Wednesday, November 18, 2009

EJ's very first band performance!

Tonight was the first performance of the middle school's 5th grade band! The kids did a great job. It's amazing how much they have learned in just 6-7 weeks. So, here's a little video that shows some of the exercises they performed tonight. Unfortunately, I screwed up the video for the latter half of the concert and missed all of the songs! Have the audio, not the video. So, you are missing some rousing arrangements of Hot Cross Buns and Mary Had a Little Lamb/Merrily We Roll Along. Oh well.


Notice that the band director, Mr. R, directs from a laptop! How cool is that? They use a tool called smartmusic.com, which provides accompaniment for the arrangements. He told us about the program, so I might have to look into a subscription to it!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A very early visit to Santa.

We had a busy at-home day today. Hurricane Ida's remnants are making their way through the area and there was a LOT of rain. I got the laundry done, designed the Christmas cards so I can order them tomorrow, and cleaned up the third floor since we have a houseful of guests coming for Thanksgiving. We decided to go out for a quick dinner and then maybe stop by the mall to see Santa, who arrived this week.

We went to Chili's for dinner. We got there just at the start of the dinner rush. Sophie was perfectly calm when we got there, but as the meal went on, she just got crazier and goofier. Perhaps she knew how exciting a visit to Santa was going to be. It was at the point where I was laughing uncontrollably watching her. She simply couldn't sit still. I think her chocolate milk was spiked with a little eggnog!

We got to the mall and were surprised to see NO LINE for Santa! Sophie walked right in and hopped up on his lap. EJ was checking out Santa's bag of toys next to him...there was a Wii box right on top. He told me that he was trying to find a place for it, and EJ offered to take it home with her tonight! Sophie told him that she was a good girl and that she wanted a toy pony.

We did plan ahead for the photo. The girls wore their Santa shirts - Sophie's says "Santa's Favorite" and EJ's says "I love Santa". EJ's didn't show up well in the photo since the letters are in silver. We will be seeing Santa again at the annual mother's club breakfast with him in a few weeks.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Girls Night Out

EJ and I had a GNO last night. Yes, on a SCHOOL NIGHT!!! Way back, about five months ago, I purchased two tickets to the Miley Cyrus concert. And last night, the long-awaited date had finally arrived. These photos are actually in reverse order, thanks to the non-intuitive order in which Blogger uploads things. Or that you can only upload five photos at a time. Anyway...here's the rundown to the show, from encore to opening act!

Miley did one encore and closed with The Climb:


This was the other song from the encore, I Can't Wait to See You Again:





At one point, she did a cover of Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll and she climbed on a Harley that soared through the sky.


She came pretty close to us!


She and one of her dancers got into a terrible fit of giggles at one point and she couldn't even talk!

EJ had a great time singing along!



Miley's fashion choices are "interesting".


For Fly on the Wall, she and the dancers rode onto the stage on a giant bug:


Yes, I even liked the bridal-style dress with the pink tube socks and boots over this little number:



Miley's brother's band, Metro Station, opened the night. Her brother has the look of a serious hard-core rocker. He jumped. He swung the guitar around his neck about 100 times in the 6-7 songs they performed. He only had to say one of two things ("BOSTON!!!" or "MILEY!!") to get the girls screaming. Too bad he couldn't sing to save his life. Awful, I tell you. He even said that "a lot" of people didn't want them to be the opening act on this tour, but "my sister believes in me". I think she'd better start listening to the music people who know what they're talking about. He was that bad. The lead guitarist for Metro Station is Mitchell Musso's (also on Hannah Montana) older brother, and he was actually a good singer. Miley's brother just needs to play guitar and jump around.


We had pretty good seats--on the right of the stage, about 1/3 of the way back from the stage and 11 rows up. The edge of the catwalk was probably 50 feet away.


EJ at Fanieul Hall for dinner before the show!