Normal West Competition at IWU

 The first marching band competition of our season was hosted by Normal West HS at Illinois Wesleyan University today!  The weather was absolutely perfect for it!

Annah and Shelby, such sweet juniors!

Sylvia and Annah--I cannot explain how much I love this!!!

I asked Reece if I could take his picture with the girls because he is one of my kids, and he said I could take one of him with Caeden.

Sylvia smiling during the indoor warmup...

Jeremy is one of the awesome parent volunteers getting the field set before the band comes on...

Annah is between the drum majors here, as the band prepares to come on the field.

Looking sharp as the sun sets...

VIDEO: being announced

Jalen, Annah, Shelby

Annah playing her solo--which I just need to mention is the only clarinet solo without a microphone that I've ever heard in a field marching show.

Sylvia playing during her duet with Isabella

VIDEO:

The performance!

VIDEO:

Crowds always love the monster stomp the band does as it exits!

Allison is home from Greenville this weekend and sat with us for the competition!  It was so wonderful to see her and hear about how well she is doing at college so far!

Allison taught the girls to do the frowny faces they do all the time. 
Silly girls.  They're really not that grumpy!

Ending September

The play has just a few people in each scene, all of them appearing in pairs. So, not everyone is needed at every rehearsal.  Annah finally got to rehearse her first scene on Monday.  (We are rehearsing in a basement study hall room for now because the volleyball team uses the gym where the stage is and we don't want to bother them.)

I got an email from the band director this week, asking how much I would hate the idea of him sending home a cheap school drumset for Caeden.  I told him I am happy anytime my kids have an opportunity to learn, and we are a noisy family anyway, so...

He is the only percussionist in the junior high band, and they are working on a medley from Moana, so he needs to learn a little bit.

He's a little excited about it.

Wednesday evening, the colors of the sunset were so radiant they came into the kitchen through the back porch!  I walked out to the edge of the field and watched it for just a couple minutes, thanking the Lord that I get to live in such a beautiful place.

I snapped a few pictures with my phone.  These are completely unedited...

Thursday after school, the play cast and crew put up the flats!  I have no experience with this type of thing, so Mr. W, who used to direct the play, graciously offered to lead the effort.

Sylvia got in on the hammering! 

The kids have carried on a tradition that started with Mr. W--at the end of every rehearsal or meeting, they put their hands in and choose something to yell on 3.

I do love theatre people.

After putting up the flats, we drove to town to meet Jeremy for supper at Moe's for the youth group fundraiser.  I rarely turn down an opportunity for Mexican food.

I have all the motifs made for the CAL cardigan, and half of them blocked.

We need to paint the flats, but I love the story they tell...
the history of other shows and actors and friends.

Friday rehearsal

Thoroughly enjoying a chill Friday night at home playing Minecraft on XBox...

Life rushing by

Directing the fall play has me a bit behind in blogging--and a lot of other parts of life!  But, here are some random things I stopped to take a picture of this week...

I've seen several praying mantises this week--including this one on the napkin basket in our kitchen!

Our community came together on Wednesday evening to hold simultaneous prayer vigils in 4 villages for 9-year-old Daelin Tolan, who is in treatment for a brain tumor.  The girls and I attended the vigil in Saybrook, grateful to be able to add our prayers for this sweet little girl and her family.

 After a few years, the vocal jazz ensemble finally agreed on an official name--the Midnight Blues! 
And, Annah designed the new t-shirts!

 I made supper before going to rehearsal so the kids could put it in the oven and eat before I got home and the girls had to go to band rehearsal on Thursday.

I haven't been crocheting much in recent weeks with the extra activity of the play, so I joined a crochet-along to have goals with deadlines.  I'm keeping up so far... It will be a cardigan when I finish.  I still have about 6 unfinished summer projects though.

Our girls have recently been hit with the sad fact that sometimes people wrongly interpret humility as timidity or weakness.  A high school boy literally yelled repeatedly at one of our girls this week during rehearsal on the marching band field that she is weak and should just admit it!  Even though she was hurt by his words and attitude, she asked him to stop because it isn't true.  Then, several other students literally stood by her side to show their respect to her.
The Lord brought these wise words to my attention to share with our daughter the day after that happened.  Not a coincidence...

It is supposed to be fall now, but this is the weather situation here...