Ice Skating and November Happenings

Elinor is part of a "Little Women" girls' club.  The girls read the book "Little Women" and do literary and other fun activities connected to the book.  Friday night was ice skating night.  Both Bethany and Elinor were very good on the ice-- when did they learn to ice skate so well?

The younger siblings were all brave and tried out ice skating for the first time.   Even little George strapped on skates.  Abe was working Friday evening, so I was super brave and took the gang by my lonesome.

Cannon was fairly cautious and took things nice and slow, but eventually he let go of the wall and was able to skate on his own.

Faith was great fun to watch.  She got the hang of it quickly and was a speedy little thing.  She was practically running around the rink.

George did pretty well when one person held his hand.

But when two people held his hands, he just liked sliding along and saying how fast he was.
Side note:  George's pants were on backwards.  I knew it.  I knew it all day and did nothing about it.

Cute little women.  These three gals were all on a FIRST Lego League team together last year.  This year they are doing a different robotics competition.  It's called Sea-Perch and it's sponsored by the U.S. Navy (as I understand it).  They built and compete with an underwater robot.  Is it more useful than underwater basket-weaving?  That remains to be seen.

The whole group.  Ice skating was a success and I think we'll go again this winter.

Another fun thing this week was an Activity Days talent show.  This was for both Elinor's and Faith's age groups combined.  Faith played a piano piece.

Elinor demonstrated her alligator robot and had Katelyn activate the motion sensor she programmed.  It was fun to hear all the girls react when the alligator's mouth clamped shut.

Crummy picture quality, but Abe and Elinor enjoyed a rock concert Thursday night at the Young's home.  Dave (far left) is part of our homeschool family book club and he is the drummer in a great band called "Contagious".   I've heard them before and they cover really great rock and roll songs and do some original songs as well.  Lucky Abe and Elinor!  I spent the evening at a Stake Relief Society Leadership Training meeting.

That was good too.

 

 One of our wonderful neighborhood homeschool families hosted a Thanksgiving party this past week. She planned darling age appropriate crafts that the kids could do by themselves. Smart, very smart.  Here are Georgie and me in Indian headdress and Pilgrim bonnet.

 Well, it was fun while it lasted.  Clark came home from seminary on Monday and said he was ready for a haircut.  I tried to play it cool and not celebrate too loudly.  I did however tell him to grab his coat and get in the car--we were going to Great Clips immediately!

I usually cut his hair myself, but this felt a little out of my completely untrained league, and if he regretted it I didn't want to shoulder any of the blame.  As it is, he likes the shorter hair and his wild pirate hair will live on in infamy in our family pictures.

And last but not least, I did something I've been needing to do for a long time, but just recently realized I needed to do.  We created a computer work station in our family room.  We used our laptops a lot, but usually just take them all over the house.  I felt they were enduring too much wear and tear and they needed a stabler home.  Additionally, with more people using them more often, it is harder for me to keep tabs on who is using them and what they are doing on them.  We needed a more central, permanent location.  Enter a trip to IKEA and TA-DA!  Instant computer lab!  It's worked out quite nicely thus far.