LIttle Ballerina!

 Last weekend Izzy had her big ballet performance. She (and her fellow ballerinas) were little birds flitting on stage and spreading cuteness in their wake.  Isadora was very focus on her routine and managed to hit almost all of her moves :)

On my side it was a miraculous effort at turning her ultra short hair into a legitimate bun... a large amount of gel and bobby pins later it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. She is excited to ballet again next year (I think in no small part because she enjoys the costumes!)

End of the School Year!

Another school year complete! Izzy will never again be a preschooler (sniff) and Evie is on her way to 4th grade! Yesterday was the prize giving ceremony at their school, which is always a fun event for the kids. They each got to sing a song in French (as well as another song or two in English) and cheer on their friends for the end of the year prizes. In between the two prize giving ceremonies was a little festival with jumping castle, crepes, hot dogs, and a musical performance by a singer from the Ivory Coast. (I missed this interlude because I went back to work for those 2 hours while Patrick played with this girls)

 The big news is that this year Genevieve won a prize! Recall, if you will, last year Izzy won the responsible prize for the preschool. Well the preschool gives prizes based on the key characteristics that the Cambridge learning system encourages. The junior school kids, however, receive prizes for by academic subject (each language, math, science, art, music, and PE). In each subject one child from all grades receives the subject prize... and this year Genevieve won for science!

 In introducing the prize the school's science teacher said that she was impressed by Genevieve's commitment to doing her science fair project, her constant hard work in class, and that she shows a love for environmental sciences in particular. Not only that but she received a 120% on her year-end exam! She recommended that Evie consider a career in science, particularly one that involves "creativity and chaos" :) Her prize was a certificate, a cool optical illusions book, and a set of super strong magnets. Way to go Evie!!

Lazy (relatively) weekends

Well perhaps not too lazy... but compared to running to ballet practice and then driving to camping and other activities it has felt pretty laid back.  Both this and last weekend we've spent most of our days hanging out in the backyard, watching movies or playing mariokart and reading books.

Evie received her hugglepod that she ordered with her birthday money last weekend and spent what must have been 4 hours in it reading... until Izzy wanted a turn and she was relegated to just reading outside.

Patrick and I have spent some time sorting through books still in boxes since we moved almost three years ago and as a result had a few boxes laying around.  Folllwing the idea that no good box should go to waste the girls claimed them to make "houses". All this week they have been asking to sleep in their boxes and we've been telling them to wait until the weekend. Keeping our promise, Friday night both girls "cuddled" up in their boxes and actually slept in them all night. (Of course the sleeping in boxes could very well explain the total, utter meltdown Izzy had today, but hey we are ones to keep our promises).

The highlight of the weekend was Evie's spring choir concert. She had a dress rehearsal just before the performance so we took Izzy over to the planetarium/mineral museum at the UofA while Evie rehearsed and then we all went downtown to the Temple of Music and Art for another spectacular choir experience.

Last Expo of the (school) Year!

This past Thursday was the last Expo of the year. And the end of the school year is a mere 8 days away... how on earth did that happen?! Both girls provided great performances! Evie's was mostly in the form of a video her class made about Paris where she acted like a mime, but before the video her teacher asked them questions about Paris and the kids showed a bit of what they'd learned.  I caught one of Evie's responses on video...

She and a few of her friends worked through recesses to complete a model of Versaile, for which she was very proud.... (but unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of her in front of it because she was too silly).

After Evie's expo we went to Isadora's, where she discussed the water cycle, the seasons and sang a little song...

Both girls have worked very hard in school this year.  I am so proud of them!

Bear and Turkey (Creeks that is!)

Last weekend we took full advantage of the last of the glorious weather and spent some quality time outside! (This weekend we have done the opposite I am afraid... lots of MarioKart... but as much as I hate to admit it, almost equally as fun because all four of us can now play together.)

Anyway, the week before last I took both girls for a hike to Sabino Canyon to play at the dam, and Evie asked me if she could do a real hike the next week.  I told her so long as she woke up by 5:30 in the morning I would be thrilled to take her. So last Saturday morning I went in an gingerly asked her if she still wanted to get up and hike (mostly expecting her to say no and go back to sleep).   Instead she sat up in bed and proceeded to get ready to go.  We were out of the house and to Sabino Canyon by 6 am. The plan was to hike as far as Evie felt she could go, well really 1/2 as far, and then turn around.  The whole hike to seven falls is 8 miles, so we didn't figure we'd make it the whole way on our first try.  We did, however, make it 4.44 miles and had a blast together walking, talking, and checking out saguaro blossoms, a rattlesnake (not too closely of course) and Bear Creek.

While we were gone Patrick took Izzy to ballet and then when they were back at home we loaded up the car.  All artfully packed so that we could fit inside the Subaru: 4 Lacroixs, 4 sleeping bags and pads, 4 canvases for painting, 2 dogs, 2 pillows, 1 tent, 1 camp stove, 1 cooler full of food, 1 frying pan, 1 spatula, and 1 bag of clothes... what we (well really I) managed to forget was 3 sweaters (I was the only one with a sweater), 1 first aid kit, and 1 lighter. Fortunately the car had an extra lighter... unfortunately the spatula managed to hide itself in the tent so that it was not to be found when needed.... 

After a two-hour drive made utterly awesome by a good book on tape (Museum of Theives) we made it to Turkey Creek and lucked into a great undeveloped campsite right by the creek. We took at little hike down the creek to a waterfall, which involved a bit of bushwhacking to get to and away from.  Sadie demonstrated that she would much rather walk the log than swim, which was hillarious, and both of the girls proved to be good side-o-the-hill scramblers.

We then settled back into camp, made a rip roaring fire, some dinner and (of course) roasted marshmallows.  Perhaps the best part of the evening was the near constant gobble gobble of a turkey tom... I guess the place is well named!  The next morning we woke up to a chill and were very sorry for our lack of sweaters in a cold canyon...  so we packed it up and headed back to Tucson.  A short, but wonderful foray in the woods!