Today was a great day! It was very hot and muggy, but we had a great time going to the memorial day parade in Aurora and watching the girls march! It was kind-of weird, however, as it was just Angela, the boys, and I watching. What a small group! 🙂
The girls did a GREAT job and looked VERY professional in their marching! Metea and Still were the best bands out there! 🙂 Go girls! The boys really enjoyed watching them and also getting some candy.
Today we had dinner with some friends and did some long overdue catching up. We had a great time. A highlight of our night (not a good one, by the way) was when Ben disappeared and we couldn’t find him. We thought he was playing with Zach in the basement. Turns out, he went up to our bedroom, locked himself in, got into the top shelf of our dresser, took out my Blackberry, and dialed 911 THREE TIMES! 😐 When we finally found him, the 911 dispatch had called my phone back, left a message, and actually heard Ben playing with the phone. I was able to get the 3rd call back from the 911 dispatch and talk to them. Talking about apologizing profusely! 🙁 I’m sure they have issues all the time with kids accidentally doing this with a Blackberry phone (don’t have to dial 911 on them to make an emergency call). Needless to say, Ben was in big trouble!
YIKES!
Tonight Sarah and Brittany attended their Metea Music Award Night at the high school. Brittany received her letter jacket numerals along with her music pin, and Sarah received her music letter along with her pin as well. The picture below is the only one that turned out but aren’t they cute? 🙂
I stayed home with the boys so Angela could enjoy the time with them. 🙂 Even though the girls don’t practice as much as they should, we are so proud of what they have accomplished in the music programs they have been involved in.
Way to go!
Tonight was seminary graduation. Both Sarah and Brittany completed the year with flying colors and both got the Stake President’s award.
This includes 100% attendence, reading daily and finishing the book they are studying (Doctrine and Covenants), memorizing all 25 scripture mastery scriptures, and more. We are so proud of them. Sarah has received this award 3 times now, and this is Brittany’s first. They have a new award for those who get the Stake President’s Award 4 times and both are shooting for this!
Great job girls!
Today was part 2 of the District 204 Fine Arts Festival. Kirstyn sang and played in the band, and Zachary had an art project that was displayed…
Zach’s project was a cute little teapot that he made out of clay stuff. It was really cute and he was so excited to show it to us. We were worried at first because we didn’t think that he had anything selected to be displayed, but fortunately, the letters were a little late getting out.
Kirstyn sounded great in her band performance. It is really amazing how good the kids sound after just a 5th grade weekly band practice and then 1 year of daily playing (Kirstyn every other day because she has chorus too). We really appreciate our district’s emphasis on the arts.
Kirstyn sang great too! The middle school 6th grade chorus groups sang with the Waubonsie Valley High School top choir. Our neighbor is in the top choir and sang with her so that was pretty cool as well.
Great job Kirstyn and Zach! You guys are awesome!
Well, I’m back from a GREAT week at Microsoft TechEd 2011. I had a great time and learned a ton! I know, what a way to talk about a conference of geekdom! 🙂 I stayed in the Ritz Carlton in Atlanta and it was a wonderful hotel. The staff was great and I slept pretty good for being away from home!
The conference was very informative and the sessions I attended made it worth my while for going. I brought back a lot of things to implement at work. The only drawback was the size of the conference center (as I mentioned at the first of the week). The way it was laid out, you had to walk over a half a mile to get from the dining area to the trade show part of the conference. The crazy thing was that the two areas were about 100 yards from each other. They did have a passageway between the two as a huge shortcut, but it wasn’t always open. It was very crowded. There were over 10,000 people there at the conference. You can see how big the dining hall was and that wouldn’t even fit everyone if they all came at the same time…
I talked to a lot of vendors as well. In addition to the knowledge I got from them, I got a TON of junk that I brought home to the kids! I have everything from rubber light-up balls, to cell phone holders, pens, pads of paper, tons of other toys, and 21 t-shirts… YES! 21 T-SHIRTS! It was hard to get everything packed in a single suitcase to bring home! 🙂
The last night we had a great conference party. It was over at the Atlanta Aquarium and World of Coke. We had a great time and drank coke samples from all over the world (a room with kiosks from each continent and cups to have unlimited refills of your favorite coke products… see below). We all got a mini 125 year anniversary bottle of coke.
It’s good to be home how and see the kids. They were really excited to have me home because of all the junk I brought back for them! They each got a couple of t-shirts and are enjoying them as well. 🙂
Tonight, Sarah had her final band concert of the year at Metea, and she performed wonderfully as well. Unfortunately, I missed this one as well due to the TechEd conference in Atalanta. I was bummed about that one as well. Angela got a couple of pictures, but they were really blurry due to the boys being rowdy. By the end of the concert, Ben had her about wiped-out! 🙂
Great job Sarah!
Tonight Brittany had her final Metea Orchestra concert of the year and it was awesome! Unfortunately, I wasn’t there to hear it as I am at TechEd right now, but I sure wanted to be there, and was bummed when I found out I would be missing it. They did a GREAT job! Angela didn’t get any pictures because she was wrestling with the boys, trying to keep them busy and quiet.
Great job Brittany!
Today I left for the Microsoft TechEd 2011 conference and am now in Atlanta! I’m pretty excited to attend the keynotes and sessions, and to talk to the vendors about products that might be able to help us out. We’ll see how it goes!
The place here for the conference is HUGE! I think I’m going to be walking a LOT this week! 🙂 I picked up my bag and other materials, went back to the hotel, and then set out to find something quick to eat. Everything was closed (they are much better at closing on Sunday down here in the South than they are where we live) so I had to settle for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds. 🙂 Oh well, I’m full now and ready to relax and get ready for tomorrow’s activities!
Today was round 1 of the District 204 Fine Arts Festival at Metea for Sarah and Brittany. Next Saturday will be Kirstyn and Zach. Angela volunteered to work at concessions for most of the day with a break to watch the girls play…
Brittany played first with the Metea Orchestras and the middle school orchestras from the feeder schools. They did a great job! All the girls wore red flowers in their hair to go along with a Spanish number they did. It was cute.
Sarah played next with the combined Metea bands. They sounded great as well (of course)! 🙂
It’s amazing to listen to the talent that we have in our district! It’s hard to believe when listening that these kids are only 14-17 years old! What a blessing it is to have such a great music program in our district. It’s no wonder that high schools in our district win a grammy (gold status) every year! 🙂
Great job girls!
Tonight Kirstyn had her final Still Middle School chorus concert and she did a GREAT job! They had all 3 grades participating, along with the honors chorus.
The picture above is of Kirstyn’s 6th Grade chorus. They sang 3 songs: I Love a Piano, I’m Goin’ Home on a Cloud, and Songs from Gahu. Kirstyn is excited for chorus next year and hopes to make it into Honors Chorus. Keep up the GREAT work, Kirstyn!
Yesterday, Angela and a bunch of her running friends drove down to Indianapolis, and today, she ran in the Indy Mini Half Marathon along with about 37,000 other runners! This is her 4th race there and she did a GREAT job! Her time this year was 2:12! That is her best time so far (she beat her best by 8 minutes)! She worked and trained hard!
In the picture above, it’s hard to see, but in the stretch of street you can see, are all 37,000 runners! Crazy!
Great job Angela! You are the BEST! 🙂
While Angela was running, I went with Kirstyn to her last NIU EEP session where they (in their teams) presented what they did and their overall impressions to the entire group. It was great to hear all the fun stuff they did and all the fascinating speakers they listened to.
She got her official graduation certificates and patch and was very excited! This summer, she is going to do an extension of the EEP program and participate in a week-long summer camp at Northern Illinois University.
Great job Kirstyn!
