The Madness Which Comes Before Midnight

(you can't tell he had it wadded up in his pack all day, right...)

The #MidnightMadness tradition at GCU gets bigger & better & wilder & crazier every year.

(These tickets were a precious commodity --
many were turned away at the door!)

(They start planning the event more than a year ahead!) Last year was our family's first glimpse of the impressive spectacle.

My drummer's costume from a year ago was mostly thrift-store items with a little sewing/crafting added on. This year, however, we decided to complicate things by only having a children's-sized costume pattern! We'll get to that after the videos:
This is GCU's take on the whole evening. (Can you tell why they call it MADNESS?) There's a split-second glimpse of the drumline's show at about :31. I don't think my pirate got in the frame...


And this is our view from the other side of the arena. What fun!

But before all the fun, there was much hard labor in assembling the drummer's costume:

(Duncan is an excellent snoopervisor...)

Drafting an enlarged vest wasn't near as difficult at getting those boot covers big enough to disguise size 14 marching shoes!

I found these tools to be invaluable when sewing vinyl!

I used upholstery thread in the needle because I knew tugging these on & off would put a lot of tension on the stitches.

I saved a little time by using the embroidery machine set-up to stitch all 17!!! buttonholes. I covered the buttons with yellow fabric and then brushed them with gold metallic craft paints.

The welted pockets are not something I'm going to try again anywhere in the near future!!!

The sash was split in sections & stitched to wide Velcro® so it was quicker to don than winding/unwinding yards of fabric. I used my Silhouette® to cut the gold antelope logos. The belt I made from some leather yardage. I was going to embellish a large buckle with the 'Lope's logo, but since the drummer was wearing his drum all night, it would've been a waste of time...

The grey pants came from a thrift shop and got 2 cans of paint sprayed into stripes.

It was my plan to find stage make-up gold pirate teeth & to fill the drummer's fingers with rings. I got an emphatic "no" on the teeth & a "Mom, you know I won't be able to perform stick tricks with that junk on my hands, right?" I did talk him in to wearing a plastic gold (touched up with a little of my metalic paints) pirate earring.

What I was not expecting was his vision of a handful of shrunken skulls attached to a rubber knife. The skulls would have the logos from GCU's seven division rivals.

We found the plastic skulls at Michael's. A little bit of tan and cream paints gave a nice weathered touch...

I used glow-in-the-dark paint for the eye sockets. Originally I printed the logos on Silhouette® sticker paper, but they didn't stick!

We ended up using computer paper & tacky glue 'cause we were running out of time.

#costumingagain

Long, long time ago, when my baby boys were born, I had hopes and dreams of nurturing three members of a boys’ choir…
or even a concert pianist.
The good Lord knew I would’ve been so puffed up with pride thinking my musical genes created this wünderkind trio…He instead gave me the usual reluctant students who refused to practice unless threatened with dire video-game grounding.
…that is, until the two younger ones discovered competition percussion!Now our middle child is a student at Grand Canyon University.He is a member of the Thundering Heard Pep Band.
So Friday night was the school’s annual Midnight Madness (which celebrates the NCAA rule on first open basketball practice) The theme this year was the “APOCALOPES” (refering to the fourth & last year of D-1 probation!)

My son asked me way back during band camp if I would come up with a Mad Max-ish/Steam Punk-ish costume for the night. So, over the next few months I shopped Goodwill, and came up with a plan which included a steam punk-ished up rubberband bazooka:a steam punk-ished up pair of welding goggles from Harbor Freight:a Silhouette-cut ‘Lopes Rising temporary tribal tattoo:and his big brother’s work boots…All in all it was a good look for him “LOPES UP”

But this is what we saw of him from the parents’ section…

…except for the many times the cameras caught him on the big screens!He’s the one playing First Bass (smallest upright drum) at the end of his row.

Hopefully you can catch a glimpse of him in this video of their show:

Parent-view of drumline during Midnight Madness Apocalopes 2016 - YouTube https://t.co/nTnQOtQ0Ym

— MelodyS ن (@ElisaBJean) October 9, 2016

catching up: proud mama moment(s)

From the time he auditioned prior to Christmas break until March 28th, our middle son & his band mates worked hard on their show.Their director was phenomenal & designed/choreographed/whipped-into-shape this incredible display of musicianship and athleticism.These kids spent hours on school days & Saturdays practicing their routine.Keith & I only missed one of their competitions (because we were in Cali for friends’ wedding on Valentines day…<3)
The season culminated with the WGAZ Circuit Championships at Grand Canyon University (my alma mater ) Arena. It was a grueling two daysbut our group came out ON TOP!

(*Pictures without my watermark belong to NPP. The video published by WGAZ to YouTube was filmed & edited by Tresóna.)

Hey Mom, I signed up to bring…

…apfel kuchen.
Yeah -- like my son knows how to make an apfel kuchen to take to his post-marching-band-season party!
For some reason my boys are fascinated with German folk traditions & food. For an international dinner years ago in his 5th grade class, “we” made this kuchen:I don’t recall the reason for these “we” baked a few years back, maybe for an Easter brunch:Here’s the one “we” baked for last week’s party:The recipe I came up with for the sweet dough is incredible! (It rises like you would not believe, too…) Here you go:
for the dough:

• 4 c. flour
• 2 t. salt
• 1/4 t. baking soda
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 T. yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. Greek yogurt
• 1/2 c. warm water

My hands & arms weren’t in the mood for doing a bunch of kneading, so I tossed all the ingredients into the bread machine on the “dough” setting. I made sure the eggs & yogurt were room temperature before I started. I whisked together the flour, salt & soda in a bowl. The yeast, sugar & water were put in the bottom of the pan. I then put in about half the dry ingredients and started the machine. In went the yogurt, eggs & the balance of the flour mixture.
While that was going in the machine, I used my apple peeler/slicer/corer on 3 beautiful Honeycrisp apples and splashed them with a little lemon juice to keep from browning. I also tossed together the streusel ingredients:

• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 4 T. butter, softened
• 1/2 t. cinnamon

When the dough was finished with its first rise, I divided it in half. Formed it into a sort of disk with a hole in the middle and pressed it into a tube pan (prepared with parchment on the bottom and well-buttered tube & sides…) A layer or two of apples and sprinkling of cinnamon sugar completed the filling. The second half of the dough was prepared same as the first, but this time topped with the remaining apples and covered with the streusel. The oven was set for 350° and the kuchen sat on the counter for its final rise. It more than doubled after 45 minutes, so I went ahead and baked it. After 30 minutes I put foil over the top to keep it from browning too much. Internal temp was 200° at around the 55 minute mark, so I took the pan out to cool on a bottle. The outer ring soon fell off, so the bread on the tube was put on a rack to finish its chill-out. After carefully removing the tube portion, I plated it then mixed up a little half & half/confectioners sugar glaze. Here’s your slice:
I know he’ll be unhappy with me, but here’s what my oldest returned with from their band party. I’ve included my pics of him in uniform so you can see what the certificate is referring to:

Proud Mama Post

One of the trumpeters in this band is pretty special to us (you can see him on his knees @ 1:15 in the video) & the percussionist in the pit handling the placards is also our favorite...



The Social Network - Football Friday Night Halftime 09/26/14 from North Pointe Prep on Vimeo.

a few costumes for “The Elves & the Shoemaker”

I showed you the tailcoat I sewed for the dapper Trescott here. I also added purple ruffles to a blouse and stitched a purple ascot for his neck. The shoemaker’s apron was something I whipped together at the school just prior to dress rehearsal…
Hot-gluing Madame Grotsky’s headpiece was a fun project.I used flower pins to add extra tucks to her dress to shorten it a bit.
The elves' raggy clothing I drafted based on a child’s pajama bottom pattern & various-sized tee-shirts. (Somebody needs to teach some people how to use a measuring tape! The sizes we received on costuming forms from a few parents, were, ummmmmm – OFF!)
My biggest challenge for this show was to transform Theodora a refugee into a spirit when she is accidently shot by the soldiers. I had to slightly alter the bodice to fit her slight frame. After some tucks just below the shoulder, I added a strip of velcro to close the back. (Then I needed to tack on a fluffy bow to cover the two inches of fabric that stuck out from her back!)

Theodora transforms into woodland spirit

Here’s a video of the skirt of the dress cascading from where it was hidden under her overcoat. I simply stitched little plastic curtain rings around the bottom of the bodice and correspondingly on the edge of the underskirt (there were four layers to gather up!) Opening night had a much better transformation than the one I was able to film the last show.

Of course I have to leave you with a couple pictures of my son!