Bump, Set, Spike

Sophie spent Monday and Tuesday evening trying out for the middle school volleyball team. Tuesday night the coaches made the first round of cuts and Sophie was invited back to continue trying out on Wednesday night.

On that final evening, the coaches sent all the girls home with a letter in an envelope telling whether they made the team or not and told them not to open the letters until they were in their cars.

This is what Sophie's said:

She is thrilled! When she read the letter she cried happy tears. Each night she came out of the tryout and said that playing volleyball brought her so much joy. I'm so happy that she gets to play this season!

She had her first practice yesterday and this is the selfie she took afterward, the happiness is pouring out of her.

After her practice we attended a volleyball family booster dinner. Her coach came over and introduced himself. He enthusiastically praised Sophie's tryout and told us that for every four girls that tried out, only one got in.

Well done, Sophie!

All the Books

We spent all day back to school shopping yesterday. It was tiring, but productive.

We did have one big distraction though: we walked by the books.

Phoebe snapped this picture of Topher reaching for his favorite book series. When he turned and saw all those books he gasped and ran to them, then asked if he could please spend his school clothes budget on books instead.

It made my reading mom heart happy.

The Benefits of Good Taste in Music

About a month ago, one of Phoebe's Young Women leaders, Tisha, told me she had a funny request. She had bought tickets to a concert for herself and her sister, but now her sister wasn't able to go. Tisha could take her husband with her, but he didn't really love the band or the style of music. She thought about all the people she knew who would want to actually go to the concert.

And she thought of Phoebe.

She asked if Bryan and I would be okay with her taking Phoebe to this concert. It was an hour and a half away, and it was just them. I should add that this leader is still in her twenties. She's closer to Phoebe's age than she is to my age. Bryan and I discussed it and prayed about it and pondered it and discussed it some more. And then we finally asked Phoebe if she wanted to go.

She said yes.

Hold on, that's not quite right. She actually screamed, then said, "YES!"

And that's why on Saturday Phoebe attended the BTS concert at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. If you're not familiar with BTS, they're a KPop group and currently the number one band in the world.

It was a very big deal.

These are some of the pictures she sent me. The size of that crowd is staggering.

And yes, she had an amazing time.

Musicville

Sophie's school musical was this past weekend and she was marvelous as the villain! 

The show was Musicville and each character was musical notation or the embodiment of some piece of music theory. There were characters named Counterpoint and Syncopation and Forte. Sophie played the Sorcerer of Silence, a whole rest who wants the constant music to stop. (Yes, the irony of Sophie playing someone who thinks music is awful noise was not lost on us.) She poisons the water to take away each persons voice. The two heroes go on a quest to undo her magic. It was kind of The Little Mermaid meets The Wizard of Oz, with music theory.

Sophie owned the stage whenever she was on it! She had fantastic presence and wonderful song and line delivery.

All of her Young Women leaders came to see her on opening night! They brought their kids with them, hence Sophie's crowd of fans.

We were there to support her on opening night as well. Peter stayed home sick, but he was able to see her in her second performance as the Sorcerer.

The show is always double cast. She played the villain for two performances and was in the chorus as a townsperson and a tangero (the inhabitants of the part of Musicville where they love Tango) for the other two.

More sweet friends, from church and our children's choir, came to see her second night as a lead.

She got to hang out with castmates at Applebee's after one of the shows. This is a great group of girls.

Here she is in tangero mode during her final show.

After the last show, the kids were invited to come take pictures onstage. 

The whole cast did a great job! And, of course, Sophie was my favorite person on that stage!

Well done, Sophie!

Run, Run Rudolph

While I was off performing and shuttling kids, Bryan and Cooper were at the track meet. Bryan estimates there were at least twenty schools that participated and Cooper said there were individual runners that weren't associated with any schools there as well. Cooper competed in the mile.

He finished his race in five minutes and sixteen seconds and got second place in his heat! He ended up placing twelfth overall, which I think is amazing! He's improved quite a bit from when he ran track in the spring. Plus, after running 5Ks in cross country all fall, a mile seemed pretty easy.

All the Choir Music

Cooper and Phoebe both auditioned for select choirs at the high school for next year.

And they both got in!

Cooper is in a combined SSAATTBB choir  as a Bass 1 and Phoebe is in an SSAA choir as an Alto 2. She's one of three incoming freshman that made it in. They're both excited to have additional musical learning opportunities next year. I'm thrilled that they both had the courage to tryout.

It's Time to Be the Hero

Have you heard of Maycember? It's a phenomenon that exists in our household. May, much like December, is full of end of the year (school year) activities, including concerts.

For the final concert of the year, the middle school chorus joins with the high school chorus. This was nice for us because it combined two concerts into one: Cooper sang with the high school concert choir and Phoebe sang with the middle school chorus.

Phoebe served as the chorus vice-president this year. That means she got to help announce the songs her choir performed. They also presented their director with a bouquet of flowers.

They sounded great. I especially loved when they sang "Homeward Bound."

The concert choir had an awesome entrance through the audience. Cooper is the eighth person in this line walking up to the stage.

This is a large choir and they sounded wonderful!

Towards the end of the evening, the directors handed out awards. Phoebe was one of two middle schoolers to be given an award. She earned it for her leadership and service to the choir. When her name was called she was surprised and kind of flustered. She looked at me and asked if she should go up to the stage. I said yes and she went up and received her award.

And then she prepared to sing her solo! The middle school and high school choirs joined forces and sang "Hero" by a composer who goes by the handle Pinkzebra. One soloist from each school was picked to open the song and Phoebe was floored when she got the solo! She sounded lovely!

At this point after the concert, Cooper and Sophie were both off with friends, otherwise they would have been in this picture too.

It was a long (at least two hours) but wonderful concert. I am so thankful that we live in a school district that values musical education so highly. And I love that my kids get to contribute to that music!

Honorable

This year Phoebe applied to and was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society. She's required to keep her grades high and complete many hours of community service to maintain her membership. The induction ceremony was last week. She was given the opportunity to read a short statement about one of the organization's foundational principles: service. I took pictures, but I was dodging a photobombing Topher the whole time, so none of them really turned out. You'll just have to trust me that she was poised and articulate and did a wonderful job.

Well done, Phoebe!

Spell It Out

Remember when Phoebe won her school-wide spelling bee? Well, that qualified her for the next level of spelling tests. That happened to be an online test. She scored in the top seventy and moved on again. On Sunday she participated in the regional spelling bee. I took everyone else to church while Bryan and Phoebe drove over an hour to the event.

Bryan texted a play-by-play of the action to the group chat we have with the three older kids (the ones with phones). I actually had to put my phone on Do Not Disturb during Primary because I was running singing time and I use my phone to keep track of the time. All those exciting spelling updates were too distracting.

They started out with sixty-eight spellers.

Phoebe made it through rounds one, two three, four, and five. After correctly spelling the word lacustrine in round four, the word turgor got her in round five. Fifteen minutes after she was eliminated, the bee was over.

She finished seventh, out of sixty-eight.

We are all so proud of how well she did! She was really happy to make it into the top ten.

When she got home she told me that several of the parents congratulated her afterward for how well she'd done. She suspects it's because she smiled encouragingly at the spellers as they took their turns. Since she was in the front row, the parents and spellers alike could see her. I love that she brought both her wonderful brain and her beautiful heart to the stage.