6th Grade Band Holiday (School-Day) Concert

Technically, there wasn't a holiday concert for 6th grade band on the schedule. They had a fall concert and then will have a spring concert in May. I am not sure if 6th grade usually plays for the December (monthly) elementary school Celebration, but I am glad they did do one and that I could run up to school and watch/record it. 

After their concert was done they continued on with the School monthly celebration and she was the principal's assistant and got to hand out the awards to all the kids who were announced.

A few more still pictures I tried to get in between songs when he was announcing what was next. The elementary kids were all very excited when Mr. G announced they would be playing Jolly Old St. Nicholas. On Sunday, she will be playing Jingle Bells & Jolly Old St. Nicholas at a Senior Care Center. There are a handful of kids performing for the Sr. citizens there and then the club will be playing bingo and doing cookie decorating with the residents.

1st Basketball Ball Game Ever

Well, what can I say. There is room for improvement. :) She pretty much went from knowing vvery little about basketball (& I mean very little) to going to a handful of open gyms and about 10 practices to playing in her first tournament. They have 11 on the team, but only 10 were there (one girl was grounded I guess). So, the coach pretty much split them in 2 teams of 5 and gave them equal playing time. He said he doesn't care if they win at all, just wants to see where they are all at and figure out what they need to learn so they can be better. I think they have 7 tournaments on the calendar this winter.

She goes between playing forward and guard. Mom was only able to watch the first game as Henry couldn't really handle being there for nearly 5 hours and dad was traveling all last week so he wanted to be able to be there for her (mom gets swim!). After her first game she said she was so confused and has no idea what is all going on.

I think she has the potential to do well. She certainly has the ability and determination, but she has so much to learn about the game itself so everything starts to make more sense and then the self confidence will follow, but I guess she did take 3 shots in the final game.

Oh, they lost all their games. But I guess they lost them all last year at this same tournament and then by the final tournament they won. So, we'll see what happens this year.

There are 2 good things happening here -- she is learning how to play basketball and work as a team and be in a position where she is out of her element, but also and even more importantly, she is becoming better friends with some of the girls on the team and finding "her tribe" at school.




Here is a clip when she was playing in the 1st game. She asked me to take a couple videos to send her teacher , so the 1st clip wasn't when she was playing. So, no need to show it here.

Promoted to Yellow Stripe

These are all pictures from class when she was promoted. They don't get their new belts until they go to their next class. She is now really busy with basketball as you will read about very soon and also has swim so Taekwondo is going to go on the back burner for a while and her brother may belt test one ahead of her and she knows that and is okay with that.

TKD White Belt Testing -- Now a Yellow Stripe!

Both Kids are doing their Chonji form for White Belt, this is the 1st belt. The testing was WAYYYYYY more intensive than just this. We had no idea what they were going to have to all do, but they were prepared and both passed and earned their yellow stripe. They were promoted at the next class.

Fall Band Concert

Monday was the fall band concert for 6 through 12 grades. Now that she is in 6th grade, things are arranged a little differently. In sixth grade they have to choose a music, either band or choir that they have every other day. Band is always Monday Wednesday Friday then on the opposite days they can choose the other music class, art class, or study hall. Isabel chose band and art.

So grades 6 through 12 have their own fall concert which K through five do not. They separate the concert with having choir doing their own concert then band doing their own concert.

Although on the video they have both concerts together. You can forward ahead to the 30-minute mark. They will perform three songs.

Tomorrow, she will be going to a master's class 4 middle schoolers. Her band instructor picked her to go along with two other girls that are in 7th or 8th grade. She is the only sixth grader who was picked to go to this master's class. She will get to study and practice with a professional musician on the French horn.

Basketball ?!?!?!

She is really doing it........she said she wanted to do basketball this year and we signed her up. This is her very first practice. I dropped her off at basketball open gym the last 3 Sundays, but practice starts now. First tournament is on Nov. 18th.

Oh, she is still swimming but only 2 times a week. Then basketball is two or three practices a week. Basketball will be wrapped up before the championship swim meet season starts which is a good thing and none of her swim meets interfere with basketball tournaments which is another good thing. Taekwondo on the other hand will be taking a backseat after she does next weekend's belt testing. She wants to get her first belt before she takes a break from it and then we'll start up again when basketball is done.

1st Swim Meet of '17-'18 Season

Isabel had a great first meet of the season. The first meet of the season is always hard when you haven't been swimming for a while and getting back into things but she finished first in her heat in three of her events in all three of those events she also got personal records. Her fourth event she had added time, you can't always be stellar and everything. In the picture of the swimmers in the pool they are doing butterfly stroke and she is the one that is higher out of the water. She is a machine at butterfly.

White Stripe Form

The kids decided not to test right away, but they certainly would have been ready and have their white stripe form down. Now they need to wait until NOvember to test and get their belt.

Bugsy Malone (Summer Musical) Clips

I got most of the songs that she is in, and a clip with some speaking lines for her. Her role was mostly singing dancing and she was in most of the musical.










THese are all in order. I think I just missed recording one of them, maybe 2. We did buy the DVD, so we will have that to show the family and Christmas.

The New 4-H Treasurer and Co- Recorder

 You are looking at the new treasure for the happy Hustlers 4-H club. This is a position that she was voted in for. There were four people running and the first vote there was a four-way tie and after the second vote she won. She is also one of four recorders. The recorder position is something that several of them can do and they don't have to be voted in for. She takes office next month. She is super excited to be voted in to an office.

TKD - first 2 classes

She wants to try some new stuff this year. We can do everything, so she had to make choices. TKD is something new and she might try basketball this winter too. She is no longer going to do competitive Cheer team. It really wasn't that enjoyable and there were some girls who were not always very nice. She will still do swim, but it might only be 2-3 nights a week instead of 4. 

Cheer Demonstration at the Fair

The cheer team from last year did a demonstration at the Fair this year. They didn't do any routine that they did last year, this was something they worked on for 90 minutes before performing because it included both groups of cheerleaders.

1st Yr 4H Cty Fair Projects

 This is Isabel's first year and for each as we just joined in March. Since she just completed 5th grade she is considered a junior 4-H member and next year when she is in 6th grade she will be a senior for each member and is eligible to win a state fair trip if she gets a grand champion reserve on any of her projects. What I have learned this year is that they are only allowed to take one project to the state fair for Grand Champion Reserve but oldest kids get first pick if there is more than one in an area so as she gets older she has a better chance of going to the state fair because she could pick if she wants to go for that item or not but the more grand champion ribbons she gets the more chances she would have. So we'll see what happens in the future.

She did seven projects for the fair this year. In the top picture there are two paintings one is titled Atomic jellyfish what she got a blue ribbon on and then the other is Mystic waterfall which she got a red ribbon on. They said there was a fingerprint in the painting and that was why they put it down to second place. Then she has her paper mache penguin and her miniature clay plate of food which she got blue ribbons on both of those. Her needle point project was the first time she has ever done needlepoint and she got a red ribbon on that because they didn't like how she had tied off in the back. I think she has learned a lot about what they expect at projects. After looking around at the projects it is obvious that things need to be near perfect and almost look like an adult did them. This is really going to test her patience for her to work at taking her time and getting things perfect.

 These are her clothing exhibits. They do clothing judging The week before and they can do a fashion review as well. This year we opted not to do the fashion review since I never did one growing up and had no idea what it really entailed and thought we would see what we could learn. She just did the judging. The jeans outfit is in the category of clothes you buy. That is definitely a new category since I was in 4H. When you look at the exhibits at the fair you can see there are lots of kids who do that exhibit. You can also do that exhibit in the fashion review. In the fashion review you only get a participation ribbon but they do award grand champion awards for how you do in the fashion review and how the clothes look on you. We know someone who is going to the state fair for fashion review for a dress they made. They got a grand champion on the fashion review even though they only got a red ribbon on their Construction. Then she also made pajama shorts. We made it through her making her first garment without either one of us crying. Although when I looked at the type of garments that sixth graders were making they seem to get much more complicated than making a skirt or shorts like they do as a junior 4h member.

 So here she is with her collection of ribbons. Five blues and two Reds.

She has already decided one of her projects for next year for the fair is going to be making a ribbon display board like the one I made her for all her Sports ribbons and medals.

Judging took a bit of time. She only had to be judged on five things that day since the clothing was done a week before and it took an hour and she didn't really have to wait anywhere.

Future Meteorologist?

Not sure if meteorology is in her future or not, but she sure had fun doing a weather segment for me to video tape.....

Rock Wall Video

She is becoming an experienced Rock Wall climber. She has climbed the rock wall at camp at Eagle Bluff the last couple summers, she did an outdoor rockwall on her 5th grade field trip and was the only one in her grade to do the toughest wall & she did it 5 times. This was on a Sunday, then the next day she went to a rock climbing camp through River Bend Nature Center. They did indoor rock climbing at ROCA on Monday and she said she did 21 climbs that day (& was exhausted afterwards) and then on Tuesday they went to Barn Bluff and did outdoor climbing on an actual cliff (not a rock wall man-made like at Quarry Hill Nature Center - her 5th rade field trip location). They had a lot more waiting to do and the climbs too longer at the outdoor place (BB) and I think she said she did about 6 climbs there over the 7 hour camp (plus they had to drive an hour each way.)

Videos from Swim Camp

They had a relay swim meet at the end of swim camp. So, here are her 3 swims. She is so well for being exhausted after 5 days of constant exercise!

Minnesota Achievement Championship

Last weekend, she participated in the Minnesota Achievement Championship. We went to the Farmington location. Because she aged up from 9-10 time standards to 11-12 time standards she had some work to do to get those faster times.

At this event she placed in 5 of 7 swims. They place up to 8th place in each event. At this event there was about 40 swimmers in each of the 50y swims. She also got 4 PRs for time and one of those PRs was in her 50 Free, which she qualified her to swim in the Minnesota Regional Championship this weekend. However, because she just has one swim for it and it is quite expensive to swim in these championship meets I wasn't going to let her unless she had at least 2 events on one day, which she doesn't have yet. The MRC is a 3 day meet and even one day is a considerable time commitment as well. But don't worry, I am not a bad mom making her miss this. She just got in to the 11-12 time standards, so she will still have 2 winter MRCs and 1 more summer MRC that she could swim in with that time. So, the MRC is already on my calendar for March and hopefully she will pick up a few more swims for that meet in the meantime. She is really close on her 50 Fly.

Of her ribbons, she got one 2nd place, two 6th place, and two 8th place. The other 2 events she didn't place in, she just missed it by a few places. So, NEXT TIME!

Saturday she had 3 swims and got a PR in each of them and placed in 2 of them. Sunday, she only got one PR but 3 ribbons. She wasn't feeling as well on Sunday. Her brother had a stomach bug on Saturday and puked 5 times, so who knows if she had a bit of it or what.

That was her last meet of the summer. There is only 1 more week of swim practice left for the summer and then she has the month of August off. The whole team doesn't swim in August.

Not sure if she will swim next week at all, maybe 1 or 2 days or maybe we'll call it good for the summer. She is off to 3 days of camp at Eagle Bluff on Sunday. This year she is doing the Firearms Safety Certification Camp and will get to shoot a shot gun and a rifle and take her test for Firearms Safety and once she turns 12 she can submit her test results and her classroom time and field experience hours and get her certification. Then she will be able to be on the Trap Team at School once she in 8th grade. Not sure if she will do that, but she is open to considering it and it's just a good idea to teach kids about gun safety.

As for the rest of August, she still goes to rehearsals for the summer play 4-5 nights a week. It is quite a big commitment! And she has to really get to work on her 4-H projects for the County Fair.

And she's off......to swim camp

 Doesn't she just look to growing up here. She is in a college dorm for the first time spending 5 days here while she goes to swim camp at Gustavus. She was appalled by how land and blank the walls were, I wouldn't be surprised if next year she brings along some posters for 5 days there that is if she is going next year we'll see how this year goes..

 Here she is in front of the building where the pool is in and is ready to go swim her time 100 to put her in her group.

 She is the one diving into the water off the blocks. This is the pool she will be training in a lot 4 the next five days. Actually when I am posting this I will have just picked her up I didn't want to post where she was at while she was there because you never know what creepos are looking at stuff on the internet.

 This is one of the group's schedules. It may be the group she is in but I won't know that for sure until later. But at least we have an idea of what the schedule looks like for the most part. And can look at it again next year.

 She gave me lots of hugs before I left period I took her out for supper after her time swim and before she goes to start her training. We went out for Mexican food, which is her favorite.

Memorial Weekend in WI

Catapult Science Class at Shattuck

She loves to take these STEM classes at SSM. This class was a catapult class and she had 4 friends there with her. She was in a group with 2 friends from school and her 2 friends from swim were in the group next to her.

MN State Cheerleading Competition

Here is a short clip her friend's mom took, but then their coach did buy the videos at state. They did get 1st place at State.

These are their pictures take at state. The top one is both the younger group and older group and the bottom picture is just of the older group. Not sure if she will do this or not next year. She initially said no she wasn't when this finished, but if it turns out that several of her friends are doing it again, plus another was talking about doing it that didn't do it before, then she might change her mind. She is talking about trying out basketball next year and she wouldn't have enough time in her life to do swim, cheer and basketball. So I guess we'll find out this fall.

5th Grade Science Project - Gumball Machine

A couple of videos of the gumball machine in action. They had to make it as a group, but if we are being honest she did most of the work.





TO "win" their class gumball project they had to use as many simple machines as possible of the 6 then learned about (they were the only in their class to use all 6) and have it go as slow as possible. They won their classroom, but there was a different one in a different classroom that was slower so they didn't win the grade.

Katy Perry Tickets

I took this video because I thought she would be more excited and make a video worthy excitement when she found out that I bought her tickets to see Katy Perry, when what happened is she was confused and she thought that Katy Perry (December concert) was opening for Shawn Mendes (August concert). She knew about Shawn Mendes and I probably should have printed off the actual concert tickets and only gave her the Katy Perry stuff I made her.




She is wearing a mermaid tshirt and swim sweat pants I had made for her and given her previously for her birthday.

2017 Talent Show - Science Experiments

Izzy really wanted to be in the talent show but was very particular about what she was willing to do on stage and who with, finally she decided to push people's ideas of what makes a talent (not just singing and piano playing and gymnastics) and show that being smart is a talent too. She asked her friend Savannah to do this with her and they spent a lot of time coming to out house to try out a variety of different experiments to find 2 that would be "show worthy", meaning they could be seen from the stage and quick enough to do. They didn't always agree (as you see in the audition tape), but as you will see in the final production for the talent show they pulled it all together and put on a great show and I think they opened a few eyes as what consitutes a talent ad maybe we will see some other "different things" next year.

They also made this poster for the front of their table.

5th grade Spring Concert (Choir & Band)

Isabel is in the back of the band in a turqoise top. She is playing the French Horn. This is her first band concert and they actually sounded fairly decent and when you consider they have only been playing together for 2 months then they sound really good.

I only recorded the band stuff, you can view the whole concert on http://www.owatonnalive.com/Medford-School-Concerts.html

11th Birthday, Party with Family

 The outside ring is flower petal cupcake liners so this was her flower birthday cake.

 Opening her present from Uncle Al and Aunt Lisa.

 Still opening it.

 A bunch of girly stuff to do her nails and a journal from them.

A crafty paint your own beads set from Uncle Jason and Aunt Stephanie.

 A wooden TV from Grandma and Grandpa that she can slide her Kindle into and watch TV. They made this. It is pretty neat.

 We celebrated Lincoln's birthday to and put his cupcakes in the shape of a 2.

 Lincoln with his present from us. It was a water and summer beach theme. He is a little peanut and actually wears a size 24 months or 2T at that age. Isabelle and her brother were always in a size above their age.

Opening his present from us.