I Know This!

This Christmas morning we all sat down and had a fun time opening presents. After surveying my children's rooms this year I decided to go a different direction with the kids Christmas presents and instead of the traditional toys, toys and more toys we got them mostly educational things that I've been wanting to get to supplement our schooling.  When they opened up the storybook The Knave of Hearts illustrated by Maxfield Parrish the artist we've been studying I was rewarded with a loud "hey I know this" from both Arowyn and Teagan when I asked them what they meant they said "I know who drew this" and when asked who they both said with great big smiles on their faces "Maxfield Parrish!" Ah there's nothing like the feeling of knowing that what your doing is actually being enjoyed and retained.  So they got things like gyroscopes which Daddy & Grandpy had a fun time showing them what they were and how they worked, bug podz which let you create a habitat for creepy crawlies (which I'm sure Arowyn will be getting plenty of use out of come summer), and a basic snap circuit set which I wasn't quite sure if they were ready for but I'm glad I got because it's been the most used item of the day so far. Well other than Chamberlin's shark that is, which was not meant as a learning toy but in the end turned out to be because the kids got to learn about all kinds of things like how helium can make your voice sound higher than it is because the sound waves travel faster through helium,  also how helium contracts and expands depending on the temperature and about buoyancy and counterweighing. So all and all it was a very fun and educational Christmas.

 Arowyn & Teagan opening their storybook 

The Knave of Hearts

Grammy, Arowyn & Mommy assembling 

Leonardo da Vinci's Aerial Screw model that 

the kids got from Grammy Jules

Maxfield Parrish Picture Study, Week 4

Today we studied Land of Make-Believe by Maxfield Parrish. The kids thought this was a very pretty picture. Arowyn especially loved the ladies in the picture that she imagined to be princesses and all of the flowers in the picture.

Land of Make-Believe

illustrated by Maxfield Parrish

Why Won't You Hold Still..Perfect!

My dear little artist has decided that she is ready to move on from drawing and painting things she sees in her head and making renderings of photos. She has decided that she is ready to sketch a live model. It was quite the selection process though in finding just the right model. Serenity wants attention so bad that the minute you look at her she wiggles and shakes which is not a good quality in a live model when your just starting out at this. Buster our cat would jump and run off at the slightest sound and after chasing him down a couple of times she gave up on him. Bella didn't want to sit or lay the way Arowyn wanted her to sit so she was nixed from the running. But fortunately Grammy and Grandpy happen to be visiting us this week so she found that Frodo made the perfect model.

 Arowyn and her willing model Frodo

Cub Scouts: December Pack Meeting

Today was Teagan's December pack meeting for his Cub Scouts troop. I got to be there since Chamberlin was working so the good news is that I have pictures of this to post today, the bad news is I'm still getting used to my new camera that by the time I had dialed in my settings Teagan was the first to get his award and I missed it. Oh well, hopefully I'll have better luck at the next pack meeting.

Teagan standing up with his pack
holding his latest awards

 Teagan watching the wolf cubs getting their awards

The Pack Leader handing out Christmas
presents to all the boys

Teagan holding his present

Teagan in line getting his snacks

Teagan with his plate
full of cookies

Christmas Dance Recital

The kids had a lot of fun at their Christmas Dance recital tonight. They did a fun jazz dance in "Christmas Party", they joined another class and were tapping toy soldiers in "Santa's Workshop", did some ballet in "Behold That Star" and were also in the finale for a brief moment.  For once Teagan actually tried his best during the performance and did a great job. Which is a real progress for him because in the past three years of recitals even though he has the dances memorized which I know because he shows me them at home, for some reason though when he gets on stage his inner clown comes forth and we never know what he's going to do. Sometimes it's just the general pestering of his sister or the embellishing of his dance moves in a funny way or the infamous baseball slide across the stage in his white tux that he did one year. So fortunately this year we actually got to see some dancing instead.

 Arowyn as a toy soldier

Teagan the toy soldier 

Arowyn tapping

Rather than saluting it looks like Teagan is 

checking the state of his hair instead

 Teagan distracted by the lights or something 

that obviously only he can see

 Arowyn dancing with attitude in 

"The Christmas Party"

 Arowyn getting onto Teagan for 

something while they dance

 Arowyn dancing

 Teagan striking his pose

 Arowyn in "Behold That Star"

  Teagan in "Behold That Star"

Teagan & Arowyn in the finale

Christmas Dance Recital Rehearsal

Today is Arowyn & Teagan's Christmas Dance Recital. This morning the kids practiced their numbers up on stage so they would be more prepared for their performance tonight. It always amazes me how nonchalant my kids are about going on stage and performing. When I was growing up anytime I had to go on stage my stomach was always tied up in knots and I had to be coaxed or bullied into going up on stage for whatever I was doing and as I got older my fear of being onstage only increased. By the time I graduated high school going onstage for anything where there was any direct attention on me was out of the question and I even had a hard time standing in front of a class of like ten kids to teach. I've slowly been working on this fear of mine but I hope that it is one that Arowyn & Teagan never have to experience. Because of this I'm glad that Arowyn & Teagan have ample opportunity to be on stage in front of people and to get used to what that feels like and that it's not something to be afraid of.

Arowyn waiting out in the cafateria 

Teagan waiting out in the cafateria 

Arowyn & Teagan onstage practicing 

 Arowyn dancing

Cooking With Arowyn: Hawaiian Pizza

Arowyn has been wanting to get her hands dirty in the kitchen with mommy so for dinner today she fixed us a Hawaiian Pizza with breadsticks. No this wasn't completely from scratch but we were to hungry to take the time to make the dough ourselves so canned dough it was. Not that it matters though because Arowyn had a great time doing it and she's already learned way more about cooking than I knew at her age.

Christmas Piano Recital

Both Arowyn & Teagan were very excited to play in their first Christmas piano recital today. Arowyn picked out her song and has been practicing it for the past three months.  She wanted to play in this recital so bad because she wasn't far enough along to be able to learn a Christmas song in time for last year's Christmas recital so she's been putting in a lot of extra hard work on it this year. Since Arowyn got to pick out a new dress for the recital Teagan was ready to switch up his look as well for this performance. So we went to Teresa's Bridal and formal shop to let him pick out a new vest and bow tie (his choice he wanted to look like Dr. Who) to go with his suit for today, and he did a good job because he looked quite dashing in his suit today if I may say so myself.

On the Job at The Christmas Rehersal

This coming year will be Arowyn's second year working as an intern for our company. But she's not our youngest intern anymore because Teagan's now joined our crew as well. They've actually both been our "littlest interns" for years now but when they went on the job with us they didn't serve a function it was just because I wasn't able to find babysitting for them so they had to come along. Although I guess you could say they worked PR because they were always chatting people up and pointing out the fact that it was their mommy holding the camera taking pictures. During last year's dance season we decided to let Arowyn try her hand at taking some pictures during the rehearsal for the dance performance. She had been using my camera at home taking nature pictures and knew how to handle it with care and how it worked so during the rehearsal she was allowed to stand in the wings and shoot some pictures of the girls dancing onstage. Tomorrow we have a church play that we will be videotaping but today was the rehearsal so I set them both lose to get some shots of the kids during their practice. They had a lot of fun and were very proud to be working side by side with daddy & mommy.

 Our little intern Arowyn circa 2009

 Our little intern Teagan circa 2009

 Arowyn taking pictures today

Teagan helping Daddy man the video camera 

 Arowyn taking more pictures

Teagan and Daddy working side by side

Flag Football: Game 6

Today was so cold that even though the weather was ok it was just too cold and windy to be outside so we were in gym again today. Both Arowyn & Teagan were pumped that they both had a chance to run with the ball today. What a great end to a fun season.

The opening prayer 

 Teagan doing his best to hold back the blue horde

 Arowyn trying to stare down one of the blue players

 Arowyn blocking for her quarterback

 This is the only shot I have of Arowyn with the ball 

in this game she's the fuzzy yellow blur with 

the long hair behind everyone

 Teagan gets the ball and starts to run for it

 Ouch! That's got to hurt.

 And the blue team member takes Teagan all 

the way to the ground (I think he might of been 

confused about this being flag football and not touch)

 Teagan though takes it like a champ and didn't 

even cry. In fact if you look closely even 

though his eyes are still closed he 

has a slight grin on his face. 

 Teagan gets the ball again

 Arowyn doing her best to block 

for her quarterback

Arowyn & Teagan all worn out