Danny's Fall Band Concert

What a musical treat tonight! Jake,Molly,Charlotte and I had the pleasure of attending Danny's fall band concert at Scranton Middle School. The place was packed and the 7th and 8th grades bands put on a great show. The 7th graders played 2 songs to open up, then the 8th grade jazz band played 4 tunes, and then the 8th grade symphony band played 2 songs. Then the bands joined together to play and then retire a patriotic melody that was introduced at the fall concert in 2001 to honor the victims of 9/11. Mrs. Evans explained that since the kids in the band today were small babies when the tragedy occured, they don't have the same emotional connection to the music and she will retire it and start a new tradition. We all sang along to Battle Hymn of the Republic and America the Beautiful. They also introduced all the band officers and so Danny, as elected librarian, got to stand up and be recognized. Yeah, we are proud!!

TUBAS!!!

Sophie loves when i take her picture!

proud Mom

Tubas in action

Danny proudly standing-he is librarian, section leader and first chair!

Boy Scout Court of Honor

I will add some photos tomorrow so you can see handsome Dan get his rank advancement. He is now a Boy Scout second class! He also earned three merit badges, swimming, space exploration and rifle shooting. Danny's troop gives the moms a small black velvet fabric pin and a new gold pin each time their son advances in rank. Today when I was getting ready to go I pinned on two of dad's medals so he could be there with us as we celebrate scouting and Danny. I know dad is very proud of him as indeed the whole family is. We all enjoyed a tasty potluck dinner before the ceremony. go Danny!

The parents are asked to stand up in support of their scout-Danny is a scout-second class!

danny moving his name up to the next spot on the rank chart

the plaque holds all the names of the scouts in rank order

Don't you love Sundays?

Our Sundays are so great I almost hate to go away for the weekend. (invite me anyway, if it's somewhere like Hawaii or HongKong I'm there!) Sitting on the sun porch drinking coffee while an 8 point buck wanders around in the lower back yard and our hawk slowly circles looking for field mice. The girls and Jerry arriving back from our awesome Title Boxing Club sweaty and happy. Attending mass at Saint Patrick, sitting in our seats, listening to the kids sing (Danny sounds just like my Dad!),praying, feeling blessed, visiting with so many people after mass and watching the girls enjoy these encounters,feeling filled and inspired by Father Karl. Then heading to Leo's diner for a late lunch-having all the waitresses greet us as long lost friends, having the kids know what they want right away,(especially Charlotte-it's always the Polish omelette =no green peppers!), blowing straw papers at each other, having our toast,with our toast! walking the dog, raking leaves, talking to my Mom and my sister. Serving the weeks leftovers for dinner and chatting about the week ahead, making lunches and tidying the kitchen. Having a Wii bowling tourney suggested by Charlotte and laughing with the kids in the basement. This is a great Sunday in my book!
I hope you have a great week ahead :)

Poly Hockey POWER!

 

The girls had a Special Olympics Poly Hockey tournament in Romulus on Saturday. And boy did they play well. They ended up splitting the two games and earning a third place with their team, but the scoring---Molly 4 goals and Charlotte 2! Jerry had a great time watching them play. I worked at the library and Danny stayed home to mush. It was super windy out with rain in the late afternoon so there was hardly anyone in the library. Not my favourite type of shift, I prefer to be busy. I did get to read a bunch of new picture books and even bring a couple home to share with Cassie next weekend.

Halloween starts now!

Molly and Charlotte were invited to their friend Heather's Halloween party! What fun! They are not invited to many parties so it was quite an exciting invite. And because of huge time of year, the dress code was costumes. Molly decided to be Dorothy again this year, with her long brown braids she is a natural. Charlotte was inspired by the awesome $1.50 Professor McGonagall hat I found at Sally's and wanted to complete the costume and dress as her. I found the emerald cape at the Halloween store, but the skirt and top I procured at Sally's today. Charlottes eyes lit up when she got home from school and saw her costume.she really feels like she is the Prof. And she carries herself like Dame Maggie herself. The party looked great and everyone's costumes were super!

Jerry had a light load for FNB, just Leah and Danny. Even so, he took them to Leo's so they had a ball.

Jake and his friend mike are happily in the basement playing video games after finishing up the leftover stuffed cabbage and bowls of chilli. The weekend begins!

I manage to stay in for the night! Yippee!

On the schedule was the BHS choir concert, and you know what a huge fan I am. We love the choirs and it is a lovely evening of song. BUT....Monday=Poly hockey/Boy Scoutsbook club! Tuesday = band concert! Wednesday=quiz bowl/CCD/parent meeting for science Olympiad! Thursday=after school crosscountry final practice and party and awards. Danny had a great time, finishing the season with a PR in the final meet of 13:11 on the varsity team. Truth be told he is happy that it has wound up, I think he is ready for a change. Jake was waiting outside Scranton and spirited Danny away for a quick 9 holes of disc golf before the sun went down and I headed home. When I walked in the door molly asked if she could put on her pj's. What about choir I asked? But the girls wanted to stay home and relax and that was just fine with me...I think I almost trampled them in my rush to get upstairs and get MY pj's on! We all enjoyed the chilli I had in the crockpot and the comfort of having no where to go!

Quiz bowl 2013

In the spirit of his brother and Aunt Susan, Danny has joined the Scranton Middle School Quiz Bowl Team. He has attended several practices and an inter squad scrimmage and based on his number of correct answers he was chosen for the away team! He is very excited to represent his school and is skipping the last dual cross country meet to travel to the first competition today. The two teams played three games each, and Danny's team won 2 out of 3. Danny did okay, answered some questions, some right and some wrong. He seemed to enjoy it a lot. The kids each have a buzzer to buzz in when they want to answer a question. If they get it wrong the other team can try to answer it, with no penalty for a wrong answer. The first round has 20 questions, the second round is a two minute lightening round involving the whole team gathering around a list that they work on together for the whole time. For example Danny's team had a list of 10 initials, ex. Aids,FBI,EEC,and they had to identify as many as possible. Round three is buzz in, but if you get it right you get a bonus question and you can consult with the team.  So D's team took the first match by quite a bit, lost game two by a tiebreaker, then won the final match by 10 points. 

We booked out of hartland middle school! swung through Tim Hortens for a chicken wrap, then dumped off at CCD with 3 minutes to spare. I then zoomed into Panera for a splurge, a sugar free vanilla cappuccino, on my way to the parents meeting for Science Olympiad. Left the meeting a bit early to go get Danny, on my way out of the library my keys dropped out of my pocket. I got out to the car in the freezing dark only to find no keys....and when I tried to get back into the school the doors were locked! Oh no! Finally the door to the gym opened and I sprinted for it, got in,got the keys, and drove like a bat out of hell to church, and was the last parent to pick up--Danny and Sister Theresa waiting at the door together.Good gracious, not the way to end my day!