The Primary Program and Zaylee's Bed

Today our Primary had their Sacrament Meeting Primary Program, themed "I Am a Child of God." As primary pianist, that means I got to spend the whole time up at the piano. I wish that piano benches came with backs, because after all that time at the piano, my back was starting to hurt! Oh well. :-)

Last night, the ward organist called and asked if I would play the organ for Sacrament meeting today, since she wasn't feeling well. I went ahead and said yes, so I played the opening and Sacrament hymn on the organ, then worked my way through the rows of children to the piano on the other side of the stand for the Primary Program. What fun! Luckily, the hymns were fairly simple and I was able to practice on Grandma's organ before church so I didn't mess them up.

I have to admit I was nervous about the program. I have of course seen Primary programs plenty of times, but this is the first time (since graduating out of Primary years ago) that I have actually participated in one. The behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on is hectic, mainly practices with all the kids. After two Sundays and one Saturday of program practices, I was sure that the program was going to be a disaster - the kids would be wiggling in their seats and gabbing to their neighbors, and wouldn't know when to stand for the songs, and would all forget their parts. But when I mentioned this to Mom yesterday, she said that it's always like that. The practices are always a little merrily chaotic, with kids just being kids. But they always seem to calm down for the actual program, and everything just runs smoothly. I was pleasantly surprised that she was actually right - everything just went well and the kids did extremely well with the songs and their parts and being calm and reverent.

I was feeling a little squished up there on the stand. Since the bishopric and the ward chorister were displaced, their seats being taken by young children, they were all squeezed in wherever they could find a place. The bishop was sitting on the corner seat in the back of the stand, and the ward chorister was stuck on a little chair (you know those tiny plastic chairs they have for the Nursery and Sunbeams) right up beside the piano bench. The bishop joked that if the kid who sat in the seat he was in showed up, he might have to share the piano bench with me. Luckily, the seat he was in never did get occupied by a child, so the bench was mine.

Anyway, after the program, it was back down to the Primary room for two hours of Primary. For singing time, we played a sort of Hot Potato game, where the kids got to choose their favorite songs to sing. Part of the rules was that they weren't allowed to choose songs we had done for the program - we had been working on those songs for months and everyone was tired of them! The problem was that since those were almost the only songs the kids had been singing for so long, they couldn't think of any other songs! It was fun though, to get to do a bunch of non-program songs. Most of the kids chose fun "wiggle" songs, like Popcorn Popping, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Book of Mormon Stories.

It will be nice to get back to regular Primary next week. We're going to start working on Christmas songs. Yippee!

In other news, Zaylee's bed was delivered yesterday, and Jeff put it together. Zaylee is thrilled with her beautiful new bed! Here's some pictures Jeff took of the process of putting it together.

The bed in the box

All laid out

Hmm, now what do I do?

All put together

Aw, isn't that cute?

The bed is nice and high, so there's plenty of storage space underneath - always a nice bonus! Plus, Thomas can't climb up onto it, so Zaylee will have less reason to beat up on him - hooray! Now, does that mean she'll actually beat up on him less? Well, we'll see...