Ridgeview Spring Concert

Caeden, Sylvia, Annah, and I were all performers in the 4th-8th grade Spring Concert at school tonight!  I'm not sure we will ever have that privilege again, and it was pretty special and fun!  It was extra fun that my parents came over today and attended the concert, too!  It was the first time they've seen one of the kids' school concerts live.  A very exciting night, for sure!

The kids love to get fancied up for their performances.

The girls are required to wear black for their school concerts.  Caeden wanted to wear the suit Dawn had given him, and she event sent a bag of ties for him to choose from.  He was a little worried about not having dress shoes, but I thought he looked pretty cool with his hi-tops and suit.

A little pre-concert posing at home...

In 4th grade, the kids get to play their recorders in the concert.  Mr. R actually starts teaching them recorders in 3rd grade now, so they are "old pros" by 4th grade.  (Caeden is sitting in front of the conductor, so he can't be seen while playing his recorder.)

 This year, Mr. R taught the 4th graders how to conduct, and they auditioned to conduct one of the songs at the concert.  Caeden was really excited to be chosen as a conductor!

I think Caeden was nervous.  He was off beat from the 4th measure on, forgot to take his bow, and forgot his classmate's name as he was introducing her.  But, he did remember to stick his tongue out at his friend Cale before he started the song, which helped all the kids relax a little bit.  It's a pretty neat experience to get to conduct your classmates in 4th grade!

Mr. R taught the conductors to formally introduce each other and shake hands as they passed the conducting baton to the next conductor.

The kids played really well!

Annah turned pages for me for 6th grade choir.  Mr. R was teasing her about something before.
Thank you to my mom for taking so many great pictures during the concert!!

6th grade choir

Sylvia decided to step up her performance tonight and really try hard to show expression and enjoyment on her face as she sang.  It made a big difference, and we could tell she was having fun.

We are very proud of her! 

I don't think Jeremy meant to take this as he was recording the choir for me, but I kind of like the story it tells.  He rushed out of a very important meeting at work and got to the concert just seconds before Caeden started conducting.  He works so hard at his job, and he also works hard to be at events that are important to the kids because they are important to him too. 

I didn't take any photos of the 6th grade band, as we couldn't see Sylvia's face.  She sits right in front of Mr. M, so we could see her arms, instrument, and legs.  

The horns sure sounded nice on this piece!

The Junior High Choir (7th and 8th grade)

Sylvia turned my pages while the JH choir performed.

Annah sang a small duet with Ryan in The Rose.

The JH Band did a fantastic job with some tough music.  We were all impressed.

As soon as Annah started playing her clarinet, I thought, "Wow, she really looks like my Aunt Juanita." and I made a mental note to ask my dad who he thought she looked like while playing.  Seconds later, I heard him turn to Mom and say, "She looks like Juanita!"
It's kind of a fun circle...I chose to play clarinet because I loved watching my Aunt Needy play it.  Annah chose to play it partly because I played it.  And now she looks like Aunt Needy while she plays her (my old) clarinet.  

Recently, Annah was sitting with me while I went through a bin of things from when I was in high school.  She was looking at a concert program and noticed that in Jeremy's last high school band concert (April 1993) we played Overture for Winds--this same piece!

These guys needed a picture together after the concert.  Love this crew!

What a fun, fun, fun concert!!!  We are so thankful for the gift of music!!!

Caeden's Excuses

My son is the king of excuses. It's a constant battle at home. So I'm sure he didn't blink an eye when he received this assignment at school to come up with excuses.  

(He is pretty good at spelling when he tries, but clearly either hadn't learned how to spell 'excuses' yet, or just didn't take the time to do it properly.)

The quality and legibility of his handwriting is another thing we have battles about, so I will "translate" some of these excuses here.

• Oven exploded turkey everywhere.
• I was lost.
• I was buried alive and escaped.
• I was transformed into a superhero.
• I battled aliens all night.
• My dishwasher came alive and ate all my pens and pencils.
• I died and came back to life.
• I was captured by teddy bears.
• I had to dye my mom's hair 7 different colors.
• Superman came to my house and used my homework to defeat enemies.
• Dinosaur models came to life and grew.
• The air force bombed my house.

I gotta give him credit for creativity, at least.

LeRoy Meet

Another track meet tonight!  We are enjoying these meets, getting to know better the other students and families involved, and traveling to various tracks in neighboring communities.  We had perfect, beautiful weather this evening, too!

I'm getting better at the "Track Mom" thing, I think...

 

These two are kind of oblivious a lot of the time, really just wanting to hang out and eat snacks while the runners work hard.  They did come watch their sister when we told them it was her turn.

Sylvia's coach taped up her shins tonight, and she said it did help a little.  Her shins still hurt, but at least the pounding was alleviated a bit while she ran.  Coach also took Sylvia off the mile race for this week. I think Sylvia was relieved about that too.  Coach said she knows Sylvia is serious about running, and will continue after the season, so she doesn't want her to permanently injure herself now. 

Lining up for the 400m...  Sylvia is really coming to like running this race!  I think she especially enjoyed running it without having to run the mile beforehand tonight.

She asked me to record the whole race.  Don't have her time yet, but I think she finished 5th.  Sylvia's teammate, River, came in first!

4x400 Relay: Katelin (1st leg) passing the baton to Briahnna (2nd leg)

Sylvia receiving the baton from Briahnna to start the 3rd leg of the 4x400m

Go Sylvia, go!  (By this time, her team was well into last place.)

Sylvia ran hard.  She worked hard to pass the girl ahead of her and stayed ahead of her through the rest of her lap!

Passing the baton to Ella to finish up...

There were no bleachers at the track, so the team found a grassy spot to camp out together.

Sylvia did better with her discus throwing today.

This is her second and third throws.  Her second was her best of the night at 32'5".

We enjoy watching the boys run their races while we are waiting for Sylvia's turn at discus.  Our buddy Reece is running the 200m here.

Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1

Family Fun Night

The RHS Music Department hosted Family Fun Night tonight at school.  It is a really fun way for the kids to earn money towards their band/choir trip to Disney World next spring.

As we have the past 2 years, Annah and I ran the cupcake walk.  It is always fun to do this together.  This time, some of Annah's friends stopped by at various times throughout the night and helped.  

In the gym, there was face-painting and many other games and stations.  These Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are pretty good pals of ours.

Sylvia and Caeden got to buy some tickets and have a little fun at the various stations.  Caeden's favorite is the bounce house outside.  He also won a Gatorade at the ring toss.  Then he came back to me and begged for more money.  When I told him he had to wait until the second hour to get more, he got angry and I told him he then had to wait 15 minutes more because of his attitude.  He continued to get angrier and kicked his bottle of gatorade.  I texted his father to come pick him up, and he did not get to enjoy any more of the fun because of his terrible attitude.  He has to learn that begging, getting angry, whining, and complaining will not get him what he wants.  So frustrating.

Sylvia ran out of tickets and decided to go play outside on the playground with Morgan and Katelin, Ella, Reece, and Zach.  They played tether ball and basketball.  Her friends were very surprised at her complete lack of knowledge about basketball, but they were very patient in teaching her and letting her play with them.  She had fun.  Oh, and last night she baked some of her excellent Pioneer Woman Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies for the bake sale tonight.  She was very thoughtful to set aside some for her band and choir directors too.

Next year, Annah won't be raising money for her trip anymore, because it will be over by this time.  Sylvia will have her turn.  I could potentially be running the cupcake walk for 4 more years.  :)

The enlightenment of the Buddha

Sylvia has been working very, very hard on her Social Studies diorama project.  She remembers the drama of Annah's project, and the teacher also is still using Annah's diorama as an example when she explains the expectations of the project.  So, I think Sylvia was putting pressure on herself to do a really great job.  

She said when the class was choosing their topics from a list, everyone kept choosing the things she wanted to do.  She decided to choose the enlightenment of the Buddha because she had this idea for how she could make it into a cool-looking diorama. 

She collected twigs from our yard to make the tree, and put it together with hot glue and glue dots.  She cut the leaves out of felt, and poked the twigs at the base of the tree down into styrofoam to keep them in place.  

I really like the dimension she gave the project with the tree coming out of the box!  

She made the little buddha and his clay pots out of clay and painted them with metallic colors to represent the fact that he was a royal prince.

Sylvia also looked up examples of Buddhist art and added some of those elements to the outside of her box.

(I snapped these photos at night, so they are not great examples of how pretty it actually looks.)

Sylvia also had to write a report about the buddha's enlightenment and about her project and what she did to put it together.  She also had to write a 2-4 minute oral presentation which she will present to her class this week.  

Here she is, ready with her project.  I drove her to school today so she wouldn't have to carry it on a bus full of 70 children and have it mangled before she could turn it in.  

At first, Sylvia was upset about not being able to do her project on a Biblical topic.  However, we talked about the differences between false gods (Buddha and others) and Jesus, and why we know that Jesus is the only one true God.  Buddha did not die to pay for her sins.  Only Jesus conquered death and was resurrected to save her from eternity in hell.  Creating a school social studies project does not equal beliefs.  

When I picked Sylvia up from track practice tonight and asked her about her project, she said that the class voted on their favorites and hers was chosen 4th.  Her teacher said she was very impressed with all the work and creativity she put into the project and that it is in her top 5 favorites of the grade.

"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, (14) for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (15) Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, (16) making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." - Ephesians 5:13-16 NIV

Paxton Meet

Tonight, I picked up Annah and Caeden after school and we drove to Paxton to watch Sylvia's track meet.  I didn't take a lot of pictures during the meet tonight, as we didn't have a great spot for pictures and we were busy trying to keep warm.  

And, it was hard to watch Sylvia run tonight.  The pain she has from her shin splints is evident, both on her face and in her running.  She ran the mile, and at one point when she passed us in the stands, she looked up and I could just see the pain on her face.  I admit, it made me tear up as I prayed that God would ease her pain and help her finish.  She did finish.  She also ran the 4x400m relay, and had tears streaming down her face from the pain as she finished her leg.  She says she still loves running, but it is hard to see her in such pain as she runs.

The kids were all wrapped in blankets when they weren't running.  Sylvia's relay team were all wrapped up and lying on the ground huddled together like they were having a slumber party before their race!  It was pretty funny.

Here's Sylv wrapped in the blue blanket before her discus event.

It was very windy again, and her throws were all under 30 feet tonight.

We were all hungry when we left, and Hardees was close by and not busy.  Now, Annah has a long-standing fear and adamant protestation of Hardees, based on the one time we went there (back when she was an only child, so no older than 2!) and she got spoiled milk.  We like to tease her regularly about going to Hardees, but we haven't actually gone in about 12 years.  She wasn't happy I decided to go there, but she did order and eat chicken strips and fries.  She did not order milk.  

Of course I had to take her picture as we continued to tease her...

She did admit that it was ok, and that the fries were pretty good.  

Maybe she will be over the trauma now.

Heyworth meet

Sylvia had a track meet at Heyworth tonight.  I couldn't go, because I had to get Annah to Sinfonia rehearsal.  We took Sylvia's cello along and I stayed in the car at Cook Hall in case Sylvia's track meet finished quickly and Jeremy could bring her, but that didn't happen.

First off, Sylvia started to be bothered by allergies or a cold yesterday afternoon.  Last week she got shin splints, which are getting more and more painful for her every day.  And, today it is 50 degrees and wet and super windy outside.  I was honestly hoping, for Sylvia's sake, that the meet would be canceled.  It wasn't.  Jeremy was there, watching Sylvia, cheering her on, and texting me updates.

After her mile, her shins were killing her.  Don't know what her time was; I was just thankful she finished.  She ran the 400m again today, and ran hard.  She finished 3rd in her heat!!  I think she is really starting to like this race.  

Dawn was at the finish and got this video clip as she cheered Sylvia on:

Sylvia said all of the kids on the team have colds/allergies bothering them right now, and Jeremy said Sylvia's 4x400 relay team got destroyed by the competition tonight.  Again, I'm thankful that they were able to run and finish.  I think they learn a lot about determination and endurance when they can compete under less than ideal circumstances.  Sylvia also competed in discus again tonight.  I'm so thankful God gave her the strength to get through it all.  I'm also glad Jeremy could be there with her. She checked in with him after every event, and I know he was a great comfort to her.  When he called me as they were leaving the meet, I asked Sylvia how she was doing, and she said, "Great!" Then I asked her how she felt, and she said, "Terrible!" I am pretty proud of her.

Social Studies Diorama

Sylvia is frantically working on her Social Studies diorama.  It isn't due until next week, but she is keenly aware of the fact that she has very few hours at home before then to work on it.

She started it the night she got the assignment, but had a little freak-out moment and decided to scrap that version.  She and I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and bought some supplies to specifically fit her ideas.  She sacrificed her youth group time this afternoon and got a lot done.  She now has a little painting, her written report, and a 2-4 minute oral presentation left to prepare.

RYWC Banquet

This evening was the second annual Ridgeview Youth Wrestling Club banquet.  It was fun to get together with the team families and celebrate!

It just makes me giggle how Nathan and Jeremy tease and talk smack with each other.

Mmm, good food!  Sylvia made rhubarb goodie for us to share.

These girls had a lot of fun playing together all evening!

Coaches presentation, awards, and thank-you's...

Team photo

I took 20...tough to get these guys to be serious together!

After the banquet we helped clean up the facility, then ended up standing around chatting with Scott and Christie, and Chris and Trish for a couple/few hours while our kids ran around the yard in Cooksville playing, getting dirty, and having a grand old time.

We didn't get home until close to 10pm, I think.  A lovely evening.