Music

Evan has been taking drum lessons since the end of January and is loving it! I have always wanted him to do this because ever since I was pregnant with him, once the drums at church started playing he would start kicking me and to the beat--true story! His teacher is one of the drummers at our church and seems to be a really good teacher. Evan is learning quickly and having fun. After about 3 weeks of waiting due to a back order, his drums arrived today and he immediately went to work putting them together. He did it all about 98% by himself, and then wanted to have some fun playing from his lesson book.

Lauren loves to sing. She is always singing, dancing, or humming. She is quite the dancer and was in dance from the age of 3 to when she just turned 7. We decided to stop that for a while because her dance company decided to close and she wanted to try gymnastics. I would love to put her back into dance again and am thinking about finding something in the fall. She also wants to take voice lessons, and one of the singers at our church does that, so that may be an option in the future.

Here are two videos showing Evan practicing a little from his book, and Lauren singing a song about the month of March. Here are the words to the song in case you can't quite make it out:

Let's celebrate the month of March.
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The year's third month, the month of March. (This line trips up the tongue as you will witness in the video)
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Though the winds of March may blow (You will hear Evan providing a wind sound)
Soon you'll see the melting snow.
Like a lion it comes and a lamb it goes (You will Evan providing a lamb sound)
The lovely month of March.

Make sure you pause my playlist at the top of the blog page so you can hear the videos.

Rock Climbing

The kids' homeschool phys ed class is doing rock climbing again this month. Evan can still make it up those walls with no problem and has gotten faster. Lauren has gotten a lot higher up the wall and faster than when they first tried it last year in January, and even when they did it again in October. Here are some videos showing the two of them climbing. In Lauren's video, I don't know if you can hear what's going on, but she stops, we encourage her to go higher, and this happens about 2 or 3 times before she wants to come down. While she's on the wall, she's saying, "This is torture!" and "You're killing me!" It was quite funny. I'm hoping by the end of this month she'll make it to the top, but for now we are so excited she's getting as high as she is now.

 

Scouts Arrow of Light Ceremony

Evan's Scout troop had their blue and gold ceremony this past Sunday. It was Evan's last as a Cub Scout. This coming week he starts Boy Scouts with the homeschool scouts.

Displaying their Arrow of Light cake.

We got to listen and learn from a Wichita bomb squad member. This was so interesting!

We got to look at a car that totally runs on electricity and one that runs on electricity and gas.

There was also a workshop that taught about rockets--I didn't get a pic. Then there was the ceremony for Evan and his fellow Sr. Webelos to present them with their Arrow of Light plaques. This was a very nice ceremony where the parents participated. A script was written out and some parents helped read certain parts to the boys. I loved the things that were read; I thought they were very moving. While things were being read, some candles were being lit to represent the different (arrow) points of light or encouragement/values being instilled to the boys. However, while this was going on, we parents were on stage facing our boys with our backs to the audience so I could not get any pics of the candles being lit. Also, it was very awkward standing with my backside to the audience for at least 10 minutes. We were blocking the boys from being seen by the audience, and I don't understand why we couldn't stand behind the boys. I think the Cub Master thought it would be more personal and emotional if we were facing our boys while the things were being read to them. Oh well. But, then when it was time to present the boys with their plaques we stood behind them so the audience could see them.

Roger has been the den leader for Evan's den the past 4 1/2 years. Three of the boys have been together that whole time and the fourth joined the second year. One has decided not to continue with scouts, another will be joining the local boy scout troop, and one friend will be going with Evan to the homeschool troop. It's hard to believe this chapter of this close knit group is coming to an end.

These have been some very special years for this father and son.

Relaxing and Reading

I saw the kids relaxing and reading their Lego magazines and just had to snap the picture. It made me laugh to see them at opposite ends of the couch snuggled in blankets with the magazines covering up their faces!

Signs of Spring

Spring has always been my favorite season. I love that the weather begins to get warmer, days longer, trees, flowers, and grass budding and blooming, and so much more. It means we can get out of the house more often after being cooped up inside so long in winter. However, this winter--well, I'm not even sure we had a winter. The weather was too warm and barely any snow. March 1st was above 70 degrees so my kids donned on shorts and we went outside to our yards to look for signs of spring. Here is what we found:

One of my lilies sprouting.

Kinda blurry, but these are purple weeds we get. Sometimes I think our yard is more like a meadow with all of the wild weeds we grow.

Fruit tree budding.

Robin looking for food.

Hey! That's actually some grass growing and not weeds.

The kids enjoying the warmth of the sun on the trampoline.

Had a horrible storm come through and knocked some shingles off the roof.

Gymnastics

Lauren's last gymnastics class was this week. She's just grown tired of it and wants to start karate with dad. I hadn't gotten any pics of her all of these months except on the first day in September, I think, when she was awarded a ribbon for perfect backward rolls.

Now, 6 months later and she has improved so much in so many things. She was once scared to even kick her legs up into the air to attempt a handstand, or even climb onto the balance beam. Now, it's like she has no fear. For her last day they only did tricks on the floor, so I don't have any pics of her on the vaults, uneven bars, or balance beam. I hate it when I forget to take pics! :( Anyways, enjoy the following pics and the really short videos.

Here she is putting her nose to her knees and then to the floor. Looks painful to me, but maybe that's because I have NEVER been flexible like this. In the fourth pic, notice that she can grab her toes without bending her knees, and if you look really close you will see she is lifting her toes off of the mat. I have never been able to touch my toes without bending my knees. Her flexibility amazes me!!

The following pic will be a little more difficult to see since she is blocked by another little girl, but can you see her back leg? She is trying to do a split. Ow, ow, ow!