High White Belt

Lee had her first belt promotion in Tae Kwon Do last night.  She and Bridges started in September, and she has really enjoyed it.  They both attend the beginners class at 6 pm and then Bridges stays for the advanced class.  It's twice a week opposite swim, so it makes for a busy week, but she seems to love it.

Here she is breaking a board with a pretty good kick.  She's got a lot of focus, and it seems it might be a good sport for her because size doesn't matter so much.  Master Lamy is himself pretty small in stature, so he's a good role model for her.  And Master Lamy Ma'am, although a fifth-degree black belt, is confined to a wheel chair as a result of a car accident, so she's a great role model too because she is an incredibly positive person despite her challenges.

Bookworms

Many an hour now passes in our home in this manner.  It's pretty hard to get their attention sometimes.

SNOW!!!

Do you remember that first snowfall of the year?  You woke up at first light, looked out the window, screamed "SNOW!!!", jumped up and down with unbearable excitement, ran downstairs and got on your winter gear, and went outside.   It was just as thrilling as Christmas morning, even if there was only an inch on the ground.  

And there was your mom, looking on and thinking "I remember feeling like that."  What a treat to get a glimpse of it as an adult.  

Halloween 2012

Lee as Dumbledore 

Thanks to Aunt Linda for the awesome costume!

Clara as Pippi Longstocking

My yarn and swim cap wig ain't so bad! 

Words I Love to Hear

"Fractions are easy!"

(I didn't post what Lee was saying about long division last month!)

The Latest Game Obsession - Monopoly!

The day had to come.  The girls are into Monopoly.  We suggested to Lee several times last year that she might like the game, but she showed no interest.  Then this summer her cousin Cas introduced her to it, and it's been Monopoly ever since.

I remember as a kid playing Monopoly for days on end up here at the lake, so it's been fun to see.

Lee has always had a game obsession.  Two summers ago it was Mille Bornes.  There's also been Checkers, War, Battleship, and Parcheesi.  When she's into a game, she'll try to get anyone around to play with her, but in the absence of a partner (Clara will only play so long), she will play endless games by herself.  I think she's becoming a pretty good strategist.

Braids!

Aunt Melissa was such a sport during her visit here this summer.  She braided Lee's hair almost every day.

Dripping with Kittens?

In our pursuit of musicals knowledge, we've also watched Annie quite a bit this year.  It's funny to see how these stories infiltrate the kids' play.  There have been many imaginary games recently where they've played that they (or at least some of them) were poor.  I suppose this could have come from Oliver as well.  One of the hilarious games in the neighborhood recently was called "Titanic".   All the kids were on the hammock, and some of them were first-class, some second-class, and some steerage.

But, back to Annie, Lee changed these lyrics:
   Some women are dripping with diamonds,
   Some are dripping with pearls,
   But lucky, lucky me,
   I'm dripping with little girls.

to:
   Some girls are dripping with hats,
   Some are dripping with mittens,
   But lucky, lucky, me,
   I'm dripping with little kittens.

Creative Problem Solver

Today Clara was struggling with some subtraction problems. Suddenly she grinned and told me that she had solved them all. What she'd done was change all the '-' signs to '+' signs!

Parcheesi

A few summers ago it was Mille Bornes, then she moved to Yahtzee, then checkers, and now it's Parcheesi. She spends hours a day playing, either with others or by herself. It's interesting how long the fascination has lasted (three or four weeks now), but she has become very good at the strategy.

Chez Lee

Lee's been having fun setting up restaurants lately. She makes up a menu, dresses as a waiter, takes orders, delivers snacks, and (sometimes) cleans up! All-in-one service.


This was one of her tables. Notice the blue theme. Blue's been her favorite color for a long time now, although recently that may have switched to green.

Musicals

We've been watching some of the classic musicals. We've watched Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and Fiddler on the Roof. I was going to move on to Oklahoma, but my singing group is performing "Will You Buy" from Oliver!, and since I'd been singing it around the house (and therefore the girls have been singing it around the house), we started watching Oliver! instead.

While we were watching, Clara suddenly looked at me and said, "Mom, it's really cool how one person just makes up a song, and then all the other people start singing the same song!!!"