Drama and Yoga

Friday was a milestone for Reese and an exciting opportunity for Soren. The drama classes that they have been taking ended this week and they had a small production to conclude the semester. Reese's class acted out a script written by their teacher based on a children's book called What Makes a Rainbow. Reese had 3 lines that she had to say in addition to the songs that the group sang together. I held my breath wondering if she would actually say her lines once the spotlight was on her...and she did! She spoke loudly and clearly and sang along with the songs and did the movements. This was a first for her and a huge step in overcoming her shyness. It was pretty cool. Soren, on the other hand, was born to be on the stage. Her class was divided into groups of 4 and told to come up with an imaginary product and make a commercial for it. Soren's group made up a product called super soda that allowed you to do anything you can imagine. They are both excited to start new classes after the holidays. Thank you, Grandma and Nana for coming down to watch; it meant so much to the girls.

Family yoga...it rocks. Notice I am not IN the pictures, just an innocent bystander enjoying the entertainment from a safe distance :)

My new bike! WooHoo! Competitive training is over...two taper weeks and then I race.

http://www.imcozumel.blogspot.com/

Two Down

Just as the whole H1N1 thing seemed to calm down, my girls caught it and caught it good. I had the great privilege of going to a Beth Moore seminar this weekend and assumed Soren was swimming in her meet. During a break I checked my phone because I asked her to text me her swim times and instead I had a text from Pete saying Soren had done her warm up and while waiting for the meet to start she was freezing and had body aches. Great. He took her to a nearby drug store to take her temp and then took her home with her fever rising and nose gushing.

Sunday she had a severe ear ache so I took her to an emergency care place to get her started on antibiotics for the ear and she tested positive for type A flu. The nurse asked if there were any siblings and I told her about Reese; her reply was, "well, then we will probably see you back here in a week."

Within hours of returning home from the emergency care with Soren, Reese began to run a fever and soon had all of Soren's symptoms. Our family doctor generously called in Reese's medicine without making me bring her in to be tested. There is no doubt she has the same illness.

So we have been home these four days fighting fever and cough, watching movies, doing crafts, playing games, reading... When Nana heard about the girls she came down for the day and brought some fun holiday crafts and even ended up taking the girls home with her. They were able to rest on a different couch in front of a different television and that was a nice treat. Not to mention a huge help to me. I was able to disinfect the house and even get my workouts in without feeling like I was ignoring my sick girls. Thank you, Nana!

As of tonight the plan is for both girls to return to school tomorrow. They had a good day with no fever. Soren seems to still be pretty tired, but Reese seems 100%. Hopefully that ordeal is behind us now. We only have 12 days before we leave for Cozumel! We need to be healthy to lay on the beach!

Fall Family Fun

A quick report (with tons of pictures!) about some of our fall activities.

On a whim, Nana signed up all 6 of her "4 and older" grand kids for the Monster Triathlon. It was a cold Saturday morning with lots of chaos, but everyone swam, everyone biked (some fell, some got run over by other bikers, but they all finished!), and everyone ran across the finish line. The kids all reported that they had a good time and even want to do another race, so I would call that a success!

reese

avery

parker

avery

ashton

reese

parker

ashton

avery

reese

wyatt

soren

ashton

soren

wyatt taking the lead

avery and alissa

soren and reese

nana and her crew of triathletes!

After the race, Nana invited us all to play at her house. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the kids were outside until dark. It was the weekend before Avery's birthday, so Nana got a cake and let the kids celebrate with her while they were all together. Good Times!

soren, wyatt, ashton

coach Pete, the one who started this triathlon craze

wyatt, ashton, parker

snacking at nana's after the race

avery's birthday cake

On Friday the girls had their fall parties at school. Grandma Charlotte came down to be a part of the fun. Each student gets to carve their own pumpkin and they are displayed that night in our neighborhood for everyone to see. It is a fun tradition that the kids really enjoy.

Pete helps Reese carve her pumpkin

soren and emma's finished product

Reese and Mrs. Terry

the finished product

After school on Friday, we headed toward Grandma's house with a stop at the pumpkin patch. It was very muddy, but we got some fun pictures that Grandma let the girls scrapbook over the weekend. She even took them to the scrapbook store and let them pick out fun accessories and use the cropping room! Their books turned out great and will be a wonderful memory that we will treasure always.

sara, reese and soren

Grandma Charlotte, Reese and Soren

is that a reese face or what?!