first day of band

Today was my first day of band. I play the baritone horn. It is like a mini tuba. It was really hard to get it on the bus and I was really scared about it falling of the seat and breaking.
It got to school safe and I put it in the hall next to everyone else's. My lesson was at 12:00.
 When It was finally time for my lesson I walked down the hall with my baritone and my friend Jimmy, who also plays the baritone. Miss. Del Vechio my band teacher let us in. She gave us a couple papers about band and told us the rules and then she showed us how to open the case and how to hold the instrument. I already new some of this stuff because my dad taught me over the summer how tho play the baritone. We did some buzzing with the mouthpiece and the we tried the instrument. Jimmy got the full size one and it was kind of hard for him to hold it because he was not tall enought to hold it. We tried a few notes and she new that my dad was a music teacher and that I had learned over the summer so she asked me to play a song.
I went up to song ninety over the summer so I played that. She was really impressed. She told me for homework that I had to work on tonguing.
 Jimmy and I went back to the classroom. Jimmy's was heavier so it was harder for him to carry it all the way back to the fifth grade wing. At the end of the day we had to put it back on the bus which was also hard. Band was so fun!

Big Girl

She's becoming such a big girl. After a bit of training she mowed all by herself. Claudia is doing really well at basketball and started learning the baritone and will be in band this fall in 5th grade.

Basketball

Claudia has completed her 4th grade season.  Next year will be a big step up in commitment but she seems to be ready.  She likes it a lot.  Her team did really well this year even though most of the kids were 3rd graders.

Soccer season coming soon.

Snow Fun

Getting Big

Claudia!

Claudia is almost nine years old.  She is almost five feet tall.  She continues to be one of the tallest girls in her class.  She hears "You've gotten sooo tall" every where she goes.  She has lots of Aunts...

She is doing great at basketball.  She is in 4th grade and it is a 3rd-4th grade league, so she is a leader on her team.  She loves playing the games.  She is taking the winter off from soccer, but watches it on TV all the time.

She is in class with Mrs. Matthews.  She gave a workshop on iPad use with classmates that was really fun to parents.  She is auditioning for a solo with the chorus today for the concert next month.  Her first "real" school concert.  Hopefully one of many. Soon we will decide band or orchestra or choir...

Update

Claudia is doing really well in soccer.  She works really hard at it.  She almost always play center back to start and end the game.

Fourth grade is going well and her teacher is Mrs. Matthews.

She is practicing the piano a lot.  She also had basketball tryouts tonight and did really well.

Spain

The airport was long the plane ride was 8 hours. When we got to Madrid we had to drive for hours to get to bennicasim where the wedding was. We stayed in a bungalow. We went to the beach a lot.  The water was very warm and there were no fish rocks or seashells in the sand. We went to this festival on the beach.  Everybody built bonfires on the sand and at midnight everybody was supossed to run into the water and jump over three waves and make three wishes.  We went out to dinner and the kopecs were at the same reasturant  and when we got inside Tootie and Jeff were in there to having dinner.

We went to Barcelona for a day. We took the train.  we got on the tour bus.  We saw the Olympic torch.  We got back on the bus and went to some cable cars.  The picture is when we are at the top  of the hill.  At the top of the hill there were a fort that the people used.  Then we got back on the tour bus and to the train station.  the train had a table in the middle  so we played cards.

Springtime

We went to lake Compounce.  We went on to the log flume.  It was Mollys first time going on it.  We also went to the water park.  The water was really cold.  We went in a wave pool and lazy river.

Recital

Claudia had a great piano recital today.

Piano Work

Goal!

Riding Lessons

Claudia recently started horse riding lessons.  She likes them a lot.  Her horse name is Mitchell.

Home Run

March!

Claudia finished her basketball season.  She got a lot better this season, her first in real games.  She ended up scoring about 5 pts each game.  She works really hard.

Last weekend Claudia was tested for her piano lessons on theory and her playing.  We think she did pretty well, although we don't have the results yet.

Track Meet

IMG_0758 a video by brandtsch on Flickr.

Claudia got 6th in the 55m and 3rd in the long jump. She got 11th in the 400m. She was in the 9 and 10 age group.

Bobby McFerrin

The girls and I had a special visit to New York City last night.  We went to the Time Warner Center for dinner and a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center.  JALC is a huge facility with three theaters.

We had dinner at Landmarc which is a big restaurant, but it is very kid friendly.  They even brought cotton candy out at the end of the meal.

We then went to the Bobby McFerrin concert.  We sat in one of the boxes behind the stage.  The sound was not great but we had the box to ourselves and could see really well so it worked out.

January

Claudia is really enjoying basketball.  She has been doing good at winter soccer.

This week she had a bowling birthday party with Emily, Caroline, Erin, Leah, Jack, Noah, Taylor, and Molly.  It was super fun.

Claudia got a big girl bike for her birthday.  A non K-Mart bike that should hold together in summer triathlons.  She is still growing fast and had a healthy 8th year doctor appointment.

Buddies

IMG_2107, a photo by brandtsch on Flickr.

Basketball

Proud of Claudia and Coach Kasey. First basketball win ever., a photo by brandtsch on Flickr.

They won! Record is 1-1.