Celebration of Learning "Badge"

Since Leo's school is in its inaugural year, they are still figuring out programs and events.  The principal and staff are all very enthusiastic since they are paving their own way.  When the principal announced there was an opportunity to earn a "badge" (a type of award), I encouraged Leo to participate. One way to earn a badge was to demonstrate how he had learned a new skill.  He wasn't sure what he could do for the project, but I thought it was pretty obvious he could show how he learned saxophone this year.  

He was up for it and made two videos demonstrating his saxophone skills that he submitted as part of his application.  

All the kids that participated had stations set up at the Celebration of Learning.  It was similar to a science fair where people could wander around and look at all the different projects. 

Here's Tom at Leo's station. 

Then all the kids were awarded; some went for several "badges".  We were pretty startled at how poorly the Vice Principal pronounced "Mirrione" and you can hear Tom muttering on the video.  Ha!

 

In addition to the certificate, each kid got this nifty polo shirt with the school logo.  I wonder if he'll ever wear it again. 

Spring Concert

 Wow, wow, wow.  The high school band performed their spring concert and I was blown away by Leo.  He switched to the baritone sax, which is a big instrument.  He doesn't drag it back and forth to school much, so it just stays in the band room.  I haven't heard him play in a while and he did awesome.  He also took his electric guitar to play a solo and completely tore it up.  So awesome. 

Tom was unfortunately on a work trip to Las Vegas, but I took lots of video for him. Leo decided to wear a tie and I found one of Tom's Jerry Garcia designed ties.  Then I had to watch a YouTube video to learn how to to tie it. Of course, we had to take some photos. 

I can be a little nutty about getting a good seat, but hey, I want an unobstructed view of my kid! Especially when I need to document the whole thing for his dad who was super bummed to miss it. He did have his Nana and his sister in the audience though. 

There were only 15 kids on stage, which is a pretty small group for a school band.  But since it's a new school, everything is still pretty small. 

I'm just going to include some favorites here.  This is the Abba song Dancing Queen.  They performed this without a backing track. 

Leo felt pretty inspired by this Bruno Mars song. 

"Who ya gonna call?"

But my favorite part was Leo's solo. There was a pretty fantastic piano soloist who played a complicated, surreal piece of music, but Leo followed it with this amazing rocking solo of both Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.  Bold choices, but he pulled it off! 

They closed the show with Don't Stop Believin', which was a little rough but still very enjoyable because these kids have worked so hard this school year.  I couldn't stop smiling the whole show. 

Last two dance competitions of the season

 Last weekend Serafina's team participated in the Showbiz dance competition.  We haven't done that one before and I doubt we'll do it again.  It was held in the dark, back corner of the convention center and it felt very low budget. In fact, they didn't even have a tap judge so none of the tap routines were awarded prizes.  That's not great. Serafina's teams did do some winning. Here she is accepting one of the awards. 

Here she is looking gorgeous and sassy in Show Jazz. 

Going hard in Senior Hip Hop crew.  This costume is a bit wacky, but this is one of my favorites to watch them perform. 

Their teacher posted some pictures of them celebrating in class. 

This weekend was Heat convention and competition.  It was a much better experience, but still exhausting. 

Show Jazz competed on Friday night and won very big. 

 

Saturday was a long day in the hotel with classes all morning and competition all evening.  I did a lot of running around to fetch dinner and round up dancers for routines.  I love seeing her with her teammates though.  Such sweet bonds between these kids. 

Ballroom was her last routine of the night so I had her take a picture before changing out of her costume. 

It was a bit of a bittersweet night though.  They will perform these routines one last time at recital, but that is definitely different than competition.  It's also Stella's last season (for now) on the competition team.  She'll still be at the studio for technique classes.  Serafina and Stella have been on teams together the last three seasons and Stella was Serafina's first real friend on the competitive team. She is pure joy and light.  I adore her.  It won't be quite the same next year without her in the dressing room. 

Middle School Open House

 Serafina was annoyed that I made her miss dance class to go to her school's Open House, but I'm glad we did.  Her school's campus is still so new and impressive, and her friends are incredibly sweet.  

Bonus...excellent churros from the food truck 

Here she is with Bella and Sidney. 

A couple of examples of her classwork.