This evening Mari and I went the a Father/Daughter dance put on by the city of Des Moines. We had dinner with some friends at Noah’s Ark (an Italian restaurant stuck in the 60’s) and then headed to the science center. We spent most of the evening dancing, hanging out with Nate & Hope, and eating chocolate covered fruit and cookies. We left Lucia at home this year, but I think she will come next year.
Mari wrote this lovely short article about her face. I think it is definitely blog-worthy!
As part of their enrichment classes Andrew, Mari, and Elliot all take a drama class. Last week they had their performances, culminating their semester’s work. They all love the drama classes and do an excellent job at the performances.
Elliot is the third goat in The Three Silly Goats Gruff. I apologize for the blurry video.
Mari played the role of the mother wolf and narrator in The Three Little Wolves and the Big, Bad Pig.
Andrew played the role of the Giant in Kate and the Beanstalk.
Mari is working on multiple Christmas songs on the violin right now. Rather than having to worry about moving the pages around, she came up with a creative music stand.
Mari made these in her homeschool enrichment classes. Good stuff.
For the past few years we have been attending church at Holy Trinity, in Beaverdale. It is a nice, small church with a great community and a great priest. Over the years we have become more involved at church. Susan and I lead Children’s Liturgy every couple of months, we volunteer at education events, and I help direct the annual Good Friday Passion reading. This past Sunday Mari and Andrew got into the action, acting as Altar Servers for the first time. They did a great job!
Today we celebrated Mari’s 10th birthday. The Beinkempers, Liesses, and Reagens came over in the evening for some Skyline, cake, and presents.
Mari at 10 is developing in a smart, helpful young lady. Mari has always understood people, and the world, and I continue to see that developing. She is often insightful and creative. Often when we are driving in the car she will randomly share something she has been thinking about or a new idea she has come up with.
Mari is still up pretty early, but usually when she wakes up she likes to lay in bed and read until Lucia wakes up. Then she will help Lucia downstairs. Mari likes toast for breakfast, and she is in love with mustard. She is eating more yellow mustard than I have ever seen anyone eat. What she is not doing, is eating it outside. She is refusing to eat outside this summer, because there are too many bugs. Mari is in bed at 9:30 these days. Normally that would be 9:00, but she is insisting on 9:30 because it is summer. She share a bed with Lucia and helps Lucia fall asleep every night.
Color: Blue
Song: Honey, I’m Good
Food: Skyline
It isn’t looking like it is going to be a White Christmas, but the kids at least got to play with a little bit of snow this morning!
Today Mari had her first violin lesson. I didn’t get to go to the lesson and it was great to hear the sound of the violin in the house!
Mari Playing the Violin
in 3rd grade we like the kids to start learning an instrument. Andrew has been taking piano lessons for almost 2 years now and Mari has decided to start the violin. We went to the music store today to get her violin and now it is off to the races. Not really. We can’t even figure out how to make a sound. Mari has her first lesson tomorrow.
In other news, Susan and I had dinner with some friends tonight and Erin watched the kids for us, including Lucia. When Erin asked the kids, “Who made this mess?” Lucia answered “Pickle.” She thinks her name is pickle, which is what Susan calls her sometimes. if you ask her what her name is, she says “Pickle.” Hilarious.