Category Archives: Proud Mommy Moment

The year in pictures

Posted on by

While going through my reader the other day (Yes, I do go through it on occasion) I happened upon a post from Ashley from My Front Porch Swing and then the same one from Jessica over at Four Plus an Angel and decided to play along! I mean 12 pictures or my favorite posts from the year… how much easier can it get?

january

January brought Andrew’s first birthday! It seems so long ago but it was only a year…. and what a difference a year makes.

feb

February brings Valentine’s Day… need I say  more?

march

March and my little girl turned 9 and brought Flat Lauren to the party!

april

April at my parents house for Easter and the girls were on a scavenger hunt that their grandma puts together every year for them.

May

May! And my first ever blogging conference! I made the trip…. all2 hrous of it to Holland Michigan for Gleek Retreat where I met some incredible women all from Michigan! That’s me along with Elena from Mommy’s in Timeout and Katie from Sluiter Nation!

June

In June all three of my girls took part in one of the parades that take place every year during the Curwood Festival. I was a proud mama watching all of them march!

july

The heat of July is only intensified by sitting by the ball field while you watch your kids play for what seems like hours on end.

august

August brought another conference for me and this time it was Bloggy Bootcamp. If you ever have a chance to go to one of these GO! Seriously it was incredible! Here I am with so great friends from Michigan! Dutch Being Me, Mommy is in Time Out, Daily Dribbles, and Buried with Children.

sept

First day of school for September of course.

october

October was warm… on occasion and the day we carved pumpkins the kids all made their way outside and spent the afternoon playing together and carving pumpkins.

nov

Every year in November the high school marching band puts on one final performance of the marching season indoors. Yes, indoors! Where it’s warm & we can enjoy it. It is truly one of the best events during the year.

dec

And that brings us to December. And with it being the holidays and all I bet you’re tired of seeing all those happy holiday type pictures so instead of that I’ve decided to grace you with the Pimp of Greek Town. Now, I have no idea what his name is or if he really is a pimp but I HAD to take a picture of this. We took a trip to Detroit for my daughter’s 16th birthday and I have to say that this was probably the highlight of the day!

So there you have it folks…12 pictures from the past year. I do have to say that I loved going through all the pictures from the year and seeing how the kids have changed and grown, the places we’ve been, and all the fun we had. Picking just one picture for each month was hard because I wanted to share so much more with you all.

How was your year? Have you had time to sit and look back at all your pictures yet?

Proud Mommy Moment ~ In the band

Posted on by

Today I’m linking up with Kmama,  a good friend of mine that I got the privilege of meeting a couple weeks ago in Chicago at Bloggy Bootcamp, to tell you about one of my proud mommy moments.

Band is a big thing around here and they take it seriously. It’s so big that if you’re not in the band here you’re nobody!

Since the beginning of August my daughter has been at school along with over 200 students at band camp. They been marching and marching through the blazing heat, the rain, and oddly enough through thunder storms and funnel clouds. No worries…. they sent the kids inside and then home. But the kids are dedicated and have put in a lot of work to remain one of the number one high schools in their district.

This is the first year that my daughter is marching with the Trojan marching band (TMB). Freshman aren’t allowed to march and at the end of the year take a playing & marching test before they can get into TMB… see I told you they’re serious here. To say that I’m a proud mama is to say the least.

Caitlin has been in band since she was in the 5th grade and has been first chair & unchallenged since the day she started. She’s excelled in band, as well as other classes, and has won several ribbons for her achievements in various competitions. Honestly, she’s good enough to do something with her music after high school.

This past Friday was the first football game of the season which means that it was also the first performance of the TMB and I was that mom. You know the one in the stands fully dressed in the team colors with multiple camera’s and of course the iPhone in which to quickly share pictures of my kids out of the football field.

Owosso Trojan Marching Band

That's Caitlin... front & center.

 

That night I took 2 or 3 videos and over 100 pictures of my daughter, the band, and the football game. See… I told you that I was that mom! But in my defense I wasn’t the only parent that was doing it!

Owosso Trojan Marching Band

I was lucky and was able to get great seats right on the 35 yard line, 3 rows up right in front of where she was standing for many of the songs that they played. Notice the crooked hat… I asked about that and they’re not allowed to adjust it, brush hair out of their face, sweat off their brow, or anything like that. So she marched with her hat like that for that entire routine.

Owosso Trojan Marching Band

The majority of the band watching the game

When they’re not playing the band sits in the end zone in bleachers that are specifically for the band. They play when there’s a touch down & at other important moments in the game (yea, I don’t know all technical details just that they play).

So tonight (I know it’s a Thursday game because of the holiday weekend) I’ll be in the bleachers with my cameras in hand again taking pictures and video of the band and my daughter. Why? Because I’m a proud mom!

Another Proud Moment ~ Spirit Cup Winners

Posted on by

Today I was up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to take my oldest two girls to school so that they could take part in the school assembly that started at 4:45am.

What!?!? You ask… well my kids along with all the other kids in our school district have raised 177, 402 pounds of food for the eastern Michigan Food Bank. This is simply amazing and shows how much the kids care about their community and helping out those in need. I am really proud of all the work that my kids along with all the others have done over the past school year.

The local TV station picked up on their efforts a few years ago when it was just the Owosso & Corunna schools (cross town rivals) going against one another to see who could raise the most food. And now the program has grown to include schools from Lapeer, Clio, Flint, Saginaw, and all over mid-Michigan. All of these kids are doing a great thing to help out.

Each Friday a school is featured live on WJRT channel 12 and they compete against one another for the Spirit Cup and the school that raises the most food is the winner. This year Owosso is the winner!

The video is pretty long… like almost 30 minutes long. But it highlights the efforts that the kids in Owosso & mid-Michigan have made throughout the school year as well as footage from this morning’s live coverage.

Do you have a similar program in your community to help out others?

PMM ~ Part of the band

Posted on by

I probably don’t tell my kids often enough how proud I am of them and their accomplishments and I know that I really should. This past weekend was one of those times that I was really proud of my oldest daughter.

She is an exceptional kid…. smart, talented, and pretty good looking (ok… I may be biased on this last one). She has been in band since 5th grade as well as jazz band since 7th grade and has played the alto sax the entire time. She is so good that she hasn’t been challenged by another student.. ever.. and she’s now finishing up her freshman year. I think that this is simply amazing.

Caitlin was asked to march with the TMB (Trojan Marching Band) last weekend in the Tulip Festival parade in Holland, Michigan. To me this was a really big deal because the freshman do not march or play with the 10th- 12th grade kids. As a matter of fact the band program in our town is a pretty big deal and not just anyone can take part in band. It’s serious here! Here’s the deal, band is open to anyone through 9th grade and then after that you basically have to prove that you’re good enough to be in band… there’s a playing test, a written test (I think), and possibly even a marching test (my daughter told me & I’m old and tend to forget things).

Holland Tulip Time Parade

By being asked to take part in the parade told me that she is good enough and that she knows what she’s doing (I already knew this….duh), but it more or less confirmed it all.

Like any proud parent we dropped her off at school to take one of the four Greyhound buses to Holland and then we followed. The weather was terrible. Rainy, wet, and really damn cold considering the entire week previous was sunny, warm and about 80 degrees. But we dressed for the weather and had our umbrellas in hand and I swore that it would not rain during the parade!

TMB was a premier band meaning that it played in the street (3 different locations) prior to the start of the parade. Of course I was there staking out my spots (yes… spots… both sides of the street since I didn’t know what direction they’d face when they stopped) and had my camera in hand. I’m pretty sure that my daughter was thinking that I was crazy or ‘that’ mom… you know the one who shoves their way in to get the perfect pictures of their kid. Yea, I was sorta that way but in my defense those other people did not have kids in the band nor were they taking pictures or video. Oh…. I said excuse me too.. I wasn’t that rude.

Holland Tulip Time Parade

I was able to get a lot of decent pictures during the premier band show as well as during the parade. Needless to say I’m very proud of her accomplishments as well as those of her younger sisters. To me they’re all amazing kids.