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Sep. 5th, 2008 09:01 amG is amazing. She showed up yesterday with a whole plan; she had the kids make "field journals" out of printing paper and yarn, which they took on a long exploratory walk that involved collecting bits of plants and doing tracings and drawings and writing about what they had seen - she told them this week is plants, next week is clouds, week after is rocks. Isaac and Jake are just as into it as A and A. She also made grilled cheese for lunch, and made popsicles with them all individually customized (lemon juice, applesauce, watermelon chunks and yogurt are some of the ingredients they used). She was telling us how her fridge at home is covered in Isaac art. I would say this is definitely working out. I'm so glad I held out for someone with a lot of experience and enthusiasm for kids.
While they did their exploring walk and field journals, I took Elise in a stroller and did excercise walking. While she stayed with the boys, reading books and having lunch, I took Ananda and Elise out and we signed her up for ballet, bought her stuff, and had lunch out at Starbucks. And Elise is so incredible, she hung out with Annie at the ballet place, sat by us at the store watching while the ladies helped Annie, and ate and drank and laughed at the table with us (no high chair) at Starbucks. It would have been a totally different trip with the boys in tow.
Ananda is now at a level and age in dance that her ballet shoes have a split sole, and need custom elastics sewn on to fit her feet O_o She's doing one ballet and one musical theater class this year, which she's really interested in - and it's taught by her favorite ballet teacher at DE.
Last night was her first soccer practice, and I was able to sign Aaron up while we were there and get both of their uniforms. It was hilarious and a little bit awesome that she was WAY confident and thought she was pretty great, in her bermuda jean shorts with rips all over them and Star Wars tshirt. A little bit pudgy, her short hair - I was just waiting for the "What school do you go to?" "I'm homeschooled" conversation, hahaha. I had that Weezer song caught in my head the whole time, I've got a twelve sided die...I've got a dungeon master's guide.... The coach loved her though, and she did a lot of work on the banner the team made together, and is all about their team name being "Blue Thunder" (they have blue and black uniforms).
I am not amused by how their practices start at 7:30 pm. What the hell, don't other kids go to bed like an hour later than that? We usually eat dinner between 8 and 9, with Grant. As it is AWANA is 7-8:30. I wish there were activities for homeschooled kids in the afternoon. Although, the weather is just perfect at the time this is.
So. All this sounds like a lot but I am really pleased with how conveniently their schedules are working out:
-Ananda and Aaron's soccer teams are practicing at the same place and times, so we can go together and they just separate
-their fields are at a very family friendly place with plenty of free space for younger siblings to run around
-the practices are on nights that don't conflict with any other things we normally do
-her 2 dance classes are one right after the other, and on Saturday afternoon when we are normally driving up to Miami anyway to have lunch with Grant
It all falls in, in doable ways. I briefly entertained the idea of Isaac playing soccer just because that would be so damn cute, but decided it probably wouldn't work when I told him, "You know, you could probably play soccer, too" and his response was to back away in a panic, shake his head a lot and ask "WHY?!" in a terrified voice. It would be hard anyway, his time would be different and it would make it too much.
So yeah, hurricanes, wth.
Ike is headed straight for us, like the projected track basically drops it off in Homestead on Tuesday night. Here is the 5 day cone so you can see for yourselves - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?5day#contents And it's most likely going to be a strong 3 - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?table#contents which makes me think it will actually be a 4 because the projected wind speeds always go up as time passes.
I don't know, man. I'm not in the mood to deal with this. It's really stressing me out a little. The last time we got a 3, we lost a small tree and our old trampoline flew over the house and cracked the old van's windshield, and there were power lines and branches down all over for, like, weeks. Also, a couple of days without power. That is for those of you who don't really understand the strength scale to get an idea. I don't want to deal with shutters, or bringing every possible thing inside the house, or losing my flowerbeds, or not having a refrigerator/AC, or any of it, and I have to admit it makes me nervous in the larger bodily harm sense, too. Even though I know this house withstood Andrew, and it has a brand new roof, and high quality shutters installed, I've never atually been in it myself for a big storm. There are always tornadoes in hurricanes and it's the luck of the draw whether or not you get any of them, and if you do, well...that's really bad. I have a lot of little kids to try to keep track of. UGH.
We're having a fence put in right now! A fence I'd like to be there next month >:O
Ok, enough doom and destruction...G will be here in about 35 minutes and I haven't really cleaned enough, Elise is still naked and Jake is still asleep.
While they did their exploring walk and field journals, I took Elise in a stroller and did excercise walking. While she stayed with the boys, reading books and having lunch, I took Ananda and Elise out and we signed her up for ballet, bought her stuff, and had lunch out at Starbucks. And Elise is so incredible, she hung out with Annie at the ballet place, sat by us at the store watching while the ladies helped Annie, and ate and drank and laughed at the table with us (no high chair) at Starbucks. It would have been a totally different trip with the boys in tow.
Ananda is now at a level and age in dance that her ballet shoes have a split sole, and need custom elastics sewn on to fit her feet O_o She's doing one ballet and one musical theater class this year, which she's really interested in - and it's taught by her favorite ballet teacher at DE.
Last night was her first soccer practice, and I was able to sign Aaron up while we were there and get both of their uniforms. It was hilarious and a little bit awesome that she was WAY confident and thought she was pretty great, in her bermuda jean shorts with rips all over them and Star Wars tshirt. A little bit pudgy, her short hair - I was just waiting for the "What school do you go to?" "I'm homeschooled" conversation, hahaha. I had that Weezer song caught in my head the whole time, I've got a twelve sided die...I've got a dungeon master's guide.... The coach loved her though, and she did a lot of work on the banner the team made together, and is all about their team name being "Blue Thunder" (they have blue and black uniforms).
I am not amused by how their practices start at 7:30 pm. What the hell, don't other kids go to bed like an hour later than that? We usually eat dinner between 8 and 9, with Grant. As it is AWANA is 7-8:30. I wish there were activities for homeschooled kids in the afternoon. Although, the weather is just perfect at the time this is.
So. All this sounds like a lot but I am really pleased with how conveniently their schedules are working out:
-Ananda and Aaron's soccer teams are practicing at the same place and times, so we can go together and they just separate
-their fields are at a very family friendly place with plenty of free space for younger siblings to run around
-the practices are on nights that don't conflict with any other things we normally do
-her 2 dance classes are one right after the other, and on Saturday afternoon when we are normally driving up to Miami anyway to have lunch with Grant
It all falls in, in doable ways. I briefly entertained the idea of Isaac playing soccer just because that would be so damn cute, but decided it probably wouldn't work when I told him, "You know, you could probably play soccer, too" and his response was to back away in a panic, shake his head a lot and ask "WHY?!" in a terrified voice. It would be hard anyway, his time would be different and it would make it too much.
So yeah, hurricanes, wth.
Ike is headed straight for us, like the projected track basically drops it off in Homestead on Tuesday night. Here is the 5 day cone so you can see for yourselves - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?5day#contents And it's most likely going to be a strong 3 - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/085513.shtml?table#contents which makes me think it will actually be a 4 because the projected wind speeds always go up as time passes.
I don't know, man. I'm not in the mood to deal with this. It's really stressing me out a little. The last time we got a 3, we lost a small tree and our old trampoline flew over the house and cracked the old van's windshield, and there were power lines and branches down all over for, like, weeks. Also, a couple of days without power. That is for those of you who don't really understand the strength scale to get an idea. I don't want to deal with shutters, or bringing every possible thing inside the house, or losing my flowerbeds, or not having a refrigerator/AC, or any of it, and I have to admit it makes me nervous in the larger bodily harm sense, too. Even though I know this house withstood Andrew, and it has a brand new roof, and high quality shutters installed, I've never atually been in it myself for a big storm. There are always tornadoes in hurricanes and it's the luck of the draw whether or not you get any of them, and if you do, well...that's really bad. I have a lot of little kids to try to keep track of. UGH.
We're having a fence put in right now! A fence I'd like to be there next month >:O
Ok, enough doom and destruction...G will be here in about 35 minutes and I haven't really cleaned enough, Elise is still naked and Jake is still asleep.
