Topeka Youth Wind Ensemble

Yesterday Annabelle and several of her bandmates spent the day at Washburn University as part of the Topeka Youth Wind Ensemble. Fred and I drove over in the evening for the show, and what a show it was!

Their first piece was "Emperata Overture":



For their last piece, they teamed up with the Washburn Wind Ensemble for a rousing rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever":



I'm a committed bass mom, but dang, those flutes just get me where I live.

Amazing what kids can put together in only one day of rehearsal! I'm so thankful that Annabelle has had lots of artistic opportunities like this here in Kansas.

I can haz spring?

We've had some freakishly warm weather lately:



I wish it would stay, but we're expecting snow later this week.

AOK party

Last night was our second time attending the annual AOK (Aussie-Orange-Kiwi) party put on by the Australian, Dutch, and New Zealand officers. As always, you can't get in the door without a hat, and Fred and I chose kangaroo hats:



Were we pandering to our hosts? Quite possibly, as also each wore orange (shirt for Fred, pants for me) and I wore black, which apparently is New Zealand's national color (who knew?). If we were pandering though, I have no regrets, because we won a prize! A basket of delightful international goodies:



Here are a few more shots from the evening:



And here are our big-eared shadows as we left the party:

Girls in capes

Annabelle and her fellow JROTC sponsors helped hand out awards at a meet held at her school this afternoon. Fred and I went for the awards ceremony, but a gym is not a good place for taking photos. This is the best I managed to get of her and a couple of her friends afterwards:

Look who's on the teevee!

Here's Mike and his friend Chris at the Florida State basketball game today:



Glad I was able to pause it, or I never would have gotten the shot.

Caped crusader

I mentioned back in December that I needed to get Annabelle to put on her spiffy JROTC sponsor's cape so I could get a picture of it. I finally got around to it the other day:



Isn't that beautiful? I think it looks like Superman's varsity jacket.

Somebody let the air out of my pumpkin

The squirrels are still enjoying it though!

Duck Goose duck goose GOOSE!

Just testing out the panorama feature on my new phone:



(Click to make it bigger!)

Window cat

Eddie came into the bathroom this morning and cried until I opened the window. Never mind the fact that it was 20 degrees out:

Cuppa coffee

Breakfast with Annabelle at Harbor Lights--great way to start the last day of break!


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Go, Noles!

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Happy new year!

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