Yay! Quin's marching band competition parade season is over. It isn't that long to start with, but during it, it feels like we are going non-stop. We haven't heard yet how our group did in the parades, but looking forward to finding out. Basically, there are about 4 parades in different towns and marching bands from high schools and middle schools from all over northern and central Illinois go to march in the parades to be judged. There is a judging panel at some point along the parade route and the kids go past while playing their marching song and they are judged on their marching, playing, and appearance.
Our band usually does pretty well, but this year our percussion section was much weaker than the previous few years. There are fewer kids playing percussion and the few who are playing aren't as good as some of the previous and even upcoming (but not old enough to be in marching band yet) kids.
Now that marching is over, the kids will be playing for "chairs". Quin was first chair trumpet in 8th grade, but in high school only upperclassmen get to play first chair. She is hoping that now that she is a junior she will have better odds of getting first or second chair, but our trumpet section is really good so she is going up against some strong talent.
Glencairn,You have brought back many fond memories from the days when my 'flutist' was in marching band. They had a lot of out-of-town competitions, and being a working mom I was only able to chaparone one of them, but I had a blast.
It's amazing how much work goes on behind the scene to get those kids out on the field, and their dedication to giving their best effort was equally impressive.
It is impressive how much work they put in to get ready for their competitions, parades, and concerts. It is fun for me to watch them practice, too. We are just a block and a half or so away from the school and they practice marching all through town and frequently march on the street that goes past our house. Wicket and I go out on the porch to watch and wave and the kids all wave and squeal at the cute little doggy. The best part is hearing them when they first get their music for their marching song and are just learning it to hearing how much they have improved by the end of marching season.
Russ made chocolate mousse for me tonight for dinner! It is our anniversary (19 years) and so he asked what I wanted for dessert with dinner tonight. Chocolate mousse is one of my favorites and really easy to make and I hadn't had any for so long. It was such a great day today.
Just got word from my sister-in-law that she came through hurricane Matthew just fine and she was finally able to get out and check the art school she is the director of and it also made it through fine with no leaking or water or wind damage. She is in Haiti and we have been worried about her and it was such a relief to hear that she made it through okay.
ATF, I hope that you are safe and make it through in good shape.
Quin's boyfriend, Dillin, is at school down in FL and Quin has been out of her mind worrying about him. His mom just got down there today to make sure he is all squared away and to help him evacuate if necessary.
Thank goodness for gift certificates! We went out for dinner tonight to celebrate our anniversary at a wonderful hibachi restaurant that Russ and I like and we had the chance to do that because we had gotten a gift certificate for either Christmas or a birthday this past year. We had such a nice time and it was nice to get out and enjoy ourselves.
It was a nice night out and we spent the weekend just relaxing at home, mostly watching TV while Quin worked on the insane homework load she had for the weekend. She has a 4 day weekend with both last friday and this monday off and the teachers loaded the kids up with homework. Quin spent most of friday until we left to go out and all of saturday and today working and still has about 2 or 3 hours worth of work to finish up tomorrow.
We went to an orchard near us with my in-laws today and had a really great time. We got to pick our own apples and they had a number of different varieties to choose from, though some were sold out/out of season, but still quite a lot to choose from. They also have pumpkin patches and we got to choose our own pumpkins. Afterward, we went back to my in-laws house and Russ carved his pumpkin, Quin started on hers and mine isn't going to be carved. Mine is orange and white speckled and is so pretty and I can't bear to carve it, so I decided that it will go on the porch with the others as additional decoration.
Every year we have a Halloween/Fall celebration for doing the pumpkin carving and a nice meal and just to visit, but it's always a little bit unique. This year for the meal we had spaghetti with black noodles, hot dogs cut just right so that they curl up and look like worms (sort of) and deviled egg "eyes". The spaghetti noodles were the neatest bit for me. My mother-in-law dyed them by putting a black food coloring into the water (I can't think of exactly what kind of coloring, but a bakers one of some sort) and they turned out really neat. The bonus was that they tasted completely normal and the color didn't come off and stain our lips or teeth.
Overall, it was a wonderful day and I am so glad that we got to have our celebration again this year. I'm just worried that I might have overdone it a little bit with the walking around the orchard. It was a lot of walking and I still get tired really easily and will hurt tomorrow if I did do too much. Fingers crossed that it won't be too bad.
Quin finished carving her pumpkin tonight and she did a Jack Skellington and Sally design from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It turned out so cool! We put a light in it to take a picture and it looked even neater. She is so excited and can't wait to put it out. I am just hoping that it will last until Halloween.
Quin got the results of chair tryouts in band and she got 2nd chair! She is so excited. She said the boy who got first chair earned it and really deserves it, so she doesn't feel bad coming in second to him. She also came over to show me the message he sent to her congratulating her and she appreciated his "sportsmanship" as it were.
Yay!! Quin's worrying was put to rest today. She got her letter notifying her that she has been selected to be inducted into the National Honor Society. She got home this afternoon and was so excited she could hardly see straight. She is already talking about how much she is looking forward to the activities and can't wait to get started.
And now she is excited because my parents called and wanted to know if they could take us out to dinner tomorrow to celebrate Quin being selected for NHS. Which means no cooking for me (or Russ)!!