Our Minnesota Move: The Champ

Prepare for a blog post full of bragging! 😜

My baby girl just won the Minnesota Percussion Association's state drum line championship!!!

Last year was the inaugural year of the Grove Area Percussion winter drum line. Read all about how they did last year at the state finals.

It has been such a blast watching this kid find her thing. She gives everything she has to her high school band and it is awesome thing to see.

(Insert this mama's ugly-cry here.)

This is such a funny group of kids. Watching them interact is really something else. They are all such good kids and they have formed their own little family. And, of course, this girlie is who they call "mom".

Delanie and her best friend, Amanda.......

.....those girls are thick and thieves.

For the past several months, this group of kids has practiced 3-4 times per week. All in all, they averaged 12 hours per week........TWELVE!!

Practice after practice, they got better and better.

The whole gang......

Holy balls, all those bruises, buckets of sweat, bus rides after bus rides.......

......hours and hours of practice really paid off!!

The year's season in review......

February 2nd @ Eagan - 2nd place

February 9th @ Foley - 1st place

February 25th @ Maple Grove - exhibition only

March 4th @ Burnsville - 4th place

March 11th @ Champlin - 1st place

March 18th @ Elk River - 1st place

April 1st @ Dassel-Cokato - 1st place
**This was the weekend I was in Texas so Jim drove an hour to watch the show.....ALONE.

April 8th @ Rochester - STATE CHAMPIONS!!

The photo above is this year's group of Seniors. What a way to go out, right???

This is Delanie's drum line instructor, Mike Brown (AKA "Brownie"). I could not be more thankful to this guy! He has worked tirelessly to get these kids to the championships. He wrote the music, choreographed the show and brought out every ounce of effort from these kids.

OK, let me tell you about the Minnesota Percussion Association's STATE FINALS in Rochester this past weekend.

Check out the look on Delanie's face......total "rage face".

Rochester is two hours away from Maple Grove so Jim and I made a full day of it. Jim even wore his lucky hat. He wore this hat the last two times they won 1st place. How sweet is that???

Kevin and Brandi flew in for the weekend to be a part of the festivities.

I think Delanie was a little shocked that the four of us sat together to cheer her on. As she was standing on the floor waiting for awards, Bruno Mars started playing on the loud speaker. Brandi and I stood up and started dancing like lunatics. I thought Delanie was going to die of embarrassment!! 😉