March Madness

Okay, so March is about basketball, right?  

Ally takes a shot at Benton (against Benton-Shullsburg)

It's also about our MADNESS for keeping sanity during this long, long, LONG winter!!

Whenever Cy gets cabin fever, he hits the Lego tub.  He made a pretty cool stop-action Lego video out of this "set"...buying a few old Lego dinosaurs off Ebay!

 Whenever Ally gets bored, she does crazy stuff like this...

Wynne & Ally with their "elephant snouts" annoying Rudy!

...or this: gluten-free baking!  Look at the cake she gets all to herself:)

 But I can't blame her.  Ally's super busy with the beginning of softball and March Music Month...March's madness comes not only from basketball, but also from BAND and FORENSICS.  Ally just qualified for State Forensics yesterday, in fact, with her 4-minute speech on "The Unexpected Benefits of Owning a Dog"! (along with several cousins...thanks to grandmas, family and friends for being there!)  And here she is playing first chair trumpet.  She's been practicing Hummel's Trumpet Concerto for several weeks in preparation for Solo and Ensemble District Contest next weekend.  It's a very difficult piece, Class A.  She can do it!!;) (says mom and her awesome director, Mr. Cooley)
 

Ally in the "Fresh Trash Band" at the Pops Concert

 We have a few other band members in the family.  Cy, in fact, brought the crowd to applause last week with his drum solo in "At the Hop".  I am not kidding you--he's pretty good;) (tears in my eyes)

 He looks so serious.  Mean.  Focused?

 The twins have had a little madness of their own this month.  Fifth grade band....

Paige on clarinet, Shae on French Horn

 ...and BATTLE OF THE BOOKS!  They and 6 other kids in grades 4-5 have been reading 8 books and taking notes on them.  We reviewed last week and went to the Battle on Thursday, March 20....

 Here's the 5th grade team working on the team round.  I knew they were going to be a strong team...

 but I was THRILLED when they tied for FIRST among 14 teams.  Paige and Brooklyn tied for 3rd individually, and Amanda tied for first individually.  Way to go, girls!! Keep on a readin!!!!!!

Amanda, Paige, Brooklyn, and Shae