Sibling Co-operation

Ellie has been bemoaning the fact that her feet don't touch the floor of the van when she's in her booster seat (which is whenever she's riding in the van as the seatbelts don't fit her properly yet). Her legs and feet fall asleep, even on short rides. We have talked about getting a stool or box or something to allow her to put her feet on in order to help alleviate this problem.

Josh told her that he could build a foot rest for her that could attach to the bottom of her booster seat so that it was easily portable between vehicles.

Finally today, Ellie found the velcro pieces they had been waiting on and she and Josh took to the garage to create the foot rest. A little over an hour later, they were calling for Rylie and I to come see the finished product.

What a great creation - I think they should market it to the booster seat manufacturers! They wanted to use pvc pipe and run the rope through the pipe, but it was in the attic (after Dad's recent garage cleaning project) so Josh cut a 2x2 piece of wood the correct length and then drilled a hole at each end that nylon rope could go through. They knotted each end and then attached it to the bottom of the booster seat with velcro. I'll get a picture tomorrow and post it here.

Hopefully this is the answer to Ellie's foot issues - especially since she's probably going to be in the booster seat awhile longer!

We went to the Plaza lighting on Thanksgiving evening. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't too crowded. We actually got down to the "main" street (43rd?) where the stage is located. We were a block or two back from the stage, but it didn't get even remotely crowded until a few minutes before the lighting took place. Someone offered to take a picture of all 5 of us after seeing me take one of Darren and the kids. I think it turned out great!

Finally, a video game system I love

What took so long to create the Wii? I'm glad someone did create it though because we're having so much fun with it! We gave the kids a Wii system last Christmas (2007) and it was fun...but this year we added 3 games to our system (at the price of $50 or more per game we tend to wait for big occassions to get them).

Rylie wanted Wii Fit for Christmas and Santa obliged. Nana and Papa Beck sent Wii Music for our trio and Darren and I gave the kids Outdoor Challenge. All 3 games get them up and moving and having so much fun together.

At one point in the day Josh and Rylie were both huffing and puffing and they are in extremely fit condition. Plus the addition of Wii Music had all 3 kiddos forming a band and playing incredible music.

I can't wait to try out Wii Fit although I'm going to have to steel myself for the frankness of the "trainer" - they tell it like it is, and after not much exercise at all for years...I'm sure the news won't be great!

With the additional gift of rechargeable batteries for all 3 remotes... hopefully exercise for the rest of the winter is well taken care of. Since they are outside playing most of the warm weather months, and the Wii seems to disappear back to the basement for those rainy days.. I don't mind how much they use it during the winter.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Dance, Dance and more dance

It's that time of year. We had the two performances of The Nutcracker Tea Party on Dec 7th. All went well. I helped backstage during the first performance and enjoyed the tea party and performance at the second showing. The girls worked so hard for so long that it was gratifying to see the end result.

So... no more Nutcracker rehearsals til next year, but we jumped right into the twice-yearly "watch week" classes. Rylie has two classes Monday (plus assists during a Creative Movement class Mon afternoons), one Tues evening, one Wed (although that class we watch this coming week), one Thurs, and one Saturday morning.

On top of watch week, her Jazz Company had a performance Saturday afternoon at a nursing home and then she had to be back at 4:45 for a 5:15 voice recital.

Today (Sunday) the Jazz Company (along with the ballet company) had a performance at Union Station in downtown KC.

All were wonderful of course... and we have one more day of performances - this Friday she has 3 shows right in a row... two at two different daycare settings and one at the YMCA. THEN we'll finally get a much needed two week break!

But she lives and breathes dance... so it's all worth it!

New Knitter

Josh has taken up knitting! He is creating wristbands from various yarns. I showed him how to do the basic knit stitch and he's taken right to it. I believe he's done 3 wristbands so far and is asking for more yarn. He's also searching knitting patterns online and found a pattern wristband that he wants to tackle. Unfortunately, he's going to have to wait on that one til I finish the last of the ponchos that I have to get finished by Christmas!

Fall is almost gone

I can't believe how quickly this fall has sped away. I knew I felt like I was on a hamster wheel that I couldn't stop or get off, and I guess that made the time go very quickly.

We had a full schedule of dance, Parkour, co-op classes, field trips, volunteer projects, homeschool group gatherings and now that we have a full-fledged teenager... we've added in homeschool teen group activities too! Whew! Just reading that makes me tired!

In late September, Ellie and I went to KS Pioneer Girl Day at Ernie Miller Nature Sanctuary. She made a rag doll, played pioneer games, wrote with a quill pen and helped make butter. We listened to a story teller and she got to participate in some pioneer dances. It was really fun.

September also brought The Nutcracker into our lives in a BIG way. Rylie's dance school has two performances of The Nutcracker - actually a tea party along with the performance. This year, Rylie will be a mouse and a "party girl". Rehearsals began in Sept and continue to be a major factor in our lives through December 7th - the date of the performances.

October brought a major project of Darren's - Christmas In October. He was the head of a team working on a house and had to see to all the details from touring applicant houses to choosing the house to working out a plan to attend to all that needed work. He did a fabulous job, even taking several weekends before with a "skilled team" of guys to do more in depth projects such as installing a new stove, changing out a door so it opened the other way, installing a hand held shower nozzle, etc. Josh went to help for all of these events and was a big help to his dad.

Besides that project, we had Boo at the Zoo with Youth Volunteer Corps. Josh and Rylie both participated in this event. They were zombie scarecrows positioned strategically near the zoo railroad tracks so they could be seen by the train passengers. Darren and I took Ellie through the Boo at the Zoo event and enjoyed the train ride and being "scared" by the zombies. It was hard not to say "That's my zombie!" when we spotted "our" zombies!

Rylie took a 6 week drama class at The Coterie - a theatre for young people at Crown Center in Kansas City. This was a really neat scene study class with an absolutely fabulous instructor - Nathan Norcross. He can connect with the kids and really bring out some great acting!

We ended October with a really fun, but really windy, hayride at Shawnee Mission Park. Our Unschooling group filled two wagons and enjoyed a blanket covered hour long ride followed by a campfire with s'more's and apple cider.

November continues with all our regular activities plus we saw "Seussical" at the Coterie Theatre. Rylie was excited to see some familiar faces as she got to see behind the stage during rehearsals while at her drama class. She also knew one of the kids in the play from a prior drama class at Coterie last spring.

We're hoping things settle down a little bit during the holidays. I want to be able to enjoy this season and not rush and rush to find it "here already?"

Today is Thanksgiving - we spent a wonderful afternoon with Nana and Papa Mohr, talked with Nana and Papa Beck on the phone and are planning on going to see the Plaza lights being turned on tonight!