Kevin's First Win!!

Kevin celebrated his 24th birthday on Friday. We had a crazy week, so we had a low-key celebration on Friday night. We went to Old Chicago in Boulder so Kevin could finish his third World Beer Tour. His parents and sister came too. The kids at his school found out it was his birthday, so when he left for lunch, he came back and they had decorated the band room and had a little party for him. Every period, one of the choirs would come in and sing "Happy Birthday". The kids were making fun of Kevin for being so young - he's the youngest faculty member at AHS by far, so they gave him some gag gifts - bath fizz, coloring books, and baby shampoo:) Kevin was happy that the kids wanted to celebrate with him.

Saturday, Kevin's Winter Percussion Ensemble competed at the Northglenn Competition at Northglenn High School. These events are run by the Rocky Mountain Percussion Association (State Championships are next week!). This was the first time they performed their entire show for the judges. Their show is a Metallica show - the songs "Fuel" and "One". There were only two schools in their class at this competition - Standley Lake and Alameda. For Prelims, Alameda scored an 80.20. Standley Lake scored an 81.00. Very close! SL has been ahead of Alameda all season, so the Alameda kids were excited and wanted to pass SL. The kids rehearsed all day between Prelims and Finals, and were exhausted by the end of the day. Finals were late that afternoon and both schools had good shows. When they announced all the scores, we discovered that Alameda had passed Standley Lake - 80.30 to 79.90. This was Kevin's first competition win as a director! He's very excited, but mostly he's proud of the kids. They have been through a lot in the last year, and they were so happy. Kevin still wants to better their score for next week championships! There will be four schools in their class, and three make finals, so we think there's a great shot! They have to rehearse hard all week, but hopefully this win will give them the motivation they need. We'll try to get some pictures up next week.

Even though we were exhausted Saturday night, some friends came to Old Chicago for another birthday celebration for Kevin. It didn't last too long! We were pretty tired.

Today, Amy went to the Rockies game with her sister. That was really fun, except they both got sunburned! Extra Crispy. Too bad the Rockies lost, but it was still fun. Kevin went golfing with some friends. Time to gear up for another crazy week!