With two older siblings grown up, it really has become Arthur’s time to shine – especially when it comes to music. He watched them for years and years, and was dragged from concert to recital to play, and so on. But now it is his turn, and shine he does.

A few months ago, Arthur signed a paper declaring his intent to audition for the Regional Middle School Choir. That meant that he not only had to practice the three audition pieces and track his progress daily, but it also meant that he had early morning rehearsals before school to help him prepare. And that was just to audition. Luckily, all that hard work paid off, and out us hundreds of students who auditioned, he made the choir.

On Saturday, the 12th of April, it was finally time for the Regional Choir Clinic and Concert. (We were so extremely blessed that out of all the high schools in the region, the one it was taking place at was Reagan, our high school a few minutes away.)

Derek dropped him off that morning, and after getting checked in, he and the other students got straight to work with their guest conductors. They went through all three of their audition pieces, honing them for the performance, with short breaks in between. They also learned a brand new song to sing that day as well. After they finished rehearsing, they went and had lunch – which just happened to be Raisin’ Canes chicken, which he loved.

Soon it was time to change into their choir clothes, and I am so glad they got a picture of them all decked out. Bush Middle School had a really great showing.

Soon, it was time for the concert. Derek and I came back to the school for it. (Sadly, Kevin was in Idaho getting Lily, so he missed it.) He found us seats while I stood/sat in a crazy line to get Arthur a t-shirt and buy him a recording of the concert. I was so tired from chemo the day before, and so my friend, Kat, let me join her at her spot, and then I would slide down the cafeteria bench next to the line as it moved forward. Good times.

It was so great to see Arthur perform!! The choirs were all spectacular, but of course I was partial to his. At the very end, they had all four of the choirs come out and sing a song together, “We Shine Like Stars.” It was really a wonderful concert, and such a cool experience for Arthur. (And one extra cool thing, Arthur’s guest conductor just happened to be Mr. De la Cruz, who was Derek’s amazing choir directors his sophmore year at Reagan, before he moved to Houston to take over a choir program at another school. Derek was especially excited about it.)

The next big even for Arthur for choir was on Saturday the 25th of April, was the Bluebonnet Festival. The students who chose to participate in this also had extra rehearsals and time spent, but it was completely worth it when our mixed choir received Outstanding Performance, Sweepstakes, and Superior. And then to top it all off, they won BEST IN FESTIVAL!!

Arthur even got to hold one of their awesome trophies on the drive from the festival to Six Flags. (I love that Kat was chaperoning and sent me pictures from the day.)

Like I mentioned before, after the festival, they went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the rest of the day. These kids worked so hard, and they deserved to have some fun.

Arthur said that his group (which was a great group of boys) started out by going to ride “Batman,” one of their craziest roller coasters. They went to get lunch next, but sadly the line for lunch took an hour, which did not sit well with a group of hungry boys. Luckily, Arthur said it was good food.

After lunch, they rode on the “Superman Krypton Coaster,” and on the way there, they stopped to play some games, where Arthur won a Toad plushie for his brother. He loved riding all the rides, and eventually they were done for the day.

Unfortunately, that was when they discovered that one of the bus drivers lost their key to the bus. Sadly, this caused quite a problem. Instead of getting back to the school at 6:30 pm as planned, it took an extra couple hours. They had the one bus take half the kids back, and then turn around to get the rest. After seeing this picture of Arthur sound asleep on a friend’s stuffed avocado, I had kat ask Arthur if he wanted me to send Derek to pick him up.

Derek was able to get there and pick up Arthur, and so instead of getting home closer to 9 pm, he got home around 7:30. Alls well that ends well, I guess. And he still got to watch a movie with us when he got home. Good times.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting and musical month for our Arthur.