Purdue Junior Band Experience

We headed back to Purdue this weekend so the kids could participate in the marching band's Junior Band Experience.  Dorothy was invited to join the twirlers when we were there last weekend.  At the time, I said no because I didn't think we would be able to get a close hotel with only a week's notice.  With a 7:30 am call time (and their time zone is an hour earlier than us central time zone folks), I knew there was no way we could participate if we were not staying close to where we needed to be.  I checked on Sunday, and discovered that there was a reasonably priced hotel very close to campus with availability, so I emailed the staff member who had offered to let Dorothy join and asked if it was possible to still add both kids to the roster.  She said no, but that we would be on the mailing list for the following year, which was fine.  Monday, I got a call from a different staff member, asking if the kids would still be interested in participating.  When we had asked the kids about it, they were very enthusiastic about the idea, so I said yes without asking Kevin.  I had the hotel booked before I even sent him a message to inform him that we would be heading back to campus for the second weekend in a row.

The kids had a great time.  Thanks to the Purdue Band staff who let the kids join at the last minute.  We will be sure to sign up early next year.

 There was one other little girl Dorothy's age/size.  Dorothy was fairly unsure about everything at first.  Every time I would look over at their practice, she was giving the Purdue twirlers her best, "you have got to be kidding me" look.

 The Purdue twirlers spent a fair amount of time prodding her and trying to get her to turn the right direction.

 Once she fully woke up, she got more into it. 

 They broke the junior twirlers up into three groups based on age and ability.  Dorothy's group was with the Silver Twins and two line members.  She can't remember the title of Silver Twins and instead calls them the "Twin Sisters."  She also can't remember the name Goldusters for the band's dance line and calls them the "Feather Dusters."  Kevin and I now also call them the Feather Dusters.

 There were just three girls in Dorothy's group.

 I didn't get nearly as many pictures of Malcolm because the band members were on the other side of the field, and didn't practice as much.  They were mostly just watching the marching band practice.  The girl standing behind Malcolm is the daughter of my college roommate.

 After practice, the kids marched back to the Hall of Music with the band.  Malcolm was too far away, and his picture came out all blurry.

 Once back at the Hall of Music, the kids had a break to eat.  They were all given little drawstring backpacks that were filled with snacks and a water bottle.  I went over to let them know that Kevin and I were heading out to meet up with friends, and they couldn't be rid of us fast enough.

From here, the kids marched with the band to Mackey Arena and had nice, close seats for the band's concert before the game.  Then they were fed lunch, and had a chance to hit the Big Bass Drum.  I'm a little sorry that I missed that, but we were tailgating and enjoying mimosas, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage, with friends we hadn't seen in nearly 20 years.  

 The kids sat in a group until after the band did their pregame show.  After pregame, the kids went with their assigned band member and sat in the band with them for the first half of the game.  Malcolm was in the mellophone section and Dorothy was assigned to the Golden Girl.  They both learned several cheers and said they had a lot of fun.  When they came back to us after halftime, they both knew most of the words to Hail Purdue.

 Dorothy, waiting to go on the field at halftime.  She's the one kneeling right behind the camera men.

 Malcolm, far right, walking on the field for their part of "Be Our Guest" during the Disney themed halftime show.

 He said the best part of doing the junior band experience was getting to go on the field.  "I didn't know it was real grass!!"

 They had their back to us, but Dorothy did a great job doing her routine with the Purdue Twirlers.  The lady on the far right is a former twirler (I started at Purdue the year after she left).  She was helping out and said she got a video of the girls.  I'm hoping to get a copy of the video.

When I picked Dorothy up after halftime, she commented about how well Dorothy had done all day.  She was very impressed with her endurance.

 Almost all together!

 After the junior band was done, they went to the sidelines to watch the rest of the show.  Malcolm was too far back for me to see.  This is all of the twirlers from all of the groups.  The Purdue Twirlers finished their halftime show in the South End-zone, so the girls all had a great view.

 After halftime, we picked the kids up and brought them to where we were sitting.  Obviously, there was lots of room.

 They worked on the snacks that they had leftover in their backpacks.

 I'm not sure who had the bright idea to hand out free foam hammers at the game.

 It was a close game (much closer than it should have been), but Purdue lost it in the end (in true Purdue fashion).  Malcolm took it really hard and actually cried.  I am very tempted to send this picture in to the email address they announced at the game to "share your best Purdue football fan photos."

 Dorothy took the loss much better and twirled in the stands while the band lined up for their post-game concert.

It cleared out fairly quickly, so we headed over to Slayter to say hi to some friends and get a good seat for the concert.

 All tree stumps must be climbed.

 We are still working on how to do a proper salute.

 We were center front for the concert, and Dorothy didn't move when the Director of Bands came up to conduct.  We did make the kids move back a bit for Drum Major break-down.

 After the concert, Dorothy wanted to say good-bye to all the twirlers, so she basically stalked and hunted them down.  They all humored her and she had a nice long chat with the Golden Girl.

 One of the line members offered to let her try on her cape, and Dorothy was insanely happy about getting to wear it.  Last week, the number one thing she talked about was how the twirlers all had capes.

 We posed for a couple of quick pictures on the way back to our car, but things were getting pretty goofy.

They got to dip their hands in the water at the fountain, and amazingly, no one ended up drenched.

They both had a lot of fun and said they want to go back and do the junior band experience again next year.