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.

That Time of Year

It's that time of year when the dance studios have their photo sessions. As usual, I don't see the need to buy pictures of my girls, even though I would love to cover my house with pictures of them everywhere, I have to draw a line somewhere! I always use the time to make sure their costumes are ready for dress rehearsal and to take my own, far from professional, photos.

Victoria is still with Dancing Feet and has come a long way with her tapping. Her ballet has improved greatly too, mostly due to the Cecchetti ballet she is required to take (really strict, traditional ballet where they are tested at the end of the year). She wasn't sure she wanted to do the Cecchetti. It is in addition to their regular ballet class, but I think she can feel the difference in her dancing because of the discipline it requires.

All the years we have been going, this is the first year they let me watch and I snapped this pic of her with her classmates. She's standing in the middle.

The theme of the recital this year is holidays and seasons. They got Halloween and Christmas. 

Her classes are at the Summit, where they have a beautiful banquet room that we always snap our own pictures in afterwards. 

This year, Karissa went with a different dance company. Last year was gymnastics for her with some dance classes there, which they don't offer anymore. So, we thought we'd try dancing through the school district. It's less money, less intense, a little more relaxed, and still great and lots of fun! Personally, I don't think the dancers are as good as they are at Dancing Feet, but I haven't been to the recital yet. I base that on the fact that Karissa's class is 8-10 year-olds, and they aren't half as good as the 10-year-olds in Victoria's class. But, it's perfect for Karissa and she really does like it there, so I do too! I don't care how good it is, as long as they enjoy it. One thing she realized, though, when she put on her costume for pictures, was that it is still itchy! One of the main reasons she decided not to stay with Dancing Feet is because the costumes are too itchy! I told her that will never change no matter where she goes!

The middle school where her dance is at doesn't have a beautiful room with great lighting and it was too cold outside, but she still looks lovely!

Relaxing before the group shot is taken. 

Finally, we had a ward talent show last weekend. I thought I would try to get some dancers to show off their dancing talents, without trying to choreograph something for them this time. There are too many levels and it was hard to put them together. Instead, I emailed everyone to see which kids were interested. Besides my three (yes, Austin included), only one other person was. I had Austin lip-syncing to the Happy Song and doing his thing and the dancers come in at separate times to do parts of their recital dances. It turned out great! Unfortunately, Erik wanted to help video tape, but I couldn't let him since I had to hold the camera up really high to avoid the big speaker in the way. If you want to take a peek and risk getting dizzy by all the movement, here's the link: http://youtu.be/YhidL3FZY-8. Jason makes a surprise entrance at the end!

School Happenings

 We've had lots of fun, different-from-our-normal-routine, school activities over the past month or so. First, our school held it's first "Word Parade". The students chose a favorite word and had to display it in some way and dress or wear a prop to represent that word. At school, they held a parade so that everyone could see the different words. Since it was the first year this was done, parents weren't invited, but here are my kids before school that morning.

Austin chose the word globe.

Karissa chose the word flash.

Victoria chose the word entrepreneur.

 A few weeks ago, Karissa's class went on a field trip to Geer School. It's a one-room schoolhouse with all the old-fashioned school ways to go with it. They just basically dressed for the time (she even wore her old glasses that weren't so "modern-day") and held class in this schoolhouse that morning. They played games from that era and brought lunches as if they lived in the late 1800s. I was able to stop in for lunch and snap some photos.

Homemade bread, an apple, and a mint for her lunch. I did include a bottled water... 

Her teacher is Mr. Anderson.

 Victoria was able to complete the reading challenge of reading from certain selected chapter books in a specific time frame. She reluctantly, at first, put down Harry Potter, then found she enjoyed the other books. She was able to attend a special pizza party as a reward. She also entered the science fair again this year. After our flu in February, we decided she should do a project on killing germs. She got a little Glo Germ kit and tested whether hand sanitizer or soap and water are best for getting rid of germs. All my kids wash their hands better now!

My little scientists!

This Saturday we will be going to the district art fair again. I haven't seen her piece yet, but Victoria has one that will be displayed. I love all these opportunities for my kids to learn and grow!

Spring Break

Ready or not, spring break came, and went. It seems we were just off for mid-winter break not long ago! I guess we were somewhat ready since we planned and carried out our quick trip to Ohio. Here's a look at what we did after our beautiful Easter Conference Sunday.

Made it to the park after spring cleaning the first day. It was a good thing because it rained most of the week!

In between rains on Tuesday, we got over to the Botanical Gardens- one of our favorite places to visit!

Hiking around the gardens on the trails.

It still looked like winter last week, but a lot has changed since then!

Bowling with friends- Lewie and Austin.

Erik has had these nice shoes and refuses to wear them. I brought them bowling and told him they were his bowling shoes. He wore them and I think he liked them too, but I'm sure he won't wear them again. He's a "Crocs" boy. 

Because of the rain and extreme winds we couldn't go to the zoo, so we went to the science center in Ann Arbor. Erik is "driving" an ambulance here. 

Fireman Austin climbed up to the top. 

We supported the scouts at their pancake dinner fundraiser. Karissa bid on this very expensive ($50) chocolate cake, which our friend egged her on to bid on. I only allowed her to keep bidding when he said it would be his contribution because he didn't want anything anyhow. She was very excited! (Notice her glasses she got over the break too.)

We had some other play dates and Victoria did some babysitting so I could get a few things done. Other than that, it was pretty low-key. Erik is glad to have everyone back in school though. He enjoys his time with Mommy alone!

Kirtland and Cleveland

We went off on a short vacation for Good Friday and the weekend. We're only about 3 hours from Kirtland, Ohio. We wanted to go again (last time we went Victoria was only 1!) so the kids could learn some church history. We went to Palmyra 2 years ago and plan on seeing Nauvoo and Missouri this summer, so we had to get this trip in to make our church history tour complete, once we complete it.

We left Thursday evening and got in later than we planned. The good thing was that Erik was really tired the next day for the tours, so he was quiet and cuddly, trying to fall asleep instead of bored and crazy, though it could have easily backfired into tired with tantrums!

  First, we toured the Newel K. Whitney store and home. Many amazing revelations were given in the  rooms above the store. I know the kids felt the Spirit and seemed to listen pretty well. They especially enjoyed seeing the old-fashioned way of life. Erik took a snooze on the picnic table while we had lunch (good thing the rain cleared up by then!). We toured the Community of Christ church afterwards. They have a little museum in their church building full of church history, then they showed us a video about the Kirtland temple before giving us a tour of it. They currently own the Kirtland Temple. It was very informative and the kids enjoyed being inside a real temple! The best part, for me, was singing The Spirit of God at the end, since that was the song the Saints sang at the dedication of the Kirtland temple.

Saw Mill and Ashery

Erik's lunchtime snooze

River where many Saints were baptized.

Kirtland Temple

We went to the Johnson home/farm last and again felt the Spirit as we learned about all the revelations given there. The boys were laying on the ground by the end, but they were quiet, at least! We got to bare our testimonies on the step where Joseph Smith often preached from.

Steps where Joseph Smith preached from. Erik kept hiding from the sister missionary trying to take our picture- stinker!

After a better night's sleep, we spent the next day at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland. Driving through Cleveland, it looks like a great place! There's lots to see, so we'll have to go there again sometime. The kids, who are all very much into experiments, loved the museum and the shows we saw! It had been a long time since we had been to a Science Center.

View of the lake behind the museum.

Karissa is flying a plane!

Astronaut

On Mars

On Mars

Austin is taking of in a rocket ship.

Kid's play area.

Before going home, we had to eat at the authentic Puerto Rican restaurant there. Wow, way good! We'll need to go back just for that!

Mofongo- a popular Puerto Rican dish made of mashed plantain and cooked in a broth. This one is covered with shrimp. There are other varieties too. This was the best we've ever had!

Rincon Criollo

Yoda's Tale

For about 4 months, our cat, Yoda, was throwing up at least once a week. Let me tell you, that was not fun! It started in November when I accidentally bought the wrong food. It was kind of accidental, but kind of not. I wanted to buy a bigger bag of his food, but they didn't have it at our Petco. In fact, that time they didn't even have it in the smaller bag. So I but a different kind. And so starts the four month of cat vomit adventures!

Around that same time in November his water was moved next to his food. I didn't think it was a big deal, until I realized being in a different place was not helping with his water intake to flush out his tummy problems. Only recently did I move it back to where it used to be.

We quickly but his old food after he threw up for about a week consistently, but I think that triggered an upset tummy. Jason had bought me a poinsettia plant for Christmas. Recently, I discovered that Yoda was eating the plant. Did you know that poinsettia plants are poisonous? I did, though I didn't know he was eating it until I saw one of the leaves in his vomit two weeks ago. I also discovered, that he was eating fake evergreen from a Christmas decoration on the floor of our storage room.

Now that he is on even better food, thanks to Kay and Auburn, is drinking water again, not eating fake evergreen, and not eating poinsettia plant, he hasn't thrown up in over a week! He is acting more like his obnoxious self instead of hiding out all day and throwing up in mysterious places.

One last addition to you Yoda's recent hard life. In January, I was playing Life with Victoria. Yoda was sitting in the box, kind of unusual for him at that time since he was not very social then. When I went to grab a piece of money from the box, he clamped down on my hand with the hardest, longest bite ever! I screamed long, loud, and hard. It hurt! He has nibbled on me before and bitten me here and there, but never like this one. I now have a lovely scar to carry the memory of my cat forever!

The next day.

I am glad he is not throwing up anymore, knock on wood, and that we can enjoy him more again. We love our Yoda!

(I wanted to post a picture of him, but I don't have one on my phone right now. Of course I can't find him at the moment and I can't use our computer because it is broken! ) 

Freedom With a 10-Year-Old

Victoria is almost 10 1/2. Over the past year, I have left her and Karissa at home by themselves while I went to the grocery store for about an hour, maybe 3 times. They were random times when the kids were home and I desperately needed to go to the store, but didn't want to take four kids. I remember the first time was a big deal. She was still nine. We went over and over about not answering the door or the phone. In fact, I had told them, since our door is also a window, that if anyone came up to the door, they were to freeze so the person outside wouldn't see any movement. Luckily, not many people come by, so I don't think they had to deal with it.

Last week they had two half days. On Thursday, Karissa had a doctor appointment with the optometrist at 1:30. I had decided that I didn't even want to take Erik. So, I gave Victoria her first real babysitting job with both the boys. When I returned, everyone was calm and somewhat quiet (playing wii helped with that) and the house was clean. The boys had chocolate milk, which they enjoyed thoroughly, and plenty of other snacks I am sure. I felt free!

On Saturday, I had to visit teach a friend with a new baby in her small apartment, at 9 am. We had a busy day ahead and Jason was going to a church leadership meeting in Lansing (Elder Cook was there among other prominent leaders) so I needed the girls to get their homework, chores, and piano done. I gave Victoria her second baby sitting job (both of these she got paid for, which she was thrilled about!) I brought Erik with me this time so they could get work done and not have to worry about monitoring the boys. I left a list for each of them and they were all super excited to get it done. I believe that Austin got most of his work done as I was getting ready to leave. Victoria took charge and helped him with the things he needed help with. Again, when I returned, the work was done and it was peaceful at home.

Needless to say, I am excited about this new-found freedom I have with a developing babysitter. Victoria definitely has a "take-charge" personality, and I think it will come in handy for when there's work to be done while I am away. Now, if I can only get her to do the same while I 'm around!!

She won the coloring contest at school, awarding her with this certificate toward a book at the book fair.