Bake Camp

Yesterday, Alex attended a Bake Camp at a local bakery! There are 2 themes to choose from: cookies or cakes. She choose cookies, though she wants to take the cake camp now, too.

It was neat that she really got to work in the kitchen! They made 3 batches of dough: sugar cookies (the best EVER!), chocolate chip, and M&M (which somehow didn't get home with her).

They cut out shapes with the sugar cookies. I was told they would learn to decorate them, but they didn't. But, we love the cookies anyway.

And, Alex got to take home a LOT of cookies! (The butterflies aren't something they made.) She even got to take home a big ball of chocolate chip cookie dough that we can bake later. She had lots of fun while I enjoyed some shopping. And, we are all enjoying the yummy cookies!

P.S. I just haven't felt up to blogging lately. I think I am just really enjoying being free from school for awhile. And, I'm really working hard on my new diet & exercise with SparkPeople. I hope to get back to regular posting & reading soon. We'll be headed to New Mexico soon and I hope to post while I'm gone.

If You Take Your Daughter to a Swim Meet

If you take your daughter to a swim meet...
it might last 7 hours...
and it might rain for 5 of those hours...
and your tent might leak...
and all of your stuff might get soaked...
and you might throw it all in the washing machine...
and you might end up with an umbrella that looks like this...

I guess there should be a label on umbrellas telling you to "hand wash only."

Swim Team Season

Summer swim team is back in session! Their practices started two weeks ago. That first week was chilly, but most of the kids handled it well. (Thankfully, Alex doesn't get cold easily, but some of the kids looked really cold.) This week, our temperatures are around 90, but it is still cool and breezy when Alex swims. Her practice is the last of the day, from 7 to 8 pm.

Here's Alex at practice swimming breaststroke (I think).

Our trial meet was this Saturday. Before the meet, the coaches always lead a short pep rally. Here's the team getting ready to swim! For the trial meet, we "only" had to be there at 7 am -and it was at our pool so it only takes a few minutes. I think we usually have to be at away games at 7 (though some are 30 minutes away) and home games at 6:30. It's hard, but it is fun.

The parents have to volunteer so everything will happen that needs to happen. I am a tent mom this year for the 9/10 year old girls. That means I hang out in the tent with the girls as their parents might be volunteering somewhere else. I did this when Alex was 4 & 5 and it was a lot of work. But, at that age, we were constantly looking for goggles, swim caps, even girls! It is MUCH easier at this age.

Here's Alex (head down, arm up) swimming freestyle at the trial meet.

And, here's our team! Swimming is really big around here. Our team has 212 swimmers, and that is a "neighborhood" swim team. Actually, anyone who lives in a neighborhood that doesn't have a swim team can pick a team to join. If your neighborhood has a swim team, you cannot go to another team. The neighborhood next to us doesn't have a team, so these kids are mainly from those 2 neighborhoods.

Staying Busy

Whew! We are having fun, but staying pretty busy right now with end of the year things!

• I had my piano recital a few weeks ago. I was nervous, but did OK.
• Alexandra has started "summer" swim team and that meets 5 days a week, including at 6:45 on Saturday mornings! (She's taken off the past 2 summers, but we're both enjoying doing it again this year - it just keeps us busy!)
• On Monday, we'll finish up a 7 week, post-Classical Conversations, co-op and I am teaching a great class on Inventors. (I'll post ASAP)
• Alexandra has her Classical Conversations Awards Banquet and Choir Recital next Friday - and I'm the accompanist! So, I'm busing practicing!
• We are planning a BIG summer trip - I'll tell you about soon - but I've been researching places to go, things to do, etc.
• And, we our having a family reunion at the end of June. I've done genealogy for over 10 years (though not much since Alexandra was born) and I'm busy getting my information together so it can be shared with the family. (The photo above is of some of my husband's family taken in 1880!)

So, I have not forgotten my blog friends! I hope to have lots of interesting posts coming soon. Thanks for waiting around for me! :-)

Meme: My Life in Six Words

Jimmie over at One Child Policy tagged me for this meme. You are supposed to write a six word memoir of your life. I actually thought of one almost immediately, but it's taken me a little while to get it posted. Here's mine:

FOLLOWING MY PASSIONS, ONE BY ONE

During my life as a grown up, I tend to get strong passions that I follow for a period of time and then I move on.

In my mid to late 20's, I went CRAZY over genealogy. I was working temp jobs at the time and in between jobs, I would sometimes spend up to 8 hours a day at our genealogy library! And, I'd often stay up until early in the morning doing research. I went to a genealogy retreat during this time, and I'm sure I brought the average age way down. Most of the others were in their 60's, 70's and 80's. I think there were a few in their 40's or so. I still LOVE genealogy and would love to do more research, but I'm afraid I couldn't just do it lightly and it would consume my life. I plan to take it up again when I'm "old." Or, maybe in a few years. ;-)

At the end of that time, I went through about a year of being obsessed with the stock market. I did lots of research on stocks we should buy, etc. Thankfully, I have now left that part of our lives in my husbands hands. He's much better at it than I was.

After Alexandra was born, I got into scrapbooking. Oh, how I loved to scrapbook! The fancier the page, the better. I would spend hours on each layout. I even was one of the winners for a contest at a scrapbooking store once and got to display a different scrapbooking page every month for 6 months. It was a thrill!

Then, when Alexandra was about 3.5, I started getting passionate about her education. That is where I still am! I spend hour after hour reading blogs, reading books, researching curriculum. Again, I'm just poring myself into my passion.

Then, when I started homeschooling about 3 years ago, I got into blogging. Of course you know I'm still into that!

Then, I got into nature and photography. This is an incredible passion for me right now and I'm looking forward to sharing this with other youngsters as I start a nature/photography club this fall.

Lastly, I'm wondering if I'm developing a new passion - educating myself. I am currently reading about 6 books (and am actually getting quite frustrated as it is hard to finish a book when you start so many). I've started working out again. (I know this isn't exactly educating myself, but it is doing something for ME.) And, I re-started piano lessons YESTERDAY. Yippee! And, I can hardly tear myself away from the piano. I'm even taking a theory/ear training camp next week!

I actually have played the piano for about 30 years, so I am in no way new to this. But, I haven't played much in the past 15 years. Piano was definitely my passion as a child! I would play for hours.


I'm hoping my new teacher hasn't given me something more than I can handle. She is having me learn the First Arabesque by Debussy. It's beautiful!!! And, it's a lot harder than anything I've ever played before. I posted a YouTube video of someone else playing it. Hopefully, several months down the road (maybe even half a year down the road) I can post a video of ME playing it! I will be thrilled if I can learn it. And, I love that my teacher tells me about the composer, etc. Did you know Debussy was an Impressionist composer? I didn't even know Impressionist music existed! So, I'm off to do some research... Well, after I practice a little bit more.


Oh, and I'm supposed to tag 5 other people. If you don't do memes, just disregard. And, take as long as you like, but please leave me a comment when you're done so I can read about your life!

1. Robin over at Martin Zoo
2. Rhonda at Alston Academy
3. Melissa at In the Sparrow's Nest
4. Barb at Handbook of Nature Study
5. Teacher of One at Boys+ Academy

What We've Been up to this First Week of Summer

Yesterday, we finished our first week of summer with a trip to our local waterpark. We were there about 4 hours... and we both got small patched of sunburn. Alexandra's shoulders are burned and my back is burned. I guess I just didn't get enough sunscreen on those areas!

Well, early this morning, Alexandra woke up with a sore throat and stuff nose... and she felt hot. When we woke up, she was had a fever. So, we've been hanging out at home.

We had started growing this sweet potato about 3 weeks ago and have been shocked by its growth! This photo was taken earlier this week and the vines are now 32 inches tall! It's been growing in a large cup with water with toothpicks poked into it to help it "hang" on the lip of the cup.

Alexandra went to a second week of classes for homeschoolers, including her photography class. This week, they were learning about taking macro photos and they took a walk outside to photograph flowers. This is her shot of hydrangea.
And, this was her camp this week... basketball! She really enjoyed it and wants to play this fall. I was very proud of her as she learned SO much this week. She couldn't even dribble the ball when she started her week! (And, I was proud of her for sticking it out - she was the only girl in the group with 8 boys.)
Her she is taking a free throw. Oops! It missed...

And, I really want to do more cooking with Alexandra this summer. One night this week, we made bran muffins from scratch. We used my grandmother's recipe which uses All Bran cereal. They turned out really good, though a little dry. And, Alexandra is doing really well measuring, stirring, etc. I think the only thing I did was to help find the ingredients, read the recipe (which I know she could do), and take them in and out of the oven.

Our Busy Day (Tuesday)

We had a busy day yesterday. After doing school at home, I took Alexandra to her Tuesday classes. One of the moms called me over and I saw the kids all gathered around looking at something...

And what were they looking at?

This tortoise. I love how these kids get "into" nature!

And, I was really surprised at how fast he could move!

This was the last day of class, and Alexandra and her classmates put on a puppet show and dance as a conclusion to their rainforest adventures. Alexandra is the monkey puppet - 4th from the left. The kids did a great job.

One of the moms shared her amazing talent (she's never had a lesson!!!) and made this great cake!!! Each child got the decoration to match their puppet, so Alexandra got the cute brown monkey. The cake was delicious, too! And, the mom has promised me a lesson this summer. :-)

We ended the day with Alexandra's first piano recital! I can't believe how far she's come in one year. She started the year playing songs that only used one key and one finger. Now, she's playing with both hands and 2-note chords! She did a GREAT job and we are so proud of her.

The Knight's Tour

I've been wanting to have Alexandra learn how to play chess for quite awhile. But, I barely play and, honestly, I haven't found it that enjoyable. Last week, though, we went to an intro class (basically a sales pitch) for chess books, etc, by Chess Coach Steve Schneider. I really enjoyed the class! He starts you out with just one pawn and you play pawn games. Very fun!

So, I bought the game (above) and the "Basics" book. Last week, we learned how to play various pawn games - and the skills to win at those games! Today, we started with our second piece, the knight. And, we learned a fun game called knight's tour.

We both really enjoyed this game. (You can find lots of versions of it online.) In our game, we each used a 4x4 grid of the chess board. Then, you fill each space with some kind of marker (we used citrus erasers). Then, remove one piece and place your knight. Using the legal move of the knight (basically an L-shape where you move 2 squares 1 way and 1 square another way), you try to collect as many pieces as you can. But, you can only move to a space where there is still a space - you cannot move to an empty square!

Alexandra beat me almost every time. (We'd take turns playing and see who got the best score.) We moved the starting square of the knight to different spots to see what worked best.

Overall, it was a really fun game... AND, it taught Alexandra how to move a knight.

We're really enjoying our basics book. They said they'll be having sale prices before Christmas. Here's a link to the website! The book teaches basic chess along with other fun games (like the pawn games and knight's tour) and has fun activities, too.

First Karate Demo - with Kamas!

Alexandra participated in her first karate demo on Saturday - complete with her weapon of choice: the kamas. Before performing in small groups to demonstrate their weapons, the students performed in larger groups. Alexandra loves karate and her favorite part is the weapons! (She uses both kamas and the bow.)

Student of the Month

Alexandra's karate school started a Student of the Month program this month. In each of 3 groups (her's is the beginner belts (white, yellow, orange) aged 6-12), there will be one student chosen as Student of the Month. Well, what an honor... Alexandra is the first Student of the Month!!! Way to go!!!

Piano Lessons

Alexandra started piano lessons yesterday with a "real" piano teacher. I have taught her off and on for about 2 years. But, we've never stuck with it and never gotten very far.

So, we signed her up for lessons. For the past few weeks, she's practiced almost daily and had me "give her a lesson" 4 or 5 times a week. She has been speeding along! So, now I'm worried. She's got 2 songs to practice all week long.... How's that going to work?

The teacher suggested we come in for lessons twice a week, but we just can't add anything else to our schedule right now. I think I'll just use a supplemental book and teach her out of that, too. So, she can do her regular practice, and then gets a "bonus" of mom teaching her a "real" song.

That's my plan for now! So, we'll see how it goes!

By the way, this brings back lots of memories for me. I started taking lessons at about Alexandra's age. Besides recitals, my first "public" performance was when I was in 3rd grade - I played "Up On the Rooftop" in the hallway of our elementary school while ALL the kids in the school sang for our parents. Later, I went on to play for school & church choirs, accompanied various singers & instrumentalists at competitions, and was the back-up piano player for our church. I love to play the piano! I played hour after hour after hour in junior and senior high. I'm so glad Alexandra is so interested, too! I hope she retains her love of the piano like I have!

Karate: First Weapon

Alexandra is now taking karate 3 days per week, and really enjoying it. Last week, she got to use her first weapon: a bow (I guess I'm spelling it correctly.) I thought it was so neat! And, I wanted to get out there and give it a try! She said she didn't care for it, but I think she'll like it more as she learns to use it better.

Go, Girls' Team!

Alexandra is taking karate and the girls are definitely the minority. Today, they did a mini-tournament of sword and shield fighting. They divided the kids by ages and so Alexandra was in the 5's, 6's, and 7's. There were a total of 11 boys and 1 girl - her!


She ended up finishing 2nd place!!! The sensei is always saying "Go, Girls' Team!" and we were so proud of how she represented the girls' team... and just proud of her! I was disappointed that they only gave a prize to the first place, but we'll always know she fought in the championship round and came in 2nd!!!


Go, Girls' Team!!! Go, Alexandra!!!

Karate

Alexandra took up a new sport a few weeks ago... karate! She earned her white belt last Monday. (I'll try to get a better photo)

Bit by the Acting Bug

Yesterday, Alexandra played parts in two plays as the conclusion to her week of acting camp. She took the camp at a local, Christian theater. This was her first time to be an actress, and she really enjoyed it.

The children, 8 boys & 2 girls, performed two plays. The first was the silly story of "Tacky the Penguin" and the second was the wonderful story about Jesus, "The Three Trees." In Tacky, Alexandra was one of the hunters, and in the Trees, she was the first tree - the one that becomes the manger where Jesus is laid as a newborn. It was very touching, especially as their teacher, the narrator, got choked up when reading about the cross and how it reminds us of Jesus' love.

Two of Alexandra's friends and their mom came to see the play, and that meant a lot to both of us. They even brought her a rose! I wish I would have thought of that!

Afterward, the children signed autographs, and I think that was one of the highlights of the morning. Alexandra had actually asked me how to spell "Alex" in cursive that morning. She learned how to and used her new signature to sign her autographs! I had no idea that's whey she wanted to learn cursive, and in fact, I still need to ask her if that was her purpose.

I took most of the photos with my regular 35 mm and haven't gotten them developed yet. As usual, with these high ceilings, my digital photos didn't turn out very well. The photo above is of Alexandra before class started on performance day. By the way, she did fantastic - loud, clear voice & she didn't forget any of her lines! They were great shows!

(below... Alexandra signing her autograph at the "cast party" ... in cursive)

Swim, girl, swim!

The summer swim team has come to an end. It's a happy time, and a sad time. We now get to be on more of a "summer" schedule, but we'll miss our friends and all the fun that we were having!

Alexandra did wonderful at Divisionals! On her freestyle, she cut off more than 7 seconds!!! More than an 18% improvement!!! Then, on her backstyle, she dropped almost 10 seconds!!! About a 23% improvement! Wow! It doesn't get much better than that. And, she was less than 1/2 a second from qualifying for an invitation tournament with her backstroke. What a great way to end the year! And, I can't wait for next year to see what she can do!!!

(photo - Divisionals is an indoor meet at a high school. While the girls waited for their turn to swim at Divisionals, they played card games & played with Polly Pockets.)

P.S. Several days after this post, the coach (our neighbor) brought over Alexandra's Divisional ribbon! Out of 76 girls (6 & under), she placed 15th! And, the top 15 get ribbons. So, this was her first (of many, I hope!) Divisional ribbon. She was also very happy because it was... pink!

swim team update

On Saturday, we had our last 2-team competition. Next weekend is our last meet - divisionals!Alexandra did so well! She swam fast on her relay. And, she took almost 4.5 seconds off of her freestyle! What a great job! (photo below: Alexandra waiting her turn to swim - blue swim cap, blue swim suit - in center of photo)

We have about a 2 hour break between freestyle & backstroke, and during this time it began to rain and thunder. They can stop the meet for up to 2 hours, but after about 20-30 minutes, they cancelled the meet. It was a good call as it rained & thundered for hours. The girls had fun and were screaming, but it was all in fun. They even played out in the rain before it was thundering.

Well, our tent was pretty flooded and all of our stuff was wet. It was actually kind of funny and we were all joking about the mess. Towels and blankets were soaked and it was hard to find everything as we'd piled things up in the middle of the tent.

It worked out well for us as we had time to go home and get ready to go to a ballet, Don Quixote!

Ice Skating

(Picture above: Alexandra outside of skating rink wearing her ice skating outfit minus the black jacket, blue mittens, and rented ice skates. The pictures in the rink didn't turn out very well.)

On Thursday, Alexandra started lessons for her newest sport - ice skating. Alexandra had been ice skating twice before she started skating in February. Those previous times were near Christmastime as a local mall puts up an outdoor ice rink. Both times Alexandra used a "walker" and only made it around the rink once. She hated it!

We made some new homeschool friends and they started taking ice skating lessons and were loving it. So, in late February, we finally went skating with them one day. What an amazing difference! The 2 young girls taught her how to skate! By the end of that day, she was skating without holding on to the wall!

Since then we've been about 6 times. She's been loving it so we decided to do lessons this summer. They started her out in the very beginning class for 3-5 year olds. It was way too easy.

Today we took one private lesson to have her tested and put in the appropriate group. She passed through all 4 "Tot" levels and is almost done with Beginner 1, which is for 6-8 year olds.

Best of all, she's really enjoying it. I can't wait to see where this goes. I've always loved ice skating and hope I can some day watch her doing spins and jumps! And, I'm learning from her and her friends, too. Maybe I'll do spins and jumps one day!

First Swim Meet of Year

The picture above is of Alexandra (Lane 6) waiting for her freestyle race to start. She actually climbs up on the block and jumps of to start her race. I would be so nervous, but she always seems so calm!

Alexandra started swim team last year and was the next to youngest on our team. She swims for our neighborhood team and it's pretty large - someone told me there are about 250 kids! We have 17 girls in the 6 & under group!

Alex did great at her 1st swim meet of the year today! (We missed the practice meet & the first meet). She did 13 seconds better on her freestyle! She won a team buck for that - a prize they get every time they beat their previous best time. They get to hand it in at the concession stand and the kids are so happy when they win one.

She did a little slower than her fastest backstroke from last year, but she'd only swam that fast at the very last race last year - Divisionals. So, that was a very good time for her, too.

I'm a "tent mom" or "lane parent" and I get to stay with the 6 & under girls all morning. We get there a little before 7 & stay until we're done, usually around noon. It' s a long, hot morning but it is a lot of fun, too.

The picture below is of her waiting for them to sound the horn for her backstroke race.