Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Catching Up

I'm not keeping up with blogging - guess it's because life is pretty mellow and not much is happening.  We did recently head in to Sears to the portrait studio for the annual photo that will end up on the Christmas card if I get my act together and design and order one! 


Kim is busy with basketball try-outs for the Cabrillo Middle School team - she's made the first cut and has the second round of try-outs on Friday.  We are looking forward to getting back into basketball!  She's doing well in school - all A's on the last report card except for algebra and that's improving now that we got her new glasses. 

Corey is also an all A student and is involved in choir and an activity called Destination Imagination.  She's also growing like a weed.

Alia is doing well in 2nd grade - she seems to have an affinity for math that we hope she will maintain.  A lot of girls that are good in math at this age seem to lose it later on in school.  She says she wants to be a doctor (I imagine her as one that doesn't take a lot of bedside manner skills because she is smart and beautiful but not terribly empathetic- perhaps a researcher.)

Eli is coming along- reading and also good in math.  He still attends speech therapy and has plateaued somewhat there.  His teacher this year is not as forgiving and flexible as his kindergarten teacher unfortunately so he is frequently in trouble for 'not sitting still'.  He says he is bored and I can believe it. He has very good fine motor skills and the best handwriting of any of the kids in his class.  But he does have problems sitting still.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

CHAMPS!

Kim's team - the PUMAS- won the tournament and finished the season completely UNDEFEATED!!  I'm already missing basketball.


Kim will be moving to a new school for 8th grade - she decided mid-last year that the open classroom alternative school she has been attending wasn't as challenging as she would like.  Her new school will allow her to play basketball and continue to develop her artistic talent as well as hopefully prepare her for high school.  She entered 4 drawings in the local fair and received 1 First place ribbon and 3 Second place ribbons.  I'm very proud of her!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Season Champs!

Kim's basketball team, the Pumas, is 7-0 for the season (one more game to go) and since no other team will be able to catch us (all the other teams have lost at least 2 games) they were declared Season Champions at today's game.  They each got the coveted Champion T-shirt.  After Wednesday night's games it's on to the tournament with the first elimination round next Saturday.  We are hoping to have continued success!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Summer Basketball Begins



Today was the start of the Wildcats basketball and Kim's team, the Pumas (same team name and coach as last year, different team members with the exception of Kim and Becka) played the third game at 12:30. The team has been practicing a lot and while some of the players are relatively inexperienced they've been looking pretty strong. At the end of the first quarter it was Pumas 12, Panthers 1. At the end of the game it was Pumas 32, Panthers 12! Kim played almost the entire game (probably all but 5 minutes), made 7 points and multiple assists and rebounds. She's looking good! I wore my homemade "Fan of Pumas' #4" shirt to the game.

You can follow (if you are a dedicated fan, or just curious) the wildcats at : http://www.venturawildcats.com/ where current standings place the Pumas in the #1 spot and Kim as the #6 highest scorer in the league. A good start to the summer!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Kim's Artwork

Kim's pencil drawing, scanned into the computer and then she colored it with paint on the computer.  Can you tell she likes the Japanese Animee tradition?

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Artists

Being artistic seems to run in the family, although perhaps skipping one or two of us.  My siblings are all successful artists so I'm glad it's something most of my kids share as well.  Here are some recent efforts -

Eli's pencil drawing of a truck pulling a travel trailer.

 Corey's ink drawing of a sea serpent. 
And Kim's "Mini-me" a self-portrait/avatar for the school yearbook.

Disney Day

Well - we went!  Took our free vouchers and fought California freeway traffic down to Disneyland and made a day of it.  Our friend Nickie joined us (nice to have another adult along) and everyone had a good time.  Eli didn't disapear behind scenes and pull any plugs, Alia kept her temper, I survived walking around the park for 8 hours and we all shrieked as we plunged down Splash Mountain. 

Here we are just before the big drop! Alia is wearing my jacket over her head in an attempt to keep dry.
Eli enjoyed Autotopia (he steered, I pushed on the gas pedal which he couldn't reach).


 
I think we managed 13 rides (if you count going on Astro Blasters twice) and avoided spending too much money on souveniers!  I would have spent more if I could have found a Grumpy sweatshirt to replace my old one :-)

It was a fun time and I hope will be a happy memory for the kids.