School

Tonight Sarah and the other members of the Inaugural Metea Valley Marching Mustangs marching band were honored with a banquet at the school.  We had a great dinner of pasta and Italian beef as well as desserts.  I guess it was a nice date for us considering it’s our Engagement Anniversary today!  🙂

We watched a video montage of the marching season and the directors gave some great praises to the band members.  The kids reflected on the year some through skits and funny experiences (you really had to be there for them… we had no idea what they were talking about).  🙂  Sarah was honored as a marching leader with a leadership certificate as well.

It was a GREAT season for them all and they really accomplished a LOT, considering the fact that a large portion of the band are freshmen and the rest are sophomores.  They are great now, but just think what they will be like when they are seniors and juniors and they have all 4 grades attending.  As part of the program, they also called up all the students individually, congratulated them, and gave them a 5×7 picture of the band (below).  It’s funny to see how the entire marching band can fit in the hallway at the school!  🙂

Sarah is on the front row first flute on the right.  We are so proud of Sarah and her accomplishments!  She has been a great leader (reaffirmed by her band directors) and has really grown in this area at school.  Keep up the GREAT work, Sarah!

Today was a VERY busy day!  Brittany had a cross country meet after school today at Waubonsie High School.  It was for all of the middle schools in the district.  It was very cold (down into the low 40s), but she had her best meet so far this year!  She came in 17th of about 50-60 8th grade girls.  Maybe she runs better when it’s cold outside!  She received a ribbon for her efforts!  🙂  Angela, Kirstyn, and Benjamin went to see her run and cheered her on as she ran in the cold!  🙂  Overall, Still Middle School did GREAT!  The 7th graders, as usual, took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  For the 8th graders, Brittany’s friend came in 2nd.

While Brittany was running, Zachary and I went to support Sarah in her final marching band performance at the high school.  Zach and I had layers of jackets and blankets to keep us warm, and we enjoyed the pre-game and halftime shows!  The football team won also which made it great as well!  The starting Quarterback and Sarah’s friend from Seminary got hurt pretty bad during the 3rd quarter and had to come out so that was bad, but overall things went well.  The band sounded GREAT!  They were sad afterward that they were finished and some were in tears.  They have become quite the tight-knit group over the past couple of months!

Great job girls!  You guys are the best!

Brittany had a good run today in the Aurora “City of Lights” tournament with multiple school districts participating.  They ran all the 7th and 8th grade girls together.  Still Middle School’s 7th grade girls took 1st, 2nd, and 4th overall and beat everyone by a huge margin.  Brittany came in 57th of 230 runners.  She felt much better than she did yesterday during her meet where she was sick to her stomach before even running.

Brittany with some of her cross country teammates/friends.

Sarah is very glad to be done with her day today!  They had a tough debate today in English where they had to argue whether or not Huck Finn by Mark Twain should be banned from schools or not.  She was assigned to be an attorney to argue that the book should be banned.  The judges there were a couple members of the community, a member of the school board, and the principal from Neuqua High School.  Unfortunately, their side lost (as did all the debates arguing against Huck Finn).  It was a tough argument, but they had a good time doing it.

Sarah also auditioned today for IMEA (Illinois Music Educator’s Association) participation.  She said she played her flute selections pretty well and so now we just wait and see if she made it.  It’s a VERY tough competition.  Brittany made it as a member of Honors Chorus, but unfortunately, she didn’t make it with her violin.  Maybe next year.  The main reason they audition is for experience.

Today the high school had it’s official dedication ceremony.  I went with Sarah, Kirstyn, and Zachary.  They left the decorations up from the dance last night and that added a nice touch!  The gym was filled and the program was very nice.  The auditorium is not quite finished yet so the gym had to do.  They had musical selections and remarks from many community and district leaders such as the Mayor of Aurora, the School Board President, the District Superintendent, and the Architects of the school.  The principal did a wonderful job conducting and presiding at the ceremony.  We knew all three groups that accepted the building on behalf of the PTSA, the Music Boosters, and the Athletic Boosters!

Principal Jim Schmid at the Metea Valley High School Dedication Ceremony.

After the ceremony, we had cookies and punch and then Sarah gave Kirstyn and Zachary a tour.  They went and saw all her classes and we had some great conversations with some of the teachers and parents we knew that were there.

We are VERY excited to be a part of this new high school opening.  Despite all of Sarah’s initial concerns, she is extremely excited to be a part of the Metea Valley High School Mustang community and loves going to school there!

We finally got the Still Middle School Cross Country Team picture and here it is!

The team is much smaller than it was last year due to the fact that Still was split into two middle schools with the high school and boundary changes.  Many of her friends from last year are now at the new middle school.  The 8th grade boys team this year only has 1 runner!  😐

Tonight Sarah was inducted into the Tri-M Music Honor Society at Metea Valley High School. The Tri-M Music Honor Society is the international music honor society for middle/junior high and high school students. It is designed to recognize students for their academic and musical achievements, reward them for their accomplishments and service activities, and to inspire other students to excel at music and leadership. Through more than 5,500 chartered chapters, Tri-M has helped thousands of young people provide years of service through music in schools throughout the world.

What a wonderful opportunity Sarah was given to be recognized in this society and to have the ability to serve others through membership.  She is loving both band class and marching band this year and loves being a marching leader.  It’s great to be at the football games when they announce her name as a marching leader to everyone there!  🙂

Tonight was a great night for Sarah and the Metea Valley Marching Mustangs!  It was 8th Grade Night, and so all the 8th grade students from the middle schools that go to Metea came and rehearsed with the high school band.  Sarah got to be in charge of some additional people and show the 8th graders how it’s done.  She did a GREAT job!

They performed their pre-game show with the 8th graders wonderfully and were very crisp and clean as usual for their halftime show.  They looked very sharp!  We love the new uniforms.

The whole family was there to support her.  Ben clapped as they were playing and tried to wave to Sarah who of course didn’t see him because he is so little.  The crowd was really large and almost filled the stadium.  Not bad for a school with only Freshmen and Sophomores in it – the football game attendance didn’t hurt either!  🙂

The football game wasn’t bad either!  They played Larkin and beat them 43-8!  The team played great!  I was taking the kids home a little early  (Kirstyn, Zach, and Ben) while Angela and Brittany were helping out the band, but Zach didn’t want go until he got to give a high-five to his seminary carpool buddy, Jarrett House (Team Captain and QB).  Zach found him after the game and got his wish!  It was very cute to see the little guy with this big padded-up football player.  Jarrett was excited to see him too!

Today Brittany had another Cross Country meet!  She was feeling much better than she did on Tuesday and performed much better as well.  She raced hard and passed 3 runners at the end.  She was very excited!  With hard work, she will continue to get better and better as the season progresses.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go see her run, but Angela was there routing her on.  They got a late start and didn’t start running until about 5:30.  At 5:45, Brittany had to go to her IMEA music practice with her violin, so she finished running and then booked on over to that.  They were late, but the directors understood why when they showed up in their cross country uniforms!  🙂

Tonight we also had Metea Valley High School’s first Curriculum Night.  Angela and I were able to go over there (Kirstyn babysat for the first hour until Brittany came home), and go through Sarah’s school day, meet the teachers, and hear about her classes she’s in.  Every time we do this, it makes us want to be back in school just to have fun and learn!  🙂 For the most part, we are very impressed with the faculty at the school.  They are very dedicated to making the school a success and they seem to genuinely love the kids.

As part of the Student Council at Metea, Sarah volunteered to help out at Curriculum Night.  Her responsibility at first was to help Freshman parents with student schedules, and then to help and show people where they needed to go.  It was great to see her doing this!  She’s going to have lots of opportunities like this.