Spend Awhile on the Nile

The three big kids have all participated in the Kids Choir at church this year.  Last year we saw the choir's end of the year musical and thought it would be a good fit for our family.  They have sung in front of the church several times and most recently performed the musical Spend Awhile on the Nile.  It has been good for them in a lot of ways.  Their director is so good at balancing high expectations with realistic ones.  So there is no stress to be perfect, but a strong desire to do well.  Plus, they have had so many opportunities to be in front of an audience while being surrounded by friends.

Caleb was assigned one of the major roles in the musical.  Memorization is not his strongest skill so the role was a big challenge.  He practiced a lot and did a great job. 

Natalie and Annalise are in the lower age group of the choir and all of those children were in the chorus.   Annalise had everyone else's lines memorized anyway!

The cast:

Spend Awhile on the Nile is a well written play.  It was kind of hard because the music doesn't stop much and often the speakers have to speak in the middle of a song.  When they missed their cue, it really threw off the timing.  Also it assumes the audience has a basic knowledge of Genesis and Exodus.  I thought that was probably a weakness in some ways, but it did make the dialogue funny.  The songs are really great.

Before the play, the kids were very nervous, but after it was over, they were all very disappointed that they only got to perform it once.  C and A still recite parts of it just for fun - especially at night, instead of going to sleep! 

The choir has two more performances in early May and then it breaks for the summer.  

9 Months Old

She's 2 foot 4 and full of smiles.  Irene turned 9 months old this week!  Annalise designed the chalkboard for her and the little drawing the corner is a baby next to an hourglass...through the sands of time!

She has been crawling for about 2 weeks and has pulled to a stand twice.  She isn't saying anything really recognizable yet, but she says ah-da a lot when she's happy and ma-ma a lot when she's not!  She waves and claps and may also sign "all done" - it isn't too far off of clapping.  I've been trying to get her to recognize a few baby signs and I do think she pays attention to them, but so far she doesn't use them.  That's all on the pleasant side!  On the not so fun side, she is quite a screecher!  My ears, oh my ears!  When she is unhappy she does NOT suffer silently.   She also throws her head back and sometimes falls back on the hard tile floor.  I'm hoping that the unpleasantness of it will break her of that quickly!

She has adjusted very nicely to my block scheduling and it only took a couple of days for her naps to be just what I wanted them to be.  I would say she's a good sleeper, but I would also say that after 4 babies your ears tune out crying quite a bit!

A Laundry Tip

I bet you thought I had some good advice!

It's not much, but it's mine!

And that crusty one is a dime!

Quotable Natalie

Natalie: I am feeling kind of sad today
Me: Oh, why are you sad?
Natalie: About Mt. Everest 'cause so many people died there.

So...what are you wearing?

I have a long history of showing the baby "the first bird" - it goes back to Caleb being a fussy waker and me wanting to ween him from nursing first thing in the morning.  I told him we would go and see the first bird!  And how fun that would be!  So I started doing that younger and younger and now I take Irene out to see "the first bird" first thing in the morning.

So that stage is set:  we were out seeing the first bird and my neighbor's son - 6th grade or 7th grade - was walking to the bus stop.   He was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up.  I didn't think much of it because people often wear jackets indoor here because the a/c can get really cold.  I did think about it later though because he is very trendy - he wears obnoxiously loud knee socks.  Is this a trend all over or just South Florida?

Later in the day I was out and saw two boys (not together and not on the same street) wearing black hoodies with the hood up - only now it was after 2pm and 86 degrees by my van thermometer.  The knee socks I will dismiss - teenagers think strange things are attractive (I used to think grunge looked fashionable!), and I don't want to class this with the sort of thing as wearing pants low enough to show your underwear.  The low pants may be defiant, but they don't increase your body temperature!  The only conclusion I can come to is that wearing a black hoodie with the hood up must be so essential to personal coolness that you will wear them regardless of temperature.  I am considering asking my neighbor's son...I did ask him about the socks, but that was back when I thought he was trying to stand out.  He had some friends over to skateboard and they all had obnoxiously loud knee socks.  Peer pressure is strange and strong!

Sugar Festival 2015

I think this was our 6th year at the Clewiston Sugar Festival! 

Sugar cane - peel and eat, it tasted...like sugar!

Honestly, this was the least impressive year to me.  I knew it would be hot and long and crowded, but the midway was extremely unimpressive - just smidge above a big Miami-style birthday party.  So we didn't think it was worth the cost of arm bands.  Fortunately Clewiston has recently built a fantastic new playground.  They also have a free splash park - both within walking distance on the festival. 

The most interesting thing this year was the U.S. Sugar tent.  They went out of their way to make a good impression with free orange juice and iced tea, free sticks of sugar cane, free rock candy, a free raffle, and lots and lots of information about the sugar industry.  

Irene taking in the sights:

Taking the pack and play was the best idea ever - for both of us! 

Traditional Tractor Tire Photo:

Chores...

I like hugs and I like kisses,
But what I really love is help with the dishes!
~Author Unknown

More water = More clean, right?

An Annalise Themed Post

In thinking about the last week or two, I started thinking about Annalise and all the interesting things she is doing. 

She's started a bug collection:

The zebra longwing butterfly was a lucky find.  We saw a bunch flitting around a bush and found a dead one on the sidewalk nearby.  You can hardly take a photograph of a live one - they just don't stay still very long!  To pin it, we had to hydrate it - we put it in a plastic box with a hot washcloth and let it steam for a while.  To position the wings, we gently pressed them down with pieces of skewer and taped it down.  Her bug collection is not going to last a long time (wrong kind of pins), but for now it's pretty cool!

She helped sew a pullover bib for Irene:

Honestly, this was my idea and she didn't think it would be fun, but after we had it finished she was pretty pleased with the result.  We are going to make more.

She has worked hard on her cursive:

Cursive is the only subject that she finds difficult and for a long time tried to resist learning it!  I knew she was starting to get it when she gave me the note above - because she used cursive by her own choice.

She draws a lot:

Where Natalie fills the paper with so many figures you can hardly tell one from the next, Annalise usually has one labeled drawing in the center of the paper.  She likes colored pencils.

And she lost both her front teeth:

The new teeth are coming it very quickly, so she won't be like this for long.

Checking In

So blogging has been something that has not made the priority list lately.  I am sorry for that because I really enjoy reading my old blog post and jogging my memory about things the kids have done and said and thoughts I thought back when I had more time to think!

I still think.  Sometimes coherently, but my thought get interrupted...A LOT.

FOUR smiles!

Our schedule for the day has become more defined.  It is really amazing how something so rigid can be so freeing.  One quote from the Managers book that I'd like pass on is this:

The goal is to eliminate as many decisions as possible - since decisions take up much of your time and emotional energy.

And that is to eliminate many of my decisions (which naturally eliminates some of the kids' decisions).  It really has helped a lot already.  I have long made a meal plan and seen the benefit of that, but to implement that sort of planning over other parts of my work has freed up more of my mind.

Guess who's crawling!

The other major change for me was to start getting up an hour before the kids everyday.  I've thought about it before, so I'm not sure what made me decide now is the time, but I very much regret not doing it sooner.  After a few days I accidentally turned off my alarm and overslept.  My morning started with noise and wiggly bodies everywhere; the whole day had a discordant tone.  I've never really considered myself a "Morning Person", but forget about that - the benefit of starting my day peacefully is worth getting up, splashing cold water in my face, and resisting the snooze button.

My cashier was one of my students when I taught 1st grade in 2003-04.

The kids are getting used to the new schedule and I think they get a lot done.  There are some things we omit, but I'm still tweaking the details.

Natalie's Self Portrait

Spot on!  (The line at her mouth is a straw.)

Background details show a playground.

 Natalie draws A LOT.  When the big kids watch a movie, most of the time she gets bored with it and goes to find the paper.  She will draw 5+ pages -front and back- filled with drawings and hardly look up.  My suspicion is that she is telling a story in her drawings, but getting the details from her isn't easy.  It is very hard for her to stop drawing.  If you ask her to draw one thing, she will keep adding extras until you take the paper away - or until there is no white space left.

A typical Natalie drawing.

Mommy and Natalie - I love how we both have blonde hair and bows!  The black "fingers" are bracelets.  She forgot to draw my arms.

Self Portraits: Then and Now

2011

2015

April Fools Day

And they planted them!

Juicy Jello!

Annalise pranked Rob

The kids also found some pennies on the sidewalk...mysteriously glued to the concrete... and Caleb found a packet of rattlesnake eggs - but that turned out to be a bent bobby pin and a washer attached with rubber bands. Fun stuff :)