Top Ten Tuesday: 1200 Davis Street: The Finished Product!

 I was SOOO excited to take a tour of Roycemore in its new location!!!  I totally cried on January 3rd--the first day of school in the new building because I wanted to be there so badly :(  Luckily, I had already bought our plane tickets for the trip we just enjoyed, so I knew I could look forward to attending the first Palio in the new building :)  Jackson was excited to go visit Bampa at school, and we took this obligatory photo...

 and this one!  We have pictures of Larry and me in my dad's office behind his desk, so this just made sense :)

 On the first day of school, all of the kids got these shirts that Jackson was kind enough to model!  The front had the Roycemore emblem on it.

 The back said, "First day in our new home 01-03-2012" with the new address under it.

 I cannot believe how different (and AMAZING!) this building looks from the first times we saw it (Coming Soon to 1200 Davis Street, Tour of 1200 Davis St., and Roycemore is on the Move)!   Here is a list of my favorite things (in no particular order):

1) The main entryway!  In the old building, there were quite a few entrances (and here there are too, of course), but there wasn't really one entrance that was clearly The Main entrance...  Now, there is a clear main entrance, and when you come through the doors, you are entering the whole school with the option to head in whichever direction you would like.  Does that make sense?
2) The air conditioning!  It was so funny to see thermostats throughout the building!
3) The elevator!
4) The Early Childhood classrooms! WOW!  I am still super excited about Jackson's school for next year, but the Pre-Kindergarten, Junior Kindergarten, and Kindergarten rooms just blew me away the other day!  They are large, bright, welcoming, and totally kid friendly :)
5) The feel of the main office.  As a parent, I find myself looking around as a prospective parent before I look around as a teacher or alum.  I would be pleased to walk into the main office and wait in the sitting area, if necessary.  Again, this area is large, bright, and welcoming.
6) Even though the building is larger, I feel like things are closer together!  Isn't that weird?  There were three distinct wings of the old building, but I think it just seemed like a longer trek to go from one place to another or to have to trek up to the main office.  I think the assignment of rooms is just right :)
7) It goes without saying, but the brand-new gym is amazing!  The old gym will always hold a special place in our hearts, but this one is so much more functional (and impressive)!
8) The amount of parking, including an underground garage!  The car line for the Early Childhood program is even located underground--a real plus for parents!
9) Paint colors and storage!  Each classroom has one accent wall painted in one of five colors.  All of the colors give the rooms a homey feel.  There is a crazy amount of storage in each classroom between counterspace, upper and lower cabinets, and large cabinets.
10) The amount of natural sunlight!  The size and number of windows in this building are awesome!  The majority of the windows are floor to ceiling on all sides of the building--there is natural light everywhere you look!

Check out more fun lists at Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings!

The First Palio at 1200 Davis St.!

Jackson's second Palio, but the first one in the new building!!!

 Check out the new gym!  Roycemore built this from scratch, and it is perfect!  A far cry from the gym that always had visiting schools stop in their tracks when we played sports asking if that was really the gym...  The picture above is only HALF of the new gym!

Last year, Jackson thoroughly enjoyed his first Palio (I wrote a lot more detail about the history in this old post), and he really liked watching the kids again!  The Lower School's serpentine with the class banners definitely gave me chills, especially since it's easier to imagine Jackson as a first grader (obviously, not at Roycemore since the commute would be killer, but all the same)!  

 After the Lower School finishes their opening, all of the class banners come through from First Grade through Twelfth Grade.  The banner on the left is my old banner, and it is graduating this year!!!  We handed it down to this year's senior class when they were in Kindergarten.

 I love watching the banners cross and parade around the gym!

 Jackson sat still as a statue as Bampa greeted everyone, and then as the kids started their performances :)

 I stayed to watch the Middle and Upper School Palio, and this time I was quick enough to catch my old banner crossing in front of the Palio banner :)

 The opening number was "Phantom of the Opera," and this music definitely sounded familiar!

 Oh yeah, I USED to be able to do that!  LOL  Seriously, I could!  Now I can't even imagine doing a forward roll...how pregnant you feel when there are high schoolers flying through the air in front of you ;)

The Grand Finale this year was music from "The Mask of Zorro," and the kids did a GREAT job!  It was so fun to be back and a part of the excitement to watch the first show in the new gym :)

Tour of 1200 Davis St.!

I could not WAIT to get a tour of the new location for Roycemore!!!  My dad has been CRAZY busy pulling together all of the details, overseeing the construction progress, and planning the logistics for the big move over Winter Break!  We got to tour the building before Thanksgiving, but I couldn't post this picture (which I LOVE) since I look pregnant already!  So, here is the report and a couple of pictures!  I would be so excited if I was a teacher at Roycemore--these classrooms look AMAZING!  They are all big, have excellent storage cabinets and counters, and they all have a painted accent wall!  "Huge project" doesn't even really begin to cover this transition, but it is going to be SO worth it!  There will be tons more parking complete with underground parking garage!!!  The garage will also include the car line for the Early Childhood Programs--parents will love that convenience.  Basically, the school is going to show SO well: elevator access, brand new bathrooms and locker rooms, floor to ceiling windows in the majority of rooms, gorgeous science labs, more "stylish" cafeteria space, and just more space for everything!  I am SO excited for this next step for Roycemore :)

Josh, Jackson, Uncle Larry, and Dad in the BRAND NEW REGULATION SIZE GYM!!!  This is HUGE!

Roycemore is on the Move!

My dad gave Jackson this AWESOME hard had before we left Evanston last month!  It says "2011 at 1200 Davis."  Jackson loves his official hard hat!  I can't wait to take him to see the new school when it's finished late this fall!  Roycemore has established a YouTube channel on which they are posting weekly podcasts to show the progress on the building: Roycemore School's YouTube Channel  It's really fun keeping up on the progress from a distance :)

Jackson's First Palio!

Bampa and Jackson with the Palio banner!

Hands down, my favorite part of each school year was Palio!  In Lower School, the months leading up to Palio meant it was time to "play" on the apparatus (rings, ropes, balance beam, horse, and mats) during P.E..  We would practice our skills and get really excited to show them off to the audience on the night of the show!  We also got to show one of the games we played during P.E.  In second grade, however, we got to learn our first ever dance routine with Mr. White!  That was one of the first "special" things we got to look forward to over the years.  Once we were in Middle School, P.E. class would be dedicated to learning dance and tumbling routines, and our Creative Arts period each week would be spent working on even more routines.  We would stay after school for rehearsals, and as a Middle Schooler, it was really exciting when we got to combine our practices with the Upper Schoolers to bring everything together!  The day before the show, we would have an all-school dress rehearsal in the afternoon.  The day of the show we had a half day and then came back in the evening for the program.

Here is the description of how Palio came to be from the program last night: 


"The concept of Palio was initiated at Roycemore in 1919 when a teacher returned from Sienna, Italy, where she had observed a magnificent civic celebration.  In Sienna there are seventeen different "contrade"-each represented by a banner--who compete for the honor of winning the Palio (a large white banner).  In 1919 each Roycemore class designed its own banner which it defends with skills and sportsmanship throughout its twelve years at the School.  These banners have been passed from Seniors to Kindergartners since that time, and are the ones proudly displayed by the representatives of the classes during the "banner presentation" at the beginning of tonight's Palios."


We handed down our class banner to the Kindergarten class in 2000--that class is now the Junior class!!!  It has been almost 12 years since we graduated high school!  Yikes!  


Last night was Palio, and my mom and I took Jackson to the Lower School Palio.  He LOVED it!  He sat for over an hour watching the kids perform :)  I was really not prepared to be emotional over this since it's been so long since I graduated or attended a show.  Well, the Lower School does an awesome serpentine entrance: a senior leads carrying the American flag, a junior follows carrying the Roycemore flag, three members of the previous year's winning class follows with the Palio banner, and then the whole Lower School follows in single file line.  The classes are divided by their individual class banners, and they wind through the gym in a neat way.  They all stop for us to sing the National Anthem and the Roycemore Song.  I definitely got teary and felt goose-bumpy when the serpentine started and while we sang.  I ended up being able to just really enjoy the rest of the show and didn't feel very weepy--phew!  After the Lower School Palio, my mom was awesome and took Jackson home to bed while I stayed to watch the Middle and Upper School Palio.  It was SO fun to watch the routines because I totally remembered performing to many of the songs (the songs definitely are not the same each year, but the good ones get repeated!).  I didn't plan our trip purposefully to coincide with Palio, but I'm SO glad we were here to attend--especially since it was the last one in this building!

 Jackson and me with my class's banner :)

Mrs. Wunder, Jackson, and me with my old banner