Monkey Bars...Check

Jack officially learned how to do the monkey bars all by himself and became a pro at crossing them.  I lost count of how many times in a row he went across them in an afternoon, but it was a lot.  He made it look so easy that I thought I would give it a try.  Haha that was entertainment for my friends!!  I am a weakling.

Update on Figure Skating

Lucie's passion has definitely become figure skating. In a short 10 months she has embraced every ounce of the sport. She loves doing jumps and learns a new one pretty much every week. She would rather practice jumps then learn her spins, but those are coming along too.
In January we enrolled Lucie and Jack both in our local learn to skate program. We thought they would both be involved in that program for at least a year, but have both moved on. Jack has moved on to hockey (more updated pictures of him in another post) and Lucie has moved on to private lessons. Switching Luc to private lessons was not an easy decision. We debated it, reviewed finances, and all that fun adult stuff for 2 months. PLUS, most importantly we wanted to make sure what Luc wanted and what she was committed to do. She has been very responsible and is willing to practice. Right now she is working on practicing for the Nutracker on Ice. She is meeting a lot of new friends and is getting to challenge herself.  She will compete in a competition most likely in the Spring.
Besides on ice training she also does off ice training to increase strength and flexibility. One exercise she does is wall sits. Her longest wall sit was 3 mins 12 secs. This week at school they are learning about the human body. Luc's teacher was having them do exercises one of which was the wall sit.  Luc had in her mind that she was going to break her own record by one minute.  She surpassed her goal and did a wall sit for 5 mins!  She has this very competitive spirit and is determined to beat herself!
This video shows Luc doing a short little solo.  You can't quite see all of the detail things she is doing because we were up a bit.  It is her first choreographed performance.  She needed to perform a short skate for coaches for a solo placement for the Nutcracker.  Her coach taught her this routine on a Wednesday and she performed it on Friday!  Once again an example of her ability to take on challenges and compete with herself.

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Oh, the fun!

When these two friends hit a groove they play soooo nicely.  Here Ruby and Sophia are either watching Princess and the Frog or Tangled.  They both love being princesses, dressing up as princesses, and talking about them.  Yet, they are both tough and strong too.  They have a good mix of girlishness and toughness.

Today Soph came over in her swimsuit.  Rubes asked to put her swimsuit on.  It didn't matter that I said no because ten minutes later I look out the window to see her running around the yard in her swimsuit.  She is a naughty little friend that has this independence about her.  It is awesome and frustrating all rolled into one huge party at our house!

They both wanted the sprinkler turned on, but luckily neither one can do that by themselves.  After all it was a nice September day, but definitely not swimming weather.  They had fun nonetheless running around the yard!

The Schoonies Do Exist!

I kept thinking way back in August...when my friends go back to school I will begin the process of catching up our history.  Not quite why I thought I would have more time, but somewhere in my crazy brain I thought I would...WRONG! 
Once my friends went back to school we hit the ground running.  Homework, field trips, after school activities, housework, volunteer work at the school.  It seemed like we picked up right where we left off in May. 
Also, in September I had the opportunity to go help out my sister-in-law and her family.  I am really glad I had the chance to go and get to know the Leigh family better and was able to help them out (more on this trip later).
Part of problem with being behind is that I don't know where to start with getting caught up so I keep procrastinating.  I saw this quote today and thought ok today is the day that I try to catch up and even if I fail, or rather WHEN I fail again it's all good.  It's just all part of the experience of life.  And I can't complain because life is good and I am super blessed!