Sibling Love

 After their respective long days on Saturday, the kids sat down together to watch videos of the FTC competition and to talk about both of their experiences:

All-District Band 2021

 Every year, the Virginia Band Director's Association in each region in Virginia holds blind auditions for an all-district honors band. These auditions are usually held in person, with the judges behind a partition so that they cannot see the musicians. Kids from all of the schools across the district (about 30 schools in our district) all come together for this single day of auditions and then the kids are ranked. The size of each "section" is determined by the popularity of the instrument (which generally reflects a typical distribution in a professional band). Clarinet is the biggest section and also by far the most popular instrument for these kids to be playing. In 6th grade, the first year Benji was eligible to try out, he did the audition live at CHS. 6th graders almost never make all-district, but Mr. D told him it would be a good experience and get him used to the process. He was totally thrown by the judges talking to him from behind the partition and did not enjoy the try out (and also did not make the cut, but he expected that). Last year, the auditions were held by recording and the kids could re-record as many times as they wanted. Benji spent days perfecting his recording and was successful, chosen as 22nd seat clarinet. Because of COVID, "all- district" was just a recognition without any actual all-district band concert. 

This year the auditions were again virtual, but the musicians had to do them in a "live" computer program where they only got two chances (in a single sitting) to perform each piece. Benji felt very nervous about his chances of success and kept warning us he was not sure he would make all-district this year without unlimited attempts. Imagine his surprise when not only was he selected, but he earned the highest score and the coveted first seat. In addition, this year there was an actual all-district band and performance so he got to work with a guest conductor and kids from all over the region on his performance. He had a really fun day and came home all jazzed up from the concert, which was wonderful:

Musicians are listed (within instrument) in order of their ranking

FTC Harrisonburg Competition

This was Abby's first in-person FTC competition in 2 years and will likely be her last (even if they advance to states, they likely will not be able to attend). It was really nice for her to get to have this one last experience, which included driving herself to the competition, something she has always wanted to do. The team performed marvelously, winning 4 of their 5 matches and barely losing out on the 5th. We were able to watch the livestream from home and Abby shared a few pictures as well:

BACON is team 7080 and you can see their robot in the upper right corner (you can just barely see Abby's legs in the picture)

The robot in action scooping up and deposting blocks

The first match was a blow-out win

In match #2, a piece of the robot broke off and a chain loosed so that a wheel also came off. They were able to eek out a win and repair the robot in the 5 minutes between matches. Abby had to draw the 7 back on in Sharpie

You can see the duct tape repair in this picture of match #3

Groundhog Day 2022

We had our traditional groundhog pancakes, but added making a themed dessert to the fun this year:

Boar's Head Winter Wander

For the first time this year, the Boar's Head Inn created an outdoor light show around their little lake. The event was open for two months (end of November until the end of January) and had a pretty steep price tag for admission. We had considered and rejected the idea of going several times when we were invited as part of Dylan Duke's birthday party, which was on the last day of the installation. As an added bonus, they had fireworks for the last night and it was really pretty (but cold!):

Family (Indoor) Cornhole Tournament

This was the last item on our January Bucket List, but the weather did not cooperate (it was a balmy 60 degree December day when I made the list, but then it was a snowy and frigid January). We improvised and played on our knees in the playroom:

Alice in Wonderland Dress Rehearsal

 Stage Left's winter production this year will be Alice in Wonderland. It was supposed to be mid-January but was postponed until next week because of snow and the Omicrom surge. Now that the play is less than 2 weeks out, they are conducting a number of dress rehearsals. They had one on Saturday at Charlottesville High School, where the play will be performed. This was very exciting for Benji who, in addition to playing Tweedle Dee, will be the lighting chief. He has been chomping at the bit to get into the tech booth at the Performing Arts Center and this was finally his chance to try out the equipment:

On stage as Tweedle Dee

At the lighting board