As I mentioned-- in the middle of frantically trying to get our townhouse all cleaned up, we had to race back to town for Kendra and Ryder's end-of-the-year band concert. Fortunately, we'd thought to take two cars, so Kendra and Ryder headed there early, we worked for a few more minutes and then went back to the house to put on not-grubby clothes and then got to enjoy the concert! The music was lovely-- the various bands have all come a really long way and it was fun to hear them! We can never get good pictures of them during the concerts, but this time we tried sitting in the back where the seats are elevated-- so you can see them, but we're really far away and had to zoom way in. Enjoy!
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| Ryder is always very pale, but then there was also a light shining right on him, so now he's glowing!!! Is he about to be translated??? |
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| And look, there's Kendra! |
Then, right before the concert began, Ryder raised his stand up so he could see his music better and we once again couldn't see him at all. Ah, well!
As I said, the concert was great. Especially the first half (and not just because that was when my kids were playing!). But then they also had the jazz band play, and then the steel drum group... The whole thing went on for an hour and a half. And that was kind of long (especially when you factor in the band teacher taking the time to describe the entire plot of the movie The Terminal, since they were playing music from it. Was that really necessary???). But we weren't done yet! Nope, then they had a banquet so everyone had to stand in line for food. And then they had an awards ceremony. The whole thing ended up taking three hours. Which I normally wouldn't even care about, except we really needed to get back to the townhouse and keep cleaning! But this was Kendra's last band function, so I tried my best to just enjoy every minute of it and not feel stressed.
But you better believe that the second it ended, Craig and I were out of there like a shot! (The kids hung around with Grandma and Grandpa for a bit and took their time following us, but once they were back, they continued to help us clean-- they were real troopers about the whole thing, and I was very proud of their work ethic!)
Anyway-- here are a few pictures from the awards ceremony!
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| Ryder now has a varsity letter in marching band! (And isn't he cute?) |
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| Kendra helps swear in the new members of Tri-M (which is National Honors Society, but for music students) |
All the seniors get an award, but I was expecting and hoping that Kendra would get the leadership award. She worked her
tail off as the drum major during marching band season, so even though she shared the role with Evan, I really hoped Mr. Strickler was aware that
she was the one who got everyone loading and unloading the truck for each competition and made sure everything actually happened. So I was extremely pleased when that was exactly what happened!
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| Getting her plaque from Mr. Strickler |
I was very proud of my kids!!! And it was a very lovely break during a fairly stressful day!
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