Mr. DiCuirci's Retirement

This past weekend, Chad and I went to Cedarville to be a part of a farewell concert for Mr. D, our beloved symphonic band director from college.  He is retiring after 37 years of service at CU.  And we were reminded again what a terrific leader/director/man of God he is-- we felt very blessed to be a part of the weekend.  

Chad and I met in symphonic band our first weekend at Cedarville back in 1991.  All band alumni were invited to take part in this concert.  130 alumni were able to join in!  What a sound!  Oh, and 27 of them were trumpets.  Whoa! :)

We arrived on Saturday afternoon for a 90-min rehearsal, never having seen the music.  Near the beginning of the rehearsal, Mr. D said, "How many of you just got your horns out for this?"  I and about 10 people raised our hands.  He chuckled and said, "When in doubt, leave it out."  I think I probably played 80-85% of the notes, but it really didn't matter because there were so many people there.  

Probably my favorite part of the weekend was the rehearsal-- so fun to be a part of making music like that again, and to be under Mr. D's direction again.  He is funny, very time conscious, very perceptive musically, and LOVES good music.  So few directors can do that all well.  Cedarville's going to have a very rough time filling his shoes. 

The concert on Sunday afternoon was more than 2 hours long-- included Mr. D playing solo euphonium, Mr. D's men's quartet, jazz band, organ/piano (Dr. Coleman) duet, and our symphonic band.  Also Mr. D's testimony-- "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation...!" and the testimony of a good friend of his that he led to the Lord.  

Another treat was staying at the Hearthstone Inn, the little hotel in Cedarville.  Very nice, relaxing place. And the weather was so beautiful!  It's lovely that it's actually acting like spring now. :)

This lovely picture is to commemorate the spot where I received a ticket for going the wrong way on a one way street.  That was before they put up this sign and the nice arrows on the road.  I wonder how many one-way tickets the Cedarville police gave out before they decided to put in the sign?

Tree Fun

Tree fell over our shed-- got caught in another tree.  Chad got some tree people from our church to come remove it.  Fun for him to watch! :)

Micah's Chess Club

Micah is in a Chess Club that meets every other week.  This is a game called Ultimate Chess!

Micah's Bday Party Day

On the 9th, we had a birthday party for Micah.  Invited all 10 boys in his class--ended up with 5.  Perfect.  Micah requested a Mario theme.

Katie made this awesome cake!!

Kids did a penny hunt in the yard-- also played some baseball

See the target on the wall?  This is a game called Gribble.  Chad's dad invented it when we were playing a game of Balderdash.  The kids had fun with it!  

After the party, we went to Grace's auction-- Monopoly theme this year, and probably the nicest of their auctions yet. I paid $5 to have Micah sent to jail... where he had to stay for 5 minutes because he didn't have a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Field Trip on Micah's Bday

Happy 8th bday, Micah!  I can't believe it's been 8 years already! 

We can't imagine life without you, Buddy.

So excited that I got to spend the whole day with Micah on his bday!  His class went to Children's Safety Village on Thur and Fri.  Thur was the police safety day, and Friday I got in on the fire safety.  Kinda nice because I had been to Children's Village with both Katie and Jenna, and both of those times I hit police safety.  Now I know how to stop, drop and roll!

We spent the day with a terrific firefighter named Zack.  He had the kids work in groups to figure out different safety tools.

We walked across the "street" to some other buildings, and the kids practiced how to use a crosswalk.  See some winter coats?  Weird for April-- we had snow flurries in the morning.

Here are the little cars the kids got to drive the day before

Kids practicing

Using this model house, Zack was able to show the kids how smoke spreads.  He could make smoke enter it, open and shut doors, open and shut windows).  Great visual for the kids.  He showed them how to make an escape plan.

The kids got to use these phones to practice calling 911.  He told them this was the only place in the world that they could practice this. :)  Funny, the kids didn't know what the payphone was, and the phones with cords look rather outdated also.  To practice, the kids went up one by one, chose a phone, called 911, and Zack answered from a phone on the other side of the room. They had to practice saying their address and answering questions.

One of the most impacting parts was this tour of a burned house.  This house burned in 1986.  They left everything "as is" and moved it to the Children's Village location-- put it on a new foundation and built brick walls around it.  Now the kids can all hear the story of how someone started oil heating in a pan to make french fries, and then they fell asleep on the couch-- and how they tried to fight the fire themselves but made it worse-- and how they didn't call 911 immediately.

Don't know if you can see the degree signs on the wall.  Pretty amazing.

Windstorm

High winds the night before.  Good thing that house wasn't inhabited

Cowbell

Browsing at music store.  Claire and I got a kick out of this. 

Easter 2016

I don't have pictures of the Good Friday service at church, but it was really special.  Such a good reminder.  

Then, this is Easter...

The Four Cutest Kids Ever

Micah explains to us what Grandma's Resurrection eggs mean

Coconut cake!

We had 3 services Easter morning to accommodate

all the extra people.  No adult classes.  Many of us went to one service and worked in another.  Then we drove to PA to be with Chad's parents and Jer and Dani

Ask K about her rubber chicken. :)

Micah loves Grandma's Easter egg hunts

Had to play some games

The girls have always loved playing with Gpa's hair.  (Wow, he's patient!)

One of the upsides (and downsides) of Katie's school work now-- it travels

The first bike ride Micah ever enjoyed!

Isn't this cute?  Anita made these for each of us

Jenna's garden markers

Guess what we are going to plant this year?

Recital 2016

Another recital come and gone (whew!).  This was the only one with 5 Wingerts involved!  Micah's first and Katie's last.  All our kids did a great job.  I'm so proud of them!!

Micah to SkyZone

Micah had a great time at a friend's bday party at the new SkyZone in Hagerstown.  What a neat invention!

Jenna is 14!

Happy birthday to dear, sweet Jenna!  How we've enjoyed having her in our family!  So many people think she's quiet and, boy!! do we know otherwise! We love the spice she adds to our family.

CD!

Our adult choir made a CD!  It was great fun and a worship experience in itself.  The man who did the recording was superb.  Can't wait til the CD comes out in a couple weeks!