Band-O-Rama

Band-O-Rama is a huge concert that takes place each year here.  It's comprised of all the 5th-12th grade band students in the entire school district.  They get together and perform several songs.  Most of the songs are done separately by the different age groups, with a few songs being performed by everyone.  The concert is held in a huge gym at one of the local high schools.  The entire floor (even into the corners) is the "stage" for the kids.  They are spread out everywhere, seated together in their age groups.  There is a 5th grade band, 6th grade band, 2 different middle school bands, and 2 different high school bands.  In total, more than 1500 kids comprise this combined band.  It's massive!  The parents sit on bleachers around the room.

We've heard about this concert the entire time we've lived here (we've known several kids playing each year), and I've dreaded going.  Not because I don't like watching Emma do her various things, but because it always sounded like a logistics nightmare.  This is a lot of kids with a lot of instruments who all have parents and family who are all trying to get a good seat to see their own child.  The truth is though, considering how many students there are, there are no great seats.  Especially for the youngest grade bands, who are seated in the corners of the gym - so no bleacher seats actually directly face them.  So you do what you can, knowing you'll certainly hear them play no matter where you sit.  I was actually impressed with how reasonably well this was organized.  It's been going on annually for almost 60 years, so hopefully they've gotten most of the bugs out by now.

It's seems crazy to think that the 5th grade bands have only been playing for 4 months.  And most of the students (if not all) had no prior experience with their instrument.  Now, of course, they sounded like 5th grade students who have only been playing for 4 months, but that wasn't the point of this concert.  The older kids were very good (high schools), and it gives the younger grades something to look forward to.  Plus, already having a concert under your belt is a confidence builder for these kids.

Traditionally, the final song is Stars and Striped Forever.  The high school bands start, then part-way through the middle school bands join, and then towards the end, the 5th grade band joins.  Emma was very proud to participate.  She certainly felt she looked the part in her new pants and shirt!  She felt very grown-up I think.  It was fun seeing her, and even though the pictures at the concert are poor quality,  I think Emma will look back on her first year fondly.

This is the 5th grade bands.  You can only see part of the group in this picture.  They were seated in the corned of the gym, so we were seated sort of to the side of them.  Emma is in the shot, and is almost on the very right of the picture.

Milwaukee Symphony

Last weekend we took Emma to hear the Milwaukee Symphony.  It was a Christmas gift from Eric's parents.  We chose the dates and which concert to attend though.  I should say Eric chose.  But he chose well.  The main thing he wanted to hear them play was Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.  Eric has performed this several times, but never heard it performed live by anyone else.  I heard Eric perform it one of those times.  It is such a pleasure to hear this beautiful music live.  There is a wonderful horn solo towards the end that Eric in particular wanted Emma to hear.  It was a wonderful evening.  Everything from dinner at P.F. Chang's to the music was fabulous.

Cute Girl

Over the long weekend break for MLK Jr day, while being lazy as we sat on the couch watching a movie, I snapped a picture of Emma.  It turned out darling, and I just love it.  So I'm sharing it here.

Tis The Season

Christmas is always such a fun time of year.  Here are just a few pictures from the season.

Emma discovered one day that if she combines some socks, pajama bottoms,
and a shirt of hers, that she can become one giant stripe.  A little difficult to look at.  

The three of us decorated this gingerbread house.  Emma did most of it really. 

Just about ready for Christmas morning! 

Quickly took the annual Christmas stuff picture (including the Ford Thunderbird
pajama's I made for her)  so she could get onto the fun of building and playing.

And this is how the remainder of Christmas day was spent: building her new Lego sets.

Car Accident

Eric was in a car accident a couple days ago.  It wasn't his fault.  Someone coming the opposite direction decided to turn right in front of him, and Eric hit the side of their vehicle full on.  His front and side airbags went off - a first for him.  It happened just a couple minutes from home, so Emma and I were there very quickly after it happened.  As Eric was being checked out in the ambulance, I took some photos and emptied his car (it would have to be towed).  Wanting to be sure he was alright, they wanted Eric to go to the hospital for a few more elaborate tests.  Joy.  We of course went with him.  We were there for a couple hours as they ran some tests and took some x-rays.  They wanted to make sure he didn't have a neck injury.  He didn't.  He just got banged up a bit.  He'll be sore (very sore!) for a few days, and then the pain will start to diminish.  He'll get some bruising too.  They gave him some super powerful drugs to help with the pain and with sleeping.  It could have been much worse though, and I am very grateful that he's alright.  Emma was a little shaken up when I told her (even though I assured her he was alright) about the accident on our way out the door.

Before the x-rays, as a precaution they had him in a neck brace.

We needed something else from his car, so the next day we went to the lot where it had been towed. While there I took a few more photos since it was now daylight.  The car will have to be totaled.  Just what you want to hear 4 days before Christmas.  Yay.  Such an inconvenience.  And so frustrating because he did NOTHING wrong.  I'll just need to keep reminding myself how fortunate we are that Eric didn't get hurt even worse.  GRRRRR.

Misc. Primary

Just a few things I wanted to share from my current days in Primary.  The chorister wanted to have some fun one Sunday.  As an incentive for the kids to sing really well, and as an award if they did, the presidency and the secretary had to risk getting whipped cream in the face.  Based on how well they did, we each had to turn the crank that number of times.  Each turn put us at further risk to be creamed.  If you've never played the game before, you put cream on the purple hand, stick your face in the hole, and turn the crank on the side.  And just like russian roulette, each crank might send the hand flying towards your face along with the cream.  The kids just loved it.  For the final round, we each had to turn the crank as many times as needed until we were each creamed.

In preparation for next year, I've been working on several things.  We wanted to have chair covers for each class as well as our talk and scripture etc.  It was a little challenging without having a pattern, but I think they turned out well.  We wanted primary colors, but not super bold or bright hues.  I knew I wanted to find patterned material too.  We also decided we wanted a pocket in them where we could either put the name of the class or something else, such as a class list.

In our ongoing efforts to encourage reverence, we're having the kids earn rewards as a class, rather than the entire junior or senior primary group together.  Each week each class, based on their reverence in opening exercises, sharing time, and singing time, will be able to earn one "cookie".  Once they've filled their jar with six "cookies", we'll bring in an actual treat.  Some classes will earn this faster and more frequently than others.  And just to keep things fresh, at the end of each quarter, we'll wipe the slate clean.  So if they haven't earned a reward by then they'll need to start over.  Just a little extra encouragement.  Who knows how well this will work.  I didn't come up with this particular idea, I was just asked to create the charts.  Below is the chart for junior primary.  The cookies themselves are laminated to make them easier to reuse.  The jars and class names are glued to the poster board.

I also made part of the birthday treat we'll give each child when we sing to them.  They'll each get a bookmark with this year's theme on it (I know the scriptures are true) and they'll get one of these chocolatey treats I put together with this year's scripture on it.  I think they go along with the theme very nicely.

Holiday Train

I guess the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train comes through Wisconsin every year.  We've never gone to see it, but this year Emma's friend asked us to come with them, so we bundled up and went.  It wasn't far from home, but it was super crowded.  I can't believe how many people came out to see this thing.  As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't worth it.  But Emma had fun with her friend and seemed to enjoy the general sense of excitement in the air.  Due to the crowds and the fact that the train was moving part of the time, pictures were a little hard to get.  After the train stopped, one side of one of the train cars opened up to become a stage where a band performed.  After awhile the girls wanted to go up onto a bridge to see what the view was like from up there.  Then we quickly tried to grab a shot before the train left.  It's has to keep on schedule after all.

Weekend Trip

We decided to go on a quick little trip for Thanksgiving weekend.  We celebrated Thanksgiving the prior weekend with all the trimmings - and it was delicious.  This way we weren't giving up any of the yumminess.

We decided to go to Cleveland and visit the house where A Christmas Story was filmed as well as visiting Kirtland and seeing the temple and Newel K. Whitney store.  It had been since before my mission since I was last there, and Eric and Emma had never been to Kirtland.

The Community of Christ who owns and operates the tours for the Kirtland Temple were very nice. Of course, they make you watch a video before going into the temple, and much of the video contains inaccurate information.  It's so sad to think of all the misinformation their members have been taught.  The temple was very nice, and both Eric and Emma enjoyed seeing it.  It is so wonderful to be in the same space where so many wonderful things happened.  The same goes for the Newel K. Whitney store.  The church (our church - LDS church) has really built up the area right around the store and added several other building to see since I was last there.  And it's fun for me to think of Erastus Snow (my third great-grandfather) having been there in Kirtland to at the time of so many amazing things.

It was fast, but a very fun getaway.  Most of the pictures are from the Christmas Story house, so if you don't know the movie, they won't mean much to you.  :)

You could touch anything in the house you wanted.  Just inside they had some hats you could try on.

The details in this place were wonderful.   Even down to the huge bundle of plugs in the wall.

The bb gun box hidden behind the desk in the corner. 

If you know the movie...

Eric trying to steal a taste of the turkey.

"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"

If only she had been wearing a pink bunny suit

Upstairs you could pick up this phone and listen as they played the scene when the mom
calls Ralphie's friend's mom and tells her that her son taught Ralphie the F-word. 

The decoder pin in the bathroom.

Emma had fun acting out some of the better parts of the movie.  No, she didn't really taste the soap.

The bb gun has just hit her glasses and now she's conjuring up some tears.

While Eric "fixes" the tire, Emma is in the middle of saying "Oh Fuuuuuuudge."

There is a museum right across the street where they have more movie memorabilia,
much of it behind glass, as well as some fun information about the movie.

We stopped by again in the evening to get a better picture of the leg lamp in the window.
It was on earlier in the day, but it definitely looks best at night. 

"It's a major award!"

It was a rainy day in Kirtland, but was still lovely to be there.

They had huge umbrellas for us to use as we walked from the visitor center to the temple.