Wonderful World of Color

I wish this would come to Disney's Hollywood Studios sometime. It looks amazing, and even better than Fantasmic!

And need I say anything about how much I love "Beauty & the Beast" near the end? Lol!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

No Halloween Party

Current Mood:


Were Mom and I returning to Disney this year for MNSSHP, I'd be packing right now. (From being so excited, Mom would have started her packing MONTHS ago. Lol! She would have gotten the suitcases out of the closet like five seconds after making reservations).

We would have been leaving this weekend!

Proud Aunt = Me

Yesterday Mom and I saw Luke at his band competition. I got sunburned, and Mom is still recovering from being sick, but it was worth every moment. (I think it's sweet that my sister told us that the first thing out of Luke's mouth that morning was asking if we were going to be there).

Unfortunately, we never saw or spoke to him. Mom did spot him a few times with the binoculars though, and she said he look exhausted. (By the way, the stadium it took place in is named after my stupid bank that I'm so PO-ed at. Yep, The Universe has one twisted sense of humor... not that I was laughing or anything).

Luke's band is a lot smaller this year. Last year they were humongous, but now they're smaller because of a new high school - or two - being built. They sounded FANTASTIC as always. They won Best Musical Performance (2x), and made the finals.

The finals are between the top 10 bands of the 26 (?) total, regardless of division/size of the band. I have to say too, that the bands I saw in the finals were fantastic! (We didn't listen to the last three though. We decided to walk around below the stands to stretch. It was pretty uncomfortable sitting in those stands, and I don't think either of us were really fully recovered from the heat earlier). Of the other bands in the finals, my favorites were 'Winston Churchill' and then some band from San Antonio. One song that the San Antonio band performed was a ballad from 300! (Believe it or not, it finally dawned on me what the song was the second time I heard them play it).

I was shocked when in the finals that band made 5th place. They should have been in the top 3. First place went to Stephen F. Austin of course. They almost always win everything, and I don't see why. They do deserve to make the final cut, but it bugs me that they have the same number of dancers as band members, if not more. To me, it feels like the band is accompanying the dancers instead of the other way around. It's just really, really strange.

And speaking of strange... Luke is so mad this year b/c finally his band director started following the norm of these band competitions. Instead of just focusing on marching and the music, he had them doing all that interpretative mumbo-jumbo.

And let me tell you now that I saw some WEIRD performances yesterday. We're talking way more eccentric than Tim Burton. Still, Luke's band was one of the most normal programs.

Oh! Stupid me. I never mentioned how they placed in the finals. They placed SECOND, and was only 1 point behind 1st! Also, when they won Best Musical Performance again this one old man that was obviously a band geek (he was actually writing down the scores) kept saying - "Absolutely right. Absolutely right." Lol!

Video recording isn't allowed at these things, so below I'll just post some vids I found on YouTube for this season. I wish they had their full program - about 10 minutes long - online someplace, but they don't. One of those medley's was The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini! That's one of my favorite songs in the whole world, and they played it beautifully.

One day I'll have to copy/paste comments on YouTube about them from other bands. It's really awesome how they're so looked up to. Even one poster mentioned their own band director being a big fan of Cedar Park. (And I'm not being bias when I say not only are they great musically, but their marching reminds me of military or a college band).

The competition was over by 11 pm, and the bus ride back to Austin is 3 1/2 hours if you don't make any stops. This means my exhausted nephew didn't get home last night until 2:30 or 3 am at least. I don't know how those kids manage band with all their schoolwork. I'm in awe of that.

If you view the video below, I would click on the YouTube window to watch it on a larger screen:
(Also be sure to pause the music on this page)



PS - Mom was so funny yesterday. She stopped 3 groups of Luke's band mates yesterday, asking if they knew Luke and to tell him his Nan and Aunt Kristin were here. :p

And one more thing - I've decided I'm a lucky second guesser. When they were announcing the order of the finals performances, my guesses were that Cedar Park would be either the 4th or 7th in line to play. (They performed 7th).

Okay, make that two more things. I sort of saw a celebrity from around here at the competition. There's this pastor (Kerry Shook) of a HUGE congregation in The Woodlands, and he's on tv. He has something like 5 kids, so I guess at least one of them was performing yesterday. We're not churchgoer's anymore, but our neighbor attends that church.




I find this a little funny. My niece's birthday was a few weeks ago, and last night I saw this post on her Facebook page from her mother:

Autumn's Friends:
This is Autumn's mom. I am sorry if anyone was hurt about not being invited to her b'day party. She loves you all, but I limited the number of friends she could invite. Next year we will try to have a bigger party! : )



Quote of the Day:
(This quote was used at the end of Leander's performance)

Of Short Walks & Enchanted Lions

- My parents went to The Japanese Rose Garden, museum, and then the architectural yard where they bought the most AWESOME thing in the world!

It's a lion's head... and lions are my favorite wild animal... but the lion's eyes and smile look so human. It reminds me so much of The Beast! (Mom named it "Leonidas" though, which I do like). The guy at the store is going to try to find a second one for us.



Click HERE and HERE to see pics of it. (Our camera isn't the best, so I tried two different settings). We placed it above an archway leading into the kitchen.



- I took the girls out for a short walk last night. I had hoped it'd be cooler, but it wasn't. For the most part we just sat on the front porch. Those girls, especially Maddie, absolutely loved it.

Izzy kept wanting to socialize with the neighbors, but some of the kids kept coming into the driveway on their very LOUD four-wheeler. Izzy didn't like it very much, and I absolutely hated it since I can't stand loud noises.



- Mom put out a few Halloween decorations last night! I love decorating for any holiday. It's the best part as far as I'm concerned. I really love it, and so does Mom.



- Here are a couple of vids of the girlies last night. Not much is going on in them, and the camera was constantly clicking, but I can't help filming the doggies.





I wish I could figure out how to not show "related videos" when I upload a vid to Photobucket. I don't like that at all.