch at the Iroquois Indian village a couple of weeks ago. The Indians used white birch bark which they peeled off the trees to start their fires because it never is too wet to burn.
He asked on the way back to our condo if we could cut some Queen Anne's Lace so that he could make an arrangement. He has such a natural flare! I could not have done as well.
We snuggled on the sofa watching the movie "Fly Away Home" this afternoon. It is the true story of a young Canadian girl who rescued 16 Canada Goose eggs, hatched them, and raised the birds who viewed her as their mother. The mother must lead the chicks south for the winter. Her inventor father helped her to be successful. As the babies were pecking their way out of their eggs and they had wet, sticky feathers, Kevin said, "The baby geese have sticky feathers like a nametag," as he pulled his Sunday School nametag off his shirt.
At 4:00, there was to be an "Opera Surprise Box" for children. We arrived along with about 20 other children plus parents, but the instructor never came. So disappointing! The kids found a piano and were playing their well-learned pieces. In a little while, I heard Kevin's "CDE" piece!
Our next venue was an organ tour at 5:00. We went to Bestor Plaza to pass the hour and maybe have ice cream. BTW, Kevin is doing just fine getting around on his bike! He is pointing at the fountain asking if he can go play.
He wasn't even interested in ice cream, so I got some for myself, then found him at the fountain. Since he had no coins to throw in, he was harvesting them from the fountain for himself and another boy to throw back in. It was fairly hysterical!
While Kevin was head first into the pool, a photographer from "The Daily Chautauquan" came along and snapped several pictures of Kevin without him being aware. I hope one will be published!!!! Either way, I will have to go to the office to purchase at least one shot!
The other boy's mother was bemoaning she had no camera. So I emailed a couple shots to her from my iPhone.
Next was the organ tour -- of the largest outdoor organ in the world with 5460 pipes!!! These are the only visible pipes seen by an audience, and the trumpet-style "pipes" at the top are decoration; they are not pipes at all.
The organ was a gift of the Massey Family of Toronto. It would cost many millions of dollars to replicate the organ today!
An organ builder whose company keeps the organ in tune and in repair was the leader. During his talk, Kevin asked how they "tune the bottom of the organ?" The man was impressed with his question and explained about the bottom notes and that the very lowest note cannot be heard by human ears; we only hear the harmonic of the note. Then the man said to Kevin, "I am going to let you play the pipe with the lowest note when we go downstairs to see the pipes."
Here are some of the pipes we saw on the tour:
The organ is even computerized!
Then we came to the largest pipes with the deepest tones. They sit horizontally as they are so long.
And Kevin had his chance to press the button playing the lowest note which rattles the rafters in the back of the Amphitheater.
The last portion of our tour was of the console to the organ. I pointed out to Kevin that it has FOUR keyboards PLUS the pedals which are a keyboard played by feet!
When question time came during this portion, Kevin asked to hear the middle pipe (of the ones which were in front of us). As the talk progressed, and he talked about what "pulling all the stops" means, the man chose Kevin AGAIN to come up to the organ bench!!!! WHAT???!!!! How does HE get to do that when Grandma will NEVER touch that organ!!!! He placed Kevin's fingers on three notes
and told him the exact moment to play those three notes.
All of us jumped out of our skin, it was SOOOO LOUD!!!!! When Kevin turned around and got off the bench, his face was pale and drawn! :-0 None of us had any idea that what happened was going to happen!!!!
Before the tour was over, there was another question session. This time, Kevin asked, "Do the pipes have to be gold?" The answer is no, and he told us about another organ on campus which has pipes with decorative pictures painted on them. We will have to visit!
As we left the tour, an elderly gentleman said to me, "I wish my students had been like him!" Kevin obviously was very interested in the tour and did come up with some amazing, thoughtful questions!
