What's Missing?

Can you guess what's missing from this picture?

In case you don't know, I'll give you the answer in the comments section.

High Note Music Festival

Wayne and Cole are going, with the jazz band, to the High Note Festival in Lake George, NY.  They've sold a lot of raffle tickets to help raise the money, but they are still short of their goal. If anyone is interested in donating to the cause, their director Amy Newton, has set up a Go Fund Me page to raise the rest of the money.  The festival is on June 10th.

"It is with great excitement that I announce the OCSU Middle School Jazz Band and the Lake Region Jazz Band will be traveling to the High Note Festival on June 10th in Lake George, NY. 

The High Note Festival is an opportunity for the OCSU & LR Jazz Bands to play for current and retired music educators who will evaluate their performance and provide comments and feedback. The students will then have the opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments with an afternoon at the Great Escape Amusement Park.


The ensembles have been fundraising and are still short of their combined goal of $4000. If you feel moved to help us reach our goal, please visit our GoFundMe page (http://gofund.me/23wmqqu4), or see either Dr. Sara Doncaster or Amy Newton. 


Best, 
Amy Newton"

OCSU Jazz Band, heading to the High Note Music Festival in Lake George NY!

Thank you for any help you can offer!

Wayne's Last Middle School Concert

The school year is close to over. That also means that Wayne's education at Glover School is coming to a close. This afternoon he had his last middle school concert.

Miss Newton, the band and jazz band director gave the 8th graders corsages. When she started teaching, they were her very first class of 4th graders.

Cole is also in the jazz band.

Wayne has a nice trumpet solo here.

Wayne and Cole are also both in the big band. (Cole is in the chorus as well. I didn't get very good pictures or video of the chorus.)

Some of the 8th graders pose with Miss Newton (on the right). She looks young enough to be one of the students.

The good news is that in high school, the music department is under the care of Dr. Doncaster. She has done great things and I'm sure Wayne will learn a lot with her as a teacher. The high school has been short on trumpet players for a few years now and she has been eagerly awaiting his arrival!

Softball

Heather had her first softball game of the season. It was a beautiful evening. After all those winter afternoons watching basketball inside, in a crowd of  coughing sneezing spectators, I am thankful for spring and summer sports beginning!

 Heather his a good single here.

 She looks so much like Wayne out there when he was younger.

Being shortstop, below.

They lost to Derby by one run, but they had a great time.

Random Notes

A few random notes to send off April.

One of the hens must have been eating her Wheaties! Ouch!

Cole and I went for a bike ride. Here he is at Lakeside Haven. We had to cut it short because my chain kept falling off.

 Wes and Heather got some new chicks. The dark one is a bantam. Heather always like to have a bantam.

 Heather and Cole are part of the running club that their phys ed teacher has started at their school. It meets every Monday afternoon.  On Friday evening, they participated in their first event - a Glow Stick Fun Run on the Lake Region cross country trails. Below, Cole declined to be photographed with Heather and her 3rd grade friends.

Harper, Anya, Heather, Kelby

Signs of Spring

There is very little green showing so far, but I have found some evidence that Spring is on its way.

Some people look for the first robin, but we look for the first bluebird. A little family has moved into the birdhouse by the pear trees.

 Bike rides are a sure sign of Spring. Heather rode her bike up to her friend Anya's house.

 Also, the Spring piano recital.  Cole missed this one due to feeling very miserable from a nasty cold. Heather did a great job and it was fun to have Joanie and Grammie there as well.

We're all feeling a little low today - it's the last day of vacation. It will be hard to get back into the swing of things tomorrow morning, but there's a lot to keep us busy in the coming weeks:

-Heather's softball

-Wayne and Cole's spring concert and parades

-Wayne and Cole's music festival in Lake George, NY

-Wayne's softball (school team co-ed)

-Wayne's baseball (Babe Ruth)

-Wayne's class trip to Hershey, PA (amusement park, museums. dinner with an Amish family, trampoline park)

-Wayne's 8th grade graduation

Countdown to summer begins now.

Astronomy Camp

Cole spent a few days of his April vacation at Astronomy Camp at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium. The camp was a birthday gift from Godparents, Cedric and Susan.

We arrived a little early on the first day, so the front desk man said, "Feel free to explore the museum while you wait."

We looked around a little bit and then I left him with his class. They spent the day visiting the planetarium, building rockets, and learning the stories behind the names of stars, planets, and constellations. They also played with liquid nitrogen and learned about nebulas, galaxies, and black holes.

On Wednesday evening, the class met at the Northern Skies Observatory in Peacham.  Below, one of the camp instructors, Bobby Farlice-Rubio, explains how the observatory works and introduces the powerful telescope.

The group went outside while it was still light and used the telescope below to study craters on the moon. In their class, they had learned some of the stories behind the names of the craters.

As it got darker, Jupiter became visible.

We were able to see its stripes and 4 of its moons, similar to the photo below.

Bobby also pointed out several constellations and talked about the names and their stories.

It was chilly that evening, so the group eventually went back inside the observatory and used the massive telescope to take photos of a nebula and some planets.

On the last day, the camp walked to a ball field nearby and fired off the rockets they had made.

Below, the instructor sets up Cole's rocket on the "launch pad." Then  when the coast is clear, Cole fires off his rocket.

I was shooting this video with my phone - it was hard to track the rocket in the sky...

Cole had a great time and looked forward to going each day. Thank you Cedric and Susan!

Together Again

My mom had a rough time since my dad passed 5 years ago. Her troubles are over now. She is at peace and in the company of those who passed before her. I'm sure she's very busy right now.

Cole's Birthday

Cole turned 12 yesterday, or as my grandmother used to say, "12 times around the sun."

I didn't get many pictures - he doesn't like that anymore, but here he is opening one of his gifts. It's a remote control drone.

The cake he requested: Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake. Two layers of cookie dough (no eggs) sandwiched between 3 layers of brownie, topped with ganache, and decorated with piped-on peanut butter frosting. It took me all day to make and cost a small fortune, but birthday requests need to be honored!

 We took the birthday meal (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, salad, as requested by the birthday boy) on the road to share with Grammie.

 One of his gifts: a typewriter shaped note paper dispenser from Joanie. Where does she find these unique things?

As one of his birthday presents, today he invited a friend to go see Batman vs. Superman, Dawn of Justice. It was a very long movie (2 1/2 hours) but my favorite part was when Batman tried to run over Superman and the batmobile just pinged off him like a toy.

Thanks for all the cards and birthday wishes.

Happy Easter

On Saturday we made some treats.

Cole's were a bit "free-form."

Cole, Spike, and I went for a walk in the woods.

Then we tried this idea I found online - dying eggs with kool-aid.

Easter morning baskets.

The bunny cake again.

An egg hunt.

The chickens didn't know what to think of these eggs.

We had a ham dinner. My rolls were almost as good as Martha's. Almost.

After dinner another walk in the woods with Wayne and Heather.

We went up past the well.

We ignored the sign on this little hut. I felt like we were entering the mysterious Cabin on Lost as the door creaked open revealing cob web covered table and chairs and lots of mouse droppings.

There was a stack of Fur Fish and Game magazines from a long long time ago.

We continued on. 

We found another mysterious shelter.

It was very pretty but unfinished.

It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk, while Wes was home boiling lots of sap.
Happy Easter.