Season Nine: Scrimmage One

First time I've seen this nifty move!


Gooool!

An Old Pro

Emi learned to ride a bike today!

He still needs help getting started, but once he's off, he can go for a while.

Circle the State

Last fall, Emilio was one of twenty-four Ada fourth graders chosen to participate in the "Circle the State" choral festival hosted by the Oklahoma Music Educators Association. Since then, he has given up recess on Mondays for rehearsal.  Friday morning at 7:10 a.m., he reported to the bus waiting at the junior high to take them and twenty-four more from Willard fifth-and-sixth grade center to Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee, where they spent the whole day practicing with thirteen others choirs from region N.

The concert began at 4:30, and the room was packed. While Mari, Nina, Pablo, and Aunt Carolyn watched from the wings, I stood at the back of the room. The choir was divided in to sopranos, soprano middles, altos, and alto middles.  Emilio was the only boy in the soprano middle section (I'm not sure why). The first song was "Laudate Dominum," the second: "The Moon;" the third (below): "Sarasponda."

The fourth song was "Pretty Saro," a traditional Appalachian folk song.
"Down in some lone vallly/in a lonesome place/ where the wild birds do whistle/and the larks do increase/Farewell pretty Saro/I bid you Adieu/But I will dream of pretty Saro/Wherever I go / / Well my love she won't have me/So I understand/She wants a freeholder/Who owns house and land//I cannot maintain her/with silver and gold/nor by all the fine things/that a big house can hold."

Read more: Bob Dylan - Pretty Saro Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

The fifth song in the program (below) was "Nesta Rua," a Brazilian folk song--sung in Portugese, of course.

Nesta rua, nesta rua tem um bosque (On this street there's a wood)
Que se chama, que se chama Solidão (that is called "Solitude")
Dentro dele, dentro dele mora um anjo (inside of which there lives an angel)
Que roubou, que roubou meu coração (who stole my heart)

Se eu roubei, se eu roubei teu coração, (If I stole you heart)
Tu roubaste, tu roubaste o meu também. (You stole mine, too)
Se eu roubei, se eu roubei teu coração, (If I stole your heart,
É porque, e  porque te quero bem. (It's because I love you so.)

We were surprised and happy when we saw the Emilio had been selected to introduce the sixth song, "Will There Really be a Morning?" whose lyric was taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson.


Here is the full poem:

Will there really be a "Morning"?
Is there such a thing as "Day"?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?

Has it feet like Water lilies?
Has it feathers like a Bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?

Oh some Scholar! Oh some Sailor!
Oh some Wise Men from the skies!
Please to tell a little Pilgrim
Where the place called "Morning" lies!


The seventh song--Emi's favorite--was "Crawdad Hole," an American folk song.
The concert concluded with "How Can I Keep from Singing?"

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Some time over the winter break, Emilio first reported that he was thinking about cutting his hair. Friday, when he came home, he reported that he had told his friends he was going to get it cut over the long weekend. At first, he was planning to get some kind of half-way cut, but I convinced him to go the whole way--something I used to do when I had flowing locks.

Above: the midway cut.

Wintersmith Falls

Introducing: The Super Six

The Super Six:  Coach Jill Brown, Tate Danielson, Keane Ferdinand, Tyler Cantrell, Daphne Draper, Carl McCortney, and Emi.

Last semester, Emilio was chosen to be on Ada's academic team: the Super Six.  Thursday was their first opportunity to participate in a tournament.

Here's how the event is organized:
Four players from each team sit at a table with buzzers in their hands; two alternates sit with the coach.  A game has four quarters. Players can be subbed between quarters. In each quarter, ten questions are asked.  The team that buzzes in first with the correct answer gets a bonus question.  Each correct answer is worth ten points. Questions may be about math, science, social studies, language arts and popular culture.

Thursday's event at Homer Elementary in Byng (where Emilio first attended Pre-K) started at 4, and Mari took Nina and Pablo to watch. I missed the start because of office hours, but on my way over Mari sent me a text that said, "He's killing it!" That's one of my favorite all-time text messages.

By the time, I arrived, The Super Six had won their first game.
Mari had to leave before the end of the second one.

I got to watch the second and third games--both wins.

Afterwards, I asked Emilio what his favorite answers were. He said the math problem that he got right, and the test booklet got wrong. Our coach, Mrs. Brown, challenged the answer at the end of the quarter and we got the points.