Friday equaled Band Festival day for Katherine's concert band. They'd prepared three songs and skipped out of school around lunch time to Stonewall Middle School where they joined about two dozen other middle school bands. Each band was scored on their performance and then a sight reading piece. Pieces were graded I to IV, I the easiest and IV most difficult. The judges' scores were opposite, a score of 1 highest and 2, 3, 4 successively less. Saunders had a march (each group did), a grade II piece and a grade III piece.
My mom came down for the day, Ian was fobbing, so we piled into the car for the 45 minute drive to Stonewall and arrived just in time for Saunders' performance. The pieces were done within 15 minutes, and on the last one Katherine (currently in the flute 3rd chair) played a small section with just her and the first chair. Makes a mom proud to see that the practice and effort pays off.
They scored a 2, and will get to go on their band field trip to Busch Gardens.
This morning, I packed the boys off to their school for a chess tournament. It was a non-elimination tournament, four rounds, a point per win, half point per draw, and 2.5 points earned a medal or trophy or something. Jonathon drew his first game, won the second and lost the last two. Nicholas lost the first three and won the last one. It reminded me of swim meets: parents brought beach chairs and tables, DSs aplenty, snacks and drinks, games, laptops and chess sets. There was plenty of junk food to buy, and between rounds the kids wandered around bored and hungry. From 9 a.m. to nearly 2 p.m. (roughly an hour of actual playing time in there) we sat in the converted cafeteria while the gym next door was chess center.
Jonathon's primary group (gr K-3) was the largest, then the elementary group (gr 4&5) and the MS&HS group. The Hopper boys didn't get any awards, but I do think that those small tastes of victory will encourage them to join the chess club next year at school. I tried, I tried hard, last fall to get the boys interested in chess club but they simply said No. This coming fall, no ifs, ands or buts.
Tomorrow we listen to my mom sing a Bluegrass Mass with the Messiah choral group she sings with, so another fun day. My crocuses are blooming and the rest of my patches are full of green stuff waiting for a string of sunny days to burst into color.
Hope you're having a good weekend too.
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