Band Day

Today we headed down to the Clarinda Band Jamboree.  This was the band event my husband participated in when he was in school.  It reminded me a lot of Algona Band Day which was the band event my family participated in growing up.  We were all members of the Algona Scarlet Regiment Marching Band.  This year they were both on the same weekend.  I miss going up to Band Day so we thought it would be fun to go Clarinda's event (plus they give out the Glenn Miller trophy to the best band - how cool is that).  There were a lot of good bands!  Years later I have come to appreciate my band instructors for the perfection, hard work and practice they demanded from us.  I may not have been a great musician but I LOVED marching band and I learned a lot of life lessons from being a band member.

It was a little cold this morning.  We had a great spot for parade watching but it wasn't in the sun.  Luckily we brought along plenty of blankets.

Grant enjoyed being wrapped up like a little "burrito."  Grant really enjoyed the music and the marching.  Hopefully both boys will want to play an instrument.  Clark's favorite game today was playing "find the piccolo."  Every band that went by he'd try to find the piccolo or ask us where it was.  We had to explain that not every band has a piccolo.  For those who don't know, I played the piccolo and Alan played the saxophone. 

We decided not to attend the field shows since the kiddos were pretty much done with watching bands.  Although they did catch a second wind after getting some yummy kettle corn!

So we headed home.  Today there was a big auction in Red Oak - we decided to swing by and have a look.  I haven't been to an auction in such a long time - it was a lot of fun.  We actually need some storage furniture so we can finish putting away items.  We took the kids home and I ran back to town (thank you to my wonderful hubby for a couple hours off :).  Ended up finding a high boy dresser for the boys room and picked it up for a whole $1.00.  Yes, it needs a little work but with a hammer (to fix up the slides for the drawers) and some paint it should fix up pretty well.

Clark was excited and wanted to start painting right away (he has requested a red dresser).  So like his mother - however, over the years I have learned that following the proper steps in the right order leads to a better finish (and yes, I am contemplating the red request).  I worked on cleaning it up tonight after the boys went to bed and hubby went to chaperone the Homecoming Dance (hee hee).  Now, I am just looking at some of my favorite furniture blogs to get some good painting ideas (in between Addie feedings).

UPDATE - to see photos and a story on the Algona Band Day Parade go to my friend's blog HERE.