We started November off right by watching Maya participate in a piano recital. Her piano teacher has been letting Maya choose the order in which she is learning her book 3 Suzuki music, and Maya’s favorite piece was the eighth one (Sonatina in C Major, Muzio Clementi, Op. 36, No. 3), so she skipped from the first to nearly the last in the book.
It was easily the most complex and lengthy piece of music she’s performed to date, and I will admit, there were points where I was concerned she’d bitten off more than she could chew. That kid practiced really hard though. So frequently was she playing that sonatina, that I caught myself humming it constantly.
On the day of the performance, Maya was clearly nervous. She was one of the last people to play, so her nerves had a lot of time to fully develop. When it was finally her turn though, she did an excellent job. I think because of her anxiety, she turbo played some of the more familiar parts of the song, but it was a wonderful performance nonetheless. We are so proud of her.
Another funny thing, and this is probably the result of her Suzuki background, is that she didn’t play from sheet music. I would argue she had the most complex piece of the day, and she was the only one to play from memory.
We celebrated with ice creams afterward and a nearby Baskin Robbins, which was probably Ian’s favorite part. Or maybe it was the part where an older boy played a piece of music from the Undertale video game, but probably it was the ice cream.
We didn’t do a whole lot for the next couple weeks. Ian had a den meeting, in which he learned a little about systems of government. We had all got shaggy enough to need haircuts. Nothing too wild. This provided the regrouping we needed though before the big event – Maya’s 12th birthday.
Sean had a different idea for her this year. How about she and a few friends spend the day at Six Flags in San Antonio? She loved the idea, but wanted to invite enough friends that Sean wound up renting a larger car to transport six kids in addition to himself and Maya. Ian and I drove down separately – there wasn’t room for us in the party wagon.
It worked out pretty well. I think there were a lot of noisy hijinks on the way there and back. At the park itself, kids would settle into groups based on who wanted to ride which thrilling or less intense rides. They horsed around, drank bottomless soda, and generally had a really good time.
Departure was a bit tricky. The park closed at 7, and not every kid had eaten by then, so we were trying to find last minute food for the remaining kids. Unfortunately, those food places shut their doors and windows pretty promptly, so we would need to stop somewhere to eat outside the park. Then traffic to exit was so horrifically slow and backed up that it took us a literal hour to actually exit Six Flags. Between these two things, our original schedule was blown to bits. We thought we might have kids home around 9 and it was really closer to 11.
Thanks to smart phones, we were able to keep the parents updated throughout the day with fun photos and schedule changes, so hopefully we didn’t ruffle any feathers. Either way, the kids seemed to have an absolute blast.
On her actual birthday, we took Maya out for a frankly unremarkable dinner at Maggiano’s. They explained to us that they had updated and “elevated” the restaurant’s decor and menu. From where I’m sitting, they made everything more expensive, while taking away the things that we loved about the place. She seemed to enjoy dinner well enough, so I guess it could be worse. And afterward, she came home and opened her gifts, so that part was pretty fun.
After Maya’s birthday, we mostly just treaded water till Thanksgiving break. The kids have the whole week off. Sean and I worked on Monday, but otherwise took the week off as well. Since our visit over the summer to Lolli and Pop had been cut short by illness, they agreed to meet us and hang out at a rental house in South Padre Island over part of the break.
We planned to leave Tuesday morning around 9-9:30 for the six hour drive to SPI. Between the night before and that morning, we had our stuff gathered up, had the car loaded to the gills, and were just leaving the house when our tire pressure light came on – one of our tires had lost air. The light had come on a week or two prior when the temperature dipped – this happens every year. Sean inflated them and went about his merry way. Given that they’d just been filled, this one tire being lower than the rest surely indicated a leak.
Sean dropped the kids and I at the house, we called around to find a place with a relatively short wait time, and then he took the car to get the tire fixed. All told, I think this set us about two hours behind schedule. This wouldn’t have been so bad but 1 – we had a grocery pickup time at the HEB on our way through Port Isabel that we’d now be very late for and 2 – we would arrive after dark, which is sort of a bummer since we thought we might get a little beach walk in that night.
Alas, we collected our groceries in the dark, drove over the causeway in the dark, found our rental place in the dark, and after a phone call to the landlord, managed to unlock our door in the dark. No worries though. There was a heated pool and a hot tub at the place. Water would be played in, sunset be damned.
The next morning, after lounging around a little bit, we went to Joshepine’s Kitchen, where breakfast is served all day long. After late breakfast, it was time to suit up and go to the beach. The water was a little brisk, but the sun was out and the weather was windy, but nice. Maya and Ian found little mollusk creatures and gathered them in a shallow container of seawater to observe them. The kids also collected seashells. I took a walk and watched birds and kids and dogs and adults enjoying a sunny day at the beach in November.
We didn’t see as many pelicans flying around as we usually do, but there were the usual hordes of seagulls. My favorite birds to watch though were the little sanderlings. A few of them would usually be together. When a wave came in, they’d skitter back to keep from getting pummeled. Then as the wave rolled back out into the gulf, they’d skitter just as quickly forward to pluck the mollusks up from the sand. It was delightful to observe.
Ian was bored, almost from the get-go, and I’m sad to report that neither kid seemed particularly interested in the giant sack of sand toys that we schlepped all the way from Austin. Maya swears she hasn’t, but I suspect they’ve outgrown them.
Even Maya, who was enjoying catching creatures, eventually got sick of sand pelting her and was ready to wander back to the rental house. Once we were back, it wasn’t long at all before we went to play in the pool instead. The folks we rented from had a wonderful array of pool toys, so they kids were well-entertained.
I was craving ice cream, so we made our way over to the Baked Bear to indulge. The kids and Sean had full on ice cream sandwiches. I was content with a scoop of ice cream (though their cookies did look excellent).
We mostly did a lot of relaxing. There were more walks to the beach that evening and the next morning, but unfortunately by that next afternoon, the weather turned and got colder and wetter, and it kinda stayed that way through the rest of the trip. Because the entire time leading up to the trip, the weather looked to be pretty good during our stay, we hadn’t forced the kids to pack long pants or jackets. This was a mistake.
Instead of doing all the fun outdoor things that can be done in SPI, a lot of hot tub and pool time was had and a lot of ping pong was played. We had an epic game of Kids Against Maturity, which cracked everyone up. We had a Thanksgiving that couldn’t be beat. In general, we just hung out with each other. It was maybe not our very best trip for doing South Padre things, but it was just fine for spending time together.
About the title. When the kids were little, there was a cute book they liked called, “If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, DON’T” by Elise Parsley. Well, Maya insisted she needed to practice while we were on break, so she brought her oboe to the beach. If it had been warmer for longer, I probably would have tried to take her oboe literally to the beach, but as it was, she did a lot of practicing at the rental house.
We tried one more beach walk on our last day. Maya had here eye on catching a little crab we had seen earlier in the trip, and she’s always down for collecting seashells. Alas, the wind was still blowing and it was cold, so our walk didn’t last too long. Our drive home, as I recall it, was mostly uneventful, and since it was the very last day of the month, we didn’t get to wind down much from our trip before it was time to pivot hard to December.
