Lots going on

Well, things have been incredibly chaotic around here the past few weeks. Even more so than usual.

I will just list the main things that have been going on ~

Cryptic is going to Tae Kwon Do more regularly, which is great! He took TKD off and on for about a year when he was around four or five, when we lived in SC. It took this many years for Stud to sign him up again!! Cryptic kept on asking and asking and Stud would forget to look into it. When I would mention taking care of it myself, he kept on saying that I didn't know the good places and not to do it, he would do it. Finally, when he was looking into it, we found out that Cryptic needed surgery last February. So we had to wait until after Cryptic's surgery and for him to recover and all that jazz. He got everything all set up this past fall. He enjoys it but is of course a bit annoyed that he is in a class with tiny little kids. There are a few kids closer to his age, so that helps. He has also greatly improved in getting himself out of bed and to school on time. He and I do devotions together and he really looks forward to that. That is the main reason he gets out of bed, is to do the devotions. So I am glad of that, of course. He prefers me to do them with him, and not just do it on his own. So I won't complain about that! He won some spelling bee for his grade level a few months back and was going to go on to the next level or whatever, but he says no one has updated him so he is not sure what is going on with that.

Jock is...as always, Jock! LOL I need to read more about the strong-willed child. He is keeping busy with hockey and all the practises preparing for the tournament in Edmonton next week. We leave in six days. He gets up twice a week at 5 am to go play hockey with his Dad and a bunch of others. He somehow worked it so that he has his first "job". He helps serve food at lunch at school and when he is done and takes off his hair net and gloves, he gets to eat anything he wants and as much of it as he wants. The main thing he likes about Public School (really the ONLY thing he says he likes about it) is the lunch, apparently it is very good. They have a large variety of foods and he is very pleased to have as much of it as he wants. He is definitely going through a spurt. He is eating non-stop. I have heard of teens that do this and have witnessed it before. Cryptic still has not hit that stage and Jock has always been a better eater anyway. It is nice to see a healthy appetite!

He "forgot" about a band concert he had last Wednesday and when I picked him up from school after his rock climbing field trip he only had 45 minutes to go home, eat and change and get his Sax to the school and help set up. I had to get Cryptic from TKD, somehow get kids fed and change and rush to the concert also. Stud had spent almost three hours gone at the gym that day, so needed to work and could not help me. Was pretty crazy!

Clown is now taking an art class in Bellevue. It is awesome and I am amazed and thrilled to have found something that will entice him out of the house once a week. It is Tuesdays from 10:30 to noon. Today they did a still life of fruit with chalk pastels on coloured paper. Last week was a rainforest bird with oil pastels and water colour on top of that. I wanted to bring it home today and post a photo of it on here, but his teacher wanted to keep it until next week because she wanted to display it and get photos of it. Sadly, we won't get it for a few weeks, since we will be gone. We won't see her until summer either, since she is going to have her first baby any week now and is going on maternity leave. Found out today she is FROM Edmonton and was very excited that we are going there!!! We were visiting for a while and talking about how we will never give up our Canadian Citizenhip, I asked about the baby, etc. When we left, Clown said, "So she is pregnant?? I WONDERED what that lump on her stomach was!?!?!?"

Princess is BUSY. Stud is trying to get her out skating more, since she starts hockey in the fall. She is playing soccer and is psyched to sign up for T-Ball when soccer is done. Of course she does ballet and tap and is talking of starting hip hop when she is older. I don't think she will be old enough this next coming fall. She also wants to start violin lessons and get back into swimming lessons! I will let her take these same art lessons that Clown is taking, once she is finished with public school and can attend the homeschool classes with him. She is our busy one! We need to limit it of course and pace ourselves.

This next week/weekend we have an allergist appointment for Cryptic, his TKD belt testing (FINALLY, possibly more on that later), four or so hockey practises for Jock, soccer pictures, two games, a practise, dance lessons and a birthday party for Princess. The same birthday party for Clown, packing for Canada, keeping the house clean, getting last minute things done for the care of the dog, mice and cats, and I think that is most of it!! *whew* Nothing major, you know.

I will close with a photo of Clown in art class today, as well as a cute photo I found of the four kids when Princess was a few weeks old. I will do what I ADORE doing and compare that one with one I just now took of them as I was posting this:) I just love to see how they have changed!