School

Today was a busy day in the world of music in our family.  Sarah played in the pep band for the girls basketball game (Metea vs. Waubonsie).  She had a blast and it was even better that Metea won by 1 point!  🙂  Sorry, don’t have a good picture of her playing!  🙁

While Sarah was playing and Angela was at the high school watching her, I got Brittany to her concert at Still Middle School.  Angela and Sarah arrived just in time to enjoy watching the 8th Grade chorus, band, and orchestra concert as well.  They did a  GREAT job!  Brittany both sang and played her violin.

We love to hear the girls play their music both in and out of the house.  It brings a peaceful feeling to our home when they are all practicing and making beautiful music.  🙂

Tonight Kirstyn had her holiday chorus concert at Gombert Elementary.  She was very excited and loves to sing!  The Still Middle School Honors Chorus was invited to come and sing with them, so Brittany got dressed up and went.  It was a fun concert and we were able to take Zachary and Ben.  Zach was good and sat and listened, but Ben was crazy (as usual) so I was up with him in the back listening and trying to keep him quiet!  🙂

It’s always fun for us to seek the kids do thing together like this!  The elementary kids were very excited to see how the elite chorus at the middle school sounded!   They were all wanting to be like them someday!  🙂  Great job Kirstyn and Brittany!

Tonight Kirstyn had her very first band concert!  It was held over at Waubonsie Valley High School in the auditorium and her school was combined with 4 other elementary schools in the district.  It was great to hear them play for the first time together.  They showed examples of what was good and what was bad which was very funny for us and fun for them to show.  They then played 6 or so songs, splitting up the different parts so we could hear what the melody, harmony, baseline, etc. sounded like, and then they played altogether.  It’s amazing to hear what these kids have done in 4 short months!  We are very lucky to be in a district that has one of the best music programs in the nation.  They really emphasize excellence and hard work.  All three girls have great band and orchestra teachers that are very committed to the students and that makes us very happy!

Great job, Kirstyn!  Keep up the wonderful work!

Tonight  Brittany had a “Sing and Share” at Waubonsie Valley High School.  They put on this program every year and invite the honors choruses from the middle schools that feed into Waubonsie to sing with them.  It was a short program, but it showcased some of the talent at the high school.  The honors choruses then came on stage and sang beautifully.  There sure is a LOT of talent in our district.  No wonder the high schools keep getting Grammy Gold status every year!  🙂

Brittany had her Still Middle School Fall Chorus Concert tonight and it turned out very well.  She loves singing in Honors Chorus and they did very well.  She also sang in the 8th grade chorus and did wonderfully well there too.  The chorus director also had the parents and attendees stand and sing as well!  🙂

Brittany in the picture above is on the top row on the far right-hand side.  The 6th and 7th grade chorus groups sang as well, along with an appearance by an all-girls A Capella group from Waubonsie High School.  It was a great night.  Kirstyn stayed home and watched the boys so we didn’t have to take Ben out half-way through or keep telling Zach to be quiet!  🙂

Great job Brittany!

Brittany participated tonight in her first orchestra concert of the  year.  It was held at Waubonsie Valley High School and was done in conjunction with the first high school orchestra concert.  Still Middle School and Scullen Middle School played together, and then each middle school played with one of the high school orchestra groups.  It was wonderful to listen to.  They have come such a long way since first picking up their instruments in 5th grade!  Brittany really loves playing and sounds great!  We just need to get her to practice more!  🙂

After the middle schools played, the high school orchestras took over and it was absolutely phenomenal to listen to them!  Our district really works hard and places a HUGE emphasis on being outstanding in the arts!  It’s no wonder that the schools in our district always win Grammy Gold Status from the Academy!  Keep up the GREAT work, Brittany!

Brittany had her final middle school Conference Cross Country meet today at DuPage River Park.  There were 20+ schools there competing and she ran her race in just over 16 minutes.  That’s a personal best for her and she is getting better and better.  It was a beautiful day for the race and the course was very nice too.  They got to run in and around a forest of trees on a nice path as well as down some much looked-forward-to hills.  🙂  The 7th grade girls took second for their grade and that won the school a banner to put up in the gym.  Everyone was very excited!

I think Brittany is excited that Cross Country is over now.  She didn’t have as wonderful of a year as she would have liked, due to her foot problem, but this has helped her stay in shape for track in the spring.  I think she enjoys track better as well.

Great season Brittany!  You go girl!  🙂