Being outside makes me tired

I didn't plan it, but we've pretty much skipped school this week.

Monday the girls were cranky and I wanted to get some cleaning done. We did go to the library and on our weekly nature walk. We watched some lizards and spiders while swinging on a swing. It was beastly humid and started to sprinkle so we raced back to the car.

Tuesday was a spur-of-the-moment nature trip to a local forest with the homeschool group. I left Glitter at school and took Sparkle to tromp in the woods. She enjoyed catching grasshoppers and running around with the other kids. (According to http://bugguide.net/node/view/3904 it is the juvenile or nymph form of the Lubber grasshopper.)



Wednesday I decided to go to the electronics superstore instead of doing school. I wanted to buy something to connect my computer to the tv. I was picturing doing memory work with the girls snuggling on the sofa and watching the TV instead of in front of the tiny computer screen. The sales associates were singularly unhelpful and mis-informed. One sales associate dreamed up her own ideas of how the cables worked, such as using an s-video cable to transmit audio. When I asked another sales associate about the return policy, she told me to read the back of the receipt which I didn't have as I hadn't purchased anything yet.

Thursday I dropped Glitter off at school and took Sparkle to a local park for a new playgroup. She was the oldest one there, as the other kids her age were in school. At first she didn't like it but after playing around for a bit she made friends. Then after picking up Glitter it was off to swim lessons. The girls had been having consecutive lessons, which meant that I spent the whole time with one bored girl or the other climbing all over me. I managed to get Sparkle switched to the same class as Glitter. Once again, Sparkle didn't like being lumped with younger kids. It didn't help that the younger kids were doing better than her. While I don't like that she is struggling to learn to swim, I think that it is good for her to see that being older doesn't automatically make her better - hard work makes a bigger difference.

Tomorrow is Friday, and we are scheduled to go berry picking.

Gardenia

Last week on our nature walk we saw a Gardenia plant covered with unopened flowers. I told the girls we should check it out when we came back to see if they bloomed. Then I charged Sparkle with the job of remembering and reminding us. (Telling the girls that it's their job to remember is one of my favorite tricks.)

Sure enough, yesterday Sparkle remembers that we were supposed to look at the Gardenia and it was in full bloom. Here is Glitter looking at the plant and pointing to an unopened flower. They smelled thick and perfume-y. Next week we'll have to go back and see what the plant looks like.


Side note: we went on a nature walk at a local forest today, and Sparkle noticed another Gardenia in bloom near the office. This girl has her daddy's talent for plants.

Floor Friend

Sparkle and Glitter made this "girl" out of toys around the house. The mouth and eyes are made of bean bags. The red lipstick is legos. The white lego on the pink pillow body is a belly button. If you look carefully can see white paper eyelashes. Various blankets and bandannas made the hair and skirt. Two wands serve as arms and hands. The legs and feet are paper cut to shape and taped together. You can't see it, but the feet actually have toes cut out and the feet are in dress-up shoes.

Lizards

We saw a lot of little lizards at last week's nature walk. Sparkle tried to catch them, but wasn't quite fast enough.

Sparkle's First Ballet

Sparkle had her first ballet recital last weekend. Her dance studio put on the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" specially adapted to include little kids.

Sparkle and nine other girls rehearsed every week all semester long for their few seconds of stage time. They were the youngest kiddos on stage - young enough that they looked cute when they wandered around the stage forgetting where they were supposed to go and what they were supposed to do.

Sparkle was excited about wearing makeup for the first time. She wasn't too keen on the base and mascara, but she loved the blush and lipstick. We arrived at the theatre at the same time as some of the other girls in Sparkle's group. The theatre is the auditorium of a local high school.


Here are all ten girls.


When it was time for Sparkle and co. to go onstage, some of the big girls led them down the hall to the wings backstage.


This was Glitter's first time to watch a ballet. She watched with silent attention, even though it was way past her bedtime. She was really excited to see her sister on stage, and when Sparkle didn't appear right away, Glitter asked where she was. At intermission, we fed Glitter some candy from the concession stand, which is starting to become a tradition for me.


Ballet really isn't Wander's thing. Before the only times I've been able to drag him to see a ballet has been at the outdoor stage where he can lay down and close his eyes and take a nap. So I wasn't expecting Wander to enjoy the show, although I told him that he was required to attend to show support for Sparkle. Surprisingly, Wander actually enjoyed the first half of the ballet (the part with Sparkle) and admitted that it wasn't as tortuous as he had expected. After the show, Wander was proud to present Sparkle with a special bouquet of flowers. He was one proud daddy.


After the last show (there were two performances) we got to keep the costume. Sparkle spent the entire following day wearing it.