The downside to having multiple kids in band? Multiple band concerts. The upside to mulitple kids in band? Psuedo date nights with the husband.
Thankfully, Tanis and Shaylyn are in two different schools now, so we don't have to take the whole family to concerts. Shaylyn watched the kids for Tanis' concert and Tanis watched the kids for Shaylyn's concert the next night.
Shaylyn's band director is a nice person, but she's fairly new and she needs a little working on making a concert run smoothly. This concert she did a little better than she has in the past, but there were still a few issues.
I was really excited about the spot we got for the concert as we saw Shaylyn up close, but during the course of the concert Shaylyn sat in about 20 different places. (Okay, it's a small exaggeration, but she was moved around almost the whole time)
With Tanis being in high school this year, I had heard many wonderful things about the band director. So all year I've been expecting a concert and all year, they haven't had one. I thought that was a bit odd, but then again, it was one less thing I had to worry about being to.
Then came Christmas time and Tanis was finally performing in a concert! I was excited because I like Christmas music and I was curious to see if this band director was all he's been talked about.
Well, the concert started and we soon discovered that Tanis' group wasn't going to performing a number themselves, instead they were mixed up with all the other groups AND the music they were playing was going to be for a sing a long.
Eric and I enjoyed a night without kids and the other band groups that performed in their little sections, were actually really good. By the time Tanis' group joined everyone else, I knew I wasn't going to be able to see my kid. I also decided that recording the music with everyone singing along would be more annyoing than insightful, so I just sang along without worrying about trying to find my kid.
I did decide I should probably get a picture or two of him to sort of recognize the night. And the tie he's wearing is a little big. When Eric's dad passed away, Eric's mom had Eric and his brother and Tanis choose some ties of Grandpa's to keep. Tanis is a lot like his grandpa and chose a lot of holiday ties. This is just one of them.
It was time for the Fall concert at the middle school and while I should probably encourage my children to support their siblings, I totally took advantage of the kids not involved in the concert.
Because Tanis is now in high school, he doesn't have concerts the same day as Shaylyn. This really was a good thing. We also had enough notice so that Eric didn't have to go into the game store. Therefore, we decided to make it a pseudo date.
We lucked out and our good friends had been watching the Percussion concert that started before the band concert and somehow they got front row seats and gave them to us as they were leaving. This gave this pregnant momma plenty of room to adjust the way she was sitting.
We got excited at first realizing we actually chose perfect seats for where Shaylyn was placed...
...Then the band director moved all the kids into a different position and Shaylyn ended up in the 2nd row, behind another girl AND the band director. We couldn't even see her with our naked eyes. So while I got a video of their songs, there is no seeing Shaylyn, unless you are super lucky!
The concert was a little long, but I tried to just enjoy the time I had to support Shaylyn and to have a 'quiet' night with Eric. That made it worth all the noise that you encounter in a band concert. The kids didn't do too shabby of a job either.
Lex decided that he wanted to be a part of the after school band program that the Jr. High band director had put together years before. It's the same thing Tanis did before he went to Jr. High.
We had an extra clarinet and after getting it in playable condition ($100+ later), he was ready to go. I was a little sad to learn that the Jr. High band director that got this thing up and going was a little too busy in his life to take on the Elementary Band for whatever reason, and had left another lady in charge. I didn't know the lady, but really liked the other band director so I was a bit worried how things would go.
Turns out she was pretty well organized and had some extra helpers helping her with each group of the band. They also kept us up to date on practices and things. Lex had to go every Tuesday and Thursday and it helped that his friend, Isaac was also doing it.
So after about 6 or so months of practice, these 5th and 6th graders were ready to show off what they'd learned. Thankfully, Tanis and Shaylyn were available to babysit so I didn't have a horrible time like I did at their concert. Lex's concert also ran much smoother. I was thankful for that.
These kids sounded pretty good considering they are only in 5th and 6th grade and most of them had probably never played their instrument before this.
Listen To The Band!!! (Yes I realize most of their songs sounds like Twinkle, Twinkle. No, I don't know why)
It was time for the year end band concert for Tanis and Shaylyn. Because the concert fell on a day when Eric was needed at the game store, and because my 2 babysitters were IN the concert, I was playing single mom.
It wasn't the best of times. Jace did not want to be there and though Nate and Ailey tried really hard to be good, the concert got a little long.
Thankfully, after Shaylyn performed - her and her friend came over to where I was sitting. Her friend just happened to have a bunch of gummy bears and that helped keep the kids quiet. It also helped that Shaylyn took Jace to the hall for a little bit.
Was she supposed to be sitting with the rest of the group? Probably. Am I mad that she didn't? Heck no! She was my hero at that point in time.
Shaylyn's group of beginning band was the first to perform and they did 2 songs. The director tried to make it a Movie Night of sorts and so each group played at least one song from a movie. Shaylyn was super excited to do Mission:Impossible.
Tanis' class played two songs, one of which was music from Pirates of the Carribean, which is one of Tanis' favorite movies and then he got to play with the more advanced band and they did a medly of songs from Star Wars.
It was one concert Eric wouldn't have minding being at, but life is what it is.
Because of my position and holding a kid, I didn't get any good photos of Shaylyn, but I got one of Tanis.
And here's the video for those of you that like hearing things:
{,,,Shaylyn is to the right of the kid with the glasses, she's not quite visible for most of it :( ...}
Before school started and when we were making elective class choices with Shaylyn she decided she wanted to join band and play the flute. (So not sure where the want for band comes in as neither Eric nor I played an instrument) So we put band down as one of her electives and sure enough she was in band.
This meant that not only would we be going to concerts for Tanis, we'd also be going to support Shaylyn. This was a bit frustrating as it also meant we get to take all the kids to concerts as our babysitters are both performers.
Thankfully the band teacher made our lives easier and instead of doing a concert in both October and December, she just did one in November. Each group played a Halloween type song and a Christmas type song.
So on the 12th we made our way over to the school. We had to stand in line for about an hour before they opened doors. This could've been a problem, but I decided to let the kids kind of play around in the lunch room area outside the auditorium. I figured they'd get all their energy out and hopefully sit better during the concert. They did okay.
And once again, I forgot to charge the camera battery, so halfway in between Shaylyn's songs I had to pull my phone out. One day I'll remember to charge the battery before hand...One day.
And someday, I'll figure out how this little guy was able to sleep through a band concert! He's got mad skills, yo!
The end of the school year and we start getting busy.
The start of our craziness began with Tanis' Spring Band Concert. He is in what his school calls Concert Band and they played 2 songs as a band and then they combined with a few of the other band groups in the school and performed the 3rd song.
Tanis loves being in band and you can see how excited he is for each concert and he can't keep his head still when he's playing.
I absolutely love going to the kids' Christmas concerts. There is something about the music of the season that really helps me feel at peace and feel happy. Tanis' Christmas concert was no exception. While it was difficult to be at a concert again (the last concert we attended was the night Eric's dad passed away), we enjoyed our time. Especially since we only had Jace with us as Shaylyn prefers babysitting to sitting at a concert.
And like a good mom, I tried to get a video of the concert. And like a horribly, unprepared person I found that my memory card was pretty much full, so I only got a little bit. Sorry, Tanis.
...This was one song I wish I had actually gotten, instead of the 30 second snippet I managed to get...
Because of the new school being built by us, Tanis has a whole new slew of teachers. This included his band teacher, which made me sad. I really liked the guy from his previous school and thought he did an excellent job. That's not saying his new teacher is horrible, I like her as a person and I think she does a good job too, it's just not the same.
Anyway, here's the video of the 2 songs Tanis played during the concert. You can't see him at all, but he's in the second row on the right, on the other side of the blonde girl...
On May 16th, Tanis had his Summer Band Concert. Their theme was A Night At The Movies and it was a much more enjoyable concert for me this time around. As in, I didn't go home with contractions this time.
I did have to laugh though, because during the 2nd time the band teacher stopped the song twice because they weren't playing it as well as he knew they could.
I was also excited because I recognized 2 of the songs they played this time. The 3rd and last song was actually written by the band teacher himself and I think it's pretty good.
Here's the video of the concert (minus the 2 tries before they got it right):
On March 19, Tanis had his Spring Band Concert. It was a pretty fun concert and it was interesting to see how much this group of kids have improved in 3 months time. We had to sit through a TON of percussion numbers first, though and my body (or little boy) didn't like it a bit and I went home with contractions.
So Tanis is sitting to the left of the girl in the blue dress. He is totally hidden by his stand. I also had to switch from the camera to my phone because we ran out of space. You can definitely tell it was of lower quality. Enjoy!!!
Back on December 13th, Tanis had his Band Christmas Concert. This year I was a bit more on top of things and gave the Grandparents a week or so's noticed before the event. This meant that both sets of Grandparents made it. I think Tanis was more excited about that fact than the concert itself.
Tanis' concert had a start time of I believe 7:00, but to be sure we got some sort of seat, we got there at 6:30, which is when Tanis had to be there anyway. Well, there was a concert already going on that had started at 6:00, so we had to wait outside of the auditorium till the 6:00 concert let out.
We immediately saw Eric's parents and stood in line with them. I kept watching and watching for my parents and just never saw them. When we were let into the auditorium a lot of parents hadn't left. I guess they had kids in more than just the first concert, so we didn't get real great seats to see Tanis. I loved the songs they did and Tanis was thrilled that they were doing 4 numbers.
When the concert was over and we were getting out of our seats, I saw my parents. They had been sitting higher up and I was worried they might've missed most of Tanis' stuff in the concert, but they said they saw it all. YAY!!
For those of you who might care, here's the video. Tanis is the kid with the Santa hat sitting behind the kid who is totally in the way...So rude. ;)
After the concert I convinced the Grandparents to stand with Tanis for a group photo. Awww.
...Told you, the kid was more excited to see all the grandparents than to actually be at the concert...
After the concert we said our goodbye's, thanked our parents for coming out all the way to our neck of the woods and headed home. Eric enjoying a burrito from Beto's that he whined to his parents to bring to him and I enjoyed a churro. Heck, if Eric was gonna get something - I was too. Besides I was upset he didn't want the dinner I had saved for him and sugar is ALWAYS good!
Well, November's not over yet and I'm updating the blog with the rest of October's happenings, I consider that a good thing. I can't believe how crazy my life's been the past little bit, but wow it's already mid-November.
So here's the rest of October.
On October 26, Lex was invited to a Halloween party. He was just going to go in his everyday, regular clothes - but I told him probably every one else would be dressed up. So we came up with a costume. This costume actually came about by Lex himself.
My mom gave each of the kids an elf type hat around Christmas time last year. Lex came walking into the room with it turned inside out and I decided that we could make him Link from The Legend of Zelda game series for Halloween. He liked the idea and this is how he left to go to his party:
I've always wanted to go to a Pumpkin Patch, but have never had the chance. Growing up my Dad would only buy 1 pumpkin and complained the whole time he had to clean and cut it out. He didn't want to spend a lot of money on pumpkins because we did have punk kids around that found it funny to smash pumpkins on the road. Therefore, we only carved the pumpkin the night before Halloween and it was only on the porch during Halloween.
I'm normally not a very good planner, so before I know it it's Halloween and I've already just bought pumpkins from the store. Towards the beginning of the month I drove past a sign for a pumpkin patch saying the prices were $0.15 per pound. I didn't realize they were so cheap. So I asked Eric if we could do a pumpkin patch this year. He reluctantly agreed.
So on October 29, for FHE we went to the pumpkin patch. I had to pack all the kids up in the car around 4:30, so that we could go pick Eric up off of Trax after work. We then went to a place where it ended up being $0.19 per pound, but I still think that wound up cheaper than the store.
The kids had so much fun searching for just the right pumpkin and I had fun watching them. When all was said and done, we had 6 pumpkins that weighed in at just over 60 lbs. and we paid like $15. I swear I pay more than that when I get them from the store.
... Guess We Should've Named Him Jack ...
The plan was to carve the pumpkins that night, but after all was said and done and we got home and had dinner, I was just too tired to worry about it. I decided we'd do it the next night after Tanis' band concert.
October 30 rolls around and I decide to carve the pumpkins when the kids get home from school. They go earlier this year and Shaylyn and Lex are home by 2:30 and Tanis by about 3:20. I figured that gave us a good 3 hours to carve pumpkins and get cleaned up before Tanis' concert. So as soon as Lex and Shaylyn walked in the door we got busy. I always find it funny that Shaylyn enjoys digging out pumpkin guts more than the boys do.
... - A Wolf for Eric and I
- Scooby-Doo for Tanis
- A Minecraft Themed Pumpkin for Shaylyn
- Link for Lex
- The Avengers for Nate
- Angry Birds for Ailey...
At 6:00, I left Shaylyn in charge of the little kids and Tanis and I headed off to his band concert. The band concert was the middle school combined the the high school bands. The concert ended up being 3 HOURS long. I was glad we left the little kids home, but felt bad that Shaylyn was with them for that long alone. Had I known, we would've done things differently. That being said, it was a nice concert and our High School Marching Band just won State, I believe - so there are some very talented kids out there. Thankfully, Tanis was on the outer ring and so we were able to see him and get his performance on video! And let's just say after realizing the concert was 3 hours and getting home after 11, I decided it was a dang good thing we carved pumpkins before!
Finally we get to HALLOWEEN! We spent the early afternoon at the dentist getting cleanings. Everyone but Ailey had an appointment. We all had quick x-rays taken and then getting the cleanings. Nate didn't want to sit in that dentist's chair for ANYTHING, even after watching Mommy. The older kids that had finished got stuffed snakes and the Hygenist tried bribing Nate with one, but that still didn't work. Then somehow, when it was discovered that everyone BUT him were getting snakes, Nate got in that chair and sat nicely and I was amazed. Shaylyn helped convince him, though I'm not positive what she said.
It was discovered that the boys had cavities that needed to be taken care of, I had a few more, Eric had one and Nate needs quite a bit of work done and will need to be sedated to get it done. Shaylyn was the only one that passed with no additional work to be done.
I was a little sad this year because we couldn't afford to buy costumes. My sister got married earlier in the month and we had to use the Halloween budget for dresses for the wedding. (Hopefully I'll post about the wedding soon) So yeah, I was kind of bummed, but our kids didn't let it get them down. They were fine with what we had to work with.
Tanis decided to do the Harry Potter thing again. Only, since we didn't have glasses this go around he/we decided that he was just some other nameless Gryffindor.
Shaylyn amazed me. She kept talking about wanting to be this character from this stupid video game called Minecraft. And the character she wanted to be was a creeper. I had no idea how she was going to pull this off and kept putting it off hoping she'd change her mind. Well, one day I went to book club and Eric told her she could work on it. I was amazed at what she had pulled off. The only thing I ended up doing for it was the spray painting. She did everything else.
Lex also wanted to be a Minecraft character, but we just didn't get his done soon enough (okay, I was lazy and didn't feel as creative as Shaylyn) and so we opted for Link, once again. He makes a dang, cute Link if I do say so myself.
Nate was just fine going for a costume his older brothers had worn. He spent the days up to Halloween changing his mind left and right, but he finally decided that Ironman was in his blood.
When I knew we couldn't afford to buy new costumes, I knew what Ailey was going to be. We bought the ladybug costume for Shaylyn when she was 2 and I loved it on her. Ailey made a cute ladybug as well, though she wanted NOTHING to do with the hood, so I tried to do her hair to look like antennae.
Shaylyn went trick or treating with her friend and I took the rest of the kids with me. Ailey was so polite and funny. She would tell everyone 'thank-you' and 'Happy Hawoeen'. After trick or treating we came home and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. Then we all went to bed and dreamed many happy thoughts of November. (Okay, I did...November is a happy month for me - perhaps one day I'll actually get to blog about that...)
Little Baby Lexi
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There are times when certain scrap kits just call to me...this was the case
when I saw Connie Prince's Baby Love. My little sister had a baby in
January, s...
