Fall Festivities

It is certainly beginning to feel like fall. I would really like to know why there was no weather transition from summer to fall this year. As a person who is "solar-powered", I really need to know when summer is coming to an end. Of course I know to watch the calendar, but seriously? It has been so frickin cold lately!!

I have been trying to come up with ways to keep my oven on each day, as John is quite opposed to turning on the furnace this early. Baking isn't really a great method either, as it means that I will eat it, which I'm trying to avoid

Well, here are some good things about fall beginning...sob...sob...sob:

Brianna has started dance again. She ABSOLUTELY loves dance and everything related to dance. She is beyond thrilled and I'm glad to see her so excited to participate in something she loves. It was quite a challenge just to get her to hold still so I could take a picture on her first day. Her class is called "Movement To Music" and is designed for 3 and 4 year olds. They learn the very basic ballet movements and have lots of fun marching and dancing to music.

Last year we had tried putting her in dance and skating with the intention of finding out what she really likes to do and continuing on with that activity in the future. Our plan is to only do 1 activity and 1 music per child. That's it. Some people can race around and take their kids to several activities. Not me...I would lose it somewhere along the way.

Fortunately last year, skating only lasted 3 weeks for Brie before she broke down in tears and said that she didn't want to do it anymore. So we definitely know that she doesn't like skating. Which is quite okay, because both John and I don't skate either.

I'm waiting to hear when Brie is going to start piano. This will be her first year of lessons and we are all quite excited. My plan is to take lessons also, but with the teacher's advice I'm going to wait until part way through the year after watching and gleaning information from what she teaches Brie. She is in the Suzuki program, which is essentially learning how to play by ear rather than reading music at this age. We listen to the Suzuki CD a lot these days! I'm sure that John could have told me the order of the songs before we ever played it because his mom is a Suzuki teacher also. He has heard it a LOT over the years!

I also will be teaching another session of Music Pups. It's not going to be a very large class this time, but I'm confident that we will still have fun anyways. I'm losing a few kids to the preschool music program, where the new teacher is using the Kindermusik program. I think this will be the first time that Ella will fully participate in class without me having to give her the evil eye as she strays from class or refuses to sit still. I always could count on Brie to sit great and participate without prompting so I will definitely miss her in class this year, but I'm glad that she will be having fun at pre-K instead.

Ella is going to feel a little lost this year, without her big sister around in the mornings and going to her own lessons for piano and dance. We are considering enrolling her in gymnastics here so give her something that is completely her own. She loves doing somersaults and everything related to jumping so I think she would have a great time. I know how it feels to be the youngest child who can't do stuff that the big sister can, so it would be nice to give her a fun activity that she doesn't have to share.

It will be nice to get back into a regular routine, although this one will be the busiest yet. I'm looking forward to it. Well, mostly. The weather could stay +20 and I would be happier!!