More Band





Here are several pictures/videos from the past few events that Kristin has done.  It includes two different games, band day at UD and a festival at Rising Sun.

 

Last weekend Kristin went to the University of Delaware with her high school band.  There were several high schools there and they all got together and practiced with the UD band in the morning and then performed with the UD band during the half time game.  Thanks to other wonderful parents that take pictures (I didn't go) I got some pictures of her.  Here she is with the UD band.  She's in the very center of the picture wearing one of the bright yellow shirts.

The band sits and plays in the stands for every quarter during football games except the 3rd quarter, they get that one off.  Kristin is in the 2nd row from the bottom, 5th person in from the right.

She's the first person to march off the field after their performance.  Well, the first person behind the drum major that is. 

Having fun in the stands with the other clarinet players.

They played in a festival in Rising Sun, MD yesterday which was basically a competition among different high schools.  Her school came in third place.

Another picture of her in the stands.

Now onto the videos.  I've taken several and I had a hard time choosing what to put on here.  I narrowed it down to these 3 because you can see her the best in them.  The marching band theme this year is Santana. 

 

 

 

 

The band seems to have a lot of fun when they're playing in the stands.  A couple times they get up and dance.  That is everyone except Kristin!

And yet another one of her not dancing.

 

She is definitely not a dancer!  Maybe by the time she's a senior she will.  That's it for pictures and videos for now.  Sorry to overload you all in one post.

Helping Mommy

The kids have had a lot of days off from school this month.  In fact they've only had one full week of school in the month of September.  They got off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but because I work in a Catholic preschool I obviously did not get off.  Where I work they allow us to bring in our kids so Zach came to work with me.  He had the option of staying home with his sisters but he chose to come with me probably because he knew he could play!  Here he is the first day he came with me, he was showing my preschool kids how to build a tower with the blocks.

He loves the blocks and loves building with them but he also likes to crash them down which is NOT what we want our preschool kids to do.  Mainly because it gets too loud in the room and we don't want any of the kids to get hurt with flying blocks.  So I told him to make roads with the blocks instead so he showed the boys how to do that.

He came with me on a Wednesday and on Wednesday's the kids have both music and gym classes.  I went to gym with the preschool kids and Zach came with me for that one but during music class I stayed behind and got some work done.  I put Zach to work sweeping the floor!

Of course that lasted long enough for me to take the picture!  He won't have another opportunity to come into work with me until November.  He has a day off for Columbus Day weekend but so do I and then I actually have another day off but the kids don't.  I can't wait for that one, that hardly ever happens.

Kristin's Updated Room

Kristin's room got a much needed paint job yesterday.  She had pink walls before like this:

And now they're a lovely sea foam green like this:

It doesn't quite match her comforter and curtains but that's okay.  We'll make it work somehow.  If not she might be getting all new bedding.  :)

Mentos and Coke Experiment



On our summer bucket list was to do the Mentos and Coke guiser experiment.  So on the last official day of summer Paul set it up in the backyard with Zach's help.

With the countdown on here's what happened:

Yeah, not too exciting.  We actually did it twice and now we can officially cross it off our summer bucket list.  We got a lot done on our list and whatever we didn't get to will get put on next year's summer bucket list.  I'll have to update you on what we accomplished later, when I get more time. 

Apple Tasting

Zach brought home from school a monthly list of optional activities for the month of September and one of the activities was to taste test different apples.  So I went to the store and bought 4 different kinds:  Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Fuji and Pink Lady.



I took it one step further and instead of just Zach taste testing we asked Paul, Megan and Lauren to taste test also.  The Fuji and Pink Lady tied for the best and the worst tasting was the Red Delicious.  I wish the Honey Crisp apple had been out when I went shopping because I heard it was really good.  Maybe we'll do another apple taste test before Zach takes his paper back and include that one. 

Band

Kristin had her first marching band experience last night.  We weren't sure she was going to march or not since her shoes that we ordered through the band department hadn't come in yet and the band director has a rule that if you don't have the shoes then you don't march.  Good thing I ordered them through her band director!  It wouldn't have been my fault if they hadn't come in.  But fortunately they did so she was able to march. 

When Paul and I arrived the band was already sitting in the stands.  Kristin is bottom left in this picture.

 I should have cropped this one for you but you can sort of see her near the middle of the picture.

 During the first half the band played music in the stands.  Kristin doesn't quite know all the music yet because that's a lot to memorize when you're a freshman!  At halftime they performed 3 songs (will eventually do 4).  Yet again, it all needs to be memorized.  Here's my girl as she marched on the field.  I love the hat!

 They had the 3rd quarter off to go do what they wanted to do so Kristin stopped by and Paul snapped this picture with his phone. 

 It was a hot night and she was a big sweaty mess in that uniform.  Paul gave her money to go buy a water bottle at the snack bar.

Then for the 4th quarter they had to be back to play again in the stands.

I was going to take some video of her while she was marching but my cameras display wouldn't light up and at the moment I had no idea why.  I didn't want to fool with it and miss the whole thing so I figured I would video her another time.  It's not like they don't do the same performance for every single game!  I was kind of excited to start camera shopping but when I got home it turns out that one of the buttons must have accidentally been pressed, the one that turns off the display.  So no camera shopping for me (well, maybe I will anyway :)   These pictures (except for the one Paul took) are ones that other parents took and then put up on the band website.  Thank goodness there are nice parents that have nice cameras or this blog post wouldn't have happened.

Pool Fun over Labor Day Weekend

I haven't posted many pool pics this summer so I wanted to at least post one of all the kids.  They rarely are ever at the pool at the same time because one will be at a friend's house or Lauren has to work.  So for the first time in a long time the kids and I (Paul was at a softball tournament) got a little pool time together.  

Don't they make a cute bunch?  So grown-up looking.

 

Here they are from August of 2009.  Zach wasn't as cooperative then!



Actually, he's still not!  I was surprised he was so willing to get this years picture taken.

Longwood Gardens

I was coming down to the wire with using my Brandywine Treasure Trail pass at Longwood Gardens.  The pass is up on September 3rd and the only thing left that I really wanted to do on it was to visit Longwood Gardens.  I wanted to see their Light exhibit and it's best viewed at night so we couldn't go on a school night.  Last night finally worked for all of us (except Lauren but she didn't want to go anyway) so we left the house around 6:30 and headed to Longwood.  We had about an hour before it got dark so we headed to the conservatory.  We got to see the lily pads:

 By the time we finished touring the conservatory the inside lights were coming on, here's Snowballs:

It looked much better in person because there were more of them and they were synchronized to change colors. 

After leaving the conservatory it was dusk out and I was ready to move on to see the different light exhibits set-up outside.  The kids had a different plan though and wanted to run along the grass "steps" for 15 minutes.  Whatever, I think all that did was wear Zach out for later.  So we finally move along and visit the Forest of Light.  We didn't do the whole forest walk but what we did see was gorgeous. 

 Water Towers was the next light attraction we saw which was situated way out in a field. 

 It had 69 structures that were made from 1-liter plastic bottles that changed colors.  It was probably prettier from a distance as we were walking to it than when we were close-up.  My picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see all the pretty colors.

We saw a couple of the other light exhibits but by this time Zach and Megan were both whining to go home.  I really wish that we had left the kids at home and just Paul and I went.  It would have been much more enjoyable!

I was able to pull off one last picture of the 3 of them at the entrance. 

And that conluded our evening out and the start to our Labor Day weekend since no one had school or work today.

1st Day of School

The kids started school on different days.  Kristin and Zachary started on Monday.

Megan and Lauren started school on Tuesday.

All elementary school plus 6th and 9th grade went on Monday and since Kristin was starting 9th grade she started before the other girls.  One advantage was that the 9th graders had the school to themselves to figure out where their classes were before the rest of the high school started.  Good thing too because it is a confusing high school!

They all seemed to have a good first day and even a good first week.  Here's hoping they have a good year!

Winterthur

The girls and I took a trip to Winterthur yesterday since Lauren wanted to go and I still had that Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport so we could get in for free.  We took a tram tour first and then when that was over we headed straight for the enchanted woods so we could explore that before it began raining.   

We went through all the displays inside and I actually got to enjoy them this time since Zach wasn't with us!  You can't stop to read anything with him along. 

Strasburg

I've always wanted to go ride the Strasburg Railroad with Zach and even put "train ride" on our summer bucket list so that maybe this summer we would.  Though it came late in the summer we finally accomplished it.  We didn't want our family fun from Hersheypark to end on Wednesday so Thursday we spent yet another day together, this time at Strasburg.  We just bought coach seats this time but Paul was eyeing the dining car so maybe someday we'll try that.  

The seat backs switch positions and Zach figured that out while we were waiting to go back. 

We had to wait until another train passed us.  The trains were running every half an hour.

Here's what the girls were doing during our stops, playing on their phones.

Right before we arrived back at the station I had all 4 of them pose for me.

And then again outside of the train once we got off.

We had purchased combo tickets which let us go into the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania also which was right across the street.  Inside there were several different trains that you could look at.

The wheels on the trains are a lot bigger than Zachary!  He didn't seem too impressed though.

This was part of a railroad which was very heavy, 75 pounds maybe?  Zach tried to lift it and couldn't.

Paul could do it though.

Some of the trains we were able to go inside. 

This was a cab simulator that lets you "drive" the train to the station.  You're given 6 minutes and basically you just follow the prompts on the screen. 

Some trains are powered by coal.  All the kids took turns shoveling the pretend coal even though this area was geared to little kids.

Oops!  Lauren thinks Zach is coal and is about to put him in the furnace of one of the trains. 

It was a nice day but I thought Zach would have taken more of an interest in the trains and he didn't.  His comment about the day was that it was "boring."  He really did like the train ride though and parts of the museum, the parts where you could push a button and make the miniature trains run.  Oh well, at least now I know not to invest in any trains for him!  Now if we had taken him to a racetrack to see race cars, that would have been a different story.

On a Funnier Note...

I did a double take when I passed by the downstairs bathroom today.  Zach has a set of sign cards and he had taped this one to the outside of the bathroom!

It says, "Poison!"  Now that's too funny!

So Frustrating!

Disclaimer:  This is long and confusing.  If you proceed to read this do so at your own risk.

I absolutely HATE my kids school district transportation department right now and I just need to vent.  The bus schedules are usually mailed out a week before school starts but this year I never received them.  So yesterday I call to find out their bus numbers and most importantly what times they need to be at the bus stop.  I ask about Zach first and they tell me that he's not even being picked up in our neighborhood, that he's being picked up at a daycare.  Really???  I told them that was impossible because, get this, he doesn't even go to daycare!  They ask, "Are you sure you didn't fill out a daycare form?"  Um...yeah...pretty sure I didn't since HE DOESN'T EVEN GO TO DAYCARE."  So they tell me that I have to call his school and get them to change it in the system since they can't do anything, all their information comes from the schools.  Okay, makes sense though I still have no idea how the mix up happened.  I call the school and they make the change in the system but by this time the transportation department has closed and I have to wait until today to call. 

So I call them this morning and their computers are down and they ask if I can call back after lunch.  No problem with that because I think the problem has been taken care of and all I really want at this point is the bus stop times.  Silly me, what was I thinking?  I wait till 1:00 and call and to my surprise they still have his bus stop at the daycare.  They tell me to call his elementary school again and to ask for a bus pass so he can ride the bus in our neighborhood.  I call the school and guess what?  I know you know what's coming, they can't issue a bus pass because their system is down too!  This was after I got yelled at for not submitting a daycare form, the secretary obviously didn't hear or understand what I was saying.  When she finally understood she did a little investigative work and said that Zach's information was correct on their end of things but that maybe the transportation dept. mixed Zach up with another kid with the same last name that was going to that daycare.  Whew!  Did you get all of that?  So Zach's school can't do anything for me and they tell me to call back and ask them if they looked at the right name.  She even gave me the other kids name.  She also said that the schools are not allowed to call the transportation department. 

At this point the transportation department is experiencing a high volume of calls and now there is a message that plays when you call their number.  Well they wouldn't be swamped with calls if they had just mailed out the stupid bus information a week ago like they've always done!  Who the hell waits till the weekend before to mail out vital information.  That's just plain stupid but anyways, back to the whole Zach mix up thing.  A different person answers this time and listens to my story, puts me on hold for 10 minutes and then comes back on the line to say that she will investigate it and call me back.  I wasn't holding my breath for that call back so I give her over an hour before calling yet again, my 4th time today.  I get a hold of Jim, the guy I've talked to all the other times I've called.  As I reiterate my story he interrupts and says that he remembers me.  Well he should with as many times that I've called.  He then proceeds to tell me that their system receives new information once each day and that since it's been down they can't access any changes that have been made.  Well I wish he would have told me that the first time I called today!  He then suggested that I just drive Zach to school Monday morning and get a bus pass for him to ride the bus home in the afternoon because by then the computer system should be up and running.  Nothing else they can do for me at this point. Let's just say I was not a happy camper with that answer and said that transporting my child to school was there issue, not mine since I pay my school taxes to get that transportation.  I also told him that if they had mailed the bus information a week ahead of time like they have always done in the past (and I told him that I had a senior this year and have been doing this for years) then I would have had this whole week to sort this out instead of trying to do it in a matter of hours.  He gave a lame excuse to explain the lateness of the bus schedules and basically reiterated the fact that because their system was down that they couldn't do anything.   

I literally felt like crying at this point because no one wanted to fix this problem.  The transportation department blamed the school and the school blamed the transportation department.  And they both blamed that fact that the system was down.  Meanwhile, poor Zach has to walk to school!  (Yes, I'm being dramatic but it was a pretty dramatic day.)  I called Zach's elementary school one last time to tell them that in no way, shape or form he was to be put on a bus to go home on Monday and that I would be coming in with a note saying that. If they can't get him to school why the heck should I trust them to bring him home? 

I made one final ditch effort sheerly out of frustration.  I looked at my kids school district website and sent them a very irate email about the situation.  I never expected to get a reply but lo and behold an hour later I get a reply from the manager of communications/public information officer.  She apologized to me and then proceeded to inform me that "the computer server that houses the Transportation Department information was part of a statewide internet outage by Verizon. "   It is supposed to be fixed tonight.  She then wanted me to contact the transportation department again so they could help me (yeah right!) but that if I had any problems or needed additional information to contact her.  Her number was at the bottom of the email and I wasted no time in dialing that number!  Her secretary answered and even though she was very nice, probably the nicest person I've talked to today, she really couldn't do anything either due to the computer glitch.  She did however tell me that due to all the issues they were having that the transportation department was going to be open tomorrow and that hopefully everything will be resolved then. 

So...now I have the teeniest tiniest bit of hope that when the servers come back up tomorrow that the new information will be at the transportation department.  Unfortunately I have to make yet another call to them tomorrow!  The secretary asked me if I knew the number and I told her that I have it memorized since I've called it so many times!  I honestly really don't care whether I have to drive Zach to school Monday morning or not.  What I care about is that no one wanted to help me fix this problem.  If they had genuinely cared or even at least acted like they cared then I wouldn't be nearly this upset.  It was basically like, well our servers are down so your out of luck, sorry! 

Anyway, if you made it this far I'm impressed!  Rant over.  I'll update and let you know what happens.

UPDATE:  I called this morning (Saturday) and was told that he is now on our neighborhood bus!  I still don't know why they had to make that so hard and why no one wanted to do anything.  That was the reason I was so angry.  The fact that there was no protocol in place in case something like this happens.  They were perfectly content with letting a 6-year-old not have a bus rather than try to figure some way to switch his schedule.  The "I-don't-care" attitude is what got me.

Hersheypark

This is the latest in the summer that we've ever gone to Hersheypark but we finally found a day that worked for all 6 of us.  That day was yesterday.  Once we got there Paul and the girls went straight to the new ride, Sky Rush, and got in line.  While they had their hour wait Zach and I fed the ducks and rode some kiddie rides.  It's hard to see him but here he is on the Convoy

I can't wait till he outgrows those kind of rides!  They were cute when he was little but not when he's 6.  This year he was still only a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup but hopefully next year he'll grow enough to be a Hershey Chocolate Bar.  That will really open up a variety of rides for him then. 

Zach and I got back in time to see them finish their ride on Sky Rush.  Paul and Kristin are the one ones with their hands up.  Megan and Lauren were in the same row but you can't see them. 

They literally did that one ride and then we went back to the car for a lunch break.  As always we bring lunch with us and sit under the stadium where there are picnic tables.  It's a nice break to the day plus it's a lot cheaper!

We always visit Chocolate World after lunch so we can get our free chocolate for our dessert.  Of course we had to pose by the sign.

We are really a strange family!  They take a picture on the ride and we know that so this year we all agreed ahead of time to make "the face."  I started laughing and so did Kristin.  Everyone else did it good though.  I can't believe that I actually paid for this picture?

Here's another example of "the face."  It comes automatic to us now!  It's pretty sad.

At least these two look normal!

Which brings me to mention that I actually got to ride with Paul for the first time in years, probably since before the kids were born!  Usually we're each stuck with one of them.  :)  We even got to ride on the Sooperdooperlooper together too.  Wow, two rides in one day, that's impressive!

For about an hour in the afternoon a monsoon arrived so we bought some french fries and dashed into a local food place to wait it out.  We were amazed at how heavy the rain was.  Because of that all the rides shut down and had to wait 30 minutes (there was thunder and lightning in the area) before resuming.  So we got ice cream!

Afterwards the rides started operating again and the girls and Paul went on different roller coasters while Zach and I played games.  He surprised me when he played Skee Ball by getting 3 balls in a row in the 50 point hole.  That game won him 2 tickets but he needed 12 tickets to get the smallest prize.  Needless to say we stopped after 3 games because he still only had 2 tickets. 

I forgot to mention that I did get to ride Sky Rush because surprisingly the line was really short when we came back after lunch.  After riding it I know why the line was so short because no one wanted to do it twice!  There is only a restraint that comes down across your legs and boy do they push that thing down tight!  Then during the ride you're pulled into that bar and your legs hurt!  It would be a really cool ride if it wasn't for that. 

Other than the hour of rain we had it was a pretty decent day.  Glad we finally were able to coordinate our schedules for it.