Neko got her orthodontic appliance less than a week ago. She came to her singing class recital tonight declaring that she wouldn’t sing, so we didn’t even bother inviting friends and family. Tom even stayed home with Shep and Ellery.
But when her teacher walked over and asked her if she would sing tonight, she had a sudden change of heart. And she sang beutifully, despite the big hunk of metal in her mouth.
(The juxtaposition between these two photos makes me giggle.)
Today the whole school went to the local Senior Center and sang for them. They love seeing all the little faces, singing their hearts out.
As this is the first year of the preschool, we were first-time participants. We’d been practicing our songs for weeks, and I’m so proud of them.
Neko and Shep did a great job singing with the older kids, which makes me smile, as I remember the year when Neko was a kindergartener, hiding under a chair so she didn’t have to sing.
When we lived in the Big City, we tried that drive-through holiday lights business at the local park. Traffic was bumper to bumper, and we all began feeling a bit claustrophobic.
When we moved to our little town, we found out the local sculpture park had a similar thing, so we decided to give it a go.
Of course there were a few less lights, but there was also no traffic. The kids were in awe, noses pressed to the windows, not wanting to miss a detail. This year, Ellery cried for the last five minutes of the path because “it’s going to be oooooover!”
I adore this moment that occurs each year. It’s such fantastic, small-town, schmaltzy family time.
The kids got haircuts today.
Ellery crawled into our bed sometime in the middle of the night. At around 6:00am I awoke to someone excitedly whispering in my ear, “We’re getting haircuts today!”
This girl was born for the spa. She’s been excited about this day for a week. I think haircut day trumped both Thanksgiving celebrations. When we arrived, she settled into the chair like she owned the place, and never stopped smiling.
In between haircuts and the Muppets (YAY!) with Chris, we killed a little time at the Lego store. On our way through the mall we ran into the Dark Side. A certain six-year-old was impressed.
As for the movie, I got a bit teary-eyed as they sang the opening sequence, my own children the same age as when I first dicovered the Muppets. That’s all kinds of full-circle awesome.
(Unlike this post, which is all kinds of scattered and disjointed.)
In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, somehow we kind of missed celebrating Tom and Anne’s 40th birthdays with a bang. This is what happens when life is full of children and jobs and messy houses.
Tom’s birthday is in in December, when he’ll turn 42. Anne’s is in January, when she’ll turn 41. So when we decided to plan a surprise reunion of our old Dinner Club in their honor, we decided to call it their Happy 40-ish Birthday celebration.
Everything went off without a hitch, and we soon found ourselves in the midst of old friends, giggling and laughing. It was kinda of magical.
Thanks you two for letting us celebrate your 40-ish! And sorry about only taking two crappy photos, which didn’t even include either of you.
We hit up the local diversity festival. The Youngest’s favorite part was the animal area—alpacas, llamas, chinchillas, and goats.
I think there’s a loose connection with the animals and their country of origin, but for the little people, diversity was all about the wide range of things we could pet and feed handfuls of corn.
