James is an amazing fifteen-year-old (next week!) & we love him so much! Over the past months, James has been consistently into drumming & track. He gets up crazy early twice a week to attend jazz band rehearsal before school begins. He loves it & is motivated to get up early on those days. The second semester of high school band is festival season. James’s symphonic band participated in a regional concert band festival in early March & his jazz band will do the same this week. James spends time drumming in his room on the set most days & has also been working diligently for many months on snare drum in preparation for an audition this spring. James has a goal to make the snare drumline in the fall for marching band. Typically they only march three snare drums so he is practicing hard to beat the competition. 

Track season officially began towards the end of February, but James joined them several weeks early for pre-season training. The high school track team consists of over 100 students & James has enjoyed learning more from upper-classmen. His favorite events are long jump, sprints & relays, but he’s gotten the opportunity to run longer distances too. His hot pink track spikes make him fast! Once again we have so enjoyed watching him compete. In the early meets, we wore winter coats & snow boots on the sidelines & now we’re transitioning into needing a jacket & sunscreen. 

James is excelling in ninth grade & works hard at keeping up with homework & all the extracurriculars throughout the week. Sleeping in is still one of James’s favorite things & on the weekends after a full week, he typically sleeps the clock around. James is making plans to make more money mowing lawns this summer & will be starting driver’s ed training very soon as well! 

Anna sewing her second pair of pointe shoes.

Anna is an amazing twelve-year-old & we love her so much! Over the past months, Anna has been into making clay bead bracelets. I think she has them in every color combination now for every outfit. She loves all things Taylor Swift & has built her favorite Taylor playlists on Spotify. She’s reading the Harry Potter series for the 3rd time & is on book 5. Anna is excelling in sixth grade & is enjoying her last couple of months of school at the elementary campus before moving to Jr. High in the fall. 

In early March, Anna spent an afternoon with a couple of friends & then attended our school’s Sock Hop later that day. The girls made cookies & enjoyed their time at the dance. Anna won the hula-hoop contest! 

And, Anna continues to enjoy dancing every week & puts in many hours at the studio. She’s currently preparing for The Sleeping Beauty which performs on April 20th, & a contemporary dance that will perform on May 4th.