Updates, Part 1

I have TONS of updating to do... it has been a busy few weeks!  I'll try to take it in small chunks as I have the time.  Here we go!

Three weekends ago, we had "tech weekend" for the kids' spring pageant at church: "The Tale of the Three Trees".  Dress rehearsal was Saturday morning (immediately following N's soccer game):

...and the pageant performance was Sunday at the 10 AM service.  So cute!  N was Tree 1 and L was Tree 3.  Here's the theme song:

The story is really cool and meaningful; look it up if you haven't heard of it.  Several adults in the congregation were telling me afterwards that they were in tears!  Of course, hearing those sweet little voices sing will do that anyway, but combine it with a powerful story and... well...

N and L said their lines with confidence (despite a small amount of nerves on L's part) and I was SO proud of shy little C who had said she would not participate at all, but then during one of the last few rehearsals she decided to be "a singer".  Of course she knew all the songs by heart from all the practicing at home.  She did great!!

We have been wrapping up school at home, finally getting to some fun lessons that I have been wanting to do all year.  Following the pageant weekend we had a rainy week and so it was great for a little earth science mini-unit!  We began by reading Planet Earth Inside Out and then made a play-doh model of the earth:

We did some geology too and talked about different rocks and volcanoes.  The girls looked around for the different types of rocks outside.  Learning about earthquakes was valuable for C since she has been having nightmares about them lately.  We looked at the fault lines on the map and discussed how a major earthquake here in New England is unlikely.  She was happy about that.  :)

I don't think I mentioned yet on the blog that N got braces?!?  This happened several weeks ago in early May.  She was actually thrilled about the whole thing and despite having to eat nothing but pudding and soup for a few days, she still thinks having braces is pretty cool.  Pain has also been minimal so that helps.  A couple of doses of Tylenol is all that has been needed.  She's a trooper!  Of course our wallet is hurting a bit, but that's the way it goes right?  N and L will probably both need extensive work, so we just brace ourselves (pun intended) and write the check, thinking about those beautiful smiles :)

That's all the time I have for today, more updates to come!!