On Black Diamonds and Moguls

Our girls have just taken off with the skiing this year.   It's been a lot of fun.  Clara is the more adventurous, wanting to put black diamond notches in her belt, and enjoying the bumps with Daddy.

She was very excited to ski Angel Street, which is one of the steeper blacks at Loon.  We waited until a morning when there was a few fresh inches of powder.  She went right down it with no problems.

We got to the bottom of the lift, and with a big grin she said to me, "Mom, I didn't know there was a feeling better than birthday cake."

"What's that, Clara?"

"Feeling proud of myself!"

Clara Punk Rocker

Tired of nagging about hair brushing and tired of the tears over tangles, I put down my foot and told Clara we were cutting her hair.  She had had plenty of warnings while she was growing it longer (just so you don't think I'm a mean mom).  So I took her in and Maureen, my wonderful haircutter, cut it all off.  She must have spent forty-five minutes cutting it.  I guess really straight hair is really hard to cut short.

Well, I thought it looked fantastic.  When we walked out to the car, Lee said to Clara, "You look weird."  Thanks, Lee.  That's the sibling support I need.

Clara got a lot of positive comments.  She got tired of the comments but seemed to adjust to the new hair.  And honestly the tangles aren't an issue anymore.  There's just not enough hair to get tangled.

The brushing, however, is still a problem.   This is how she looks most mornings now, and yes, I still need to nag.  Secretly, I think the punk look suits her.

A Special Dinner

Clara decided to give us all a special dinner.  She gave us a certificate and all.  It turned out it wasn't all-inclusive, as I discovered when I asked her who was going to cook this special dinner.  As a matter of fact, it pretty much covered setting the table, writing up menus, and serving the food.

We decided one evening that it was the night.  I was feeling inspired to make cream puffs (I felt I must address the fact that my children had never eaten cream puffs!) so I did that.  Dinner was more complicated, as I had to cook things that were supposed to be a surprise.  It was kind of tricky, actually.

Finally the time came.  Clara met Bridges and me at the entrance to "Topega" (I'm glad our studying the state capitals has made an impression).

I saw a beautifully-set table beyond, complete with menus and candles.  

The menus were a bit of a surprise, especially the extensive kids' menu.

The dessert selection was even more extensive.

We all decided to have cream puffs, not only because they were really recommended, but because the other entries were all figments of Clara's imagination.

Lee's Elf Face

For a while this fall Lee was in all seriousness practicing her elf face.  I think she got it down.

Oliver! vs. Oliver Twist

To tie in with history, we're reading a biography of Charles Dickens.  Actually it's the second one we're reading because the girls liked the first one so much.  

So we decided to watch Oliver! again.  We'd first watched this during our musicals extravaganza last year.  It was fun to watch again within the context of what I now know about Dickens, although I didn't like the boy cast as Oliver any better than I did the first time around.  

When I was taking the DVD out of the library I happened to also notice Oliver Twist, a relatively recent film directed by Roman Polanski.  I told Clara we were going to watch that too and then compare them.  

"But Mom," she said, struggling with the concept of a movie about Oliver Twist that was not a musical.  "How do you know what's happening if they never sing?"  

The Trophy is as Big as She Is!

She won first place in her kata, against twelve other kids, some with higher belts.  What a smile!

Even better her team (consisting of her, Bridges, Miss Duval and Master Lamy) won first place, even against teams consisting entirely of black belts.  Woo hoo!

A Homeschooling Thought

As I've continued on our homeschool journey, it has gotten harder and harder to imagine my children in school.  I am not at all a hardcore homeschool parent ("schools are BAD") or an unschool parent ("planned schooling of any sort is BAD"), and yet enrollment in a school, public or private, just gets harder to imagine.

Here's a case in point.  Today, Lee and Lila were talking about vocabulary (what else do two smart kids talk about?), and Lila, who at ten years old is in fifth grade, mentioned to Lee that three of her vocabulary words this week were "wavy", "officer", and "ancient".  Really?!?  In 5th grade?  I guess my expectations are just too high.  Three of Lee's vocabulary words this week were "superfluous", "tangible", and "apprehension".  Lila's a pretty smart kid and she reads a fair amount and at a fairly high level.  How is she not bored to tears?

I still have this plan in the back of my head that our girls will stay home through middle school and then attend high school.  This is because from my own experience I imagine middle school as the worst time to be in school.  Whether this is a valid assumption or not, I do not know, but I'm sticking with it unless they scream to go to school.

But high school is something else.  I cannot imagine them still homeschooling in high school.  Maybe it's just too far away.  But it's really hard to imagine how that would work:  how I would manage it, and how they would be happy being at home at that age.  But, then again, it gets harder and harder to imagine them in high school either.

Straight on to college, I say!