Curiouser and curiouser...

"We're all mad here," says the Chesire Cat to Alice.

Kennedy's 7th grade drama class performed Lewis Carroll's version of Alice in Wonderland yesterday and it was fabulous.

The entire play was directed by the kids...from costumes to set design to stage direction. Kennedy was on the costume committee, and played the "other" Alice, which in the original story, is the Alice that appears fleetingly in scenes, seen by the "real" Alice who wonders who she is...

Julia and Giorgia shared the role of the "real" Alice, with Julia playing the first half, and Giorgia the second.

Kennedy, Julia, Giorgia

"Off with her head!" says the Queen of Hearts.

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Sydney played an excellent Queen, and here is she sporting the costume that Kennedy and India designed. The dress...purchased from Goodwill one afternoon when the girls forced me into a Goodwill Store much against my will. But hey, the dress was perfect for $7!

"Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder where you're at!" says the Mad Hatter at the Tea Party.

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Ricky may have been my favorite (besides Kennedy, of course). And yes, this jacket belongs to August and was found in the midst of his 80s stage clothes. Kennedy and India gasped with joy when I pulled it out and showed it to them. They knew it would be a perfect Mad Hatter jacket!

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" says the White Rabbit.

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Jordan's mom is applying his whiskers before the show.

Good job, Tina...Jordan looks amazing as the White Rabbit!

During the jury scene at the end of the play, the "other" Alice comes out, much to the confusion of the "real" Alice. The Queen seems to want to chop off everyone's head. Kennedy doesn't look too worried... Oh, and this is the other $7 dress from Goodwill, with patches applied by our good friend Shan, India's mum.

"Wake up, Alice," says Alice's sister (India) to Alice (Kennedy). Seems Alice fell asleep during her lesson and had the strangest dream...

India & Kennedy

Mrs. Naturman introduces the cast

These kids should be so proud. They did an excellent job.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

THE END

Well at least they are cute

This may come as a shock to some of you, but somehow (snicker, snicker) my husband & I did not make athletic babies. Not even close.

Kennedy was girly from the get-go. Dolls and dress-up filled her toddler years. Art and the occasional gymnastics or hip hop class filled the gap from 7 to 10. From 11 on, she's...well...she's just like I was at that age. Except way better. She is excelling at student-ness, her teachers LOVE her, she's a Girl Scout working on her Silver award, she enjoys going to the mall. Gym class? Not her favorite.

Now Brookie...I had a little feeling that Brooke might be a LITTLE athletic. She's WAY more active and loves to run and climb and jump into puddles.

She takes tennis each week and is really doing a great job.

She's in a dance class on Mondays and has a lot of fun.

But sports? I've asked her if she wants to be on her friend's soccer team. She says no. Fine by me...sitting at a soccer field all day on a Saturday doesn't sound like all that much fun to be honest witcha.

Last week, her after-school program had a parents vs kids SOCCER GAME!

Oops. I wore heels and didn't bring a change of clothes AND I could barely walk from pilates two days prior, so August represented us on the field.

First of all, here are a few of the kids. They look harmless, yes?



I know you were thinking how cute Brooke and that little girl were, so here's another shot.



Warm up exercises! Here she goes!!! What a champ!!!

There was about 1000000007 little kids and about, oh, 4 adults...here it appears that August is approaching Brooke to give her a little advice. Or perhaps wake her up from her daydream by stepping on her foot or something.

See...this is how you do it! You kick the ball LIKE THIS!

However, that did not appeal to her at all.

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Instead she found an area of the field in which she could really showcase her talent!

Goalie! Or is it goaly? Y or IE?

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Even if I don't know how to spell it, it's an important position, yes? Do not let the ball go into the goal, right?

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Right!

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So, in order to do that MOST EFFECTIVELY, probably you should stand with a few of your bestest buds, chat a bit, and just completely GUARD THAT GOAL!

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Yep. That's how she rolled.

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And guess who won...come on now...but of course! THE KIDS! Because there was no way a parent was going to kick a ball hard enough to break through this girlie-goalie line up, that's for sure!

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So, looks like Saturdays will remain soccer field-free until further notice. Thank you to our DNA. :)

A Battle of the Scholastic Type

In this house of all girls and one daddy, besides the occasional (okay, semi-frequent) "battle of wills", we don't have many "battles" going on in our house... We also don't participate in any sports of a competitive nature. This weekend, Kennedy was in a BATTLE of the COMPETITIVE nature!

It was called the Battle of the Books. Eight area schools met on Saturday to test their reading savvy. It was our school's first year to participate.


Each school had two teams of six kids each. Each team of 6 had to read 30 books and be ready to answer questions and accumulate points.

Kennedy had some of her very best friends on her team. Here she is early in the day with India. I say early in the day, because it was early. We had to leave our house at 7:30. On a Saturday, might I add.


Here is a group shot that includes the other team from our school, plus our alternates.


There were 7 rounds of 24 questions, 12 for each team. Each team would sit together in a classroom across from another school's team. A "reader" would ask a question, "In what book did x character do x thing?" and the team would confer with one another and the team captain would answer with the book's title. If the title was correct, they could score 2 more points by giving the author.
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Kennedy was her team's captain.

Now, let me tell you something. There were three or four teams "to be feared". They were strong teams. They had done this before. The members were one or two years older than our girls.

The girls held their own throughout the day. The last three rounds were against three of the hardest teams. They beat the first team. The next team, round 6, was THE toughest team. In fact, this team WON the competition by a landslide. But they didn't take any points from our school! Our girls held their own and TIED the toughest team in this round.

The last round was, again, a strong team. We beat them, too. Of 7 rounds, we won 5, lost 1 and tied 1.

Kennedy's team, and oh are we so proud of them, won THIRD PLACE!!!!! They got a medal and everything. They proved that Hesby is a school to "fear" next year!!

Congratulations to our girls....way to GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brookie's Feast!

It was funny to hear all the things that 6 year-olds are thankful for: family, pets, teachers, classmates, the earth, their Wii games, the ENTIRE UNIVERSE!

Yesterday was the kick-off of thankfulness which precedes tons and tons of food at Brooke's school...the First Grade Feast.

We are thankful for a fabulous school with fabulous families and teachers. We are thankful for little girl pilgrims...

We are thankful for grandparents, and thankful that we were able to share this fun moment at Brooke's school with them...

We are thankful that our children are healthy and happy and loved and cherished by us, by family, and by many more...

Wildfires

As soon as the wind picked up late last week, I thought "uh oh".

Sylmar has been ablaze, and it is about 20 miles northeast of here. We are fortunate that we only have to deal with the smoke, the poor air quality, the ash. We are fortunate because we do not have to worry about our house burning to the ground.

Kennedy's 4th grade teacher, Mr. Danny Pattison, was not that fortunate. One grandmother's funeral was Friday afternoon...shortly after, the mobile home park that his other grandparents lived in had to be evacuated. Their home was one of the many that did not make it. Mr. Pattison also lived in Sylmar, with his father, and he sadly lost his home to the fire as well.

Tomorrow our school will band together and collect gift cards and money to help Mr. Pattison and his family. The Target gift card we purchased today cannot lift the feeling of sadness I feel for him, but I know he will feel the love and compassion that our tiny little school will bestow upon him.

Blessings to you all.

Halloween Rocks

As you will see, Halloween at our school ROCKS.

{Here are our Kindergarten teachers, Ms. Davis and Ms. Mac.}

Very clearly, they rock.

The school had a fundraiser party on the 24th to kick things off.

The kids dressed up and played games.

Brooke and Levi...

Kennedy and Madeline...


Me and Tina...




On Halloween, the elementary school children had a parade. It was very cute.


The middle schoolers did not get to go to the parade, because it is just mostly work, work, work for them. However, Halloween fell on the last Friday of the month which means "Free"ky Friday lunch...free pizza for all!! This definitely classifies as "rocking", wouldn't you say?

Kennedy was mildly embarrassed when I showed up and snapped some pictures.

However, her friends will appreciate me when they show up in the yearbook time and time again. They will think that I rock for sure!

This is my friend, Shan, handing out pizza to the kids. She's British and funny and has a huge heart. This school rocks because if we hadn't transferred here, I would have not had the joy of knowing her! Her daughter, India, rocks too.

She doesn't normally have green hair and black lips...

HALLOWEEN ROCKS!!!!

{Guitar smashing indicates the end of the show for tonight...rock on!}