Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Spring Show: Senior night

 Anna at the start of the show

                                                   
Breaking out of the vault! (Anna is to the left of the dial turners)


Joel also came, but after we were already sitting down....the life of a college student with a mid-term to take!  (He had to finish it (on line) after the show....so he really hated the emergency break in the show due to high winds.)

The Senior part of senior night....hard to get a good picture all the way across the stage!

Things were pretty chill because their 8th grade show (which is played at senior night) was recorded on an Ipad and they were all wearing masks.  (2020-2021)  They had very little practice that  year and no competitions...which probably explains the small size of the senior class for show choir (36 compared to Carolyn's 71!  Lower classes also are much bigger.)




Below is Carolyn's senior class...gigantic!

The day after senior show, the kids all had to be on a bus at 4:45 in the morning for their last regular competition in Omaha NE.  It was a great show and the kids worked very hard.  Ken and I also were able to spend time meeting with friends from Omaha after the show!




Thursday, February 27, 2025

Getting ready for graduation!

 Spring Show Choir (senior night) is coming quickly and we are heading to San Francisco next week.  So I finished Anna's senior board for show choir. (Almost every senior displays photos from their show choir career.  Carolyn and Joel also included 8th grade on their board, but Anna's 8th grade year was during Covid and so they didn't have costumes and compete in shows.)  Anna said they didn't even sing and dance at the same time when they made their video (on an Iphone....so very fancy).  

Normally at Senior Show, they play the 8th grade performance, not sure how the Iphone video will look enlarged to the super screen.  

 It feels  nice to have something done for her graduation party too!



(and below....blast from the past)


          (pre-cricut)


Perry Band Olympics

The McCleary Family has a big Perry Band Olympics Tradition.  Saturday was the end many events where kiddo (Matthew and Anna in the case of Perry) had a day out playing music and going out to eat (usually in Perry), starting in 2014.  Anna was in flute choir, woodwind ensemble and she had a solo (not pictured).  Everything was beautiful.  Anna drove us to Urbandale to interview her cousin Liz for a class paper, then drove us to Perry.  She wants to be more independent with driving on the highway.  Then after her 3 performances she drove us to the mall for dinner and to pick out her prom dress.  So it was a very busy and very fun day!

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Vortex: Show choir senior season

click here to watch video of first day's final performance

In a nutshell....their story show is loosely based on a dystopian video game/tv show called Fallout.  

Basically, the group is underground due to the lack of safe conditions above, but then they learn them have been lied to and escape to get back to the life they remember.  We joked "how is Vortex escaping next year?"  This is the 2nd year that Centennial has had a varsity girls group.  Previously the girls group was an entry level group (that Anna was in when she was a 9th grader).  (Since there are so many more girls than boys they made a switch to elevate the older girls who aren't in Spectrum.) Last year Vortex girls escaped a zoo (they were birds :0)  

Anyway....here is Anna!
















Anna got accept the award at finals.  Her group beat 5 other varsity groups, so they were over the moon.  Her school's top group won it all - so they were singing the Hokey Pokey.  This is their traditional "yeh we won" song.  They are really good, so they get to sing it a lot.  All 4 show choirs participate in singing.

Three more regular competitions and then they get to travel to Orlando to compete!








Sunday, September 22, 2024

Senior Photo Favorites
























 

Homecoming 2024

                                     






Below Anna's in the upper middle part of the photo, just to the right of the movie real poster.  I took this photo off the Band app.....
The show theme is about the great Hollywood cinema (oldies....like Singing in the Rain)


On the Prowl (Homecoming spirit games)









Sunday, August 25, 2024

Happy 23rd birthday Carolyn


Carolyn couldn't blow out her candles cuz she has COVID.....but I really think she turned a corner today.  (Apple crisp birthday cake after steak tacos!)
Joel came home to help celebrate. 
We are going to watch a comedian: Alex Edelman: Just for Us.  He was just on Who wants to be a Millionaire.  I had never seen him before, but then he wrote an article about how is best friend and collaborator died right before they made it to Broadway.  Then I went down a rabbit hole and have subscribed to Max for the month to watch his one man show.  If I don't like it (but I am pretty sure I will)  I will update.