Playing catch-up: Rhiannon's winter band concert!

Rhiannon's high school band winter concert was a blast!  We all wondered how the band would function with the new band director, Mark Hatter...and we are happy to see they are doing great!!

Playing catch-up: Wade's winter band concert!

We love watching Wade play during band concerts!  Here are a few videos from his winter band concert in December.  He hits those keys with confidence!









I had to snap a quick picture of Wade with Mr. Simon Austin afterwards, too.  This man is such a wonderful band teacher--he taught Rhiannon for 3 years before moving to Murray.  We're glad both kids have had the opportunity to work with him!

Wade's middle school band plays James Bond theme!

So happy Jason was there and could record a little bit of Wade's concert band performance!

Wade is to the left of the stage, standing, and playing (very well) on the mallets.  Enjoy!

A fun high school band video!

Rhiannon was concerned how band was going to roll at the beginning of the year.  Many awesome seniors had graduated, and some of her friends moved or quit.  It's nice to see her having fun, though, even with a smaller band.  They sound great!

2016 BHS Spring Band Concert

Last night our family went to Rhiannon's spring band concert at the high school.  It was a long night, but well worth our time!  Those high schoolers are remarkable!!!  Rhiannon is standing, I think second from the left.  I didn't have enough room on my phone to record it all, but here are a couple:

Wade's spring band concert!

We are so proud of Wade's accomplishments in concert band this semester.  He got moved up from beginning band in the middle of the year to join the 7th and 8th graders, and he has done well!  Check out his awesome solo at the very end of the last video, too.  So fun!

Drum Line

On April 9, I followed Rhiannon's drum line bus down to Palmdale for a competition.  Rhiannon spent a couple hours every week the past few months with this group and had a really great experience with it.  Here's a video of their performance that day.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, though the kids sure were hard on themselves afterwards.  I guess it's true that we are our own worst critic.  We're proud of Rhiannon for joining this extracurricular group and happy that she had such a fun time doing it!

Fun on a Friday night, plus fun random pictures from the last week

Hard to believe that 3 months have already gone by in 2016!!!

It's been a fun April Fool's Day!  Rhiannon has been the champion--she put stuff in Wade's shoes, colored the milk in the fridge blue, put salt in our water glasses, and faked injuries at school.  She has enjoyed every minute of it, haha!  Wade hid some of Rhiannon's books.  Jason tried to trick me into thinking he was drunk, hanging out with co-workers after work today, and I tricked Wade pretty great at 5:50 am when I told him that his teacher had emailed me and said he didn't have to do a large class project because his grade was so high...I felt a little guilty about that one!

Right now both kids have friends over.  Wade is playing video games with Tucker in one room, and Rhiannon and Sierra are watching Napoleon Dynamite in another.  It's fun to listen to them all laughing!

Tomorrow Rhiannon will be gone most of the day to a drum line competition, and the rest of us don't have much going on besides watching General Conference (which I am really looking forward to!).

Here are some other random pictures of goings-on the last couple weeks:

Rhiannon took a bunch of funny pictures on my phone--loved it!

Easter Sunday!

  

On Tuesday (after a VERY windy Monday) I joined friend Megan Hall and her son Daniel up at the new walking path up to the college.  We had a blast and got over 4 miles in!

Wade had a local band festival on Wednesday night.  He did a great job and had fun with it!

Rhiannon had SOOO much fun with the high school's Spirit Days this week.  Her favorite was the Comic-Con day!  Here she is with her friend Katie Johnson, who was a Dr. Who weeping angel!

We love The Flash!

  

Without pre-planning, Rhiannon and one of her really good buddies (friends since kindergarten!) Jacob Kelley both represented Flash that day.  Too funny!

The Insectasaurus hat is still around.  She wore this and a bunch of other crazy stuff for "What in the World?" Day!



Finally, here are some videos from Wade's band festival!  He's in the back, towards the right, playing on the mallets.

Wade's first Beginner Band concert

Jason and I went to Murray Middle School on Friday afternoon to see an informal first concert in his beginner band class.  Wade says this class is a little crazy (um, cough, only one girl in the class?  Yes, that's a daily practice of patience.), but he enjoys it.  He is having fun in the percussion section (back row, in the middle).  Two of his best friends are in the class with him--Nick is in the front row, blue shirt, playing trumpet, and Jordan is off to the right playing electric guitar.

I came away with a lot of respect for their band teacher, Mr. Peterson, and what the kids have learned in just a few weeks.  As soon as the concert ended, the kids took off for the refreshments and then chose the loudest percussion instruments they could find around the room and played around, haha!

Enjoy the videos!

Silly boys!  Wade with two of his best friends, Jordan and Nick.

Last Friday--highlights and frights

Friday, September 11th, was a busy day!

Wade and some other Boy Scouts helped with a special flag ceremony at school that morning.  (Thanks to friends Chris and Tami for the picture!  Wade is in the red shorts.)

That night we went to the high school football game and enjoyed watching Rhiannon play in the band.  She's on the end of the mallets.  (Many thanks to the Murphree family for letting me post this!)  During a second performance, one of Rhiannon's sticks broke--she just kept right on playing with her other hand, haha!  What a trooper!

I personally didn't take any videos because I was distracted by these...  Those are seed bugs, folks, and they were at the game in abundance.  It was crazy!

Despite the bugs, we had a great time and enjoyed being there.  The 9/11 ceremony at halftime was nice, too.  

Two other special events occurred that weekend.  On Saturday, Rhiannon and I went to her friend Nik's baptism.  He is the drum major for the high school band and has a lot of Mormon friends.  A few weeks ago Nik had attended the missionary open house that Rhiannon helped with, and he sought out the missionaries after that.  Rhiannon played the piano at the well-attended baptism and did a great job!  My favorite thing was that the whole front row at Nik's baptism was taken by high school friends, there to support him. 

The next day we snuck out of church after Jason's Sunday School lesson and drove down to California City for a missionary open house/luncheon.  Our friends the Okerlunds (of New Year's Eve party fame) are sending their son Brighton off to the MTC today to serve in the Philippines.  After he got his mission call, he and his family had just 3 WEEKS to get him on his way, but they made it!  He will be a great missionary!

Rhiannon's first high school band Christmas concert

I only got one good video during Rhiannon's Christmas band concert at the high school, mostly because I was too mesmerized by the rest of the music!  Here was one of their Christmas songs--you can see Rhiannon off to the left playing the mallets!!!

Rhiannon's first experience playing at a football game!

Last night we went to the first home football game for our local high school.  We got to watch the Burros beat the Warriors, 35-21, and we got to SEE RHIANNON PLAY WITH THE BAND on the field at half-time!  It was so fun!!!  In the video Rhiannon is on the far right on the mallets.  She said she had a really good time and was happy she got to see with the drumline people, the life of the party. :)

BHS Burros Symphonic and Cadet Band, 2014-2015

Fun panorama of the field

Rhiannon's final middle school band concert

Band has been a good experience for Rhiannon in middle school!  She played mallets almost exclusively the entire time and really enjoyed it.  She went through two band directors, Mr. Lacher in 6th grade and Mr. Peterson for 7th and 8th.  The two directors had very different styles, but Rhiannon had fun and did her best.  She got to go to music festivals, Disneyland, and elementary schools for band trips.  And she made some great friends!

It will be fun to see where band takes her in high school.  We attended an orientation there with Mr. Austin, the band director, a few weeks ago and it was a LOT to take in!  Rhiannon will be in the Cadet band at Burroughs High School for her freshman year but says she'll "wait and see" her sophomore year.  Cadet Band students attend the same 2-week summer camp that the older high school students do, but they don't have to get to school at 6:30am during the school year and only play at one football game and one or two parades.  The symphonic band does a LOT more.  With seminary and a heavy class load (she's decided to take all honors classes her first year), she's a little worried about the time commitment that band might require.  She's excited to try it out in high school, though!

Here are some videos from Rhiannon's final middle school concert--you can see her standing at the right playing the mallets. :)

Band Extravaganza

On April 9th, we watched Rhiannon play in the Band Extravaganza at Burroughs High School here in town.  Both middle school bands and the big high school band crowded into the gym at the high school and played their hearts out.  It was a lot of fun!

Panoramic view of the bands.  Rhiannon's band is on the left, directed by Dan Peterson.

Getting ready to play.  The Murray band played two songs on their own and did pretty well.  Rhiannon said the Pirates of the Caribbean song would have been better if their tuba player had showed up! :/

I spy Rhiannon!

Photo bomb by Wade

A couple months ago Rhiannon brought home a letter from Mr. Peterson from the high school band director, Mr. Austin.  8th graders were encouraged to audition to play a piece with the high school band, called Emperata.  Mr. Austin bent over backwards to help us get Rhiannon in to play for him.  It was nerve-wracking until we got to the high school band room and he made her play just 5 notes of the song and said she was good to go!  We were really surprised!

Well, fast forward to the Band Extravaganza, and Rhiannon and a handful of other middle school kids had their names announced and were invited to join the Burros band for their piece.  Rhiannon said it was pretty bad because she didn't realize she was missing a piece of the music that hadn't been printed out, so she froze during some of the song.  We were proud of her for sticking through and doing her best, though!

The best piece of the night was when all 3 bands played a John Williams mash-up together.  

It was amazing.  

It was brilliant.  

It was flawless.

It was breathtaking.

And I forgot to take video of it because I was too entranced.  Boo.

Oh, well!  We're happy for Rhiannon and excited to see what experiences she'll have in the high school band next year!

Growing pains

I got a form about Rhiannon's band day trip to Disneyland in May.  It was a letter packed with info and also a request for help with fundraisers the next few months. 

On the last line of the letter, the band director was also asking for parents' help on the actual trip. Rhiannon did not want me to check that last little box.  Boy, did that make me feel sad, and mad!  I had to keep my cool, though, because this happened in the van on the way to school with other kids I was carpooling.  I've been steaming about it for the last several minutes since I got home. 

And then it hit me.  Sure, Rhiannon may not want to be embarrassed by her mom, but she's also doing me a favor.  Do I really WANT to spend all day with a very large group of loud, giggly, flirting middle school kids?  Not really!

Solo

I forgot to mention something that happened last week that was REALLY cool!  The whole family went to Rhiannon's final band concert of the year and loved listening to her in the percussion section.  During one of her intermediate group's songs, she got to do this:

Ha-ha, okay, she didn't bang on a gong that size, but she was a "featured" soloist during the song.  After it was over, her band teacher Mr. Lacher pointed to her and said, "And that was Rhiannon, playing the gong solo!"

It was too cute!

Rhiannon's first band concert!

Rhiannon's band class put on their first concert on the 14th.  Jason and I got to attend and really enjoyed it.  It was short, sweet, and fun!  I was surprised by how much the kids could do after just 6 weeks, too!

Rhiannon really enjoys Mr. Lacher and says he's her favorite teacher!  Rhiannon is in the back, playing the xylophone with another kid named Spencer.

Enjoy the video! :)