Between the Cruise and Spring Break

Well, it took me forever to get all the cruise posts put together, and life was still happening in the meantime!

Here are a few notable things that the McBride family was up to between the cruise and spring break!

Alex is attending a magnet school in our school district called DATA, which stands for Design and Technology Academy. He is really enjoying it, and he joined the robotics club that meets twice a week. They had a competition in January, and though their team didn't place, he really enjoyed problem solving and doing research with his team!

Another school project Alex had was to create a board game based on Tom Sawyer.

It snowed here in San Antonio! That was kinda crazy! It didn't stick or anything, but it was fun!

February also means Gold Cup Festival, which is a piano competition here in San Antonio. Don't let Cade's smile deceive you, he was probably happy because after the festival he knew he was getting a 'break' from taking lessons. He is continuing lessons with me because I'm just not at a point where I can let the piano education stop, especially since he's an aspiring professional musician. Do you know that about Cade? You'll see evidence in a few pictures of how seriously he takes his trombone!

One of our Christmas presents was to have Guitar Hero in the house again. This is the moment we realized that Cade might be better than Dan at it! He'll never pass me though, hahahaha....!

Alex built a suit of armor out of straws!

I got some highlights in my hair after a year without coloring it. :)

February also means TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association). It's a HUGE conference, because Texas doesn't do anything small. There are conferences all around the country this time of year, but TMEA is the biggest, and it's right here in San Antonio! Dan always has a booth there, and this year the whole family went on the last day to do some trombone shopping and browsing of all the music booths.

Here's a video of Cade trying a valve trombone. I'm pretty sure he secretly wishes he played a valve instrument.

After TMEA we got some lunch downtown and visited this cool park. I'm pretty sure this is Hemisfair park. They had an awesome playground, splash area, sand area, giant chess, checkers, puzzles, cornhole, foosball and ping pong.

And after trying a zillion trombones we found THE one. It's a Getzen 1047 and is a great step-up trombone that should suit him through highschool and into college. This kid practices constantly, it's crazy!

They got the boys' names were engraved onto the ward Eagle plaque! These are the last names that will ever be engraved. We're in the midst of getting prepared for the Eagle Court of Honor on March 28th.

I love this next picture. These are two of the newest deacons in the ward who are super excited to go on their first temple trip! They were beaming the whole evening.

We did our second ninja competition for the season. The results weren't amazing, but they loved trying some new obstacles.

Since Cade is turning 14 this year he can now go to the stake dances! (What?! When did that happen?!) The first dance of the year had a 60s, 70s, and 80s theme. Here's what Cade wore, trying to tap into the 80s feel. :)

February here is also a big month for me for piano work. Due to a lot of different circumstances I ended up playing for four middle school choirs during the time of their large group contest. That required individual practices with each school, pre-contest concerts, contest performances, separate invoices, contracts and a whole lot of sheet music. Then I was super smart and accepted a solo and ensemble gig in another district for 15 high school band kids who picked music that was way too hard, lol. I haven't practiced so much or so hard in quite some time. In the same week I picked up a sub job for a pianist who plays for the Grace Lutheran church. She needed someone to cover the Ash Wednesday service and the choir rehearsal afterwards. Here's the organ I played on! Hehe...   All in all I played for 9 separate schools or churches in one week. It was insane, but hey, I can't complain when the paychecks start coming in!

As if we didn't have enough on our plate, Cade was recently invited by a friend to join SAYWE (San Antonio Youth Wind Ensemble), and even as an 8th grader he is fitting right in with the high school and college kids that play with this group. They rehearse on Saturdays from 9-12 near the downtown area, so Alex and I dropped Cade off and then went to the Pearl Farmer's market. Good weather, good food, good scenery!

Cinnamon pecans, and because we were their first customer we got a free cone of cinnamon peanuts too!

Alex snapped a picture of me and my food, which was some sort of asian egg crepe thing that was very different and very delcious. The picture doesn't do it justice.

I try not to take a lot of pictures of strangers, but this guy's jacket was awesome!!

After walking around the market we stepped down to the riverwalk and found some cool features. This is a spot that has been made to look like a cave and has a waterfall.

And at a park later in the day alex wanted a picture by this 'outdoor classroom'

We sure do keep busy, phew! Spring break is next week. Our spring break is super early in March, and it makes for a long 2 1/2 months AFTER the break, but we're still glad to have a moment to breathe and relax a little bit.