Our Beethoven In The Making

When I enrolled the kids in piano lessons this year, I thought the opportunity was perfect. My friend had convinced a teacher from Midland to travel to us and teach at the friend's house, rather than us all traveling there. She was willing, as long as there were at least 4 students. NO PROBLEM! I had to choose just 2 of mine for the slots that were open, and decided on Aimee and Alex, since they needed to continue their previous lessons and I'd just teach Allie on my own for now.

Then, extracurriculars happened. Aimee couldn't do piano because she was staying after school for volleyball. NO PROBLEM! We did a quick switch up and had Alex and Allie scheduled for Monday piano lessons, at the very last minute. Allie screamed and cried and threw tantrums about having to have lessons and we practically had to drag her out of the house (instead of dragging, I carried her).

We were going to let Alex go first to let Allie settle down, but when we arrived, NO PROBLEM! Allie was a complete turn around. She loved the teacher the instant she saw her and said hello. Allie wanted to go first so that she could play with her friend afterward (who, incidentally, also was substituted in for an older sibling who just refused to do lessons.)

After the first week, we found out that Aimee didn't make the volleyball team and Alex was, in fact, supposed to be staying after school for football (as manager this season). NO PROBLEM! After wavering back and forth on the issue of another switch, Alex just decided that Manager wasn't that tricky of a job, and arranged with his coaches to skip Monday practice because, in his words to them, "my mom is making me take piano lessons." LOL...that's okay...I'll take the blame.

Lessons have gone well. Practice is ... well, it's okay. Allie is very good about her half hour, and her favorite song is Yankee Doodle...not sure why; maybe it's because it was already familiar and she loves that she can play a song that she already knows. Alex, insists that I just don't know how to tell time, because he's sure he's practiced for a half hour, when I insist that it's only been 10 minutes. So, while I take a refresher course in time-telling, he is setting timers for practice.

Two weeks ago, Allie spent much more time at the piano than her required 30 minutes a day, because in addition to her assigned pieces, she was hard at work penciling out her own song! She loves it, and I'm sure we'll all be hearing it in the next Batman, or Superman film. John Williams, eat your heart out.

I now reveal to you, "big bad-gi on the loos!" or, if you are unfamiliar with 1st grade phonetic spelling, that translates as, "Big Bad Guy On The Loose" (you should be able to click the image for a larger version, if you so desire.)

Remember My Other Kid?

I do. All the time. Alex doesn't have many posts on here devoted to him, but only because he is busy, and not here to get silly pictures taken of himself. This year, he's been awesome at getting up for early morning seminary and not complaining at all. He get right up, even better than I do. Even when we slept in one day, he hurried to get ready so that he wouldn't miss a day. (It helps that there are only 3 boys, 2 girls, and they don't want the girls to be able to show them up in any way.)
In school, he is still Acing his PreAP classes and actually really loves his communications class this year. The football team started twice a day practices in August, and since he didn't have a huge growth spurt over the summer, Alex elected to stay on with football in the managerial capacity this year, but totally loves hanging out with his friends on the team and is really looking forward to off season for the training and conditioning. His new excitement this year is that he was just elected in as a class officer.
Alex has Scouts on Wednesday nights, home teaching a couple times a month on Tuesdays or Thursdays, Football game on Thursday evening, Piano lesson on Monday afternoon, and he keeps up with it all like a pro.
I'm so glad that he's motivated to stay busy and on top of his commitments.

(I'm actually publishing this on 10/20/10. This was in the "unpublished" edit posts for a YEAR!!! Sorry, Alex. I probably wanted to add pics. Way too late...)

That Mysterious Practice Of Old

As Aidan hungrily looked on while I made her lunch, Allie suggested that I buy Aidan his own lunch box so that he wouldn't just always want hers. I agreed that it was a good idea, and added another thought. "Maybe while we're looking at lunch boxes for Aidan, we could buy a thermos for your lunch box. That way, you could have some warm soup at lunch; the thermos bowl keeps it warm for you, and you just open the lid and eat it."
Allie was intrigued, "Oh, yeah. I've heard of that. That would be cool."

Aidan the Brave

He wasn't sure he wanted to stand without hands, but the dismount was worth it. He will do the flip down over and over and over and over....

(lol...yes, that's my unmade bed)

More Pickles

In case you don't have these where you live...Freezer Pops/OtterPops...
Pickle Flavored

Nope, I didn't try one. Sorry.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch...

(oops. This post was originally going to be directly after the first day of school post...but, I forgot I had already started the homecoming post...)

While the kids were at school, Aidan kept Grandma and Mom on their toes. No siblings to keep him under wraps meant Nutella all to himself...
...and plenty of Hide-and-Go-Giggle

Aidan also learned to use chop sticks...to eat his tropical fruit.

Friday Night Lights

Texas is big on football, so it makes perfect sense that the Homecoming game is even bigger. Last year, the giant mums and ribbons hanging from them gave the shock of the season, but this year, I had my wits about me enough to shoot a few pics. Evidence that I'm not exaggerating when I say they are crazy:

Okay, some of the elementary school kids had some reasonable stuff going on. The child in the back, for example, had a sort of wrist corsage, for the arm, with some small ribbons and bells. The girl that I was actually shooting, however, had one that I would refer to as insane. In the center, is a button with her boyfriend's picture, which is surrounded by football badges and just lots of ribbons.

Here's a close up of an arm corsage variety. Again, this was an elementary aged child, so the "mums" are not just reserved for the high schoolers at that dance.

These girls were third or fourth graders...all decked out in the AHS Mustangs Cheer uniform and mums and ribbons.

Two of the girls at the middle school. Not only did these girls get mums and ribbons, they had megaphones, feathers, stars, bells, and maybe more...who knows.

Amusing, yes. I always thought the homecoming stuff was for the high school kids, but at least here, the whole city goes, so we did. We had lots of fun at both the parade and the game, not to mention we still have candy from the parade.
This float was the only one I took a picture of. There were lots "Cage the Wildcats" floats with stuffed animals or kids dressed at wildcats in cages. This one was "Hunt the Wildcats" and in addition to the tree stand, they had a hunting blind in the trailer behind the truck. As a shout out to my dad and hunting cousins, I had to get a picture of this one.

The Andrews Mustang Bowl. This "High School" Football stadium is huge. And unfortunately, my picture shows the opposing team's side. The Mustang side was absolutely packed.
The first touchdown ... Aidan wasn't sure what to make of it. The mascot ran across the track, the spirit guys carrying banners, and a siren car of some sort. GO MUSTANGS!
Loving the game.

Of course, the Andrews Mustangs won. 52-0.