March Madness Continued...

I was going to wait until after this weekend before posting about all the fun Haley is having this week but there is too much to wait so I will break this week up into two posts. Sunday evening Haley got a message asking her to come out and play with her buddies, John and Darin, session-style for a fundraiser for Philadelphia Councilman James Kenney at The Plough and the Stars. We met Councilman Kenney at the Plough a little over a year ago and last year he asked Haley, Newt, and Dylan to play some Irish music at a Philadelphia City Council Meeting in honor of Irish heritage and St. Patrick's Day.

The venue was crowded with fundraiser guests almost to bursting. Haley and the guys could barely hear themselves play but Councilman Kenney and some of the other guests come over now and then to listen. They had a lot of fun together and the food was delicious. There were also performances by Irish dancers and a pipe and drum corp (that was really loud!).

Haley and Darin

Haley, Darin, and John

Pipers and drummers from the balcony

Tuesday, Haley played with the South Jersey Irish Society dancers again (the same dancers she performed with last week at the nursing home) for a Senior Luncheon. The dancers did some set and ceili dances and for some of the ceili dances had audience member volunteers come up to try them out. Haley worked the CD player for the dancers and while the dancers rested, performed tune sets throughout the show. She even joined the dancers for The Haymaker's Jig (one of her favorites).

Dancers doing a set dance.

Haley joining the dancers to do the Haymaker's Jig.

Fiddling around.

I had to add this one in because I like it.

Wednesday (today) Haley and her harp playing friend, Emily, were invited to perform for a different church's luncheon. Someone at the church noticed an article written in the newspaper mostly about Emily but mentioning Haley after the girls both took 1st in Ireland last year at the All Ireland competition and they asked them to perform for their group.

I have to include these photos because it is a really neat blast from the past. Here are Haley and Emily performing for the first time together when Haley was six years old and Emily was seven. So cute and little…probably playing "Summer, Summer" together.

Here they are today looking so much more grown up but in almost the same poses. Time sure does fly. We are so blessed for Haley to have such a large group of wonderful kids in our area who love Irish music like Haley does. It is fun watching them grow up together.

March Madness 2014

As I alluded to in my previous post, the month of March is like Christmas for my Irish musicians…gigs galore, wonderful audiences, performing with friends, and making new friends!

This week was no exception.

On Thursday Daddy took Haley to a nursing home in Cherry Hill where she joined some local set dancers in a program to entertain the residents. This is the 2nd year they've done this program. The set dancers invite some of the more mobile residents to join the dancing and the others watch and clap along. Haley played her jigs and reels then played a requested "Danny Boy" for an elderly woman who said her son's name was Danny.

Set dancers.

Friday was orchestra rehearsal getting ready for PRYSM's amazing performance opportunity next week with The Philadelphia Orchestra for their Harp Play-In where they will open the concert. (It's free for the public.)

Saturday we spent half the day at the NJ State Wrestling Championships watching Newt wrestle. He wrestled well but got knocked out of the running early in the day.

Today was a very busy day. Haley and I got up early to drive into the city where she was to play at a church's Irish Mass with her friend, Keegan, who plays uillean pipes. They played while the church filled up then accompanied a singer for a piece toward the end of the Mass. It was hard to get a picture from where I was sitting but I managed this shot during Keegan's solo.

The Mass ran a little over time so we had to run out and jump in the car to get back to Southern Jersey for the sound check for their afternoon concert, the Down Jersey Celtic Celebration. It was a celebration featuring young Irish music talents from the local area. Haley's friends, Alex and Keegan, opened the show, followed by a wonderful young band called Amarach, then Haley and Dylan played their set before a finale where everyone played together for the "Sold Out" crowd. It was a great show!

Alex, Dylan, Keegan, and Haley after the show

We have another busy week coming up. Something scheduled every day except Thursday (oops, maybe wrestling on Thursday) then a busy weekend in NY!

Weekend Ramblings....the beginning of March Madness!

After spending all day Saturday watching wrestling, Haley and I jumped in the car immediately following Newt's finals match to drive across the state for The Chieftains concert. We haven't seen them for a couple years because they were in the area on one of my work days last year. They put on an awesome show with a variety of local talent as well as their own amazing band members.

Saturday night a drum and pipe corp from Philly as well as the local high school choir joined them on stage for a number as well as the grand finale. Haley and her best bud, Paraic, also joined them for the "round robin" grand finale where they play a link tune and in between each person on stage performs a solo. Haley also helped dance the An Droh encore which she thought was great fun!

Not the best pic of Haley on stage.

Haley had a morning Skype fiddle lesson then spent the rest of the morning practicing because this week is her orchestra's Practice Marathon....a fundraiser for the orchestra that also serves to promote extra practicing (a rather smart idea).

On Sunday afternoon, Haley and Dylan performed at a local concert to benefit an area church. The kids opened the show with some jigs, reels, and a song to get the crowd warmed up...it was freezing in the room. The rest of the show featured a group of talented local musicians performing session style with a variety of tunes from different Celtic traditions and songs. Their singer has such a sweet voice!

                                At the end of the concert, they did a couple tunes all together.

Today we are getting more snow and looking forward to a day snowed in before another busy weekend of wrestling and music!

Wrestling...one more week!

Newt is wrestling the final season of his high school career and he has extended it one more week! Last weekend he took 1st in District 31 bringing his career record to 119-20 and last night he took 2nd in Region 8 after a tough (3-1) loss.

It was a crazy weekend full of ups and downs!

Thursday afternoon we got a call from the school athletic trainer saying Newt had been hit in the face when he collided with another kid's forehead in gym class and needed an x-ray to make sure nothing was broken. He had blown his nose and the side of his face had blown up. I rushed to the school, took one look at his face, and had a sinking feeling in my gut because I thought there was no way there wasn't something broken. The whole side of his face was huge with a couple cuts from the pressure of the blow. All the work he had put in all season (actually for the majority of his life) seemed to be gone in a blink of an eye.

We rushed to Urgent Care because I knew we'd get in fast there which we did. He got x-rays and the doctor had them read them then took them over to the radiologist because he wasn't sure. They decided nothing was broken so he could wrestle the next day. He iced on and off all evening. His eye grew black and blue. His brother dug in the equipment box at school and found a mask at the bottom of the box for him to attach to his head gear while wrestling...how he found it or who left it there, I have no idea. Strange because I was looking for one on the internet to order and could not find fast enough shipping to get it here on time.

The mask wasn't the greatest. Any time he got hit in the head or knocked his head on an opponent, it shifted, blocking his view but it was better than not being able to wrestle at all. Friday night he won his first match by tech fall (17-2) while watching the match on the mat next to him where his, most likely, toughest opponent was getting pinned after being caught in a head lock.

Moving on to the semi-final match Saturday morning, Newt controlled his opponent to a 16-2 win. He was now going on to States whether he won or lost in the finals! He had achieved his main goal for the season!

Under the lights at Regions...Good thing they got his good side!

The finals match was a tough one. His opponent kept knocking the mask pushing it down over his eyes. Early in the 1st period Newt asked the ref if he could exchange it for plain headgear so he could see to wrestle but the ref wouldn't allow it saying he had facial hair. (Newt's "facial hair" is about 4 little pieces of scruff that the head gear chin pad would cover.) Newt got taken down out of bounds in the last second of the 1st period when they were all tied up going out of bounds and Newt lost his whizzer as the buzzer sounded. In the 2nd and 3rd period each boy got an escape. The final score was 3-1.

Newt was in high spirits last night! It has always been his dream to wrestle in the State tournament!

Newt with his high school coaches!

Academics...

Back in September I posted our plans for Haley's homeschooling for the year...more like a wish list for what we could possibly get done. (I always over-plan, heh.) We've followed through with many of those plans, adjusted some, and decided to go a completely different direction with others. Since we are about halfway through our "school year," I thought I'd post what we are actually doing.

This year has been a little different than previous school years because Haley is fairly independent and has more specific ideas on what she'd like to learn. She's a conscientious student so I can leave her a list of things to accomplish on the days I work and expect they will be done.

Here's what she is working on and a little about how things have changed since September...

Math
-She finished Saxon Algebra so we've moved on to Geometry. We started with a couple different options I had around the house, Jacobs and Holt. Haley liked the Holt text better so we are going with that and adding in Khan Academy videos.

Language Arts
-Haley is very interested in writing so she is visiting a mentor once week. With her mentor, she has started a blog and will also work on other writing assignments. Her mentor gives her ideas for books to read...right now she and I are reading Pride and Prejudice and Haley is working through The Young Visitors or Mr. Salteenas' Plan by Daisy Ashford (the book was written when Ms. Ashford was 9 years old and not edited when printed so Haley is working on editing the book as she reads).
-Wordly Wise Vocabulary
-Editor in Chief
-Magic Lens I by Michael Clay Thompson

Science
-We've finished up weekly dissections and Cells by Ellen McHenry. She is working through Biology Coloring Book.
-PLATO High School Biology

History
-Human PreHistory by The Teaching Company...listen to lectures and take notes

Languages
-First Form Latin
-Rosetta Stone French
-Duolingo French
-French in Action

Confessions Time: We have not done well with following any art curriculum. We run out of time during the day and art is the first thing to go. I don't feel too bad about it since Haley spends a lot of her free time doing crafts of some kind. She is learning to sew with Grammy and makes her own projects in her free time including fancy violin mutes.

Weekend Ramblings....or Concert Weekend Part 2

Haley tuning up the orchesta.

 Last weekend was solo concert weekend and this weekend was orchestra. Friday night Haley had a dress rehearsal for orchestra and Saturday afternoon was her first concert as concertmaster of PRYSM. The concert went beautifully. They played St. Paul's Suite by Gustav Holst, Five Variations of Dives and Lazarus by B. Vaughn Williams, and Fiddle Faddle by Leroy Anderson.

Haley had a number of solos and loved the pieces...all were more fiddle-y than most classical music. Dives was variations on Star of the County Down, a popular Irish song and they had a lovely harp part. The last movement of St. Paul's was known by us as The Irish Washerwoman and Fiddle Faddle, well the title says it all. Though it isn't Irish fiddling, it is fast and fun to play!

Full side-by-side orchestra

Haley with her stand partner.

After the concert we drove back to our side of the bridge and went out to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in the town where we had to be for another concert. Haley's buddy, Paraic, gave us tickets to the Clannad concert in our area. So, after dinner we went to take in the concert. (I didn't realize they wrote and performed the theme to the Last of the Mohicans movie...I love that movie.

Haley and Daddy at dinner.

Haley waiting for the concert to begin.

Sunday, we made a quick trip to New York for a fiddle lesson.

Weekend Ramblings....

It's been a busy but fun weekend. Looks like we get an extra day because schools are cancelled for inclement weather which, right now, consists of rain. I am beginning to wonder if my senior will ever graduate. Unluckily for Haley, school is never cancelled for weather. (insert evil grin)

Friday night was the last regular rehearsal before next weekend's concert for Haley's orchestra. I was amazed at how good they sounded because the rehearsal prior was a little rough in some spots but what a difference a week makes! I love the way it sounds when all the kids play together and it just works.

Saturday morning we headed down near the shore for Newt's wrestling quad match. He improved his wrestling record to 114 wins and this past week was named Wrestler of the Week by the area newspaper as a result of his big win by pin last weekend against a former State place winner. The match ended rather quickly because none of the four teams had a full squad. After the match, I drove Haley and Dylan into the city to meet with Haley's friends, Alex and Keegan, so they could work on a couple sets for the "grand finale" of a concert they are all doing in March. We meet at a pub in the city, Fergies, because it is a central venue for all of us and usually are able to use the upstairs room to rehearse but this week it was taken so they had to rehearse downstairs in the actual pub. The other nice thing about meeting there is the session after their rehearsal. It is one of Haley's favorite session venues.

Sunday was our busiest day...and the only day I remembered the camera. Haley had her classical teacher's studio recital where she performed the 3rd movement of Mendelssohn's Concerto in E. She did a great job!

Tuning up before the concert. It wasn't that long ago when Haley was the tiny one in line!

Then we rushed off to Sacred Heart Church where she and Dylan performed at a concert to benefit Heart of Camden, an organization that buys and completely refurbishes homes which they then sell to low income families (they have sold over 200 refurbished homes so far!!). The kids have participated in this fundraiser for the last three or four years and really enjoy it. There is a wonderful crowd, great performers, good sound, and the venue is beautiful.

Caught Dylan smiling!

Okay, Haley is the one looking serious.

Concert grand finale! That boy dancing on the far left was absolutely awesome!

Here's a little video sampling from the concert! Check out the tiny little dancer at 2:47!