Our Little Dancer + Family Fun

Posted By Cari

We enrolled Lexi in a dance class this year, and she has had so much fun "tap-tapping" around the house after every class. It was finally her "recital day" this past Saturday and she was so excited. She's one of the youngest ones in the class, and has only been going since January (most of the girls started in September). But she still did a great job and had lots of fun. Here are some videos (filmed by Sam) and some pics.






Funny story: as Lexi was watching this video later, during the part where Sam says, "Do your tap-taps, Lexi" - she said (talking back to Sam's voice on the video), "I am doing my heel-togethers!"



Having a girl is a whole new experience!

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Later that evening we came back to the same place that hosted the recital (the Rockin R Ranch) for more fun.
The boys got to shoot a real antique "colt .45" (with wax ammo) and were very proud of themselves.


Lexi wished she had gotten "to shoot a gun too, because she had a hat."

The boys also tried their hand with a lasso, and we met up with some friends. Check out the difference of the poses of the boys vs. the girls in this picture!

But the best part - if you asked the boys - were the frogs! Too bad that we had to leave this one there with his mom and dad (I didn't want him to be a sad little froggy :-). The kids were really hoping for a pet.

Blue Ribbon Boy

Sam has had an amazing year in school (except for the asthma, broken ankle, and other various illnesses & injuries which caused him to miss a lot of days! - we say that this gave the other kids in his class a chance to keep up.) He's had both a wonderful classroom teacher and a fabulous gifted teacher who have given him many opportunities to shine.

This year he represented his school's 4th grade class along with his good friend Jake at a math competition among the district. Each school was allowed to bring a 2-person team from each grade (4th - 8th) from the gifted program. Every member of the team team got at least one medal, and Sam earned two (one in the Team Competition with Jake, and one for a competition called 24 (a card game where you have 4 numbers on a card and have to make a formula using all four numbers to equal 24 using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and/or division - the first person to make up a formula wins the card, the person with the most cards when time is called wins the heat). His school won overall out of the whole district among all the gifted progams!




Sam was also chosen as part of a 4-person team to represent the gifted program at his school in a district Creative Problem-Solving event. Each team had a scenario and had to write a skit showing how they'd solve it (done at school), then perform for the other teams and be judged. Sam's team won best solution (I think that's what they won...).

Great Job SAM!

The Sparring Tournament

Josh participated in his first sparring tournament tonight and did great. Here's his last competition. He won two before this one, and was in the final four. He didn't win this last one - lost by just one point, and tied in several rounds with this opponent - who is a belt level above him and a few inches taller. Josh is awesome and we're so proud of him.

And did I mention that he reads at almost the 9th grade level. Not too bad for a seven year old in Second Grade! In fact, if you take Sam out of the running (who in 4th grade reads at a graduating HS senior grade level - the highest score on the test), Josh would be higher than any other student in Sam's 4th grade class! Very proud of these kids!

You can see how awesome Josh is in this video - he's the shorter one who is closest to the camera in case you can't tell.

Hooligans 1 - Killer Bees 0

Very exciting soccer game last night. Sam missed the second half of last season with a broken ankle and just before this season he reinjured his ankle and was out the first two games. His first game back last night he scored the one and only goal! It was a great night for him.

The Yellow Belt

This past week, Josh was tested for his yellow belt in his Kenpo Karate class. Josh loves karate and was very excited to be tested for the next belt. He just started in November, so this was his first belt test. The kids who were tested (13 out of the whole group of about 40 kids) had to "show their stuff" -- demonstrating several techniques they had been practicing, after a grueling workout. (The instructor is a retired Army Captain and he works them out!)




We are very proud of Josh for all his hard work in Karate and in school (hoping for a little more hard work at home and on the piano though :-)

Here's the video of his actual promotion - Josh is now a YELLOW BELT!

Dance Class

We are skipping ahead bit here from our last post... just since October! I will try to go back and add some of that soon, but today was Lexi's first day of Dance Class. She has been waiting for this day and was so excited this morning when she woke up. No dance clothes yet, but she picked her dress, tights, and shoes for the occasion. Here are a few clips of her first ever dance class. (She's doing ballet too, but this is just the tap part.)

TAP, TAP, TAP



BOOGIE WOOGIE

Soccer Mom

It's soccer season again... And, yes, I really am a soccer mom. As much as I hate having practice two nights a week, Sam loves to play soccer and he's gotten so good at it.


It was Sam's first game last Friday and he scored a goal, as well as making several great plays throughout the game. Here's the shot that made it in!

Sam has played with this team for 3 of the last 4 years and the coach is just awesome.

He has several night games this year, and it's really fun to watch because they play so well (and it's not so hot as the daytime games).


Josh would rather hang out in the trees. Notice the monkey on the shirt matches the monkey in the tree.

And Lexi just likes to eat the dirt.

But it's a fun family event, and totally worth all the hassle of practicing to see Sam doing so great (even if Josh and Lexi don't fully enjoy watching the whole game...)