first ballet class.....

The kids have borrowed a couple of Angelina Ballerina (a mouse who dances) videos from the library recently. Contrary to what you might be thinking, E picked it out all ber herself. There was no ballet pushing from me. While I was making lunch I had the soundtrack to Amelie' on and they were doing their ballet (as they say) in the living room. After lunch it was decided that we should have a ballet class. So showed them a few basics such as a plie', first position, and chasse' (which done ungracelfully would be considered a gallop), and some turns. I got them to do some chasse's across the floor on a mini video for you all to enjoy. You can hear them saying "chasse' chasse'!" Unfortunately I am unsuccesful at loading it!! Sorry!!!! Anyway, I promise if E never takes a class and hates it I won't be too sad. It's fun to watch them have fun with it now. She can say the word ballernia perfectly by the way. And I of course want J to be a guy who can dance and be confident in it.

America's First Fair

On Saturday we went to the York Fair. I think it's comparable to the Orange County Fair in size. As you can see the kids enjoyed the merry-go-round. J really wanted to ride on one of the benches, but we made him ride a horse, thus the look of disappointment. We are awful parents. We also tackled the house of mirrors and one of my personal favorites the FUN SLIDE. However my bag was wet so E and I would nearly stop on the humps. It was a little disappointing.

Then we had lunch; cheese steaks for us, cheeseburger for the kids and we split some fried zucchini. We wandered the rest of the afternoon, checking out the tractors, seeing the animals, cheering at the pig races and letting E get her face painted. She wanted a princess one but settled for a flower. It was a good day. I love the Saturdays when D gets to be home with us.

a new day.....

Towards the end of August, the kids and I flew out to CA for a visit. We had a great time. J had a list of things he wanted to do; throw rocks in the canal (pictured below), go swimming (also pictured below), go to Foster's Freeze, and play games. We were able to check everything off of that list, as well as pick up where we left of last summer with swimming. Even E, who is more cautious around the water did a great job and enjoyed herself.


And now it is a new day. Last week J started kindergarten, and he is loving every minute of it. He is all smiles and proclaiming that he "had fun!" whenever I pick him up from school. This new phase in life means lots of different thing, such as no more traveling whenever we want, which is probably the biggest bummer since they only have 1 week of school of here for Christmas, and they don't take a week off for Easter/Spring break. Darn snow days I suppose. But there are many good things to come of this too. E and I will ahve more one on one time together that she didn't get as much of being the 2nd child. I have hope of having more things done in the morning while J is away so i am more available when he's home. Also it's a joy to watch J learn to read, and to see E blossom when she has some space from big brother. So here we are.