The girls did not have school today, it was part of their four day weekend “mid-winter break.”

Alex’s ankle was hurting her so she donned my “boot” that I still have from when I had to wear one a while back… It was funny and she was funny about it, but the whole point was to rest her foot/ankle as much as possible.

We did go out and probably found Alex’s new favorite store (for now anyhow): Maurice’s.

This evening Alex had a dance rehearsal for theatre. I sent her in with precise instructions (or so I thought) to be careful and to not go full throttle… that she could just mark the moves. When I arrived to pick her up, what did I see? Three run throughs of a portion of the dance where she was going full on with all of the bouncing, jumping, hopping, twirling, etc! She did have the ankle brace on, which apparently helped tremendously since when Ray said to her that her ankle must be feeling better, she replied that it was killing her and the only way she got through it was with the brace on. *insert eye roll here* At least she doesn’t have another rehearsal until Monday night and that one is just a vocal rehearsal. Thank goodness!

The girls did indeed get their snow day today. While it wasn’t the snowfall totals that were being bantered about in the forecasts, the school did make the call around 10:00 pm last night.  That in itself was awesome to be able to shut off all the alarms. Ray, however, did go in to work.

Both girls slept in very late despite not staying up really late. When they did get up, they began watching Prince Caspian together and had lunch. It was so relaxing and peaceful and I figured that I would at least take Phoebe out to play in the snow after…

…then I remembered…

…just because the schools are closed, does NOT mean that the dance studio would be closed. After all, their classes are later in the day–well after plows and salt trucks have been working.

So, right after Prince Caspian was over, we had to take Alex to her lyrical class. There was only one other girl that showed up to her class (the other class was very diminished as well).  All was going well. In fact, it was almost like a semi-private lesson! That is, until Alex rolled her ankle over and went down at the end of class.

Nice.

After being home a while, icing her ankle, she went to theatre rehearsal with an ankle brace on (thankfully I had one lying around). There was only minor swelling and no bruising thank goodness. The next few days will really show though. At least the girls don’t have school tomorrow and Alex can rest her ankle a bit.

Phoebe did get to play in the snow for a little bit while Ray plowed the driveway (mostly) when he got home. I really wanted snow day photos, but did not end up with any this time.

Saturday was a super busy day for us.

Phoebe had her VERY. FIRST. basketball game EVER! She did really well and had a goofy, “I’m LOVING this” grin most of the time! There are only three teams in that age group, so what they’ve done is they have a skill building station set up for the first 45 minutes, then the last 45 minutes they play scrimmages. She had a great time!

Shuffling warm-ups:

Dribbling:

On guard:

Sadly, we had to leave the game at the halfway point…. Yes, we left the nice warm gym to head over to the overly frigid, nasty weathered soccer field. I will admit that if this hadn’t been her very last game of the season (with awards and such following), we would have skipped it in leiu of the warm gym!

Despite the weather being what it was, Phoebe played one of her best games ever. I wonder if all the basketball activity served as a stellar warm up for soccer?

She rocked as goalie:

Her dribbling and ball handling was fantastic:

I’m kind of sad soccer is over now. NOT for the weather, mind you, oh gosh, the weather was getting worse and worse every week. What I’m sad about was the leaps and bounds she made by the end, it would be great to continue for a little bit longer rather than waiting almost six months for the spring season to start (assuming she even wants to at that point).

After soccer was over, Alex had theatre rehearsals.

When rehearsals were over for the day, we picked Alex up and started to head over to Ray’s uncle Lee’s for his Halloween party (we haven’t seen him in ages!). Along the way, we had some “technical difficulties” wherein a tire on the car had decided to obtain a hole in the side wall. Fortunately, Belle Tire was open still (it was fifteen minutes before close), but they happily took us in. Thank goodness for the road hazard coverage and a new tire only cost us the amount to get the road hazard coverage on it ($11.66)! They rock!

After the tire on the car was fixed, we were once again on our way. We had a great time! It was wonderful to see family that we haven’t seen in nearly forever and to meet a few new people, including Lee’s girlfriend Vicki (who is a sweetheart!). Phoebe and her little cousin played pretty much they entire time they were there, but both thought it was crazy that they were cousins! The cutie-pies!

Waiting for the pinata fun to begin, the kids poked it with glow sticks and such. Phoebe is trying to put the treat bag on its tail for some reason:

It was a great day, but super busy and we were all exhausted by the end!

Now that Alex is in the marching band at her high school (its still hard to say sometimes), we have to pay attention (somewhat) to the whole football schedule and such. She’s required to be there for every home game. They did get nearly the entire bad to go to an away game as a pep band (the only game we lost so far, sadly) a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago was her schools’ homecoming. There were big plans, of course. I parade through downtown and ending at the football stadium.

Except that Mother Nature did not cooperate with us. It poured rain nearly all day and during the parade as well. Not only did it rain, but it was freakishly cold as well. That is such a great combination. As it turned out, the band director did not have the band in the parade because it was raining (so much). Ray, Phoebe and I were at the parade, and pretty bummed to not see them in Alex’s first the parade. I imagine not so many people showed up in the rain to see half the floats as there should have been driving down the streets with everyone all covered up in rain gear. Still, they chucked handfulls of candy at the spectators. We stood at a corner near the end of the parade route (mostly because we were late getting there), so Phoebe got a TON of candy. People she knew were coming up to her and stuffing it into her coat even, it was hysterical. I cannot even begin to describe how much was left on the ground in the puddles and drain runoff streams!

After the parade, we went to the football game. The only reason we did this is that Alex got our tickets for us that day, otherwise we would totally have skipped. So, we watched the band to a pregame show and before they had arrived, we noted that the usual section that is all roped off with “reserved for band” signage was not set up.

Once they completed their pregame, the band took off back to the high school band room. Not long afterwards, Alex called us to say they were done and could go. Apparently, the only reason they even did the pregame show was because the principal made them do it. So, we had sat through less than half of the first quarter of the homecoming game. I guess that is enough to say we were there! Right? Right! In the end, our team won and clinched their playoff spot (needing six regular season wins).

On Saturday night, Alex attended her very first homecoming dance. Ever. She looked so beautiful and grown up. I wish I had better pictures, but for some reason, her dance started at 8 pm, in the dark.

She had a great time. Although, she didn’t meet up with anyone before and didn’t go with anyone, she met friends there and had fun. My baby is almost all grown up. When did that happen?

I have been super busy with everything going on around here and have woefully neglected posting updates here. Oops. With all the crazy business, its not that I have nothing to say, I just haven’t had time to say it.

Back over the summer, Alex attended a theatre camp which she absolutely adored. Subsequently, she enrolled in a musical theatre class that meets weekly. She also decided to audition for the production of Oklahoma! with the community theatre whose camp she attended. She was cast in the ladies ensemble. At first she was happy, but they were auditioning for School House Rock Junior shortly thereafter and she really wanted to do that one. She decided that she would stay with Oklahoma! and has never been happier about that decision. She has been busy with it almost nightly and many a Saturday as well. She has been a much happier, pleasant person than I have seen in her in probably YEARS which thrills me to no end. Theatre has probably been the single most beneficial thing for her in recent years and she is totally done with sports.

Not only is she having a blast, she is keeping her grades up, paying attention to all of her schoolwork, and has been way nicer to Phoebe as well. I just wish the girl would get up in the morning. I feel like her human alarm clock (and subsequent chauffeur when she misses the schoolbus).

The only other thing besides school in Alex’s life has been marching band. Every day for sixth hour, they rehearse something: marching, learn new music, etc. Every home varsity football game they perform on Friday and have an evening rehearsal under the lights a few days prior to each home game. Sadly, both things will be over around the same time. Hopefully, she’ll make it through the holiday season when auditions for The Music Man occur in January.

On the flip side, or what’s happening with Phoebe, has been quite busy as well. She was promoted from Ballet A to Ballet B this year. There has also been soccer (practice twice a week and games on Saturdays) and now basketball has started, overlapping the two by two weeks. This Saturday will be her first EVER basketball game AND her last soccer game of the season. She’s been busy with all that first grade has been bringing her.

I’ve been keeping busy by keeping up with them, helping out at the schools, and participating in the PTC. The one thing I miss terribly is the playgroup meetings that Phoebe and I had had once a week since she was four. Most of the kids are now in school full time and yet we have not been able to get together since school started really. It makes me sad, but everyone’s schedule is so different it has been really hard to find time to get together (with or without the kids). I’m also trying to find some work to do. Something freelance/homebased/telecommuting type would be perfect, but something I could do during the kids’ school day is what I need. Subbing is great, but it is really hard to come by out here.

A little bit of catch up before getting back into the swing of things. Perhaps I’ll check and see if there is a “blog every day in November” challenge going on again this year.

Cheers!

Phoebe had her first taste of summer sports camps this week.

She was not happy about having to get up “early” to go. The camp ran 9-10:30 AM, Monday through Thursday. She has been sleeping in until 10:30-11 AM (if I don’t drag her out of bed and try and get her “up”).

The weather was nice for it. Not freezing cold, but not hot either. Cloud cover during most of the session was a nice benefit too, because when that sun came out, even at 9:30 AM, it was hot and burning! A downside was that there weren’t enough girls to have more than one session. Thus, the ages ranged from first grade up to sixth grade. The upside of that is the younger girls got to see and get a little experience in skills they would not usually see for a few years. The girls varsity coach was running the camp and was fortunate to be able to get some of her older players to come and help. Phoebe loved playing with the big girls (it seemed that most, if not all, or the little girls loved it). Plus, they were able to work with the older ones a bit on and “older level” too.

So, at the end of the week, Phoebe declared that she loves “soccer school” and wishes that she had it every single day. She had a smile on her face about 80% of the time there. The other 20% was when she was concentrating really hard on doing something or on listening to the coach!

So, at the end of the week, Phoebe declared that she loves “soccer school” and wishes that she had it every single day. She had a smile on her face about 80% of the time there. The other 20% was when she was concentrating really hard on doing something or on listening to the coach!