Where No Band Has Gone Before

Daniel has been in marching band at the high school this year. He has gone to school, had after school rehearsals most days, competitions on Saturdays, pep band performances at Friday night football games, sectionals on days with no school, parties on any free night, etc. Basically, he sleeps here but other than that, we haven’t seen him since the beginning of August. Despite his lack of time at home, it has been a great season for him. He has really enjoyed himself and has learned a lot. He was the section leader for the alto saxes and really stepped up and took charge of everything he needed to and helped mentor and guide his section. This was his first year in fall marching band and in fact, 60% of the band this year were marching band rookies. They had so many more kids than last year that they went up two divisions. In spite of that, they have proven themselves to be very competitive in their new division. Their show was “Star Trek,” a different (and harder) show than the one the band director announced back in the spring. But with so many more kids in the band, he obviously felt a change was needed and the show ended up being super fun.

The state competition, the final one of the season, was Friday. The band traveled to St. George and did a great job. They came away second in their division, being only half a point behind the first-place band. They took the music caption (basically the award for the best music). Daniel is enormously pleased with how well they did, as am I. I’m so proud of how hard these kids have worked, how much time they’ve dedicated, and how much they have accomplished. But even more than that, I’m very proud of the fact that our little(ish) marching band has gained a statewide reputation for having fabulous sportsmanship. They cheer for all the bands, even those that are their fiercest competitors. They shout out love for everyone. They mentor and support the small bands. They are positive and upbeat and don’t let the competition be the most important thing. The other bands have started shouting that love back to our kids and honestly, I feel like that sense of comradery they have helped establish is the most important way they are making their mark in the high school marching band sphere.

Daniel is going to be bored for a while. He is going to go through band withdrawals and find himself lonely and wondering what to do with all his spare time. But he’ll find his new balance in time and he’s already looking forward to next year.

And She’s Off!

Positively Defrightful

Halloween is probably one of my kids’ favorite holidays. I mean, they get to party, dress up, run around the neighborhood half the night, eat a bunch of candy…what’s not to love, right? To be honest, I think it’s fun too. I enjoy making a creepy themed dinner and creating fun costumes. And taking my parent tax out of their trick or treat bags. As a food allergy parent, the whole trick or treating thing used to stress me out, but my kids are so smart about the whole thing that I don’t really worry any more. We just help them go through their bags and swap out off limits treats for safe ones. And then the big boys get to eat all the rejected confections so they are pretty happy about the whole thing as well.

This year I fed the kids worm sandwiches, brain Jell-o and Jacked up veggies before sending them out the door.

Daniel went to a party and didn’t really do a costume this year so he is not part of our photo lineup. Malia was Ariel in the pink princess dress, but really looked like a standard princess because she didn’t want to wear a red wig. She was super excited though and even let me get her a hoop skirt to wear with her dress.

When we started the costume discussions last month, Matthew didn’t want to dress up at all. I think he wants to be a young man and not a boy and sees dressing up as something for little kids. But we turned to pinterest and found a non-standard costume that he was actually super excited about. Honestly, what’s not cool about being a pedestrian crossing sign?

Nathan didn’t have any grand plans, but he wanted a costume anyway. He really wanted a cape, Phantom of the Opera style, and I was happy to help him sew one. By help, I mean I helped him pick a pattern, taught him how to use a pattern, guided him in his selection of fabric and then acted as sewing advisor. He did all the actual cutting and sewing himself. He was enormously proud of himself, as well he should be. And he loved the whole swirling of the cape thing.

Since he didn’t have anywhere to go, Nathan invited a few friends to gather at our place for snacks and a movie. Unfortunately, only one person came, but they had a great time nevertheless. We made caramel popcorn and ate it all warm and sticky, so Nathan followed my lead and ate his with chopsticks to avoid the super sticky fingers. Honestly, I don’t know what normal people do without chopsticks. I use them for all kinds of non-Chinese food things. In fact, I use them for all kinds on non-food things...

So Happy Halloween y’all. Hope you had as much fun as we did!

Dork O’Lanterns

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Daniel’s schedule has been so crazy that finding a time to choose and carve our yearly squash has been a challenge. If he didn’t care about participating it would have been easier, but he still wants to do these family activities (for which I’m so grateful) and so we worked around his calendar. All the kiddos seem to have caught the dork bug and for once Nathan was the only one who looks fairly normal in his picture. To be fair though, he does look like he is pulling a dorky face behind that pumpkin…

As always, the images carved are definitely not the standard Jack face. Daniel went with the death star, Nathan did the headless horseman, Matthew crafted a Simba design and Malia selected the little mermaid. And then she carved the entire thing all by herself. I think she did a great job. In fact, I think all the kids did a great job.

And to be completely honest, the fact that they are all dorks is really not their fault. After all, they did get the dork gene from both of their parents so I guess it is inevitable that they would choose to let their dork show on a regular basis.

Missed It by That Much

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby. Our ward went their own way this year and invited all the activity days girls to participate. The girls were super excited and I think the boys were originally fine with the whole thing. That did seem to change a bit as the derby progressed and the girls started winning everything. But despite a few grumbles, the boys were good sports and took things mostly in stride. They had all the kids take their first four runs and then planned to narrow it down to the top 12 cars to do another round. Unfortunately, the first runs took longer than they had planned and they decided to take only the top 8 cars to the next round. But they didn’t make any kind of announcement to that end. Matthew’s car was in 9th place at that point and he was pretty anxious as they started the second round of runs and he did not have a place in the lineup. After awhile it became obvious that they had taken only 8 cars and Matthew was disappointed. I would have been disappointed too. Once the derby was over, I took Matthew to the store to buy some ice cream. As my older kids have discovered in the past, ice cream can help soothe a disappointment. Matthew made his entire car all by himself and I made sure to let him know how proud I was of that. Many of the cars obviously had a lot of grown up handy work, but he built his all on his own. And it was fast enough for 9th place. I’m super proud of him. He did perk up after awhile and was able to admit that he was proud of himself as well.

As a side note, the first and second place prizes went to girls as well as the prize for the slowest car. Of four winners, only one was a boy. 😐

Major Milestone!!!

Malia was brave enough to eat hot lunch at school today!

Futball

Matthew has not played organized sports for a while. He used to be all about football, but that waned after a bit and over the past year or so his interests have diversified. He has tried volleyball (a set of beginning techniques class as well as a round of tournament style games) and really enjoyed that. He would really like to try fencing but the beginners class that both Daniel and Nathan did has not been offered for quite some time. This fall he decided he wanted to give soccer a try. I think he really enjoyed himself. He loves to be active and outside and soccer filled both those needs. He said he would be interested in playing soccer again.

Some Unexpected News

The past few years have brought some welcome additions to Matthew’s diet. Due to the creation of a better blood test, he was able to do a food challenge for milk and eggs in breads and has been eating bread, rolls, and doughnuts with milk and eggs in them successfully for the past few years. He still can’t eat either milk or eggs raw or in things like cookies (they don’t bake long enough for the proteins in the milk and egg to break down enough to prevent a reaction) but the new foods he has been able to eat have definitely added some variety to his plate.

Today was his yearly appointment with the allergist and based on our past experiences, I didn’t expect much to change. There haven’t been any new breakthroughs in testing or treatment, so I thought today would be another “stay the course” appointment. In some ways I was right, but there was one big surprise. Due to the fact that Matthew’s IgE for milk is still low (around 10-it was around 26 three years ago) and his reaction to the skin prick testing was minimal, she wants him to do a food challenge with baked cheese. We’re talking pizza here. Well baked cheese is a must, it can’t be just gooey, but pizza! This is something I honestly never thought Matthew would be able to do. After ten years of being taught that milk could kill him, Matthew is understandably freaked out. I’m kind of freaked out too. It is completely scary. But it is also very exciting. It would make fast food pizza ok for him since he already tolerates milk and eggs in breads (the crust) just fine. It would mean that he can eat goldfish crackers. Even more than that, it might mean that the risk of cross contamination by milk wouldn’t be such a big deal and that alone would give him a bunch more food options.

Matthew isn’t ready to do the food challenge yet. Like I said, it is very scary. We’ll encourage him to do the challenge but like we have in the past, we won’t push him to do it before he is ready. He has to make the choice. It is his life and he knows the risks as well as the benefits. He will get there, but it is going to take some time. And it is even a bit scarier for him right now because his allergist is retiring this December. His first reaction was when he was 5 months old so he literally does not remember a time when she was not his doctor. She would like to see him do the challenge before she quits, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. But we’ll see. This could be a life-changing event for him.