Last Song

Michael played in his last middle school symphonic band concert recently. He has really excelled at the French Horn over the last 3 years, rising from the ranks of beginning brass band to 1st chair in the highest symphonic band. Michael competed in Solo & Ensemble competitions and won a gold metal this year. Much to his teacher's dismay, Michael probably won't be playing in high school, at least not his freshman year.

The last song they play is "Call of the Champions" during which the 8th graders all get up during the last part of the song and walk to the front of the auditorium.

Tis the Season...

For crazy school nights!

Last night we spent several hours at the middle school. First Michael had a basketball game, followed an hour later with his Holiday Band concert.

Luke and Jake dressed in their basketball warm-ups too.

Michael is first chair French Horn in the Symphonic Band. I took a video of them playing but can't get it to upload right now. But the music was great & people (okay, Jake) was dancing in the aisle during their rendition of Feliz Navidad. It was a fun, festive night.

Hitting the High Notes

Michael played with a brass ensemble group last week-end in his first Band competition. As the only french horn player, he had a major part with a group of trumpets and trombones backing him up. They came away with a bronze medal. Not bad for only playing the song together a few times.

It really is fun to hear Michael practice both the french horn and piano. Much to his dismay, Michael seems to have a real gift for playing and memorizing music which means his parents have a duty to help him develop that talent, right?! :)

Great job Michael!

The Real Reason for the Take-Out Friday

In the last blog entry, I mentioned getting great Tex-Mex take-out on Friday, something we like to do when special people come to visit or for fun occasions. But I didn't mention the real reason for the splurge this week-end (besides my addictive chips & salsa habit of course). Thanks to Michael, we had good eats this week-end. This week he not only successfully defended his 1st chair French Horn status in the band placements, Michael also won 1st place in his middle school oral Spelling Bee. He will be heading off to the District Spelling Bee competition in a few weeks, being the sole representation of his middle school of almost 1400 kids.
Way to go Michael!