Fish Fry

This past weekend was the annual McEachern band fish fry. It was our 3rd one as band parents.

 

 

  

 

 

Chris helped with set up earlier in the week and arrived at 8am for more set up on Saturday.

 

 

Chris also had French fry duty. I'm still trying to get the grease spots out of his pants!

There were tables/tents set up so you could eat while watching the band practice.

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 I helped with serving. An exhausting, but good day. Enjoyed drinks in the hot tub that night as part of our recovery!

Spring Band Trip

James' high school band just got back from a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas. As his mother, I made the selfless sacrifice to go as a chaperon. It ended up being one of the most fun chaperoning experiences I've had.

We left late Wednesday night on charter buses and drove to Florida. We arrived at the Golden Corral at 6:30 am. We had arranged for the entire restaurant to be open just for us. After our leisurely breakfast, we drove another 45 minutes or so to Coco Beach for our performance at the Ron Jon Surf Shop.

The kids were given a little bit of shopping time before we got back on the buses to drive the short ride to port.

As a chaperon, I was in charge of one room of boys. James was in another group, as I am sure he was quite pleased! I was responsible for getting my boys checked in and on board. Then throughout the trip, they had to check in with me every now & then to let me know what they were doing. My group ate at a separate table for dining each night. We had nightly curfews and room checks. The kids were allowed to be in different groups while we were in the Bahamas, but 3 of them stayed with me. And at the end of the cruise, I was responsible for getting them through customs. I only knew one of my guys prior to the trip. I couldn't have asked for a better group. They were great!

Of course, once we got on the ship, we weren't able to go directly to our staterooms, so had lunch on the Lido Deck and I let my guys explore the upper decks.


Here's a picture of the main lobby.

The water slides

Miniature Golf and walking track

I shared a room with two other moms. The rooms were small and windowless. I was actually surprised that I really didn't mind not having a window. That was a huge advantage when it came to sleeping in each morning!

Here's James with one of his friends sipping sodas at the bar.

First night's towel creature.

We arrived in the Bahamas around noon the next day.

There were 3 other ships when we arrived.

I did manage to get a picture taken with James when we got off the ship.

We took a short walk to Junkanoo Beach.

James with some of his friends.

 

 

 

We went to the Straw Market for some shopping. 

 

 

That night was the "formal night". Here I am with my roommates. 

 And here is one with my baby boy.

 

 

Another towel animal. 

Our last day was at sea. Several of the other chaperons (including both of my roommates) had one trophies for various ship trivia games. I was determined to win one myself, so after 4 different games, I finally one on. Hannah & I had gotten one on our last cruise for our room decorations.

Here I am with "my boys". They were so sweet!

Here are the girls from our dinner table with one of our waiters. He was so funny!

Our final towel creature.

 

 

This was such a fun trip! As the mother of a freshman, I enjoyed getting to know more of the band students as well as many of the band parents. 



School Concerts

James & Hannah both had school concerts recently.

 Hannah had her debut as a cellist. They don't have assigned chairs yet -it was first come, first served. Hannah made sure she arrived early so she could sit in the front of her section.

And James had his first high school band concert. He recently earned the first chair position in his band. There are 4 different bands at his school and they are based on ability, not grade level. James is in the Symphonic 2 band.

The tubas were all seated in the center back of the stage, so I couldn't see him at all. So I didn't even bother to try to take a picture. I did get this one before hand.

We are so proud of our musical children!

Marching Band - BOA Atlanta

The McEachern Marching Band performed yesterday at the Georgia Dome for the BOA - Atlanta Super Regional.


Here's Hannah with some signs that she made for the competition.

Our little friend is holding another one of our signs.

The sousaphones practicing before their performance.

Each section was practicing separately in the parking lot.

Getting into position.

Face Off!

Of course most of my pictures feature the sousaphones.

McEachern had a fabulous performance. They have grown so much during the season. They placed 14th out of 34 in the preliminaries, but only the top 12 go on to the finals. We're down to a few more football games and a Veterans Day parade and then the season will come to an abrupt end.