Summer's knee problems and subsequent surgery essentially ended her 10-year stint in dance classes. She felt a little sad about giving it up, but said she was ready to move on to something different. At my suggestion she picked up my old clarinet, took a few private lessons, and jumped into marching band late this summer! After 6 weeks of lessons, it was time for band camp at the high school. She was so glad her former dance buddy also quit dance and joined the band as a flutist. It's not quite as scary to start something new when your buddy is there!
This photo was taken on the last day of band camp. The kids learned (memorized!) 3 songs with field choreography and performed 2 of them for the parents that afternoon. We were so impressed! Summer is on the left in the black tee-shirt and navy shorts. After two days of playing a new instrument and marching nonstop on a sore knee, Summer was close to giving up. She stuck with it, though, and has had a wonderful season. In fact, she won "The Most Improved Rookie" award!
This photo is from one of the home football games. (Yep, the band is a small one.)
At the beginning of November, the band competed in Auburn. I rode along with the parents of Summer's friend. What a blast! Ever since I was a child, I loved marching bands. In fact, our city used to host a drum and bugle corp competition every Independence Day. How I looked forward to them each year! The competition in Auburn was thrilling. (It was freezing cold, but I hear it's the first time it hasn't rained in MANY years.) It made for a really late night getting back home, but it was totally worth it.
This is as close of a close-up as I could get with my Blackberry from way up in the stands. Then I cropped it in tight using Photoshop. Summer is in the middle of the trio. Sometime after I took this photo, the plume fell out of Summer's hat. She was DEVASTATED! I could see the look on her face, and it looked like she was going to cry. That's the 2nd time it has happened, but it's a bigger deal when you're in competition. Fortunately, no points are taken off unless a band member stops to pick up the plume. A judge grabbed it, and that was that.
It was so interesting to watch each performance! There were themes such as Elvis, Avatar, Tron, Wizard of Oz, Dia de los Muertos, outer space and Nutcracker. There were most certainly costumes involved, and plenty of props. At this time, our band is pretty small. There's no color guard (people twirling flags), and there were no props. They chose to focus on perfecting their choreography and music, and they were wonderful. The percussion won the best percussion award in our division. The kids were all VERY proud.
I like that Summer has found something fun she likes to do in place of dance. She has made wonderful friends, and she loves the sense of accomplishment that comes with working hard together. Jay is feeling inspired by the drums. He started basic snare drum lessons this month. If he enjoys it and sticks with it, just maybe he'll be in band as a freshman when Summer is a senior...
