Shelby's Music Program

Playing a little catch up on the blog.  At the end of January, Shelby had her school music concert for the 2nd and 3rd graders.  

 letting Erik know she's got her eye on him

 Oakdale 2nd & 3rd Grades

 This song was funny.  It was called Aiken Drum.  The 3rd graders performed it.  Some sang.  Some played instruments that would be found in any one's kitchen.  Some dressed the bear.  Shelby had the belt for the bear - string beans.

 Cheese for a hat. Pizza for a coat.  Raisin toast for pants.  Gingerbread for a shirt.  A tuna fish for a tie.  Tacos for shoes.  String beans for a belt.

Stylin'

Upwards

Upwards basketball and cheerleading practices were held the first two Saturdays in December.  We took a nice break for Christmas.  1 practice in January and first games were held last Saturday.  This is Shelby's third year in basketball, 2nd playing Upwards.  Morgan is a cheerleader for the first time.  She loves it and was not nervous at all.  I'm not being a biased mother but, Shelby is by far the best player on her team.  I have only seen her play 15 minutes or so in both games but I have seen practice.  Morgan cheers every week at 1:00 for 3rd & 4th grade boys in the big gym and Shelby plays at 1:30 or 2:30 in the little gym.  The first 2 games she has had the 1:30 game and I have to stay with Morgan in the other gym.  Luckily it doesn't bother her and Nate should be able to make it to most of the rest of the games.  I took these pictures last week before the first game.  Watching the Packer game and finally getting around to updating the blog.  I tried to take the pictures in front of the patio door because it was snowing that day.  Just couldn't get this one to come out that way.  The uniform the cheerleader's get is the top & skirt, an optional mock turtleneck that I had to order a bigger size and she got it at today's game, pom poms, a megaphone and even a hair tie to match!  We found the perfect shoes at Shoe Carnival.  Isn't she cute????  And she has the perfect loud voice that every good cheerleader needs.

 lined up waiting for the other game to finish

 before the game they introduce each cheerleader

they run out and line up to form a tunnel for the boys to run through when they announce them 

 waiting for the opening prayer

 I have some video but I am having a hard time loading them.  Maybe later in the season.  Moving on to basketball.  I don't have many pictures yet.

The girls didn't get new shoes before school started so I told them they could go shopping with some of the money they got for Christmas.  Shoe Carnival was having their buy one, get one 1/2 price sale going so they each got a pair of tennis shoes for school and Shelby got high tops for basketball and Morgan a pair for cheerleading.  I had them measure Shelby's foot.  When the guy said 2.5 or 3, I said, "WHAT"?!?  He said 2.5 or 3.  I asked Shelby what size the shoes she had on were and she said 13.5! Good grief!  I think they look so big.

that is her arm up after the shot standing behind the girl in the red

 dribbling down the lane

 Hopefully I will get some better pictures and video before the season is over.  Shelby has the same coach as last year and Morgan's cheerleading coach is a saint.  Their team is 5 & 6 year olds and they practice Thursdays from 6-7.  Later in the week and late in the day.  Most of them need to stay home and go to bed.  They have done a pretty good job during the games though.  Goooooo Upward!

A Dino Diva's Dream

The first week of December we had plans to take the train to Chicago to visit Sue the T. Rex at the Field Museum.  The trip was postponed because Shelby was running a fever and Morgan had sore ears.  A few days later the doctor said Morgan has a double ear infection and Shelby an upper respiratory virus.  We decided to get a refund on the train tickets and try again.  Since Nate was going to be in Chicago for his annual baseball coaches convention Wednesday evening thru Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to go.  Not ideal right after the holidays and all our travel, but if we didn't go before baseball season started, who knows when we would get there.  So I bought a one way train ticket for Nate.  On Wednesday January 2nd, we woke early to get on the 7:30am train.  As we were anticipating the trains arrival, an announcement said the train was delayed in Springfield due to a break in the tracks.  New departure time was 9:00.  We finally got on the train and some where along the way we had to pull off and wait for the southbound train to pass.  We arrived in Chicago at noon instead of the scheduled 10:00.  A wait in a short line for a cab and we were off to the museum.

unfortunately looking right into the sun

 the Dino Diva with Sue

 we watched this 3D movie

Shelby loved it

I didn't enjoy all of it

 for the girl who says this is her plan some day

Sue is a T. Rex but Shelby's favorite is the Triceratops

here she is with the head of 1

 the real head of Sue

it is too heavy to be on the display so they have it in a glass box

 looking at Sue from the balcony

they still had Christmas lights and decorations up

 fun displays of dinosaurs everywhere

these are in a gift shop

 Morgan was interested in taking lots of pictures with her ipod.  She didn't care as much about the dinosaurs as Shelby.  But she did enjoy this African bus and exhibit.

The first thing we did after checking our coats and getting our tickets was find the McDonald's to get some lunch.  We had a 1/2 an hour or so before the movie to learn some facts about Sue.  There was a lovely volunteer who told us lots of stuff.  Shelby of course already knew most of it and answered many of her questions.  She video taped her with her ipod.  Shelby had read one of the books about Sue from the Oakdale library that they sell there at the museum.  We bought her a copy.  We were joking that with the delayed train we wouldn't be happy if we came all that way to eat at McDonald's and watch a movie!  It ended up being perfect timing.  We had plenty of time to check out the dinosaur stuff and beyond that, we really do not find museums all that interesting.  Before we knew it the museum was closing.  We waited in another cold, long line for a cab and said our goodbyes to Nate.  We headed to the train station and he went to his hotel.  We had to wake both girls up when the train pulled into Normal about 9:20.  Thankfully no delays on the return trip.  It is crazy to think that in 12 hours we went to Chicago and walked through a museum and then home again!  Thanks Nonny Mary for a fun family trip.