Catching Up

Life has been marching on. And there have been some things I wanted to post, but am just now getting around to them. Hope this isn't too disjointed.

Jason's birthday was Sunday, Feb 13. The two of us spent that weekend in Charlotte at our regional BSF retreat (which was wonderful!). My mom stayed at our house with the girls. It was a bit of a rough weekend for all in that the Tuesday before, Emma got a stomach bug. She was out of school the rest of the week. Heidi got it Thursday afternoon and Rachel got it Thursday night. So that's what we left my poor mother with. (It's a good thing she loves us and our girls!!!) Jason and I left for Charlotte Friday morning. We both enjoyed the retreat Friday afternoon and evening. Then Jason got the bug Saturday morning and missed all but dinner and the evening session. Then I got sick after dinner Saturday. Between the two of us, we attended the entire retreat. But to add to it, my mother got the bug Saturday morning too. So it was a weekend we all muddled through. However my gracious mother managed to make a birthday cake with the girls for Jason. So we celebrated Sunday after we got home.****************************************
Heidi is continuing to take gymnastics and really enjoys it. They just finished up a session last week. Here is a video of her going through one of their circuits.
And here she is with her certificate! She'll start her next session this coming Monday.****************************************
At Heidi's school they had "Community Helpers" day last Friday. Each of the children was supposed to dress up as a community helper. On Thursday I was asking Heidi what she wanted to dress up as. She didn't know, so I threw out ideas like doctor, teacher, mailman, etc. She said she wanted to be a mailman, but then said, "no, I want to be a newspaper delivery person." Made for a relatively easy costume - just needed a bag of papers (so we collected a few from our neighbors). When she got home from school on Friday she wanted to "deliver the papers," so she rode her scooter up and down our driveway tossing the papers in to the yard. :-)*******************************************
Finally, this week has been "Winter Break" for our school system. However, it has felt much more like Spring than Winter - which has been lovely! Hopefully it'll stick around. So we've spent quite a bit of time outside. Monday we met a friend at the park and everyone had a good time swinging, climbing, sliding, and scootering.Heidi bouncing in a car with her good friend, Juliette.And Thursday we had a doctor's appointment with Emma, so Heidi and Rachel went to play at a friend's house. My friend told me they were eating snack and had this conversation:
Michael: Let's go play in the basement.
Heidi: OK. Let's play Jesus. I'll be Jesus, even though I'm a girl.
Michael: And I'll be God.
Michael's little brother: Who am I going to be???
Heidi: And when we're done playing Jesus, we'll play mermaids.

Apparently they also played Cinderella and pirates. :-)And we have continued to dance the days away to "The Shimmy Shake." Heidi is trying to teach Rachel. She's getting it pretty good. :-)

It's been a good Winter Break, but I'm ready to get back to our routine next week.

East Side Sock Hop

Emma's elementary school has a Sock Hop every February. We went last year, with no poodle skirts. But I figure if East Side continues this tradition, we will need poodle skirts for the next 10 years! So I bought 2 poodle skirt dresses at a consignment sale last Fall - and that will probably be my approach for the next several years. We'll end up with poodle skirts sized from 2 to 10 (or something like that). Let me know if you need to borrow a poodle skirt! :-)We all had a good time tonight! Food from The Varsity, cookies from the bake sale, then off to dance. Heidi enjoyed palling around with Emma's classmates (and they graciously took her in).Emma had fun dancing with her friends too.I caught Emma to dance with her a little bit. She likes to spin. We really couldn't let Rachel down much because there were literally kids running everywhere. She surely would have been knocked over. But she enjoyed watching everyone. Rachel and Jason did give "The YMCA" a try! Maybe next year she'll get to dance a little more.

Our Girls

They start computers so young these days! (This is a toy computer, but she's already trying to figure it out.)Lounging on the back of the sofa playing a hand-held game.
Emma with her two favorite things - her blue buckle and the remote control.
I had to include this somewhere and this seemed as good a place as any. Heidi stays after preschool one day a week and attends a music class. They make their own instrument each week and learn a song. At the end of the session, we received a cd of the songs they learned. One of Heidi's favorites is "The Shimmy Shake." She loves dancing to it. :-) It's a fun song!

Heidi Roller Skating

Last weekend we had GORGEOUS weather - very Spring like; it made everyone want to be outside. Heidi received roller skates for her birthday and pads for Christmas. So we took this opportunity to give it a try. She really enjoyed it.She did fall down a few times.And Rachel enjoyed spectating.She's far from actually skating, but she was walking along pretty good. I'm sure we'll be giving it more attempts as the weather gets better.