Marching Band

This is the video Allen took of Plymouth's marching band at the invitationals last Saturday at Concord High School in Elkhart. This is a much better video than the one I took in the wind and rain. This is the whole performance. It is a little long, about eleven minutes. You don't see much of the color guard girls in the beginning because Allen is zoomed in on the Cello player, but they are carrying white flags with pictures of real soldiers that died in the Vietnam War. The flags also have the year the soldiers were born and year they died listed on them. The names that you hear being read are also names of real soldiers that died during the war. Watch for the fight scene that the band does during the 3rd song right at the beginning. It is really quick, but neat. The screen is so small, but you might be able to see that during the second song the band forms a couple of crosses too.
Allen didn't zoom in on Greg at any time during the performance, which made Greg very happy. Just know that he is somewhere on the far left side marching! :-)
Oh, you will also want to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and pause the music player that I have playing before you start the video.

Colts vs Bears

Today was wear your favorite jersey to school day. We, of course, are Colts fans. Libby and her family are Bears fans. Yet through it all, they remain best friends! And to think we let her eat dinner at our table tonight with that jersey on!!!! It could be worse though, she could be a Patriots fan!

Do you think McDonalds would pay us for this advertisement?

Coal just absolutely LOVES french fries. He will do anything to get one. Greg had left his french fry container on the table with a few french fries left in it. Coal was having a fit trying to get to them! You will notice that I do what all mothers do and called him by the other dog's (child's) name first!!!

Sooooo.......

What can keep two best friends so still and so quiet that they can sit beside each other for 45 minutes and not say a word to each other? Not a whisper or so much as a single giggle? Why, I didn't even know they were in the kitchen!

It's called a playaway. It is a preloaded digital audio book. All you have to do is plug in a set of earphones and listen!

Sarah and Libby fully engrossed in the story

This is the back of the player. It is about the size of an ipod.

Front view of the player.

Sarah checked this one out at our public library Tuesday night. This thing is awesome!! Her teacher allows them in her classroom, but you have to have the book with you and be following along with the narrator.

Nate's update

Nathan did not have a fever this morning so went to meeting. I have no idea what that was all about. One day of running a fever and nothing else. Oh well. He had a soccer game today at 2pm over in Goshen. Him and Allen went alone. It has been raining all day here and the other two did not want to go (imagine that!), so I stayed home with them. They lost again. :-(
The score was 1-0. It rained the whole game. Nate said it was raining so hard at times that he could hardly see! But they won't call a game unless there is lightening! He and Allen came home just soaked. Allen actually pored water out of his shoes!

PHS Band

Here you go everyone...the first video of Greg performing at an invitational. It was an awful day for an outside performance. As you will be able to tell when viewing the video, it was very windy and it was raining! I need to apologize for the video taking...I was holding an umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other. (Didn't have any help because Nathan was running a fever so Allen stayed home with him and Sarah) I was standing on the top bleacher so I could see over all the other umbrellas. It was very windy and I had a hard time keeping the camera steady with just one hand. In the future, I will take a tripod and will also not pan back and forth trying to get everyone!

This first video is their intro.

This second video is of their 2nd song. I didn't download the whole performance. I zoomed in on Greg at one point and he didn't like that. He said you are suppose to be looking at the band as a whole and not at individuals. Whatever! I had to get a close up of him at least once! But I promised I wouldn't blog it!

You will notice at the end of this video that my umbrella actually flips up from the wind and falls in front of my camera. Again, I apologize for the messy video!

Band hallway

I took a few pictures of the hallway that we decorated last night. The name of the program this year is "Impressions in granite...heroes fallen but not forgotten". We hung two banners in the hall, one at each end with this saying on them. What took the longest was tying the fishing line onto all the balloons and stars that we hung from the ceiling! The kids really liked it though when they saw it this morning. The pictures didn't turn out so great because they only had a few lights on in the hallway. Needed a janitor to turn on the rest with a key! Oh well, you get the idea anyway. Looks like it will be raining all day which means they will be performing inside today. They won't be able to use all their props and won't be able to march that much so it will be a bummer for the kids. Their props include a replica of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Also the shirts that they wear under their uniforms look just like the picture that they have on their lockers. (see pic below of Greg's locker)

Pretty Boys

Coal and Copper both went in for a bath and trim today. They looked so nice when Allen brought them home. I tried taking some pictures of them...Copper does real well with posing. Coal on the other hand could think of only one thing and that was getting the bandanna off from around his neck! He so hates those things and will not rest until he gets them off! Copper posing so nice for his picture...looking sharp in that new fall theme bandanna!

Nathan had to hold onto Coal just so that I could try and get a picture of him in his bandanna. Notice Copper waiting patiently for the whole thing to be over.

The bandanna is flipped up in front, not a very good picture at all. Coal was getting very angry (as you can see in this picture), so decided to let him have his way and remove the bandanna.

Here he is chewing up the bandanna, he's happy now!

The two together. Copper still looking very sharp....Coal not so sharp but very happy to not be wearing the bandanna!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Greg turned 15 today!

We had union meeting at Bill and Bev's and then went over to Melanie's for a combined effort on dinner. Melanie was kind enough to offer to have the dinner at her house since we had such a full weekend with Greg marching at the football game Friday night and then Nathan's soccer game on Saturday.
We had Kevin in our meeting this morning since he is with his mom visiting before he goes back to Texas. Was an extra special privilege!! They (Kevin, Grace and Bob) stayed for dinner. My parents also came over for Greg's birthday and were in our meeting this morning.

Greg's cake (what he asks for every year...DQ cake!)

Works for me!!

Is that maybe a start of a smile? Why is it so hard for a 15 year old boy to smile for his mom who is just wanting a nice picture to put on her blog?!?

Kevin doesn't eat sweets so this was his version of dessert today! Squash with cinnamon and a red raspberry on top! Yum!!

Bob, Grace and Kevin

Kevin with our family

I think I see the beginning of a smile.....

Yep...there it is...now I know how to get him to smile...give him money!!!!

Nate's Soccer game

Nathan had his first travel soccer game on Saturday. We had to drive to Ft. Wayne for his game (3 hours round trip). Made for a long day. They lost 12-2. He still had fun so that's all that really matters. This is his first time to play on a travel soccer team, but 5th year playing soccer. The team from Ft. Wayne was so much better and their kids were all much taller than our kids. There is a cut off for each age group and our coach said all of the other team's kids were right at the cut off age for as old as you could be. Oh well, it was good experience. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Nate in the middle with the soccer ball. Getting ready to warm up.

Nate

Nate is #4 (and yes...that is Allen in the background...he is helping coach this year)

Nate kicking the ball

The ride home. He looks tired, yes?

Sarah having one of her giggling fits

Allen

I was enjoying the clouds in the sky on the way home. Wonder why you mostly see these kind of clouds in the summer? I just love looking at them. Brings back memories of long summer days spent laying on your back looking up at the clouds and imagining what you see in them.

Another one over...

The festival is over and we are all sooooo tired! It is always sad to see the people pack up and leave the park. Allen and I usually sit on the back deck and watch them all leave. I made my one last mad dash to the park (at 5:45 pm...the festival ends at 6 pm) and ended up buying two more tacos from my favorite vendors (wished them a good year) and picked up one more bag of kettle corn for the kids. I really wish that I wasn't subbing tomorrow...could really use the day to rest up. Oh well...life goes on...

Balloon Glow

Right before they have the fireworks, they do the balloon glow. All the balloonist display their balloons at the park. They do a little light show with them. I either counted 15 or 16 balloons this year at the festival. After their light show, they pack up the balloons and then start the fireworks. It was a really good show again this year, but I can never manage to get very good pictures of the fireworks. I did take some videos of it and as soon as I can I will get that posted. They set off diesel bombs at our fireworks that shake the ground so hard that the car alarms usually go off all over the park! It is great! The balloon glow

ballon launch

Sunday morning there was another balloon launch. This time a man went up with helium balloons sitting in an office chair. He was going for a world record height of 18,000 feet! I'm not sure how high he actually got, but I did hear that he needed to use the oxygen that he took along with him. Allen went out early to see him take off. They lifted off at 7 am. I will try to find out just how far he drifted and post the info.

Parade

Greg marched in the parade today...we stayed only long enough to see him march by and then Allen and I took off for the booths. It is usually dead on Monday mornings at the festival because everyone is either at the 15k run or watching the parade. So it is a great time to go through the booths!
That is Greg in the middle of the pic with the sax

Here he is again on the outside carrying his sax