Independence Day Celebration

July 4, 2014 – Today is the 238th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence! 
(Some of you enlightened ones may stop reading this post if I’ve already made a factual error within the very first sentence.  So, for you people I’ll add this disclaimer:)

July 4th, 2014

The 238th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence!

[Give or take a couple of days]

Some friends organized a special Independence Day celebration and picnic at a local park.

The festivities began with a fife and drum rendering of colonial tunes.

Yes, photos of people playing music is BORING.

That’s why you’ll find a video at the end of this post…very soon!

Yay!  A picture of me!

This is a great opportunity to quickly mention that during the presentation that my right and left legs were alternating between the sensations of ‘falling asleep’ and ‘pins and needles.’

I'm sure that the founding fathers made similar sacrifices when they manned the sound booth.

Enough of me, let's move on:

The decorations were fantastic and there were probably close to a couple of dozen revolutionary-era flags hanging in the tree tops.

The unfolding and raising of the flag

A cymbal from a colonial-period drum set

Yes, he has THE original Declaration of Independence!

Okay, maybe not…I think that Nicolas Cage already stole it from the national archives.

BUT, I can tell you, that there are times when I talk with Mr. Ford, when I wouldn’t be surprised if he DID have the original!

“An Appeal to Heaven!”

My cousin, Isaiah, looking as dapper as ever!

Just too cute for words….

[Video will be here…when I have the time to edit and upload some of the footage]

Join the discussion on Facebook!

Music @ the Jones

  This evening we gathered with friends at the Jones home for dinner and to play some music together.  It’s so much fun to get two musical families together like the Thomases and the Jones.  We played a couple hymns and some worship songs.
Afterthought: Would’ve been fun to have some video. 

Michael on the acoustic guitar, Mr. Thomas on the drums in the back and Mr. Jones playing a “mean” bass guitar!

It was great to hear Mr. Thomas on the drums…

He brought his drum kit all the way up from OK!

Later we switched up the instruments playing.  In this song, Ashley is on the piano, Michael is on the violin and yours truly is playing the acoustic.

Micaiah playing with a mini djembe.

Jack & Brittany

Mrs. Jones, Cedric, and Zach

Marscel

(stole his brother’s guitar while he switched to violin)

Matthew
(stole his brother’s guitar when he wasn’t looking…)

Kate & Melanie

I was finally coaxed into playing my guitar, but with great reluctance.  It was really my first time ever playing my guitar with anyone, whether that be vocals or other instruments.  It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  Since then I’ve been trying to practice with other people and I play with Kate throughout the week.

I seem to have a hard time finding the rhythm of a song, but I can usually follow along with someone who has.  Also, after playing solo guitar for so long, I tend to go into full right-brainer mode and don’t stick to a consistent number of beats or stick with the chord structure or a strumming pattern!  Trying to work on that …

Fife & Drum-CHEF Conference 2012

I apologize for the very unsteady footage and for all of the obnoxious cuts. I was shopping in the curriculum fair and was carrying around bags of books when I happened to hear the drum begin to play and filmed them all of the way up to the grand ballroom.