ACEA Fine Arts State Competition

Yesterday, we went with our children's school about an hour south of us to Chilton Christian Academy for the ACEA Fine Arts State Competition. This is for children in 4th through 6th grades, so this year two of our boys were able to participate. Taylor, who is in 4th grade entered 6 categories, and Jorden who is in 6th grade, entered 5 categories. Two of the categories are required for all students in 4th through 6th grade-Choir and depending on which grade you are in, Readers Theater and Choric Speaking.

Competition is something that we plan and work towards almost from the beginning of the school year. A lot of work goes into preparing for it. Then when the day finally gets here, after a night of tossing and turning and praying (I am talking about me here) it is one of the most stressful, nail biting experiences you could ever imagine. (Again, I am speaking of myself). I do my best not to let my children know how nervous I am for them. They get a little nervous, but mostly they are just excited.

This is how our day went....

We arrived at 8:50 am. Let me stop here and tell you who went with us. Jeff and I, Jorden and Taylor, my mom, Jeff's dad (all the way from OH) and our youngest son Jacob who has been out of school all week with a terrible case of strep throat. He was not totally back to his healthy self so we decided to take him with us. He was not contagious or anything, just not 100% back to full health. Also, my dad popped in for part of the day and our good friend Jonathan Womelsdorf. This was just to support Jorden and Taylor. Of course most all of the other kids from our school had parents or grandparents (or both) with them also. It was quite a crowd. There were about 6-7 schools represented in this district.

Okay, back to our day. Taylor had entered the Historical Project category so we had to get his project to the judging room by 9:00 am. He made a replica of Gettysburg, depicting the 51,000 deaths there. Below is a picture of his work.

Next, we waited in the auditorium for the opening assembly. That started about 9:30 am and lasted till about 10 mins till 10:00 am. Taylor then had to be the first one to play piano. He played "Jericho" in the Sacred Piano Solo category. From there, we had a little time to relax before the next event involving our boys so Jeff took the kids to the game room and mom and I took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and walked 3 miles around their walking track. Then it was time for our choir to perform. Karen Blankenship is the music coordinator and she does a fabulous job!! We couldn't ask for a better prepared or qualified person to lead our music department. Holly Walker (our school's kindergarten teacher and a very good friend) took time out of her day for weeks to accompany the choir. She did a lovely job (though she was SCARED STIFF !) . The kids sang a beautiful arrangement of "When I Survey" and another song called "There's a Little Wheel A-Turning". We were so proud of them!

From there, we raced upstairs (we did that all day) to hear Jorden and Taylor play a Sacred Piano Duet of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". They did so well! Then it was off and running again, up another flight of stairs to watch the 4th grade class do Readers Theater. They did a segment from the classic Charlotte's Web called "Escape". They all did a great job! From there, we went back down two flights of stairs to hear the kids sing in a ensemble. (Jorden and Taylor both sang in this group of 7 children). They sang a song called "Trusting" that was so beautiful. Again, they were very well prepared and did a fantastic job! After that, we were finally able to stop and eat, but we only had 25 mins to do that in. I was still so nervous that I only ate a couple of bites. Ha!
Next it was Jorden's turn on the piano. He played the 1st movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. We are so proud of him! And last, we went back up to the 3rd floor to watch the 5th and 6th graders do their Choric Speaking of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere". They were awesome!

Finally, the long exhausting day was over! Now, came the nerve wracking part of waiting to see how they did. Everyone went back to the auditorium to here the final results. We had to wait about 40 mins for the judges to finalize their scores. That was terribly nerve wracking! They finally had us stand and sing some songs to help get the wriggles out.

Anyway, long story short, here is the final results. I am SO PROUD OF THEM!!

Taylor won:
2nd Place with a Superior Rating for his Historical Project
2nd Place with an Excellent Rating with his class for Readers Theater
2nd Place with an Excellent Rating for his Sacred Piano piece

Jorden won:
1st Place with a Superior Rating for his Classical Piano piece
1st Place with a Superior Rating with his class for Choric Speaking

Both boys won 1st place with a Superior Rating for their Scared Piano Duet piece
and the Choir won 2nd place with an Excellent Rating
and the Ensemble won 1st place with a Superior Rating

Jeff and I are so proud of both of our boys. It was an incredible day! We saw God answer many prayers that day. One of the biggest was that on Thursday, Jorden injured his left pinkie finger in P.E. We prayed and prayed over that finger, and though it hurt him, he was able to play and did extremely well. Today, (two days later) it is very swelled. We know God touched him yesterday so that he could play.

Here are some pictures from the day. Thanks for sticking with me through this extremely long post! Hope I didn't bore you too much.

The boys in Taylor's class-L to R-Caleb, Travis, Taylor, Brandon

Taylor in the warm-up room getting ready to play Jericho

Jacob with another boy from our school, Dustin playing games in the game room. (my mom is in the background telling my dad how to get to the school)

Jeff brought his work along with him.

(although I think most of his computer time was on FB! LOL)

Jorden's teacher-Jessica Sickler grading papers during a break

Jacob still didn't have all of his energy back after a long week of illness,

but he is still wearing a sweet smile!

The choir is lined up to sing in the auditorium

The Choir singing. Not many people were in there at that time to watch them.

They missed a great performance!

The Ensemble preforming...

Taylor and Pop Pop while waiting on the award ceremony to begin

Still waiting....Oh look there's a picture of Jonathan! ha

Jorden with his teacher, Miss Jessica Sickler

Jorden and Taylor with their Choir and Piano teacher, Karen Blankenship

Jorden and Taylor with their ribbons. The sun was shining in their eyes!

Taylor with his teacher, Mrs. Jenny Crotts.

He is wearing the hat he used in their Readers Theater act.

All the kids from our school along with Karen Blankenship