Michelle finished up her tennis season with an all day tournament that she drove herself to at 6:45am. Thanks for getting a driver's license, Michelle. lol She played seven matches and between track and softball, Hubby and I were only able to watch one of them. We apparently are a distraction but they were able to win the tie breaker even with us watching. She misses tennis already and is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful group.
I hitched a ride with Danny to his track meet the same day. I got to watch both his relays (100 & 200) and his 100m and Hubby got to watch his last relay. In their 4x200 relay they came in with a time of 1:30.16, a new season's best for the team. In the 4x100 relay they came in at 43.29, taking 3rd place. All the boys on the relay team also "earned All-Conference." I knew that was good but I had to look up what it meant. Danny also got a new PR of 11.69 seconds. By the time all this was done he pulled out of the 200m because he didn't think his legs could take another sprint. He will have another chance next week to run the 200m along with the relays in hopes of getting a spot at the state championships. Oh, and I almost forgot but Danny's coach gave him "athlete of the week" and he has a new t-shirt to prove it.
That same day I also got to help chaperone the middle school orchestra trip to the LSO "Best of Broadway" Pops concert. The 20 students, including Natalie, were so quiet on the bus and such good attendees. When there was an encore you could tell some of the boys were very ready for the concert to be over but they had lasted up until the very end. The bus ride home was much louder, with one of the 6th graders getting the noise started by yelling jokes to her 8th grade brother. Of course the performance was excellent with pieces from West Side Story, Cats, Madame Butterfly, and more. The guest singers, Dawna Rae Warren and Miguel Angel Ortega, were also excellent. Seriously, one woman should not be allowed to be that gorgeous and that talented at the same time. Michelle also earned lots of big sister brownie points when Natalie's friends decided they wanted to wear black dresses to the event and Natalie borrowed Michelle's homecoming dress, hair bow, blazer, and shoes -- her outfit from head to toe -- and helped her safety pin the dress to fit her properly. Michelle also drove herself to the concert because she already had a ticket and grabbed this cute photo of Natalie and one of her friends before the students got back on the bus. During intermission Michelle also came to our area of the auditorium and said high to the Pops students she knew. I was so proud of her for wanting to be a good big sister to Natalie. Don't worry, Kate also earned brownie points for picking Natalie up from softball practice so that Hubby could watch one of Danny's running events after we watched Michelle play tennis. Kate is also the co-winner of "Worst Case of Senioritis" in the high school yearbook this year. We are so proud. lol
Hubby did a fantastic job preparing a joint birthday celebration for my parents. We are celebrating their 76th and 80th birthdays! My dad said he wanted to go sky diving for his 80th birthday. We will have to see if that actually happens but they were honored with a lovely dinner, flowers, and a gift card to In N Out Burger for now. Hopefully they will like the new burger place on their side of town. I know we do.
We finally got an amazing snow storm this season. I walked home from Meagan's bridal shower and the song Winter Wonderland came into my mind. The bridal shower was lovely and JJ & KC were magnificent hostesses. I also ate bacon wrapped dates for the first time and they were delicious. I tried to make some at our house for late start but the recipe I found online led me astray and burned the bacon. Lesson learned. The next morning Maisie got the zoomies running around the back yard in the snow while I tried to knock snow off of our trees before more branches snapped. I don't know if I did any good but I had to try. Three of our trees and our giant lilac bush will all have to be pruned but we are grateful that is all since one of our neighbor's tree split down the middle and looks to be a total loss.
Natalie's last orchestra concert of 7th grade was also this week. As a 7th grade orchestra they played Wood Splitter Fanfare and Lullaby to the Moon by Brian Balmages and A River Rhapsody by Richard Meyer. This might be Natalie's last Pops performance since she is going to be on the yearbook staff during LEAD next year. We will see but Pops played Bittersweet Symphony, The Magic of Harry Potter (arr. Michael Story), and music from Stranger Things. As always, so enjoyable, and the sunset outside as we left was amazing.
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