Singing Kids

Guess what? I went to the movies again. I had a date scheduled with Anna today, and she wanted to see "Arthur and the Invisibles." She invited Jamie to come along (an exception to our usual practice of "one-on-one" time). I didn't care much for the movie, but I enjoyed being with my girls. I ate too much popcorn!

This morning the girls and two of their friends (Chris and Rachael Hiigel) led the worship music for our Friday morning homeschool group. They did a great job! Jamie sang lead and played the keyboard (we borrowed it from Wesley Zuidema--thanks, Wesley!), Chris played guitar, and Rachael and Annie sang and did some great motions. Joe set up the sound board and ran the PowerPoint computer. Anna goes to three classes at "Friday School"--art, science, and P.E. It's a great program and helps to round out our homeschool experience.

Movies

Goodness—this has been a weekend of movies. Jamie and I went out to see "Happily Never After" and the next day Joe and I saw "Night at the Museum". I had "dates" scheduled with each of them, and that's what they chose to do. Jamie and I stopped for hamburgers at In 'n Out first (she paid)—yummy. This afternoon after church and lunch, it was raining and Jeff built a fire for us in the fireplace...we watched "The Winslow Boy" and ate popcorn. I do enjoy movies, but I think I'm ready for some real life for a couple of days. (Hope I don't regret saying that!)

Birthday!

Today is Mr. Bear's birthday! Since he's at work today, we'll celebrate with him tonight. I had scheduled a regular school day for the kids, but all three of them really, really wanted a "relaxed school day", so Anna turned in a coupon for that. (She'd saved it from Easter). They chose their own activities for the day: Jamie worked on a story she's writing, Anna traced and labeled a map of Europe, and Joe played a lot of guitar (and attended his writing class). They also played Monopoly and Nertz (a fast card game). Anna helped me bake a German Chocolate cake for Jeff's birthday party tonight.

A Spider and Two "A's"

Jamie got an A in her Speech class and an A in her Honors American Gov't/American Literature class! I'm proud of her. The American Gov't/Lit. class is very demanding--lots of term papers and lots of reading great literature from our founding fathers. She loves the discussions and takes part in them energetically. To celebrate I took her and Annie out to the movies today. We saw Charlotte's Web. Other than the fact that Fern was rather rude and disrespectful toward her parents throughout the story, it was a great movie. The animatronics were wonderful. Don't tell anyone, but I actually got teary when Charlotte died!

Car Stuff

Today I finally took the van in to get it checked—the "maintenance required" light has been on for almost three weeks. Turns out we needed new brakes and the usual check-up stuff. It's a rare day when I can get by without a car, but we did it for most of today. The guy there assured me it would be done by 3:00; Jamie had a piano lesson scheduled for 3:30. Sonia (the owner's wife and business partner) picked the kids and me up around 3:00 and took us back to the car shop. I quickly paid and we screeched in to the piano lesson 15 minutes late. Quick lesson today. Sonia is great. She's from Slovakia and is so personable and funny. I always enjoy our 10-minute rides together when my car is in her shop. She says she and Henry studied hard to pass the test to becomes American citizens (and many of her American friends didn't know the answers), but that it was very worth all the work and expense. She also says, "if I'm not willing to work to change something that bothers me in this country , I have no right to gripe about it." I think that's a great attitude. It was a gray and cloudy day, and after piano the kids and I wanted to do something fun, so we stopped at a little doughnut shop and each chose a doughnut! We never do that! It was a fun treat.