A Spring Concert!

The RHS Spring Concert tonight was really great! It was so fun to make music together, and both ensembles performed really well! Directors were proud of their performances, and are to be commended for bringing this music department back around after the past couple years!

The choir sang Jambo, Agnus Dei, Gloria (Vivaldi), Put a Little Love in Your Heart,  and Pure Imagination.

Caeden helped provide percussion with the egg shaker during Jambo.

 

A little video clip: https://youtu.be/iCJARVs9SG8

    (Those wearing bunny ears are seniors.)

The band played

Bandology, Their Blossoms Down, an Avengers Endgame Medley, and Abrahm's Pursuit.

Caeden caught me taking his picture. My sweet boy.

I thought the band sounded as good as ever!

Here they are playing Abram's Pursuit:

https://youtu.be/ItYuAp7saeM

!  It was extra special that Krampa and Gram could be here for it. I am always too spacey at concert time to remember to get pictures with everyone! But, we were so glad they could be with us! Wow, we are so grateful for this night

Seussical!

 Back in January, when Caeden was sick with Covid and at home in quarantine, he sent in a short video audition for the school musical and was cast as The Cat In The Hat in the spring production of Seussical Jr! He was able to go to the initial read-through, but missed most of the rehearsals as wrestling unexpectedly continued through the longest possible post-season competition with team state. I think he was able to go to about 5 rehearsals before tech week last week, so he really learned his part quickly! However, as Mrs. A said, the role of the Cat was written for Caeden! He did a great job, and I'm very proud of him!

Click the photo below for a link to the album of about 2000 photos I took mostly during the first (Monday) night of tech rehearsal and the partial preview performance for the elementary school on Thursday. 

Here is a link to Saturday's performance as a YouTube playlist.

"Oh the thinks you can think..."

"...when you think about Seuss!"

[practicing bows on Monday]

dancing to the drums in the Jungle of Nool

"Anything's Possible"

The Cat In The Hat was very popular with the kiddos, and he gave high-fives after the preview performance for the elementary!

Fun with friends in the cast--Miles as the Mayor of Whoville and Colton as The Grinch!

Proud of this Cat!

Friends and Family came to see the shows!

G'ma Sandi came Friday!

The Sisters were home on spring break and got to see both shows!

Evan and the Cat switched hats after he said Caeden was just glad to be taller than him with the Cat's hat!

Señora Lovitt was in town for Edmund's birthday party and came to support the students!

Mr. Scholp, favorite social studies teacher, and always a great support to Caeden

Dawn and Shannon brought Parker and Oakley to see their first musical! 

Addie was there too--for her first RHS musical since she graduated! She is about to graduate from college this spring with her degree in musical theatre!

Getting ready for the Saturday night show in the music room

Greeting fans afterwards

Man, we have been through a lot with this guy in 13 years! So grateful for Mr. Marchese.

Nola and Gracie are so grown up now and don't need these babysitters anymore. But they are all so happy to see each other now!

Jeremy was coaching a JH wrestler at state this weekend and didn't get to see either of Caeden's performances live. He arrived back at school just as the kids were taking their bows Saturday night. The sacrifices of a coach... 

Blessed.

As usual, we were about the last to leave the school Saturday night. We love Mrs. Aupperle and all that she has already brought to music at Ridgeview!!!

The show was a success and had 2 full house performances! 

The Sisters took Caeden to get Wendy's and then went to Insomnia Cookies in  Uptown Normal after the show Saturday night. Love that they love to hang out together! I hope Caeden will look back at Seussical with fond memories. I know all the littles that saw him as The Cat In The Hat will!

An Amazing R-L Wrestling Season

I could (and should) write the world's longest blog post about the Ridgeview-Lexington wrestling season that just ended, but ain't nobody got time for that. Sorry.  I will just say that it was pretty amazing! 

Some highlights:

- 1st time since the team started 6 years ago that there was a full roster!

- As a TEAM it was a winning season, with far more dual meets wins than losses!

- REGIONAL TEAM CHAMPS!

- NINE wrestlers in the championship round at Regionals!

- SIX wrestlers competed at Sectionals! 

- Caeden had a wonderful winning season! He got 4th at Regionals in a very tough 160 weight class and ended up getting to wrestle at Sectionals!

- SECTIONAL TEAM CHAMPS!

- 3 wrestlers advanced to individual state!

- Going to TEAM STATE!!!

So much fun, improvement, goal-reaching, learning, teamwork, and achievement to be proud of!

Wrestling @ Westville

Wrestling season is off to a great start! As a team, they are 9-0! It's pretty great to have a full roster for the first time!

Caeden is wrestling really well too, and so far has been at the 160 weightless easily! 

They had a meet at Westville tonight. I wasn't able to go, but one of the moms streamed live on Facebook, so I got to see both of Caeden's matches.

VIDEO: First match of the evening:

VIDEO: Second match of the evening:

First concert band concert in 2 years

Although the HS choir had a concert earlier this semester, tonight was the HS winter concert, and it was the first time the concert band had had a concert in a full 2 years. Surreal. The freshman and sophomores had never played a concert before tonight. So odd. It was more fun with the appreciation of getting to perform.

During rehearsal this afternoon, I caught a little bit of Caeden practicing his part in Sleighride. When Mr. Marchese first handed out the music this fall, Caeden asked if he could play the whipcrack (because that's what every percussionist wants to play in Sleighride) and Mr. M told him, only if he "pranced about and jumped" while playing it. Caeden followed directions very well this time:

 There were only 9 singing in the HS choir this evening, but I thought they really did a great job! I don't have any photos or video though, since I was accompanying, but Caeden sang wonderfully. We are truly blessed to have Mrs. Aupperle at Ridgeview; she is fantastic!!!

Caeden played a lot of timpani, some snare, and various other percussion instruments. 

Because half of the percussion section was under quarantine, Mrs. A and I got drafted during this afternoon's dress rehearsal to join the band! She played the things that sound like horses clopping and I played Caeden's bells part so he could play the crash cymbals. Mrs. A and I both said we had never played a percussion part before, so my goal was to play 3 notes. I didn't play them all, but I did play more than three! You can see Caeden "prancing about and jumping" while playing the whipcrack in this photo!

So grateful the opportunities to make music are returning.