The Farm

One very cold day in April, Erik's play group went to the farm. I've gone there with all of my kids around that age. It's just one of those things you have to do around here with your preschooler. It was the first time that I went where the hay ride was covered with a tarp because of the cold weather. It had been close to 80 the weekend before and was 35 and very windy when we went to the farm. Though we dressed for winter, we still froze our buns off! The hay ride wasn't worth is when you couldn't see out of the wagon. Even still, Erik enjoyed being with his friends and interacting with the animals.

Hayride with no view.

Mini pony (he almost rode a horse, but decided not to at the last minute).

Goats

More goats

Baby goat

Feeding time! We got to give the babies bottles too!

Cow- where milk comes from (aka: hot chocolate!) 

Update on Erik's neck: nothing! The neck injury seemed to go as quickly as it came. Sunday, he came out of his room complaining about his neck, holding a band-aid for Jason to put on. His crying became more serious as he lay face first, bent over the couch while holding his neck. Jason tried to figure out the problem as Erik seemed to be in more pain, which is very unusual for this tough boy to be in that much pain! I tried to change his diaper before Jason took him to the ER, but he wouldn't even let me move him, so we didn't want to risk stuffing him into his car seat with some mysterious neck pain that we had no idea what it was about!

911 dispatch asked many questions before sending out the ambulance, and when they arrived, the paramedics did too. They finally took him away, not knowing what was wrong. The doctor said it was a neck strain and gave him some Motrin and muscle relaxers. I gave him Motrin the next day and he was in so much pain he barely moved! Just whimpered and moaned all day on Monday. In the afternoon I rubbed his neck with some essential oils and he started to get better. The next day he was almost 100%, but I still gave him Motrin and rubbed his neck with oils. By Wednesday, he had no pain relievers, just oils. By Thursday he was doing headstands and Friday it was somersaults!

The only thing we can think of, and sort of from what he said, was that when he was in his room for his time-out, he was mad and was pushing his head against the door, which was why we heard no sound. He probably pushed so hard, he got it all wound up. Hopefully, he will remember this experience for a while! We're so glad he recovered so quickly!!

Another Recital

Karissa's recital was exactly one week after Victoria's. This was the first year she danced with this program. It was through the school district. As I mentioned in a previous blog, it was less expensive, more relaxed, and less time-consuming. We enjoyed the recital and it was very well-done. Exactly what I would have expected for a dance recital for young kids. After having been involved in Dancin' Feet for the past 6 years, which recitals knock your sock off, I could have picked out a bunch of things that would have driven the director of Dancin' Feet crazy! However, as I've said before, if Karissa enjoyed it, and she did, it doesn't matter to me!

 I recorded them with my regular camera, so you can actually see her dances! When you see them all looking to their left, our right, that's them watching the teacher for the moves. That was my biggest complaint, was that even the girls in Karissa's class (age 8-10) would look to the teacher for what to do next in the dance. They were still cute, though!

Here she is with some of her dance buddies. 

Since Victoria's ballet video was so hard to see, here is a small clip from her Cecchetti ballet class. She is testing on Friday and has decided that next year she is going to concentrate on only ballet, with Cecchetti, no tap. I was surprised, but support her. As they get older, they can choose to focus on certain areas in the dance studio, She says she eventually wants to go on pointe. 

California Sun

My dad and Mary Lou came for a quick visit (one day short of a week feels quick nowadays with our busy schedule!) and seemed to have brought the California sun and warmth with them. Actually, now that they're gone, it's back down to the 50s, but while they were here, it was in the upper 80s with lots of sunshine! We did have some thunderstorms too, of course. You can't have that warm of weather around here this time of year without thunderstorms to go with it.

Since Austin is in kindergarten full-day and the kids didn't have any days off, besides the weekend, it felt different with them not around during the day. We needed those calmer moments, though, to get us through the busy evenings and weekend!

Besides finishing up their dance classes with some last practices and recitals, the girls both have parts in a play called Honk, through the community that they had a couple of practices for. In addition, Victoria was working on a wax museum project with a friend, Karissa was filling out the rest of her TAG forms, along with their regular school assignments, and piano. Saturday was just about the busiest day ever for us! Grandpa and Grandma Anderson were well entertained! Austin went to a free tennis class in the morning, then off to his ice hockey. While the grandparents were there, I took Karissa to her dance practice for her recital coming up this Saturday (Grandpa and Grandma got to see her dance at her class Monday night). Then, Grandpa and Grandma got to see Victoria dance in her first recital of the day. They took Karissa with them. They babysat that night so Jason and I could go on a date to the second recital that evening. Victoria danced well and we all enjoyed the show. It was nice spending Mother's day with them and a break from all activities on Sunday.

We had to squeeze in some fun while they were here too. A couple parks, the Botanical Gardens, and Frankenmuth (a German settled town 1 1/2 hours from here) were about all we could do. We had to move quickly to fit Frankenmuth in with school drop-off and pick-up, but it was worth the trip!

Erik jumped right in with Grandpa.

The girls still love to rub Grandpa's hurt shoulder.

Brown-eyed buddies.

I've been watching Logan again lately, when he doesn't have preschool. He went with us to the Botanical Gardens.

Victoria mowed part of the lawn for the first time.

After the first recital. Victoria had already changed because she was boiling, but her hair and make-up are ready for the evening show!

Janelle and Victoria= cute spiders

My favorite tree is no longer there, but I still like this spot for pictures. My kids cooperated better than ever for our annual Mother's day picture!

We sang "Happy Birthday" to the upcoming birthday boys on Mothers day. 

Lewis and Clark at the wax museum. 

Sideways

I just checked out my blog, and of course, the spider video is backwards from the way I saw it. So, it's sideways for most of it instead of only part of it- what a mess!!!

Spiders and Santa

The news about Victoria's dress rehearsal this year. The good news: I got the videos from You Tube onto my blog, in record time! The bad news: you can hardly see faces in the spider dance. The only reason you can see bodies is because the black showed up. Even worse was the Christmas dance. The Santa costumes, for some reason, reflected the lights and all you see are the silhouettes of the dancers. It was fine looking at it on my phone, but not when it transferred onto the computer. Victoria starts on our right for both dances (second from the right for the spiders and fourth from the right for Santa) and then ends up on the left. Cute dances, sorry you can't see better!

(I found if you hold the phone straight up and down, it comes out sideways. So I turned it only a few measures into the song. My other copy of the dance was interrupted by a phone call! I don't think I'm using my phone to video next time!)

TAG School, Here We Come!

Yesterday after school, Karissa told me she learned about what irony means. We had a little discussion about examples of things that are ironic. I realized that I have the best example of irony.

Two weeks ago, I received a letter from the school stating that Karissa was 4th on the waiting list to get into the TAG (talented and gifted) program for third grade. Enclosed were her test results. I was impressed, and surprised, at how high they were. I've always known that she's a bright kid, but she's often in, what we like to call, "outer space". She needs some prodding to get her work done, but once she's focused, she does really well!. She's been in what the principal described, and what I can attest to, a "rigorous" second grade class, so I've been prodding her along all school year. Her teacher raves to me at how talented she is, but agrees that she needs a little nudge to get her going.

Supposedly, I was going to find out whether or not she would get officially accepted in June, after all the other parents turned in their acceptance letters for their children by a certain deadline. In the meantime, I did my homework to know if TAG is right for her. I talked with the TAG principal, one of the third grade TAG teachers, her current teacher, and many moms whose children are in TAG, or who got accepted for next year. I even talked with a mom whose child was accepted and they declined the opportunity, and they somewhat regret that decision. Of course the best way is through prayer, and I've done that too. I felt confident that it would be a good fit for Karissa. Yesterday, we got a call that a spot has already opened up, and she is in! Okay, I'll be honest, I cried when I found out. Not that it's that big a deal to me, it's just that this whole idea was so unexpected to me and I've been aware over these school years at how blessed I am to have my kids doing so well in school. Whether or not any of my kids get into TAG, they are all bright and talented in different areas. They all love to read, and Austin has learned to read this year amazingly well. When I was in elementary school, I felt dumb. I struggled in math, was not the best reader, in fact I didn't even like to read on my own. It wasn't until the middle of my Jr. High years that I felt like I could actually do somewhat well in school. That was because I learned that if I worked hard enough, I could do it, thanks to my parents for their example of that. I just hope that now that Karissa is in TAG, she will continue to work hard and not use the excuse of being "talented and gifted" for her to slack off.

The irony in all this? Our home school, Miller, has been the TAG school as long I I have known it. Starting this fall, the TAG students are all being sent to a different school, Galimore. Now that I finally have a student in TAG, it won't even be at our school! Luckily for us, Gallimore is the next closest school.