We had our own private family piano recital this year. We invited some family friends to join and enjoyed and appreciated everyone who came to celebrate with us. Grandma Debbi and Grandpa Ed were able to Facetime in, so they could enjoy and participate, too.
Attendees: Grandma and Grandpa Varga, Nicole Sanders (mom's friend), Kristen Parkes (kid's friend from church/primary leader), Michael Peltier and her children Mason, Cooper, and Cohen.
Mom wrote a story, using requested elements from the kids (a gorilla, a banana, Interstellar) and each song that every child played. Every bolded word in the story represents a song that someone played.
Musette’s Adventure
Presented by the Burklund Family:
Emily, Kai, Kellen, & Owen
May 24, 2025
Our story starts out simple. Quite simple. In fact, it’s so simple, it’s just a name. Musette. Our story is about Musette. Musette lived in a time of fairies and dragons, wizards, and magic. It was a marvelous, mystical, not-so-simple time, Long, Long Ago.
Musette was a delightful little girl with long blond hair that flowed like a stream when she ran through the wildflowers. She lived for wildflowers: white daisies with yellow puffy centers, crimson red tulips that danced on the gentle breeze, center-spotted black-eyed Susans. But her favorite was the Russian sage, mostly because it attracted The Honey Bees. Sometimes while romping through the flowers, Musette would play with the honey bees and crisscross their flight patterns. She would even pretend to be the legendary “Wild Rider,” the unseen guardian of the land who brought the flowers to life each spring. Spring was Musette’s favorite season. Finally, after the never-ending coats, scarves, and smothering hats of the past many months, spring would bring her warm breezes, colorful flowers, cute, fuzzy rodents, and melodious bird calls, singing the warm, welcoming tune of Sonatina in C Major. She waited patiently all winter long to welcome spring, her favorite all-around season, and say Goodbye to Winter. This is not to say Musette loathed winter; it had some redeeming qualities. Her favorite part of winter was the love and surprises of Christmas Day Secrets.
All spring day long Musette would joyfully play and frolic amongst the wildflowers and play with the field visitors. The field mice, spring bunnies, forest squirrels, and chattering birds, they were all her Little Playmates. And when the sun set in the evening, Musette would lay down in the soft field and stare at the stary sky singing every rendition and variation of her favorite nighttime lullaby: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It was a good thing her family lived on acres and acres of wildflowers, because sometimes she could convince her family to join her in the evening under the stars, and there they would all fall asleep in the safety of each other’s arms to her gentle singing, only to be woken in the morning by the sweet song of the Cuckoo bird. On rare nights, Papa would hum a line or two of his favorite hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” as the stars blinked gently above them with heavenly approval. While Mama prepared the morning’s breakfast and chore assignments, and Papa entertained everyone with Dad joke after Dad joke after Dad joke, the children would play joyfully together as they swung each other around the yard playing and singing an old French Children’s Song.
One bright, sunny morning, Musette awoke amongst the flowers next to her older brother, Chant Arabe, whom everyone called Cha for short. Cha was a full head taller than Musette with chocolate brown hair thick enough for a squirrel to nest in and hazel green eyes warm enough to melt even the coldest icy stare. Cha liked to joke, playfully tease, and pull silly pranks, but deep down, and though he was only nine, he was a fiercely protective, loving older brother, who looked after his little sister like Mary, who loved her Little Lambs.
“Let’s go out on the boat!” suggested Cha, as they both sat up, disturbing the warm dew that had lain on the flowers that night.
“Hooray!” cheered Musette, for she loved hopping into their little canoe to Lightly Row up and down the stream that flowed through their flowery fields. They even went canoeing when the water was high, the rapids roared, and their oars and hands became all criss-crossed. No stream condition was too daunting for these brave children. They had affectionately named their little canoe the Allegretto II.
Quickly climbing into their canoe before their Mother had a chance to dutifully serve them breakfast and remind them to put on their shoes, the children rowed stealthily away. Only 20 minutes downstream, the children came across the half-sunk wreckage of last year’s canoe, the Allegretto I. The Allegretto I had sadly been doomed by a rogue banana-demanding gorilla. At the time, the children only had flowers to offer the gorilla, who only wanted bananas. So, being the ill-tempered brute that he was, he tried to eat their boat instead, which vaguely looked like a banana to the rather untrained eye.
As the children solemnly rowed past their previous courier, they offered up a respectful refrain of Au Clair de la Lune, in memory of their former friend. No sooner had they completed their tune when they were met with the strangest sight they had ever beheld. The gorilla was back. But this time, rather than scrounging for the closest food source, it was lurking on the edge of the neighboring forest making some odd motions. The children gawked in disbelief, watching with fascination, as this strange creature twisted and turned performing to some unknown melody the dance of the Toccatina. The children were so entranced, they didn’t even notice when their canoe drifted under the affectionately, though mistakenly named, London Bridge.
“Quick!” Blurted Cha, “Let’s row back! Remember when Auntie told us about the dancing deer she saw last year? This can’t be a coincidence! We must Go Tell Aunt Rhodie!” With surprising speed, the children turned their little canoe around and began rapidly rowing back home.
“Hurry! Hurry!” called Cha. “Allegro!!”
“I’m rowing as fast as I can!” cried Musette, furiously pulling and pushing on the oars, being careful not to tip the canoe, knowing the austere solemnity that awaited them should they return home with not just a wild story, but also a sunken canoe. Again. She had no desire to receive the lecturing of Minuet in d minor should she come back that way.
Not halfway back to the house, the children began to hear distant music again, almost as if the gorilla was following them. But this time, it seemed more like a stealthy detective movie soundtrack. Almost like a Ballade. It didn’t take long for the children to notice the gorilla on the edge of the forest once more. It looked like it had been shadowing them! But this time, it wasn’t dancing the Toccatina. No, this dance was much different. This time, it was strutting and swirling with a rose in its toothy maw to the Habanera.
“Mama! Papa!” hollered the children as they scrambled out of the canoe, racing up to the house. “Come quick! You have to see this! Hark! All Ye Nations! Come and see!”
Mama and Papa both dashed out of the house to discover the source of the commotion. Mama stared in fascination, and Papa thought pensively.
“Ah!” He sighed after a moment’s thought, “Now I know why that galumphing gorilla went after your little canoe last year! He wasn’t hungry! He was just searching for banana seeds!”
The family all looked at him with utter bewilderment.
“The gorilla was looking for banana seeds to plant his own banana tree!” Papa offered.
“What? Why?” Blurted Musette, confused. “We have plenty of trees here!”
“Because,” answered Papa, a slight smile beginning to creep onto his face, “He hasn’t yet been able to find a tree that can handle his swing!”
Everyone groaned, applauded the dancing, prancing primate, and turned to file into the house for breakfast, as they listened to the melodious musings of Interstellar.
Owen: Hark! All Ye Nations; Onward, Christian Soldiers
Kellen: Wild Rider; Toccatina; Habanera
Kai: Sonatina in C Major; Minuet in d minor; Ballade
Duet: Kellen and Kai: Interstellar
Emily: All the rest of the songs; 18 in total from the Suzuki Piano Level 1 book
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