new directions

The Summer has been filled with incredible activities for our children and I have enjoyed so very much watching them blossom and thrive at what they are attempting. From Ballet to Karate we are watching our children grow up before our eyes. Blink and they are talking, blink again and they start school, blink once more and you are looking eyeball to eyeball at them! John lost his first tooth today and I'm waiting up to be the tooth fairy for the very first time! :) :) He is so excited that he can't sleep and has been coming in every 1/2 hour telling me he can't sleep. Finally a bowl of cereal and a few smores via the microwave has seemed to help! .. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as this tooth fairy is pretty tired!

One of the most interesting things was John's participation in a Summer Challenge program at a local school. It was called (CSI) after the Crime Scene investigation program and they stretched the children's thought processes. For example, if a crime was committed and they found female footprints from high heels, would that indicate the crime was committed by a female? The answer = no. A male criminal could purchase women's shoes/ clothing to mislead the authorities. There were lots of interesting lessons in the 2 week CSI camp. Hopefully we will do this again next year.

John (who turns 8 in Sept.) has been asking many many questions about life and our conversations have become much more sophisticated. Elizabeth in turn has been "listening in" and generally parrots the topics we cover to all that will listen. We need to work on a bit more restraint when she is in public pointing out tattoos, spiked blue hair, and people who smoke to me :)

We just returned from Destin Florida (had a fab. time btw) and one night we were at the pool. A beautiful mother of a little girl from China walked into the pool area and of course Elizabeth's (and my own) radar went straight to her. She had on a very tiny bikini (and it looked very nice on her) but I could see Elizabeths eyes taking in every inch of skin showing.. Finally, she couldn't contain herself any longer and blurted out (I'm holding my breath as she began her comments to the lady..) She says .. "I like your ...um, umm .. tatoos. Then E'beth asks what the pierced thing in her eyebrow was there for..? Yikes. Thankfully the nice lady was very gracious and laughed as she attempted to answer why she had the tattoos and pierced eyebrow ring.

We traveled to Destin and Ft. Walton to watch John participate in a National Karate Demo team competition and John came in 2nd nationally in the "form" category! He missed 1st place by one vote even though he was the youngest competitor~! We were so proud that he is trying new things and is exhibits such great sportsmanship.

We now look ahead to the start of school and a flurry of other activities! Elizabeth will continue with her piano, ballet and jazz. This year she is adding violin and this particular method requires the parent ( um, me) to learn it right along with her in the beginning. So, I'll be learning to play the violin at 40 something! yee haw~!

John will dive into school, continue his boys gymnastics team, karate, possibly soccer, and so many other little things.

Will I once again overextend? Who knows, but we sure are having fun overextending!