Halliday Family Blog

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!

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 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!

Today Sarah took her AP Calculus Test!  She felt VERY good about it and hopes to get a strong 4 if not a 5.  We’ll keep our fingers crossed!  She should get some good college credit out of this one!

Today Sarah took her AP Psychology Test!  Let’s hope all the studying paid-off!  🙂  She didn’t think it was too hard, but has no idea on how she may have done.  We’re all keeping our fingers crossed!

Tonight, we had our 7th (I think) annual Teacher Appreciation night!  Brittany and Zach had school teachers there, and Brittany and Sarah had one of their Seminary teachers there.  It was a crazy time and we wish that more teachers could have come, but we had a great time!  We had dinner for them, and then after that, the kids each presented their teacher(s) with a poem or other sort of work to honor them.

We then had cake (above), chatted for awhile longer, and sent them on their way with a hanging flower basket as a gift.  We LOVE doing this and look forward to each year when the time comes.  It’s actually kind-of funny because we have had so many teachers over throughout the years, that there are some who ask us when it’s coming up and “hint” at how much they loved the evening and appreciated the gesture from our family!  🙂

Thank you to all who came and to all those teachers who influence our children’s lives for good!  You deserve WAY more kudos than you get!