So on Track

The weather has been so weird this year!  I am sitting here at work in capri pants and a short sleeve shirt, but just two days ago I was bundled up in a heavy coat and long pants.  A few weeks ago (November 1), Mike took our family to a JMU football game.  These are not something that we do too often.  We tend to go to the basketball games, but not the football for some reason.  We mainly wanted Ryan to see the marching band since he is in band at school.  We thought it would be neat to see a band that has it together and is MUCH larger that the Elkton Middle School band.  :)  He was impressed.  He kept commenting on the fact that they were "really on track."  I did not know what this meant for a bit, but then realized he meant, in my language, in sinc with each other.  I said "are you guys usually on track?"  "Sometimes" was his comment.  I think he enjoyed it.  Sadly, it was so cold and had rained the night before so the bleachers were very cold and damp since we did not have enough towels to dry off really well.  We made it thorough halftime and left.  We saw what we came to see though.

Before we went into the game, we ran into one of my former students--Josh Calderon.  He is a tuba player in the marching band.  It was great!  The kids took their picture with him for me.  Not sure they wanted to, but they did without a gripe.  Besides it being such a cold day--we had a lot of fun.  And . . . JMU ended up winning!  After we left they started winning.  :)

Ryan goes Purple and Gold!

Ryan was part of the Duke Dog reading program that JMU does for the area schools. You are to read a certain amount of books over your winter break. You record what you read and the amount of pages, etc., turn it in and you receive a ticket to a JMU basketball game for the student and two adults to go with the student. This covered Ryan, Mike and myself. Lydia and Emily are young enough not to have to pay anyway. We went to the game yesterday afternoon. Each student that came to the game received a coupon for a free ice cream cone from Brewsters and a raffle ticket to potentially win a door prize. Also, they were giving out pom poms to the kids. Ryan's school, McGaheysville Elementary School, was one of the top three area schools to have the most participation. For coming in 3rd, Ryan's principal, Ms. Roadcap, was presented a plaque on the court at halftime. Ryan was pretty excited to see someone he knew walking out onto the court. The kids kept their eyes peeled for the Duke Dog mascot throughout the entire game. When he actually came up to our section, they did not want to go up to talk to him:). They had a neat halftime show with kids doing various basketball things and then there were two men who came out and had a remote control vehicle race around obstacles on the court. They announced the names of these racers and we looked down on the court to see our next door neighbor, Jerry--funny. Lydia spent a large part of the game cheering with her pom pom and Ryan's pom pom. Then each time the cheerleaders or the Dukettes came onto the floor she was completely focused on the performances. I took a movie of her cheering, but of course she did not do as much while the camera was on. Ryan saw several kids that go to his school. It was really neat and we had a great time! Neatest part of the whole game though was at the beginning--one of the players of the JMU basketball team, in uniform, sang the National Anthem. An amazing singer! Multi-talented!!

Gus Bus Birthday

I hate to admit that I am just now blogging about something that happened last Saturday! Last Saturday we were invited by Rabia and her two children to accompany them to The Gus Bus Birthday Party. There is a reading program here in Harrisonburg called The Reading Road Show. The Reading Road Show provides book bags to the area preschools and daycare facilities that are filled with books. These books are swapped out each week so the children are exposed to many different books over the course of the year. In addition to the book bag swapping, the Gus Bus is part of the Reading Road Show and comes to the preschools one day a month, inviting the children to climb aboard. The Gus Bus is a Bookmobile type vehicle that is designed for children. Mr. Mike drives the Gus Bus and reads books to the children while theyare on the bus and sings songs with them. They LOVE it!!! It is such a wonderful program that is now in it's fifth year. This non-profit program celebrated it's fifth birthday last Saturday by inviting all of the vehicular friends of Gus's. Gathered at the convocation center were buses, tractors, cranes, race cars and dump trucks that the kids were able to climb over and through and pretend to drive. All five kids had a wonderful time!! The highlight of the day was having fun with the James Madison University gymnasticteam. They brought mats out to let the kids flip and walk on a balance beam. I believe the kids flipped for 45 minutes anyway:). They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids. While climbing on the different vehicles you were to look for small stuffed bunnies. Each bunny was numbered--you were to identify where you found each bunny. After compiling all of the bunny locations, you took your paper up to collect you prize. Ryan picked a moose mask and Lydia and Emily picked Reading Rainbow shirts. We finished off the day with a $1.00 hot dog for everyone and some free ice cream--we then went home for naps. It was great!