Schleiquist Talent Show

 In August, my sister's family hosted the third annual talent show for our extended Schleicher and Walquist families. My brother and his family were unable to attend the event this year, unfortunately, but the rest of us had a great time watching everyone's unique performances. What a fun evening filled with laughter and, of course, talent!

Aunt Chelsea and Isaiah kicked off the show with a rhythmic clapping song. I remember doing these all the time with friends when I was young. The duo had obviously practiced well. Isaiah knew his part perfectly!

Jason went next and performed a song that he had written for an upcoming churchworkers' conference in the fall. He handed out the words to the song so that everyone could sing along with the chorus. This guy always amazes me with his song-writing ability!

Adley's talent was sharing a series of Paw Patrol pictures that she had colored. She had worked hard to color and affix frames to each one of the coloring pages too. Adley had colored enough pictures to hand one out to each member of the family.

Grandpa and Grandma also shared a duo talent. Grandpa played a song on the guitar while Grandma sang. It was such a beautiful piece and so neat to see how Grandpa and Grandma always use their musical talents to God's glory!

Cody thought of a unique talent this year. He brought along a huge pile of stuffed animals and drew them out of the pile one by one while blindfolded. Cody's talent was showing his ability to identify each stuffed animal by name solely by touching the animal. Jaden was standing by to confirm the accuracy of Cody's names.

The tandem talents were popular this year! Kim and I also shared a talent together. We showed the family how we could communicate in a new language, "arfa," a weird language that we had perfected in high school. First, we each spoke a few things in "arfa" and translated for one another. Then, I had the family give me a few sentences in English. I spoke these sentences to Kim in "arfa," and she successfully translated these phrases back into English. What a random (yet fun!) talent!

Even our youngest family member, Micah, had his own talent act. Aunt Chelsea would show him a block, and Micah demonstrated his talent in identifying the block's color. What a smart kid!

Next on the docket was Papa. Papa's impressive talent was being able to recite ALL of the books of the Old Testament AND the New Testament in only ONE breath. Papa always used to demonstrate this skill for his 8th grade confirmation class each year, so he's gotten this talent down to an art! The kids loved watching Papa's performance.

Ryan showed everyone his amazing ability to identify very specific types of fancy sports cars. This kid knows his vehicles! Uncle Matt held up each car's title, so we knew that Ryan was naming each one correctly. They weren't simple names either. Ryan wowed us all!

Nathan's skill was showing everyone his speedy puzzle-working talent. Nathan was able to assemble this entire puzzle in a very short time period-- I believe it was only 90 seconds! He set a timer and went to work, hardly hesitating at all until the puzzle was fully intact.

Next up was Jaden. Daddy had helped Jaden create a powerpoint of famous golfers. Jaden's skill was showing his ability to identify almost a dozen professional golfers by name. Most of the names were ones I hadn't even heard of before! Jaden did a great job!

Ian is such a whiz with Rubik's cubes. He had another family member mess up this cube, and then he rearranged the colors in no time flat. It was remarkable watching how quickly Ian's hands moved to move the cube!

Our last few events were all outside. Noah showed off some biking skills by weaving in and out of cones and demonstrating how quickly he could bike. His big brother Isaiah supported him in this event so he wouldn't feel so nervous. :) Studly performance, Noah!

Uncle Matt definitely wins the award each year for coming up with the most creative, original talents. This year, Matt showed us how he could bounce balls into the bucket from various positions in the cul-de-sac. It was very entertaining to watch!

The funniest part, though, was that Matt didn't have time to practice his skill at all beforehand, and he quickly realized that the task was much harder than he had anticipated.... Matt hardly hit a single tennis ball into the bucket. Papa thought this was the greatest performance ever and couldn't stop laughing!! Matt had the best attitude about the whole thing and still kept us quite entertained.

Grammy closed out the 2021 Talent Show with a series of science demonstrations. She let the kids crowd around the table to get close-up views of her "wow" projects. One of the experiments even included lighting a paper towel on fire, which the kids, of course, thought was great!

 

We sure have a talented family! Always a great time together to share these talents God has given us. Thanks, MKIRN, for hosting such a fun event!