Family and Friends Time

So, first of all, here are some pictures of the progress made in the band hall yesterday while I was waiting on kids to come for band camp registration:

Chris and I realized that the wall decals I bought would probably not stick to the walls because of the stucco (they stick best to smooth walls), so we taped them up on the storage room door in the the back of the band hall to get the layout correct.

Here's the finished project. I think it looks great! Very classy - and much neater than if I were to try to actually paint with stencils. I'm sold on the vinyl letters - very cool. The kids will be able to see this quote every time they leave the band hall.

I'm thankful that Chris got last year's Festival on the Lake hung up. It is so much more impressive when you can see all of the plaques lined up on the wall one after the other.

I had to repair this bulletin board (this is the calendar white board thing that looks terrible). The double-sided tape that I had used did not hold. When I got to the school yesterday, it was all on the floor. My solution? Clear packing tape. I think it will stay up there now. I can't wait to see the boards with the laminated borders. I'll have to post pictures once they are complete. I also made a cute welcome banner (with pennant flags) and found some cute owl cut outs that also need to be laminated so I can hang them up. Just click on the links if you'd like to see them. Feel free to print and copy as needed. The last link (cut outs) is 32 pages long so beware when you go to hit print. I only printed the first 4-5 pages (the yellow owls). 

After the band registration yesterday, Chris & I ran some errands and then went to the Lone Star Wind Orchestra Board Meeting. I'm the secretary on the board so I took minutes (as usual). The board meets on the second Thursday of every month. Directly after the board meeting, we went to the Grand Opening of the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Richardson as VIP guests.

Here's Chris before we went in for the first time.

We got there late, but got our badges and jumped right in the tour line. 

On the tour, we got ushered into different theater rooms for different experiences. We missed the first room which was an interactive theater - the audience members read aloud captions that go with the movie and just take part in the movie experience vocally. Apparently, there was confetti involved too. The second theater (our first) was the largest theater room. We saw a montage that Alamo Drafthouse put together, previews for Elysium and We're the Millers which come out today, information on how to order your food at the Cinema (you can order food and drinks - they have many different local beers on tap), and a PSA put together by Alamo Drafthouse about not having cell phones or talking during the movies. It was pretty funny. It included a recording of an actual disgruntled customer voicemail who got kicked out of an Alamo Drafthouse theater for using her cell phone. Then the owner of Richardson Alamo Drafthouse, Bill DiGaetano, spoke to us all and thanked everyone for their support. The final stop for our group was a slightly smaller theater where we saw some more previews and then the CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse Franchise, Tim League, spoke to everyone and took questions. I really felt like a VIP. All the while, there were employees/ushers, who walked around with trays of different beers and wine for us all to sample. I tasted two beers and one wine. The tour ended around 9 o'clock. Chris & I hadn't eaten dinner, so we decided it would be cool to try out a movie and see what the whole experience was like - and get some food. Chris thought he got us tickets to the 10:00 showing of We're the Millers, but it was for the 10:50 showing since the 10 was sold out. So, we waited around a while and got some more pictures.  

Here's a picture of Chris with Bill (the owner) and Kitty Goddard. 

Here's actually a picture of Chris in the second theater during our tour - beer and all. I LOVE the sconces in the theater - they are industrial bulbs in the center of movie reels. I want sconces like these in our media room upstairs. :)

Here's a picture of the menu and order card. You just write your order on the order card and place it standing up on the table thing (no buttons or bright lights to distract others). I will say the one hiccup we experienced was the food. I got the wrong order. They said they'd fix it, but never brought me any food. I also got someone else's milkshake by mistake. They comped us, but I was still hungry. :( Chris let me have one piece of his pizza he ordered. I'm sure they'll work out the kinks when it comes to the food. The movie we watched was SO great though. 

The last picture taken of the night was taken by one of the employees (they were all so nice - especially, Mike) in front of the media backdrop. I am such a shortie! That glass of water looks humongous! Lol. 

We didn't end up getting home until 2 AM! Poor Dottie, was outside for 17 hours! She was very needy today (understandably) and was following me around all day. Poor baby! Here's a picture of her in the car. 

This morning I met my best friend from high school for lunch and spent FOUR hours at Chiloso (my fave local restaurant) catching up. We could have spent another four hours talking too, but we went our separate ways after the first four. We need to make more time with each other throughout the year. We are both band directors though and have crazy schedules. 

I then spent over two hours tonight calling and emailing the band parents of the kids who didn't attend the band camp registration. It turns out that many of them still haven't received the post card I designed, copied, cut out, and mailed (not cheap). The great thing though is that a very large majority of the parents said that they would make sure their child was at the camp on time on Monday. I'm so pleased that good attendance has become an expectation - even for summer band. The parents are great! 

Well, I better wrap this up - Staples' Teacher Appreciation event is tomorrow morning at 10 AM and I want to be there early. I go every year and get some great goodies! By the way, this post is being completed on Friday, August 9th at 10:10 PM, but will post tomorrow at 5:30 AM.