shawnwright.blog

Darby has been feverishly practicing for a piano recital at school this evening. Unfortunately she started feeling bad yesterday and woke up with a fever this morning. She missed school today, in fact, but the recital is a grade in her major and we were told there were few make-up opportunities left in the semester. So, she showed, and she played.



I was supposed to leave work a bit early in order to swing by home and pick-up the camcorder. But I couldn't leave as early as needed and so had to head straight for school. And as my point-and-shoot camera was flashing low-battery, in addition to being low on memory card space (again, didn't have time to go home), that left my phone as the remaining video capture source. That might have worked out great, but I forgot to change the default format from MMS quality so the frame-rate is low AND the predefined length is one minute. Really frustrates me that I didn't think to change that setting. So anyway, here we have the first minute of Darby's ninety-second song.

Labels: Darby, piano, school, video

The girls had their first orchestra performance tonight at school. Even though Darby is in her third year at this school, it's her first year in the orchestra, and of course this is Shelby's first year for both this school and orchestra. As Shelby is a strings major, there will be a lot more of these for her. Darby is not a strings major, but has really been enjoying it, and so may keep doing it as well. Darby, being a piano major, has a piano recital on Friday (what, you're not watching the calendar?), so keep your eyes out for pics from that soon.

Here's a picture of Darby's orchestra (Beginning Orchestra).



Here's a picture of Shelby's orchestra (Intermediate Orchestra).



I took some video with my actual video camera, but not sure any of that footage is going to make it here. The girls neglected to let us know where to optimally sit for the best view, so in both cases the conductor obstructs our view of them.

Labels: Darby, orchestra, school, Shelby

This morning, Shelby got to take part in a special school event commemorating today's historic anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She bought a couple raffle tickets on Friday, and she won the opportunity to "kick down the wall". The event was covered by KWTV channel 9, our local CBS affiliate, and is supposed to air during the 5:00pm broadcast.

Normally I try to only post 2-3 pictures per blog entry and then link to the photo album for the rest. But in this case, it seemed best to convey the entire event, though they will later appear in the album. If you come back later, I may also have a video posted, and maybe a link to the TV story if I can find it.


Here's Shelby on her big day.



Here's what the "wall" looked like. It is cereal boxes decorated with graffiti by the students of Shelby's school.



Shelby in front of the wall.



Shelby at the wall.



Shelby being interviewed by channel 9.



Shelby (partially obscured by the crowd) at a presentation by one of the teachers, who showed the crowed her piece of the actual Berlin Wall acquired during a school trip to Germany back in 1990.



Shelby kicking down the wall.



As the domino effect didn't go quite as planned, Shelby had to walk along the wall, kicking it down. Here she is near the end. You can see that the rest of the middle school kids have practically joined in the rally.



Here she is being interviewed at the end.



And one more interview, with the school's media department.



And there you have it, the Berlin Wall (or a semi-replica thereof) has been kicked down. By my daughter.




Update
Here's the video from tonight's newscast courtesy News 9:



And here's a link to the same video on the News 9 site, in case there's an issue with the one I embedded. Also, there's an associated story at News 9, though both in the story and the video they got Shelby's first name wrong.

Labels: pictures, school, Shelby

Darby and Shelby had a choir concert at school tonight. Here's a video of one of Darby's numbers.

Labels: choir, Darby, school, Shelby, video

Shelby is heading off to her first overnight trip, a science camp a couple hours from home with her 6th grade class. It's supposed to be rainy in OKC all week. Hopefully, down South, the weather will be more enjoyable and she won't have to break out the rain coat.

Labels: school, Shelby, trip

We got the girls' school pictures back today. Darby doesn't like hers and wants re-takes. Thoughts?


More pictures of Darby are in the album.

Oh, by the way, that's not Shelby's real hair in the back. She's wearing a clip-on hair extension thing she got for her birthday.


More pictures of Shelby are in the album.

Labels: Darby, pictures, school, Shelby

Shelby performing with her school strings ensemble during an awards assembly. Unfortunately, my memory card ran out of space in the middle of her solo. BUT, I had another, tape-based, camera going, so I will replace this video, though it will take a bit to do the conversion.

Update
My video camera USB dock is not compatible with Vista. Dang it. I need to buy a DV cable before I can do the conversion. Grr.

Labels: school, Shelby, strings, video

These two pictures were taken about 45 minutes apart. The oldest daughter had a choir performance at school, followed immediately by a softball game. Actually, the softball game started while we were at the choir show. The coach placed her at the bottom of the lineup, so, due to our hustle (including a creative changing effort in the back seat of a moving vehicle), she didn't miss an at-bat, though did miss a half-inning in the field. She had a great performance at the choir show and a very nice ballgame that included a base hit and a couple nice defensive plays, one involving a diving stop at short.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Labels: choir, Darby, school, softball

Darby performing Sonatina in C Major by Latour for her 7th grade school piano recital. Some mistakes, but she had a bad morning. Woke up late, didn't have time to practice before the show, etc. Pretty good all things considered.

Labels: Darby, piano, school, video

Blurry and way too distant camera phone shot of daughter #1 at her school piano recital this morning. Similarly distant and blurry video forthcoming.

Labels: Darby, piano, school

I took one look at my little one as I dropped her off at school this morning and I could tell immediately that something was wrong.

What's the matter?  I asked...

Nothing. It's just morning. And Monday.

Ah ha. I KNEW there was something wrong. She's too much like me. What she said was exactly... EXACTLY how I was feeling right at that moment.

Wow.

Labels: school, Shelby

Darby had a piano recital today. She was nervous and didn't play as well as I've heard her play her piece at home (and I've heard it A LOT), but she played decently under the circumstances (probably the biggest audience she's ever played for).

Labels: Darby, piano, school, video

Darby had a piano audition today for the school we hope she will attend next year. Below is a video of her rehearsing last night. She has been quite stressed about this audition for some time, and is quite glad to be done. We have one more hurdle to overcome and then it's a matter of waiting to find out if she gets in.



Prior to her audition, the teacher asked her a question: "Why do you want to go to this school?"

Her answer: "Because I know it's a good school and I want to go to a good college"


I was personally shocked that she would come up with such a perfect answer. And the teacher concurred that it was the right answer at the right time.

Labels: Darby, piano, school, video

Darby's next science project is an experimental one. She has to state a hypothesis, carry out an experiment, and report the results and conclusion.

I wanted her to come up with something she could largely do herself, though I expected we might need some help in the materiel support department. After discussing my ideas with her, we came up with the title "Which Ball is Best?"

The idea is to create a reasonably constant environment with which to experiment, so that only the ball we use will vary. We intend to hit several softball brands, from generic to premium, to see if the brand matters in terms of distance the ball travels.

As I have virtually no physical skills whatsoever, I enlisted my father's help. I explained the idea and gave some suggestions, and the mechanically inclined grandfather of Darby hit the ground running. After just a couple days of measuring and wood-working, we now have a contraption with which Darby can conduct her experiment. Below are a photo and video of it in action.





Darby will do the actual experimenting. She will load the device and pull the string to release the bat probably dozens of times. She will measure the distance of each hit ball, and she will do the math (average distance per ball) before writing-up her conclusions.

You might think it would all end there, but then she has to present her results orally AND via a tri-fold presentation board with photos, diagrams, etc.

Labels: Darby, school, video

Darby had a school musical tonight. It was called Father Knows Best. She did well, though she said she was very nervous the whole time. She's not one for the spotlight. Here's a clip from the show.




Shelby had her last fencing lesson before her tournament in Tulsa this weekend. She won one of her two bouts. We'll see how it goes on Saturday.

Labels: Darby, fencing, school, Shelby, video

It was a Foxy day, and I was glad to have it. But the day ain't over yet. You still have time to make the switch, so that you, too, can have a foxy day.


--
In kid news, I zipped across town after work to hopefully catch Shelby in a fencing bout. But that did not work out, as there was no bouting for her. She should most definitely be bouting on Thursday though, so I'll have to try again.

Darby has a school musical on 9 December, so you interested family types have been forewarned. It has been posted to the calendar. Contact me for details if you're going.


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I must say that I'm not super keen on this time of year from the where-next-will-there-be-a-thanksgiving-party perspective. The kids each have one at school. There will be at least two family-related t-day gatherings. And I know there will be two work-related festive-feasting-fests.

I'm already confused about what dish I'm supposed to bring to which function. Just tonight I was trying to figure out what to do about Darby's party. Her mother sent money and goods to school with her already, but now we're getting the impression from Darby that that wasn't good enough. So I have to "have a talk with the teacher" just to get the straight story. Bleh.

Labels: Darby, fencing, school, Shelby