When each school had sung their individual piece, the 400 kids filed onto those huge risers and sang together the songs we had already worked on this spring, and they had been practicing all day. There was great variety in their seven songs - classical, Spiritual, Gospel, one a capella number, some with brass, drums, one with a penny whistle, another with a violin, most with piano accompaniment. The applause and standing ovation at the end had to make the long hard day worth it for the kids.

The highlight of the day for me was when, after listening to 30-some girls try out for a major solo in the gospel song He Never Failed Me Yet, they chose my 8th-grade student, Hannah Metzler, to do it with the mass chorus. In the picture above, if you look really hard (after you click on the picture), you can see her standing in the opening in the middle with a microphone. She did a FANTASTIC job!!!! After that song there was long, long, loud, very loud applause! I'm quite sure I was the loudest of all. My heart was just about to burst with pride.

And here she is with me afterward. A lot of the other teachers said, "Why do you always have the 'belters'?? Can't you send some to me?" I don't know why, but I have been blessed over the years with absolutely amazing solo voices, and as I look down over the lower grades there are many more to come. Those other teachers are just going to have to deal with it, ha, ha!!

After we left Lancaster Mennonite School at 9:30 Dick and I drove to Reading to pick up Destiny for the weekend. It was okay. It gave us time to be together and time for me to just sit and relax after a long day. I was so ready for my good bed when we got home. And this morning I was so glad when I realized it was Saturday morning. Too good to be true!