Someone Has A Birthday Soon

My darling, delightful, dramatic, difficult daughter- Alia- will be 7 on February 1st.

Catching Up

We had a nice Christmas- thank you to all who participated in making it so- and the kids were happy to go back to school after the break. Ventura Youth Basketball Association has started its season and both Kim and Corey are playing. Corey lucked out and got a great coach and a good team. They have won every game by a large margin. A nice introduction to the sport. Kim unfortunately got neither a good coach or team and is valiently trying to take her old coach's advice to heart - when you are on a less experienced team you get to be the star. Doesn't help much when they lose every game by 30 points! We are sticking with it but it isn’t fun to either play in or watch the games. Hopefully the summer league will be more rewarding.
After a fairly warm and benign winter we have finally begun getting some storms- nothing too dramatic as long as you are inside and don’t have to drive in them! The rain will be good for the water supply- a big issue here- but each winter I’m reminded how little California drivers know about driving in the rain!
Kim’s middle school class is planning a trip to Washington DC over spring break (April!) so we are busy fundraising for that. I wish I could go along but have no one to watch the rest of the family and suspect she will enjoy the time with her friends so I’ll just have to stay here and worry. She is doing well in school and her current career goal is to be an architect.

Back Online!

My laptop died around Thanksgiving - thereby depriving me of all my holiday Ebay earnings!- and it's taken some time to resolve issues and get back online. Here's a brief update on things you missed over the past 3+ weeks.
Kim and Corey had successful performances in the Slippers and Mask dance recitals and the Holiday Choir (Corey) and we are now free of rehearsals! I opted out of the expensive photos and DVDs of the performances so I don't have any pictures to post- sorry. Frankly I didn't really get the dance recital anyway and am glad that BASKETBALL is starting again. That's more my speed. Kim is on the Ventura Youth Basketball Association team the Magic and Corey is on the Nuggets. Practice has begun and the first game is January 9th. The season is January-March.
In April Kim is off to D.C. (assuming we can raise the $) with her middle school group and in May it's back to basketball with the Wildcats clinic.
Parent teacher conferences were held over the past few weeks and Kim (top 5 of her class) and Corey are both doing well. Alia and Eli continue to struggle a bit and really need more academic support.

The kids are looking forward to Christmas (and I am enjoying NOT having a white Christmas).

More Teeth Falling Than Leaves Around Here

Last week while heading down to Santa Monica to visit my brother, both Alia and Kim (after a certain amount of competitive wiggling) lost a tooth. Yesterday both Alia and Corey lost a tooth. Since Alia had lost a tooth about 3 weeks ago as well we have as may lost teeth as falling leaves around here!
Alia was having fun singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" - after confiding to me that she really wants a nintendo ds. Eli is conflicted about whether to feel left out as the only person who hasn't lost a tooth, or to be happy about it after seeing the bloody teeth his sisters bagged for the tooth fairy.

Family Visit

Yesterday, Halloween, we went down to Santa Monica and met up with my brother and his girlfriend who is attending law school at UCLA and explored the Pier. It's a fun place- just celebrating a life of 100 years- and a mix of the old (carousel) and the new, the pure entertainment (arcade and rides) and the educational (aquarium). The kids enjoyed having two fun adults who were happy to indulge them in games of air hockey and other games. Couldn't afford the rides (and no adult really wanted to get on a roller coaster anyway) so maybe we'll return some day and try out a few more things. The kids liked the arcade (Kim played basketball games and guitar hero, Eli sat on all the car and motorcycle games even though his feet couldn't reach any pedals, Corey challenged uncle Mike to games and Alia watched everyone else) and we all enjoyed the aquarium and each other's company. Here's thew view from the Pier- it was a beautiful sunny day. Those tents are the Cirque de Soleil tents.

My Artist

My kids are artistic. They come by it completely naturally of course as it runs in the family ;-). My mom was artistic and creative in so many ways, both of my brothers are artists- one in metal, the other in ink and my sister is a well-known artist whose paintings have won many competitions. In fact I was the only kid who didn't inherit any artistic talent! Maybe I was really adopted. Just kidding. Anyway- Kim has become quite the artist and I want to take a minute to showcase a few of her recent drawings. As you can see she's influenced by the Japanese Animee /Manga tradition.

School Pix

Here are the 2009 School Photos- not the best but good portraits are hard I find. Corey just turned 9 and is in 4th grade, Eli is 6 and in kindergarten.Alia is 6 and is in 1st grade and Kim will be 12 in a week (!) and is in 7th grade! She looks younger in her photo this year- perhaps because her hair isn't pulled back the way she usually wears it.