Whirlwind

A series of updates!

On Thursday, I had my storytelling recital. It went splendidly, and the boys totally enjoyed hearing 11 very different stories -- some personal, some anecdotal, some fairy tales. My story was an adaptation of a Spanish fairy tale, La Mariposa (not to be confused with the dreadful Barbie version with hideous Spanish pronunciation). I used several sources and my own imagination to create a new version that incorporated Spanish and English. Lots of fun! R and A heard some of the stories, too, though admittedly, they spent a large portion of their time in the hall. A has a great attention span, but he isn't precocious enough for 2 hours of non stop quiet listening. ;-)

On Saturday, the weather was gorgeous (75 degrees and quite sunny), so we took the boys to a park with tennis courts, and R introduced them to tennis. R was on the tennis team in high school, and used to teach the sport to 7-12 year olds. The boys love it! I lobbed a few balls back and forth with R until I remembered that the babe attached to my front really does slow a person down. ;-) I miss tennis, though! So does R, who has signed up for a tennis club (since his poor wife won't be a good partner until at least June!).






Sunday was our first Easter spent on our own, without our extended families. It was strange, but we had a wonderful time. The boys awoke extra early on Sunday morning, discovering their baskets, and quickly running outside to hunt for eggs. The Easter Bunny was generous, showering the boys with chocolate and craft supplies (beads, pipe cleaners, sun catchers, plaster figurines, paints, and more). They spent many hours making bracelets, twisted animals, and painting before we headed to the park for another tennis lesson. For our Easter meal, we enjoyed roasted turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, and sauteed veggies, as well as more chocolate. ;-)





Today, Monday, we had our cooking club field trip to a bakery. K took most of the pictures. The boys listened carefully as the baker talked about the equipment, the different kinds of bread, wild yeast, and more. We tasted different breads, and got to practice making a sourdough french roll. Did you know that bread has ears? G was particularly interested in the whole process because his aspiration at this time is to open his own restaurant when he grows up -- he wants to call it "Protein Food, Healthy Food". On the way out, we were treated to Hot Cross Buns and Stollen Bread. Yum!

Lemony Snicket's Composer is Dead

The Lemony Snicket concert rocked! Seriously. The NC symphony orchestra coupled with the actual Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) astounded K and G with the cool music and narration (a murder mystery). LS played many parts and narrated the story. Before the actual concert, there was a Musical Zoo during which some members of the orchestra (and some helpers)introduced the kids to the instruments and let them play them. K particularly enjoyed the cello and the viola, while G was greatly interested in the trumpet and the violin.

Just Geeky

Or peachy, or whatever! Okay, so I'm reading Just a Geek by one of my favorite actors, Wil Wheaton. This guy is a true inspiration to me, not only because he's an actor and an author, two aspirations of this crazy mom, but also because he's a husband, father, animal lover, geek, and all around down to earth creature. I love his writing style, and love that he has the guts and the ability to truly embrace a new vocation after being so prominent in another. I'll definitely be blogging about him more in the future. He has a blog, too, btw, which is another endearing trait. :-)

Last Friday night, R, K, and I went to see Blue Man Group in Raleigh. It was a lot of fun, though K did start getting sick about halfway through the performance. By the time we got home, he had a 102 degree temp, and went to sleep immediately. :( It was short-lived, thank goodness, leaving him sometime Saturday afternoon. G was happy with the glow in the dark t-shirt that K brought him, and A loved his Blue Man key chain. A had fallen asleep shortly after we left for the show, so G had wonderful one-on-one time with our good friend, C. Lots of games and stories, and no pesky little brother to interrupt him, or older brother to tell him what to do! Saturday evening, A went to bed extra early again, and so the rest of us were able to play a full game of El Grande without worry that the resident King Kong would destroy the provinces and send the caballeros flying!

G is doing the balance beam without spotters, adding the arabesque to his beam repetoire. He runs happily into class -- a phenomenon that only close friends who know about my struggles early in parenthood will truly appreciate. He's thrilled because his summer session will also include 5 year olds -- he's hoping that they won't be as shy as his current group of 4 year olds. He's also ecstatic to be doing an all day Arts/Crafts summer camp in June.

K has started a Book Review blog that he's really excited about. He's also exploring poetry again. A short poem that he wrote today:

Rainbow Dragons
Colorful like fish shimmering
Scaly as a piece of loblolley bark
Squawky like a frightened parrot
Fishy like day old raw fish left in the sun

He's trying to decide between taking a summer soccer camp or the Aikido camp. It's a tough call for him because he really wants to try soccer, but the Aikido camp looks really cool (two Aikido classes, origami or chinese landscape painting, Japanese stories, and a Japanese snack each day). Oh, the tough decisions of youth! ;-)

My storytelling class is about to wrap up. One more class and then the recital. We have such an incredible mix of people and experiences in our class, and it has been truly inspiring and such a joyful experience to hear the different stories and experience the different styles. I've learned so much in such a short time! I can't wait to experiment more with this awesome medium.

I *am* bummed, though, because my Bilingual workshop was canceled. :( They'll schedule it again sometime over the summer, but I was really looking forward to it. The cancellation does make it much easier for R to take K and G to the Lemony Snicket's Composer is Dead concert tomorrow. Both boys are really excited about that! Now that I don't have anything else planned, I may take A and browse a bookstore or two, and drink some coffee while the other guys enjoy the concert. I haven't really done that since we moved here. There is *more* of everything here, but it all seems so much less accessible than I'm used to, especially when you factor in the kids.

Speaking of browsing, we've stepped up the house browsing process a bit. The current plan is to wait to buy until after the babe comes (in 9 weeks -- egad!), but we definitely want to have a good feel for what's out there so that when the time comes we can just jump in and buy something. We had toyed with the idea of buying land and building, but just don't feel committed to such a project right now. R has too much going on at work, and with a new babe, and cattle calls for theater companies starting in early summer, and the boys' activities, even buying a house seems overwhelming at times.

Siochan and Namaste!