TKD Party

Once Alex was promoted past the beginner white belt, we were able to move him into the homeschool taekwondo class. This class is offered earlier than the regular classes and is only homeschooled children. It is such a refreshing experience; we've all connected and even had our first "TKD party" at one family's home. Everyone chipped in and rented a blowup water slide - actually, it was a huge, DOUBLE water slide. We had a potluck lunch and just relaxed there all afternoon. The kids had a blast! Alex and Nathan couldn't get enough of the slide, though my little Amy wasn't too fond of it. She did eventually go down a few times once Bill and I became adventurous enough to go down with her. :)

Fall Ball

Alex is playing Fall baseball again and is really enjoying it. This season he is on the "Fighting Irish" Notre Dame team. They lost their first two games, but the kids are having fun and I have noticed so much improvement in Alex. He throws better and seems to understand the game better this year and is much more engaged. He no longer seems to be interested in the dirt and weeds growing in the outfield. :) Nathan is just a spectator this year. He opted to do tennis instead of baseball. Amy hasn't asked to participate in any sports... yet. I'm sure it's coming!

Alex, ready to play:

Nathan:

Amy:

Taekwondo Promotion Test

Alex has been taking taekwondo for a couple of months now and loves it. On Saturday, he took his promotion test to obtain his yellow belt. He appeared tired and told us afterwards that his tummy hurt, but despite all of that, he did awesome! We are so very proud of him!!!







He received his yellow belt in class today:

New School Year

We are starting our fourth year of homeschooling - I can't believe it!!! I now have three students: Alex is in 3rd grade, Nathan is in 2nd grade, and my little Amy has started Kindergarten. So far the year is going well - we are on our third week. It is much harder to homeschool three; we are hard at work starting at 8am for breakfast (when we do the Bible lesson) and continuing through about 2pm. We have one day a week that we have to finish earlier due to Nathan's tennis lessons, so we have to make up any unfinished work on the other days. I'm still trying to figure out how to work in more crafts, art, and learning games. I'm sure in time I'll get our new schedule more organized and we'll be able to make more time for these activities. But all in all, I'm pleased with how our year is going!

Here are some pictures from the first day of school and from our family field trip to Space Center Houston to celebrate after the first week of school:

FIRST DAY:





SPACE CENTER HOUSTON:

Summer 2010

We had a very busy summer this year. We took a good part of the summer to finish up school, and we still had our usual activities, plus VBS and other summer events, a trip to Ohio... It was full and fun! Here are some highlights:

CUB SCOUT TWILIGHT CAMP

Nathan, hard at work:

Bill, the happy camper:

Alex, in the background (yellow and green ballcap):


OHIO TRIP












AMY'S SUMMER BALLET






I'm sure there are other Summer things I should post about, and as I think of them I will try to update. :)

Fish Update

I know after this long that this is probably not the first post you'd expect - or hope - to see from me. But, while I wait for the pictures from my camera card to come up, I figured it would work as an opening post. :) The only fish that remain of the original we bought are Alex's three tetras. We've since purchased an algae eater and we are on Goldie #3. This whole fish experience has been interesting. I've learned you should never get attached to fish because they probably won't be sticking around for long.

Fish

Last weekend we fulfilled one of Bill's dreams, as well as a frequent request of our kids'... We purchased fish. Bill used birthday money to buy an aquarium a couple of weeks ago, and then of course we had to find the right spot for it, put in the rocks and ornaments and finally add the water, water-conditioners, filter and heater. We left it fishless for about a week to allow the water to become habitable by the fish.

The Saturday trip to Petco was an exciting one. Bill wanted each of us to pick out a fish. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy! Our fish tank is only a 10 gallon and can't hold too many fish, especially big ones. So we limited the full grown fish size to 2-3 inches. Then of course we had the dilemma of which fish gets along with which fish, and which fish must have companions of the same breed... Here is what we ended up with:

Bill's Blue Dwarf Gourami ("Neo"):

My Betta fish ("Sophie"):

Amy's Platy fish ("Goldie"):

Nathan's Silver Molly ("Whitey"):

One of Alex's Blood-finned Tetra fish ("Wicky", "Pappa", and "Cutie" - he got three because these have to have friends)
(the picture is blurry because they are very quick!)

Full view of aquarium:


We've learned a lot in the few days we've had these fish. First, though we knew that Betta fish do not like other Betta fish, and they also do not like to share a tank with other long-finned or otherwise "beautiful" fish (obviously very conceded fish). But what we also learned that the so-called "expert" at Petco forgot to tell us was that Gouramis and Bettas do not get along. Sophie did not like Neo at all, and would often flare its gills at him. What a sight! They were often trying to intimidate one another, though I never noticed them doing any harm to each other. But sadly, they were both about to face an even bigger threat. Neo was the first to start getting this weird discoloration on his body starting at his tail. The dark spot grew bigger throughout the day, so Bill returned him to Petco thinking that would be the best thing. This all happened on Sunday. Then Monday morning Sophie had the same discoloration. It continued to grow and when we got home from VBS on Monday afternoon, I could tell it wasn't looking well. By the end of the day, Sophie had died.

Obviously, our fish experience had a rough start, and unfortunately continues to be challenging. We tested the water last night and found that the ammonia level was high, which is very bad for the fish. So we treated the water and this morning all seemed fine... until I noticed that now the remaining fish have Ich (a nasty parasitic disease!). This condition will kill them if we don't treat the tank immediately and for a period of about two weeks. So now we're doing that and hoping we can save the remainder of our fish.

The biggest thing I've learned so far about fish is that maintaining them is not going to be easy!

Amy's Formal Demonstration 2010

On Saturday Amy participated in her ballet studio's "Formal Demonstration", which was a production of The Wizard of Oz and was performed at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston. For her ballet dance, she was part of the Lullaby League dancing to "Brahms Lullaby" and for tap she was a Psychedelic Pony dancing to "Hippy Hippy Shake". I helped backstage again this year, which was even more chaotic than last year! We had this tiny, tiny space in which to dress our girls and keep them occupied. It was absolutely crazy! Poor things barely had room to sit, much less play games, draw, or otherwise entertain themselves. But we managed and overall the girls did very well.

Amy did great on her ballet dance, but unfortunately she learned something new during her tap routine. She learned that when you are cute and you do the "hippy hippy shake", the audience may laugh. And for her, a very impressionable child, that was a bad thing. She almost stopped dancing all together after she heard the audience's reaction. She told Bill and me on the way home later that night that the people were laughing at her so she "slowed down". Poor baby! I wasn't sure what to say to her! But it helped that yesterday we went with friends whose daughter was performing in the Sunday performance (she also performed on Saturday) and actually got to sit in the audience and watch; when you are a performer or backstage helper, you miss everything, so this was a great opportunity for Amy and me! Being in the audience allowed Amy the experience of watching those cute little girls and the audience's natural response of joyful laughter. I think she realized they weren't laughing AT the girls, but were instead just laughing because of how adorable they were. At least, I hope she understood. I know I caught her smiling and giggling at one group of little girls who were shaking their bottoms and hopping about on stage!

The show was amazing! It was long, but filled with incredible dances and acting scenes. There was even a real dog for Toto and a real PONY (the "horse of a different color")! I could not believe the talent of all who participated, but especially the young men and women performing the lead roles. Most, if not all, are under 20 and yet perform like professionals. They could sing, dance, AND act! It was impressive!!! It was so awesome to be a part of it all!

Here are some pictures of my little cutie. The ones of her dancing on stage are from rehearsal night (the only time we are allowed to take pictures of their performance), and the ones in the dressing room and with her flowers (obviously) are from the actual performance night.

Lullaby League Dance (Amy's on the left):

Lullaby League Dance (Amy's in the middle):

Psychedelic Pony Dance (Amy on the left):

Psychedelic Pony Dance:

Amy on the way to Galveston for the big performance:

Posing in the dressing room:


Amy's class (one of them looks mad - oh, wait - that's Amy!):

After the show with her lovely flowers - she's all smiles now!:

Good job, Amy! We are so very proud of you!!!