Swing Night Concert April 11th

On April 11th I was able to treat Bruno to dinner and a show for his birthday! After a quiet dinner for two we headed over to the high school for the choir's Swing Night Concert and Auction.

The Concert Choir sang two of their songs that had won rave reviews at a recent competition at Western Washington University.

Marcus and his best bud, Austin.

Marcus with his lady love, Allisha.

Allisha, with her sisters singing "Bei mir bist du schon".

Marcus and Allisha singing "Baby it's cold outside".

I was lucky to have this really good looking young man come and ask me to dance. A lot of the parents and students got in the groove and got their swing on.

Fellow choir member, Steven, took the choir teacher out for a swing.

Emma, Steven, Marcus, Karl and Allisha singing "Doctor, Lawyer and Indian Chief".

We had a great time, the kids did such a great job! We had music in our blood, so Bruno and I hit the Big Lake Bar and Grill for some more music and dancing. We had so much fun!

Testing for High yellow belt

Nicole tested for her High yellow belt on April 10th. There are several aspects of the testing, and some depend on your degree of belt.

The students that were testing.

Nicole and Ethan waiting their turn to do their form.

Each belt degree has a form, or a series of movements. Both Ethan and Nicole are doing their low yellow belt form. They have been doing the junior form, which is shorter and not as complex as the adult form.

Next they have to perform their one steps. One steps are short movements designed to teach you combinations used in contact sparing. One steps are considered "no-contact" sparing. There are three seperate one steps and each student takes a turn performing their one step while the other acts as the defender. Here Ethan and Nicole judge their distance.

Ethan performs step one while Nicole defends.

Nicole's turn.

From low yellow belt up the students get to do contact sparing. In tournaments you are awarded points for body contact (1pt) and head (2pt). You don't actually have to make contact to the head, you just have to be close to get the points. At testing, sparing is just for exhibition to show "their stuff".

Ethan is punching Nicole in the face, which is a no-no, but not his fault -- his eyes are closed!

Nicole is a scrapler and holds her own in the ring. She loves to spar!

All done sparing, and taking their gear off.

The final part of testing is breaking boards. Although Nicole has broke boards twice in class, students don't break boards in testing until they are a low green belt. Technically, if a student goes according to plan they should be testing for a new belt about every two months. Nicole only took a month this last time, so Master Rhodes is going to start having her do the adult form in the hopes she won't be bored (which she has no trouble expressing!) and to slow down her advancement. At the rate she's going she should be a black belt by the time she's 8 or 8-1/2. Since I have watched her progress through this, and seen how much fun she's having I have decided to join TKD too. I started last week and did my first bout of sparing on Thursday. It was fun! and a great workout!

Now THIS is Spring!! April 6th

Hard to believe just 5 days after coming home from the ocean (did I mention it snowed on the way home?) we had a few days like this one. It was a balmy 72 degrees on the 6th. Nicole was just wilting from the "heat" and wanted to go swimming. No pool up yet, so she had to compromise with the sprinkler.

"Spring" Break to Ocean Shores, WA

Between Cinderella performances Marcus only had a couple days off during Spring Break, so we took that time and spent a couple days at the Ocean. We brought Marcus' girlfriend, Allisha, with us.

We drove down to the end of the spit, where the Pacific meets Grays Harbor. Out there at the end where this is no protection the wind was brutal. It wasn't just windy. the sand was blasting us like crazy. Nicole was so freaked out she just curled up in a ball until after the picture was taken. Oh, it was raining too.

Alex and Bruno

Marcus and Allisha

Cold and blustery

View from our hotel.

On the last evening the rain stopped and we took one final walk on the beach. This is as close to a sunset as we got.

Checking out a jelly fish that washed up on the beach.

It was so cold and windy.

Marcus and Allisha

Cinderella at McIntyre Hall

Marcus is in the Theater Arts Guild production of

We went last night with a good portion of the Padilla Family.

This is the Step Mother's House

Here the King and Queen are lamenting that their son, the Prince, has not married yet and made them Grandparents. Marcus plays one of the King's Counselors. He is 2nd from the left, in the bright blue costume.

Marcus and the other Counselor's.

In the Ball scene, Marcus plays Lord Ames. Here he and Lady Ames are being announced at the Ball.

After the show, with his girlfriend Allisha.

Being greeted by Uncle Tony, Little Tony, Aunt Teresa, and Nonna. Uncle John is in there too.

Marcus with Nonna.

Me, Nicole and Marcus.

The production will be moving to Byrnes PAC in Arlington for three performances, May 8, 9, & 10th. I will be going again on the 9th with my Mom and Richard if anyone else would like to go. Let me know and I'll get tickets.

Marcus and the MVHS Synergy choir

See Marcus and the MVHS Synergy choir sing. The Mount Vernon Superintendent had this segment filmed to enter the choir to sing at the National Superintendents Conference next year. Althought Marcus wouldn't be able to attend since he's graduating, the others might have a great opportunity next year if the choir is picked. Good Luck Synergy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCxX7JUKGA0

Woo Hoo, Alex!!

First thing after school, get your braces off.

Next, go take your driver's test.....

and pass!!! Yeah Alex, congratulations!