Sophie at the Climbing Gym

Sleeping Beauty

One would think that after five performances in three days and 30 dances, Sophie would be a bit tired of dancing. Well, she's not - nor is Lucy who did four performances with one beautiful dance in each. Nor am I - who sat through countless hours of practice and performances last week. But there's something much different about sitting in a comfortable chair in our own living room, with coffee in hand, watching the girls dance than watching from a theater audience.

As my friend Michelle best put it, I'm feeling a bit nostaligic about the whole ballet thing. Our girls have usually been some of the youngest - I remember watching Sophie and Lucy at some of their first ballet practices and telling another mom, as we laughed until tears came to our eyes, that watching preschoolers do ballet was the best kind of therapy available.

It's still therapy for me, watching them dance, but another kind. The therapy that involves coming to terms with myself as a parent and learning to let go. Even as Sophie has joined the Apprentice Company I have struggled with it - the girls are all older, most of them have cell phones, , they wear short shorts to practice, they talk about boys. I don't want her to grow up too fast. At the same time she's made good choices - she and McKenzie (the girl closest to her age who knows the ropes as she was in Apprentice last year) have become good friends. And when I see her in practice - her look of determination and the way she has challenged herself to do better and better each week, the way she moves and how different it is from even six months ago - I am so very proud of her.

In the meantime we still have a year or two before Lucy moves up to the Apprentice level and the older girls. And then she will hopefully have a peer group that moves up with her and it won't seem so scary for me. And I'll have learned that it is ok, that it's wonderful, to have the girls grow up and become independent.

By the way, the ballet was beautiful - the North Dakota Ballet Company did yet another outstanding job with bringing classical ballet to our small town. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Climbing Club

Lucy on the Wall
John on the Wall

(Sophie missed the first two classes due to Sleeping Beauty ballet recitals - watch out on Monday!)

While visiting Nicole at Vail last fall I got to see a group of kids in action during their climbing club. At this particular class the kids were climbing up and down the wall as many times as they could trying to raise money for books in poverty-stricken countries. Now that's a fundraiser I can agree with on many levels - kids exercising both their bodies and minds AND literacy. C'mon - you can't get any better than that in my eyes.

Watching ten-year-old Susan climb (and even ballay me as I climbed)inspired me and I got to thinking how we could do a Climbing Club for Kids in Grand Forks. As soon as we got back I stopped by the Northern Heights Climbing Gym and talked to some of the guys there about the idea. You know it's a good idea when they were thinking the exact same thing.

SO that's where the kids are - Monday nights from 6:45-8:00 - at the climbing gym exercising minds and bodies at the same time. Now all we need is the literacy aspect.

Dressed for outside hockey

Here's John - and no he hasn't gained a lot of weight around his tummy - all ready for outdoor hockey practice. They play even if it's below zero so he has his winter coat on in lieu of shoulder pads and elbow pads. What a cutie.

We "breathe" skating in North Dakota

In case you didn't know - it doesn't matter what the temperature is in North Dakota because outdoor skating is always available. The other night Carmyn and I braved the below zero actual temperature to shop some post-Christmas sales while Dave and the kids braved the outdoor rink and -30 below windchills shopping for some exercise. Fortunately, none of us were any worse for the wear - not even the checkbook.

Check out the breath clouds in the pics - no wonder my glasses always fog up in the winter.

Hockey Camp

Last summer our neighbor gave John two hockey bags full of gear his college-aged sons had outgrown; since then John has been determined to be a hockey player. It doesn't matter what the outside temperature is - whether it's 95 degrees or barely above zero - you can always find him all geared up practicing his game. He looks good - and has studied players enough to know how they should look... the socks, the shin pads, the breezers, the jersey, and the stick. In the summer he even pulls his socks down over his shoes and pretends they are his skates. He's definitely got the look down, the talent, well... not so much.

He's been going to "hockey camp" every day this week from 12-1:15 and loving it. As soon as we drop the girls off at art camp (at 9:30) he asks if it's time for hockey camp and I patiently (more often than impatiently, I'm proud to say) tell him that it'll be in a a few hours, right after lunch.

Wednesday was the first time I took him to camp and it was pretty neat to see him geared up and actually skating on the ice. He looked pretty funny though - everything he wore was way too big and after two down-and-backs his breezers slid down way past his butt. One of the coaches smiled, skated up to John, knelt on the ice and tightened them back up. Today, with some on-the-phone coaching from Dave, tried to get the breezers tighter and thought I did a pretty good job, but I was wrong. They were falling down before the skate around was over and his jersey kept falling out so it looked like he was wearing a red dress. It's a good thing Dave will be with us tomorrow - maybe John will stand a fighting chance against the battle with the breezers.

The neat thing is that John is all smiles about hockey - he's a trooper and doesn't give up, even with other fiveyear and six-year-olds skating circles around him. Each day he tells us that he's going to skate even harder than the day before... and I tell you what, he's one sweaty little boy when he gets off the ice. He's got determination and confidence, and that's all that counts.

So I think we're in this hockey thing for the long haul - Dave best be getting over to Play It Again Sports and getting John some equipment that actually fits. He can save this gear for when he's 14, maybe by then it'll fit him.