Before Leap Day:
It was Hubby’s turn to see the new softball facility and to bring Danny along to pick out a new baseball glove at Scheel’s. He sent me this photo of a gas station saying that he has plenty of gas too. lol. After some Jimmy John’s the three came home to tell me all about their morning and I was so grateful for the reminder that spring is coming. Danny did let me know that it’s still plenty cold in the dark while driving around R’s golf cart. Lol
Maisie may have no idea what a birthday is but we celebrated with cake and wished her a happy birthday anyway. Well, she got a big bag of treats from Costco that I let her have the first one of. 5 years old already! She has done a lot of maturing in the last handful of years and we are proud of her. Maisie is my shadow and I honestly wonder where she is if she isn’t right next to me. I’m lucky to have her in our home.
The softball academy set up a neat safety night with classes for the different age groups and the parents. I jot to learn about online safety and teenage drug trends while Natalie got to have a blast learning self defense moves (and about online safety as well I think). It was a great night and I felt like I learned so much.
The next day Michelle got to perform for all the 5th graders, including her little sister. Natalie has decided to try out the cello and am in in the process of getting her lessons with the teacher that got Danny started years ago. We want to see what tricks she can learn about reading music before she gets to middle school.
After school Michelle helped 5th graders try out the violas and I was so pleased to see Natalie try a viola that was more her size and she put viola down as second choice for an instrument. Number 3 on the form went to bass after the student teacher offered to help Natalie with it. That thing is huge! Natalie also tried out a couple band instruments but quickly realized they wouldn’t be much fun to play with her asthma she inherited from me. Sorry, kid!
After Leap Day:
Natalie is dominating this section of the blog by adding this photo of her receiving her academic achievement award on March 1st. Hubby and I were so excited that Natalie’s hard work figuring out her dyslexia has finally paid off for her that we both left our jobs early to attend the ceremony. If I was she crying type I would have shed tears!
Of course, I was also very impressed by Michelle’s hard work that paid off during her ensemble performance at the high school the next day. You could tell the guest adjudicator truly enjoyed their music choice (La La Land medley) and the way they played the piece. He so so complimentary and his one word of advice to the two violas was to really go for it and compete with the cello and not be out done during their time to shine in the music. Although Michelle had been quite nervous beforehand, she came out with a huge smile and reporting that it was really fun. I’m so grateful for this opportunity for her and that I could be there to witness it! And that she got video from her friend C’s mom where I could see her perform from a different, better, angle.. I am the worst at picking out seats!
While I was at the ensemble with Michelle, Hubby was getting Danny to baseball practice and Natalie to softball practice before we both went to help get baseball fields ready for the season. We only spent a couple hours there but because there were so many parents & players helping, a lot got done. Although a stranger might not even notice we did anything, it was neat to see people coming together to get things done in unseasonably nice weather.
After music and sports and cleaning were finished, Hubby, Michelle, and I went to see Dune Part 2 while Kate babysat Natalie after spending the night at E’s house. The night before Michelle had babysat Natalie upstairs while Hubby through a watch party for his coworkers and I with Dune Part 1. It was great to have his coworkers over! They are so fun. As for the movies. I honestly don’t know if I would have liked them if I hadn’t read the book first. Of course they had to cut a ton out the source material, especially for the second film, but I think they did a pretty good job. I think they should have done some time jumps to so just how many years were going by. For example, Lady Jessica was pregnant the whole time but in the book her daughter was 2 years old already. So the movie portrays things in months what happened in years. They changed Chani’s attitude a lot. She was always supportive of Paul in the book. They even had a baby together named after Duke Leto that died in an attack. I had also misremembered details from the book and had to read up on specifics after watching the second movie to figure out just how much they had changed in Part 2. I guess that’s what happens when I listen to a 25 hour long book!
Before and after shots of trimming a couple trees. The pictures just don’t do it justice. We ran out of room in our giant compost bin and the front yard feels much less dangerous. Danny had been hitting his head on a branch every time he walked down the stone path and some beaches would hang down over the sidewalk or in the way of mowing when there were leaves on them. As we were finishing up Michelle’s friends started arriving for a book club planning meeting. There was lots of laughter after the pain of choosing books and I hope to see them getting together more often. They are such a great group! Imagine my surprise when I heard they had postponed the meeting for a day because Anne was busy taking 1st place in the regional Fast Facts category in Science Olympiad and is headed to the state wide competition next!
Next up in exciting news is that Danny decided to keep playing baseball in high school and tried out for the team. He and some of his former teammates are all going to play C team but swing up to JV together. This is exactly what his coach had in mind when he set up the Vibes — to get these boys ready to play in high school together. Now if only we could have convinced S & J & V to not go to the next high school over. I know Danny tried! I am thrilled to keep watching Danny play baseball and I think it will be fun to already know kids on his team and other teams too. Hubby and I weren’t able to make it to his first scrimmage due to work & a car being in the shop but he came home pretty happy except for how cold it was. Poor guys having to play outdoors in March!
That same night Hubby got a ride home from a coworker and Michelle had a small fan club to watch the District Honors Orchestra concert. My mom wasn’t feeling well but got to come to the last one so it’s like my parents are taking turns. And he thought to buy flowers! I sure didn’t! We were all very impressed with how amazing this group sounded after only practicing together three times. Michelle loved playing second chair and sharing a stand with the best middle school viola player in the district. She said it was so nice to not be the first one to figure things out and that she could just follow the other girl’s lead. This makes me hopeful that Michelle will enjoy moving up to the high school level even if that means leaving her amazing middle school teacher behind.
Enigma ……………… Benjamin P. Snoek
One Hand, One Heart …………… Leonard Bernstein arr Longfield
O Desayo ……….. Carrie Lane Gruselle
Warrior Legacy …………….. Soon Hee Newbold
Can you spot Michelle smiling at us while they got seated? Apparently I need someone to pick out seats for me. Here’s a picture K.T. sent me since she had a better view of Michelle than we did. lol. She also took our group photo for us after the performance.
The next day was a late start, thank goodness. After all that excitement it was good to sleep in a little. Natalie and her friends S.B., M.E. & I.L. took in their Inquiry Expo project but I got to see it in real life ahead of time, which came in handy since it was my turn to drive to softball the night parents were invited to come see. Natalie had a great time learning about design and sewing with her friends and said the judges were really nice. Apparently one of the judges was Kate’s former bestie, C!
I know this post is getting insanely long but I think I’ll just keep it running until we make it to spring break! Hubby and I got to watch Danny play in his first JV baseball scrimmage. I had assumed the 5 freshman were going to warm the bench but all of them got to be out there together and it was so much fun to see! It was like rooting for the Vibes all over again. I had to laugh when I realized all the Vibes/9th grade parents were sitting on the same side of the bleachers together while all the other high school parents were on the other side. I had to keep myself from yelling, “Let’s go Vibes!” more than once! But I look forward to cheering on all the high school players on both C team and JV. Between softball and baseball we should get plenty of outdoor time this spring!
For the next photo we are going to time travel a bit. I made a post on Facebook to mark 20 years since the passing of my friend, Jamie J, and I wanted to record something here as well. I do not feel worthy of the great friend she was to me. Jamie was a wonderful soul and the most common comment on my post about her was how often people think of her. If only she had known at the time how much she would be missed things might have turned out differently. I don’t know. But I do wonder what Jamie would be doing now, 20 years later. I bet whatever she chose, it would be extraordinary.
Now here we are, on the verge of spring break. And how did we spend those last two days? Online learning due to snow! There was much more of a joyful feeling the second day & pretty soon after those school iPads were put down, most of my kids were out building a snowman and throwing snowballs. Watch out for those baseball and softball players! They can really throw!
Comments