Ella has been a part of the Cantate Homeschool Choir since January 2022. This was her 6th choir concert. This time the choir was so big they ended up having the event at the Federal Way Perform Arts and Events Center. I knew that with it being at a new location there were going to be hiccups that would come up. The hiccup this time around was seating. People weren't supposed to be able to save seats unless they were the families with the Jubilate kids which are the really young kids. When they opened the seating up for everyone almost all the seats in the lower area were already taken. It was a bit disheartening, but thankfully they had a balcony and there were plenty of seats up there.
I think I would actually want to sit in the balcony anyway...it was a nice view!
You can see part of our group....Justine is on Jack's left he's looking at the stage, Zeke is the blur between Owen and Jack. Ga-Ga, Pa, Papa & Ruth were sitting on the other side of me.
There are 4 choirs total....Jubilate, Cantate 1, Cantate 2 and then the audition choir which is called Ensemble. Each choir sings individually and then at the end they bring all the choirs together for one final song. Ella is in the Cantate 2 choir...they sang 3 songs. Ella is right in the middle of the second row looking at her choir folder.
Here she's looking up.
Here's everyone! This was the biggest choir they've had...at least since Ella joined. There was 192 kids!
Ella was all the way over on the right side which made it really easy to see her!
Ella's fan club....well maybe not Zeke! :)
Ella and her friend June.
They really enjoy getting to see each other every Friday at practice. Now that this session is over she gets a break for exactly a month before she starts back up in January for the next session.
On December 18th & 19th, Ella had her Christmas Choir Concert with Cantate Homeschool Choirs.
Pa & Grandma Ruth were able to come on Monday, the 18th. This time around I figured out where Ella was standing so I could make sure that we had seats where we could see her face.
The next night Michael, the boys and Ga-Ga & Pa went to see her. I was planning on going, but I truly wasn't feeling well. I think I was overwhelmed and stressed out so I just laid in bed. I did live stream it though so I got to hear the kids perform.
Unfortunately Michael didn't get the best seats so they didn't see Ella singing at all. In a funny coincidence the person that was standing in front of Ella blocking their view of her....is named Ella Martinez!
Going from the front row on the right count over 4 girls and Ella is right behind that Ella standing to the right of Addison....you just can't see her!
Ella and June are such cute friends!
Had to get a picture with Ga-Ga & Pa!
These cute stairstep girls!
Hopefully for the spring concert we'll all get to see our sweet Ella's face! :)
If you'd like to listen to the choir's performance you can click this link.
At the end of April, Ella's choir had their Spring Concert! They actually had 2 concerts on back to back days. They did this to accommodate more people, but they aren't going to do that for the Christmas Concert. It is just too much for the everyone involved to do this big of a performance twice in row! They do live stream the concert so anyone can actually watch it.
There are over 100 kids in the choir ranging from 4 - 18 years old.
Mrs. Mangle is the director and she does such an amazing job with the kids. You would think with over 100 kids on stage it would be absolute chaos, but it's not! The kids are well behaved kids, but still she knows how to lovingly and patiently work with them especially the little ones She's such a blessing!
I didn't know where Ella was going to be standing since they had the parents leave the sanctuary during rehearsal. I just quickly found seats and then left. Unfortunately I got seats on the right side and she was standing on the far right turned to the right a bit so she could face Mrs. Mangle. Ella sang in two of the choirs in the spring...Cantate 1 which is for kids up to 13 years old and also Cantate 2 which is for kids 12 and up. When she was singing with Cantate 1 it was harder to see her, but once she was with Cantate 2 she moved out a bit and we were able to see her better.
Papa & Ruth and Ga-Ga & Pa came out to support there Ella Bean! Of course Michael and the boys were there too, but they rushed out afterwards since we came in separate vehicles.
June and Ella have become such good friends this year. June is such a sweetheart...almost every Friday at choir practice she was bringing Ella another new piece of jewelry she made her.
The spring concert is always so hard because the kids know they aren't going to get to see each other every Friday again until after summer break. Because of that Ella wanted to hang around afterwards. They have a little reception in the basement of the church with refreshments. It was fun to chat with other mom's and for Ella to get friend time. We are of course able to see friends during the summer, but it's not the same as seeing each other every single Friday week after week.
Last winter Christina was telling us all about the homeschool choir her kids were in. I wanted to check them out before signing the kids up so we attended the winter choir performance on Dec 17th. It was amazing. We were blown away!!
Right after that I signed up Jack and Ella to be apart of the Cantate I Choir. Choir practice was every Friday from 1:15 - 2:30 for 16 weeks at Family Life Community Church in Federal Way. All the kids came along so Owen and Zeke just hung out in the lobby with all the other kids that weren't in that particular choir. It was a great opportunity for the Owen and Zeke to make friends. They would usually bring books or a board or card game and play with others. They also would sometimes play games on one of the boys laptops. There was only one time...I believe our first choir practice where they had to actually do school work. After that they were pretty motivated to get all their work finished up before leaving for choir.
While Jack and Ella were in choir practice I would either sit and visit with friends or watch them. It was so wonderful to see how much they progressed over the weeks. The best part was they were having a lot of fun doing it!
The Choir Director had really wanted us to be able to perform at an Elderly Assisted Living Home, but Covid restrictions did not make that possible this year. So instead we all met at NorthPointe Community Center in Tacoma to have a dress rehearsal outside at the park. It ended up being a beautiful day outside!
They all look so good in their blue choir shirts!
I believe their was over 100 kids in the choir this session. There are actually 4 different choirs. The Jubilate choir is for the younger kids age 4 - 8. Cantate I is for ages 7 - 13. Cantate II is for ages 12 - 19 and lastly there is an Ensemble Choir that you have to be in Cantate II to try out for to see if you can join it.
The choirs performance was on May 3rd at Gospel Russian Baptist Church in Des Moines.
Their dress code was black pants or skirts and black shoes. I ended up having to buy these for the kids since they didn't have anything nice like this. They look so good! Ella had me French braid her hair a couple days before so she took it out the day of the performance. Her curls looked glorious!
Every choir performance they have a program of the show. The kids get to create artwork and Ms. Mangle the Choir Director chooses a few of the drawings to be on the front of the program. Jack and Ella drew pictures, but neither of theirs were chosen. She did have all the drawings on display in the foyer of the church so everyone could see them. She had asked that they draw pictures that coincided with one of the songs they were singing. Jack drew Edelweiss up on the mountains because they were singing the song Edelweiss. He drew it on the page in the portrait position thinking they'd know to flip it around...oops! It should have been mounted on the board 1/4 of a turn to the left. Ella choose to draw a church steeple with a bell which they sang about in the song So Long Farwell. I was so proud of them entering the competition!
We had to be at the church for practice at 4pm. The show didn't start until 6:30pm. It was a lot of standing and a lot of singing.
It was super nice for our family because Ella and Jack were standing right next to each the whole performance. We invited a bunch of people to come hear the kids. Ga-Ga & Pa, Miss Ellen, Papa & Miss Ruth all came. The church was packed with people.
Here's the Youtube video with the whole performance!
The kids did fabulously! There was about a 30 minute piano recital right at the beginning and then they go into the choir singing. The music was wonderful, the kids voices with joyful, the message was meaningful!
We can't wait to sign up and join again for the next session. I believe Zeke is going to give it a try too. Ella and Zeke will both be in Cantate I and Jack will be moving up to Cantate II so we'll be at choir for even longer this next time.
Hi my name is Lyndsay...I was name after the actress Lindsay Wagner. My brothers name is Ryan so my mom thought it would be fun to spell my name with an Ly to match his. I didn't meet another person who spelled their name like me until I was in high school. Speaking of high school that's where I met my husband. We were both 16 years old. We got engaged at 17 and were married on May 8th, 1999 when we were 18 years. We struggled for 6 years with infertility, but then on January 15th, 2007 God blessed us with Owen. After that the kids started popping out..Jack was next, Ella our only girl and finally we finished at the end of the alphabet with Zeke. I'm a stay at home mom and I volunteer at church and school. Life is crazy, but life is good!
.jpg)
.jpg)
