Senior Night

It is currently "football season" here in central Illinois this spring. Our team gets only 4 games, and tonight was the only home game. Therefore, it was also the only senior night Sylvia will get to celebrate. (Usually there is a senior night for every activity so that all seniors get to be recognized for what they have participated in, but due to no crowds being allowed at indoor events, and no fine arts performances being allowed at all...well...) Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and it was good for all our hearts tonight!

It was sunny and warm today, and when we arrived at school the senior banners were hung all around the fence at the track. It was a bit surreal to see Sylvia's and her senior bandmates' names. 

So proud of our girl

Sylvia and Isabella have been best friends since kindergarten, and they've loved playing their horns together since 5th grade! 

The girls asked for our families to walk out together during the band senior announcements, and we were all honored to do so.

Annah and Ryan came home just in time for senior night, and recorded and took pictures for us. 

We love these seniors and are so glad they got a little recognition in this year of lost performance opportunities.

After the senior night announcements, the band made their way to the end zone for the National Anthem. Sylvia got to conduct them. It was so cool to see her signal to Caeden to start the drumroll!

The band even got to "take the field"--well, sort of, and Sylvia was announced as drum major! They formed the tunnel for the football team to run through and played the fight song as the seniors were announced and the team ran through onto the field.

Sylvia conducting The Victors

(By this time, the sun was nearly down and it was beginning to feel like a Fall Friday night lights game--quite chilly! So, Sylvia borrowed my mittens.)

I love seeing Caeden play drums!!!

Mr. B, the JH/HS principal joining in support for the band!  

I made rounds through the band to take photos for the yearbook while they were not playing, and asked them to pretend to play. They were all starting to get pretty cold and it was only the first quarter!

By halftime, they were frozen, but they played a great set of pep tunes in the end zone. It was so fun to hear them play!!!

The game was so exciting too!  We won 36-0!  And it was just so great to be together with our community enjoying football and music and seeing each other smile and laugh!

SIUe visit

We (Jeremy, me, Sylvia, and Carter) took a trip to Edwardsville today for Sylvia's first "official" college visit. I will just say that the college decision process (which is always difficult and stressful, really) has been extra tough for kids this year.  Most schools are not hosting on-campus visits with Covid restrictions still being in place. This is more than likely the only college visit Sylvia will do in person.

 

We were excited for Carter to get to go with us!  (He was goofing around here, wearing Sylvia's sunglasses.) Jeremy picked him up at 5:30am and we left our house at 6! 

We arrived in Edwardsville at about 8:45. 

Sylvia's appointment with the head of the Biology department was at 9am!

We went straight to the Science West building and found Dr. M's office while Jeremy figured out parking arrangements. As we passed an anatomy lab that was in use, Sylvia got giddy looking in!  Dr. M met Sylvia and she was able to ask him questions about studying pre-med sciences at SIUe. While he walked her to a lab to see some of the facilities, he thanked her for being the most talkative prospective student he'd ever met with and said that he really appreciated all her great questions. He explained class/lab sizes for different years and lectures are always given by professors with Phd's and labs may be run by TA's in 100 level courses, but by 300 level everything is taught by profs. Sylvia asked about doing student research as an undergrad, and he was excited to hear she had that interest. He also advised living on campus and not having an off-campus job as a pre-med student, which Sylvia was relieved to hear.

It was a beautiful spring day on campus, and we enjoyed walking from building to building!

We stopped at Admissions and met Lindsey (both Annah's and Sylvia's admission counselor) in person and asked some questions about housing and how to get Sylvia's student ID. Jeremy and Sylvia stopped and talked with Financial Aid and got some questions answered about the rest of the process. We went to the Library and Sylvia got the rest of her student ID completed at IT so she can get things rolling with housing and registration. And, of course, we stopped at the Campus Center and bought some SIUe gear!

We left campus for a bit and headed toward St. Louis. We stopped at Sylvia's favorite for lunch--Cracker Barrel! Then we went into the city for one stop...

IKEA! 

Where's Carter?

Sylvia got hampers for her dorm room!

You can almost see the arch...

When we got back to campus, we drove around more and went by The Gardens at SIUe.  

Then we picked up Annah and went to see the apartments at Cougar Village, where she will live next school year.

The girls conceded to some pictures with the big red "e!"

Current SIUEe girl

Future SIUe girl

Fam e photo. 

Ryan was getting his hair cut, so we didn't get him in the photos. But we did discuss that none of us would probably be standing in this place if it weren't for him!

Carter and Sylvia 

All day while we were on campus Carter kept teasing Sylvia that he wanted a picture of her with a goose. (There are quite a few on campus, and they're not such nice animals. Also, Sylvia doesn't like any birds.) Then later we saw this Instagram post and realized it was probably made while we were inside the Cougar Store, and just thought it was funny!

It was a good visit to campus. The morning was stressful for Sylvia--especially the Financial Aid part, but after we checked everything off her to-do list, she was able to relax a bit. It is scary and confusing to see the numbers from Financial Aid, but we are very grateful Sylvia has earned The Provost's Scholarship for full tuition for 4 years at SIUe. This made her college decision for her, as she hopes to continue into medical school and doesn't want to accumulate college debt before then. 

We are pretty proud of her, for sure!

We went to City Scoops for some frozen treats and Ryan met us there. 

It is about 2.5+ hours from campus to home, and we dropped Carter off at his house on the way. We got home about 8pm, so it was a long but good day!

Bucket Drumming

Caeden got to help the JH percussionists do some fun bucket drumming today during his study hall!

 

Sylvia's 18th birthday!

Our Sylvia Claire turned 18 today!

eating her breakfast grapefruit in Mom's office before school

opening presents at home tonight

strangely excited about reusable plastic bags

New alarm clock and other gifts for her dorm room at college in the fall!

Panoramics don't work so well with people, but the gang's all here!

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  We love you so, so, so, so much!

 

 Caeden working on music in his closet studio

Eating in a restaurant!

 All 5 of us ate IN a real restaurant together today, for the first time in over a year! 

Chili's for Valentine's Day!

Honoring Fall Play Seniors

 We had a small cast party for the Fall Play today after school.  Some of the juniors made beautiful posters for each of the seniors and included photos of their performances throughout high school.

I can barely hold it together around these kids; I am so sad that I couldn't help give them a performance. They've now lost 3 shows in the past year. We did have good times and good memories putting It's A Wonderful Life together, and it occurred to me today that I have directed all the Fall Plays for this class. I am really proud of them.

It was surreal to see Sylvia with her senior poster, I must say. She has been a shining star on that stage, and I am constantly amazed at her leadership and stretching of herself in theatre.

College Cello Audition

 Sylvia has been working hard to put together a video audition to send to several colleges she has applied to, since none of the schools are currently allowing in-person auditions or visits. Usually, a cello audition would be accompanied by a pianist, but nothing is done "as usual" these days. I think Sylvia has done a beautiful job here. We are so proud of her, and just love to hear her play.

2021!

Happy New Year! 

We’re having an ice storm.

Our northern and eastern windows are covered in ice.

The front porch is a sheet of ice right up to our door.

The branches are heavy with ice.

Our side yard is a thick puddle of ice.

We are staying inside and relaxing today...definitely not going anywhere!

It is beautiful though!