Anna and ballet

Anna's passion has not waned at all in the past three years. It grows ever stronger. I'm still wondering if it was a good idea to watch "First Position" together. Fascinating documentary, by the way. I wanted her to get an idea of what ballet would look like in the future; how tough it could be. As I was watching I knew there was no way we could become that serious about ballet. But it was still touching Anna's reaction to the movie. She put on her ballet shoes, and tried to immitate as many moves as she could. We are now all fans of Michaela DePrince. I wonder if there is another way to pursue dancing professionally. Perhaps it doesn't have to be that expensive, that exclusive, that unattainable. We'll see. For now, it's fun to watch Anna's love for dance manifest itself in almost everything she does. Recently, she has been role-playing as Lydia's ballet teacher. Lydia enjoys that for about three minutes. Anna could do it all day.

As I said elsewhere, every dress I make has to be able to spin for these dancers. Lydia used to ask of all the dresses I put on her, "Does it work?" What good is a dress without spin? (Here's a chance to boast a little: I did it! I just finished these dresses last week, and they actually fit! Sort of. If I had it in me, I would make adjustments, but I don't. So I won't. And I will never make this pattern again. It was fun once. Took too long. I had to adjust a 12 year old girl pattern, and the guesswork that went into the myriad of measurements forces me to conclude that it was a tiny miracle from God that made it all work.)

Oh, the fun they had with these! Oh, the dances they danced! I have to put a few more pictures of just to capture the full range of movement...

Also because I have a feeling they won't be wearing them much, since I won't be adjusting them anytime soon. So I'm just going to enjoy these pictures every time I come to post.

This is Anna's accomplishment today! I never could do the splits as a kid. Never really tried. I wonder if it's too late.

Next week, ballet class starts up again. Anna is beside herself with excitement. Lydia's excitment is mostly fueled by Anna's. Anna will be in the "real" ballet class now. She is expecting real stuff. She has been asking about toe shoes. Cute to watch all the dancing and anticipating that is going on around here. I wonder what all this will lead to...

New Friends

One man and his daughter were always there when we got to the beach. So we became friends. He even taught Joseph how to surf. This picture almost looks real. :) I think it lasted about two seconds.

We had them over for tea (thanks to Mom for her lemon sponge pie recipe! I got a little wild and added a cashew-based cream on top. delicious!), but everyone was having so much fun, it turned into supper as well.

Wa-wa loved making cookies. This simple, delicious recipe is from a cookbook I bought from smittenkitchen.com. Buy one.

Seven hours of pure, unadultered play. I checked in every now and then to see how things were going, but I just couldn't keep up with all the role playing. I think they are all good guys in this picture. Maybe.

New Home

The beach. We can't get enough of it.

Boggle

I'm set for life. My kids like boggle! I was impressed by how many words they found. Anna found "lie" and got one point because Joseph and I didn't see it. Joseph got two points for "holt". "What's that?", I asked. "You know, homes that otters build." No, I didn't know. Two points for Joseph. I'm making them use notebooks to play, so they can track their progress. It's bound to make for many happy memories in 10 to 20 years. I hope I don't lose them.

Lydia can even join in with her own version of the game.

Dream come true

I'm still reeling from the picture loss, but since we have already garnered a few new memories, it's time to forge on. As a kid, vacations at the beach were nothing less than paradise. To imagine someday living so close to it was too much paradise for my little mind to comprehend. Yet here we are. I think God enjoys fulfilling dreams of children. So if it is sunny, at about 4 to 5 in the evening, we head to the beach. The weather remains comfortably warm until we leave at around 7pm. This has become our standard form of entertainment for visitors. We serve them afternoon tea, then head to the beach. A few days ago, friends from our church in Taipei came to visit. Good times all around. ...hmmm, having trouble with spacing and paragraphs. I can only write in HTML. What to do...