Gymnastics Camp and Art Class

Last week, Summer came home with a flyer for a gymnastics camp. The camp was scheduled for Monday morning (Martin Luther King day) from 9-10. Since the monkey bars have come with such ease for Summer, I thought I'd sign her up and see if she liked it.

We showed up Monday morning and registered her. Then people started coming. And coming. And coming! I would say there was about 70 kids there. And only about ten chairs set up for parents. I was glad I'd gotten there early because I got a chair on the front row! 

Anyway, they broke the kids up into age groups (it was ages 3-7), and then rotated to each technique. Summer started on the beam, then did the vault, the floor, and then the bars. (She's the one in the pink shirt and black leggings.)

A lot of the pictures I took ended up blurry, so I only got ones of her on the beam and bars.

She had a great time, and I think we will look into an 8 week summer class for her at Spokane Gymnastics.

But poor Claire. She was heartbroken I wouldn't let her go too. Summer has a natural athleticism about her. Claire--not too much. On the other hand, Claire is doing really well with art, so I signed her up for an art class. Last night was her first class. They learned about Japanese painting. Here's Claire's masterpiece:

As we were driving home, she said, "Mom, the leaf going off into the sunset is my best one yet."

More "The Things They Say"

Pyper: "Mom, is it nighttime today or tomorrow?"

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Claire: "What if we are really in a dream?"

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Pyper: "Pretty soon, I'm going to have a squeaky tooth too." (loose tooth)

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Summer: (after falling and cutting her lip with her tooth) crying, "Now I can't make weird faces!"

Reading

Lately, Summer has really gotten into a book series called The Rainbow Fairies. She loves them! We ordered the first set from the book order, and now she gets new ones each week from her library day. 

There are mini-series within the whole series of books. So the first set is the Rainbow Fairies, then there's the Pet Fairies, the Weather Fairies, the Music Fairies, the Party Fairies, and more and more. Each of these mini-series has 7 books in it (one for each fairy that corresponds with a color of the rainbow). 

Each book has about 65 pages (with some pictures), and Summer sits and reads them silently in only an hour! I can't believe it!

I finally went to the public library and checked out all six of the music fairies (one was checked out) so that she has something to read until next Tuesday, her library day.

I love seeing her sitting on the couch or her bed or my bed next to me as she reads and reads. It reminds me of me when I was her age.  :)

Two quotes

I've been doing a little premature spring cleaning, and I found some papers that I had written down a few things that the girls have said.

Claire: (Just randomly she said this.) "One time, I thought something was chocolate, but it was a potato peel. . . . It was really gross."

Summer: (She was in trouble for something, and Rhett was telling her that he was in charge and she could not continue doing what she was doing. . . . I don't even remember what she was doing, but this was her response.) "You are not in charge! You are a kid of grandma, so she is in charge of you!"

Finishing up 2014 (Birthdays, Christmas, Snow, and New Years)

Here's a few things we've missed posting about the past few months:

Pyper's THREE year birthday. (We had coupons for free cupcakes from a bakery, so we used those and let each girl pick her's out. Then we taste tested them all.)

Claire's FIVE year birthday. (Here she is playing with her Rapunzel play doh doll--making the hair grow, cutting it, braiding it, etc.)

Christmas Morning

(Five gifts, times four girls, equals A LOT of presents!)

First snow fall the day after Christmas

Summer and Basil

Pyper

Basil

Pyper, Claire, Basil, and Summer

Pip, Basil, Claire

Summer

Claire

Having FUN! (Getting ready to hit dad with snowballs!)

New Year's Eve

This year, we got lots of meats and cheeses, California rolls, sweet and spicy pork, and egg rolls to taste test for dinner. Then we had our traditional oatmeal New Year's Eve cake. After that, we played musical chairs, and then watched Netflix's "King Julien's New Year's Countdown." There was a little bit of disappointment there--we thought it was a thirty minute episode talking about the new year. Actually, it was four minutes of strange creatures making strange dance moves, and then a countdown. But we all recovered, pulled our poppers, blew in our horns, and then everyone was to bed about 8pm.

Today we will talk about goals, and each girl will get to draw a picture of something they'd like to work on this year. (As well as mom and dad.)

We hope you all had a happy new year!