First Pointe Class

 Keira had her first pointe class this week. She has been looking forward to this since the day she did her pointe assessment. Thursday the day was finally here. Jane's dad is the Thursday driver and took some pictures. The first pictures shows Keira (on the left) and Jane, the second picture shows Kaili, Keira and then Jane. At this pointe they only have a 30 minute pointe class each week and they are starting slowly with only doing rises (slowly rolling from the flat foot all the way onto the box of the shoes) and balancing on pointe at the barre. 

Katharine's Sketchbook

Here is a recording of the sketchbook that Katharine submitted for her Cal Arts application.

Cat TV

 Sophie sits way too close to the TV when she watches her screensavers.

Doll House

This week,  Katharine built the house for the doll that she created. 

This will be going into her college portfolio, and will also make for a nice garden ornament until the first rain comes..

 

Christmas Day Walk

The weather cooperated with our annual Christmas Day walk this year. 

We went to the Arbor Hills Nature Reserve, and while it looks like we were alone in the pictures it felt like most of the town was out there walking around.

Our newest family member, Sophie the cat, could not join us. Maybe we can get a leash for her one day.

 

 

Twas the Night Before Christmas

 Our gift pile is a bit thinner this year, but the tree and house are still full of decorations. 

With the (most likely) move coming up, we are currently packing and purging all of our possessions and saving whatever money that we can. So Iria and I skipped any gifts for ourselves this year, and the kids got just one gift each from us, one gift from Craig, and then gift cards from the Grandparents and Uncle Peter. 

Not that the kids would ever complain, if you ask them they just want money and gadgets nowadays. I'll personally miss the bigger gift piles, but not so much the extra wrapping and assembling..

 

Joy to the World

Here is a great page from Katharine's sketchbook that she is including in her art school portfolios.

 

 

Send in the Clowns

Iria and I got to see Keira's clown dance from The Nutcracker at an outdoor performance in Dallas.

 This might be one of our last outdoor winter performances for a while, so it was great being able to attend this one.

 

 

 

 

Candid Kassidy

Kassidy sent me a bunch of selfies last night.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Lukas!

Lukas turned 15 today, and has entered that phase where a parent is constantly surprised about how fast they are growing up.

 

Lukas Facts

Favorite time of day - Late night

Birthday meal(s) - A bean and cheese burrito from Chuy's

Favorite food -pho

Favorite restaurant - Chicl Fil-A

Favorite junk food - Dr. Pepper and spicey chips

Least favorite food - peanut butter and cereal

Favorite gadgets - his phone and the Xbox

Favorite video game - CoD Modern Warfare

Dream vacation - Jamaica

Favorite book series - Lord of the Rings

Lukas has a knack for humming annoying songs that get stuck in my head

Current CoD rank - Max level on XBox

Favorite TV show - Attack on Titan, Mandalorian, The Witcher

Lukas likes to listen to Hamilton

Goal for year - Better win rate in CoD

Best Friends - Aiden, Dave, everyone in his Sunday school class

Favorite memory from last year -New Years Eve at the Martels

Favorite animal - dogs

Future job/career - Game Designer or a chef

Lukas loves to prep whatever meat we are going to be eating for grilling or cooking

Rural / suburbs / city - rural

Favorite position in soccer - forward

Favorite class in CoD - Running sniper and smg

Birthday presents - fancy Nike sneakers (from Mom and Dad), CoD game (from Grandpa and Grandma) and Xbox gift card (from Uncle Peter)

Favorite weather - rain

Time travel - Future

Favorite school subject - Geography

Least favorite school subject - Math

Favorite thing to do with Mom - watch English murder mysteries

Favorite thing to do with Dad - watch nerdy TV and movies

Favorite thing to do with Lennon - play video games

Favorite thing to do with Katharine - talk

Favorite thing to do with Kassidy - play video games

Favorite thing to do with Keira - take family walks

Favorite season - Fall/Winter 

Lukas can is able to set Keira off with just a glance..

Which leads to an oft used quote "I kid, I kid!"

If the house were burning he would grab these three objects (people and animals not included) - XBox, headset, Xbox controller

Looking forward to in 2021- possibly moving

What scares you - heights

 

All Around the Ginger Bread House

 Iria is building the Ginger Bread House, Katharine is drawing it, and Sherman is trying to sniff it. Lennon is just there to scoop up any stray gummy bears.

 

 

 

 

Bad Cat

 

First Pair of Pointe Shoes!

Keira took her pointe shoe assessment with her ballet teacher last week and got the green light to go en pointe. Of course her best friend Jane passed the assessment, too. They were supposed to go en pointe in April of this year, but the pandemic kind of messed with the plan a little bit. So off we went to a local ballet supply store to get a special first pointe shoe fitting. The fitter told them all about how the shoes are made, why they are so expensive (yes, every pair of pointe shoes is still handmade), what the different parts of the shoe are called and how to take care of them.

Here they are warming up their feet to prep for all the different shoes they were about to try on in the course of three hours! Yes, you read that right. 

Keira tried on two baskets full of pointe shoes, different styles by different makers.

Here you can see her with with the pile of shoes that she narrowed it down to. She tried on each pair again with one of each on different feet, then switched them around to the other foot to check the fit on both feet of each shoe in the pile. She finally ended up with a pair of Grishko pointe shoes, model NOVA. Her ballet teacher Lyndette figured she would need a Grishko shoe.

Below we have Keira and Jane, two very happy girls!

Klyde Warren Park Holiday Performance

 Nutcracker performances might be cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but that doesn't mean the girls are not performing. Katharine and Keira both performed with Texas Ballet Theater School Dallas at Klyde Warren Park in Dallas. Keira was in the Clown dance from the Nutcracker, and both girls were in a modern dance together that they performed to Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas."

Legos Disassemble

 Part of our moving prep involves disassembling all of the Lego sets that we have built, because there is no way that any of those would stay intact during the packing and moving process.

Funny thing is- it is actually kind of fun disassembling them, and we look forward to some snowed-in future dates when we can put them all back together again.