Logan's Week

This week has been a busy one for our family.  Well, truth be told, most weeks are busy ones for our family.  You get this many people living under one roof, and the calendar begins to overflow with activities.

But for Logan, this week's been particularly busy.  There have been days that he's left the house at 5:30 am and not come back through the door until after 10:30 at night.  On a school night.  On his birthday--which also happened to be the day of the Homecoming football game.  Homecoming's a big deal if you play on the football team, which Logan does not, by the way.

What Logan plays is the mellophone, in the marching band.

Remember how I mentioned the sunburned/suntanned arms and calves of steel in yesterday's post?  Well, that's my Logan, and the reason for all that sun exposure and those muscle-y legs is all the hours of marching band practice those kids have each week.  They practice after school for hours, in the evenings some nights, and then on competition Saturdays they practice for even more hours before they compete in the evening.

Makes me glad I sang in the choir in high school!

Anyway, here are some photos from Logan's week:

Like I said, Logan got to spend his birthday going to school and then practicing and performing with the marching band that night at the Homecoming football game.  These are the massive cupcakes (made in a jumbo muffin pan) I made for the marching band to help him celebrate his big day.  Made me glad that his band is a relatively small one...

Here we are the next night, finally celebrating Logan's 16th birthday with cake, ice cream, and a few presents.
He blew out his candles so fast, this was the best shot I could get!

Good job, man!

We all love our cake.  

Who doesn't love Super Mario pj pants?!  

Logan's thinking of joining the tennis team in the spring, so it seemed a tennis racket made a logical gift.  

We also made sure to gift him some of his favorite treats: Skittles and spearmint starlight mints.  Best conversation of the night followed:

Logan: "With all these mints and Skittles, my life is complete."

Logan: "Well, not exactly complete."

Josh: "Yeah, it'll take way more mints and Skittles to make your life complete."

Ah, the wisdom of a 9-year-old.

Tonight we got to watch Logan's marching band compete, and we were totally impressed.  They are pretty small in numbers, but all those hours of practicing have sure paid off.  They looked rather good, if you ask me, and that's not just maternal bias.  I think.

Waiting their turn to march onto the field, while the pit crew scrambles to assemble everything up front.

Marching onto the field.

Their drum major; the music they played was from the Cirque du Soleil, so everyone had cool face paint and the color guard wore masks.

There's Logan, the only mellophone player in the band.  When you see that beautiful bell sticking up, it's him!

They did a very nice job, and I was totally impressed and proud of how hard they've worked and how far they've come.

Happy 16th birthday/Homecoming game/marching band competition Logan!  We love you!