Fun Friday: Young Basketball Star

I showed this to my kids to encourage them to be dedicated to whatever they want to do. We also talked about how God gives the talents, but it's up to them to develop them.



I am interested in knowing what activities your children are in, what age did they start and how dedicated they are to them. How do you encourage them?

Another CrazyWeekend

Well, another crazy weekend has come and gone! And it was a very rainy one!

On Friday night Jasmine and I went to watch Adam play soccer with a city league. You can see how wet the grass was. It was also dark and foggy and hard to get any good pictures.

Then Adam had his reserve weekend and the Marine ball. I guess even though they broke up, Deja had agreed to go to the ball with Adam but then stood him up. So he was left with a ticket and hotel room (for her) that didn't get used. So he just hung out with friends. Lesson learned.

 He is very social. A couple of weeks ago he and a bunch of friends went to Universal together.

I didn't have nearly as much fun at his age. I was very serious and in college trying to survive in a school with a very tough grading scale and strict rules.

We woke  up to rain Sunday and people not feeling well, so I made waffles and bacon and we watched a That the World May Know DVD episode about the Ephesian church and an Adventure in Odyssey DVD. Some people slept more and then woke up feeling better.

Houses down here tend to turn green and need washed. We rented a power washer because Jessica is having a baby shower here next Sunday. So, yeah, the kids were power washing in the rain! 

And a couple twins might have gotten power washed too! When Rick and the kids started washing the house yesterday, it was much  nicer weather and there were more "accidental" washings.

Everyone wanted a turn. 

I'm not sure how clean the house is. I guess we won't know until it's dry and sunny out.

Our yard is bad for holding water. People may need to swim to the door by next week.

Jasmine helped me make Haitian macaroni and cheese for lunch.

We did more cleaning and decluttering around the house. Then we took a break, had sherbert floats and tried on some Ninja costumes I got 75% off at Walmart.

Ty is wearing a kids' size 10/12!

Here is Kaleb wearing the same costume Ty had on!

Twin ninjas!

The kids liked the costumes so much that Ty, Jasmine and I made a quick late night trip out to Walmart to get more. We got a size 8 green Ninja and another 14/16 blue. Also got the one below modeled by my bear.

Unfortunately it will probably be too small for the baby by Halloween. Hunter wants to hold her up and do the Lion King thing--as modeled by Jasmine below!

I took several videos of our ninjas singing.

This is what happens when Travis decides he wants to take part.

This is Kaleb's first time to sing for a video. His first time to sing other than in music class or church.

And here's one last video of Jasmine trying a song for the first time:

She is going to keep working on this song.


My brother has also been in the hospital this weekend with a kidney stone and ulcers among other things. They are still trying to figure out what is going on. He was in ICU but has been moved to intermediate care.

If your Christmas shopping includes girls 7-13, check out this link of ten books for preteen girls written by several different authors. HERE
Also be sure to keep an eye on my parenting blog for articles about the holidays HERE

Marching MPA

Sometimes it's strange to think of Jasmine in high school. With the older ones, it wasn't that way. But it just doesn't seem like Jasmine should be in high school already.

Yet, here we are.

Ready for school

Heading to marching band practice. The band practices for two and a half hours in the evening two days a week both in the fall and in the spring. Percussion, which includes Jasmine, practices an extra hour. So Jasmine isn't able to do dance this year because her classes were the same time as practice. But she still has Monday night choir.

On Saturday 15 bands performed three songs each for a panel of judges.Even though they didn't play until 8:00 pm, Jasmine's director required them there at 10 am. This school takes band very seriously. And MPA is always at the football field at Jasmine's school. The other schools didn't arrive until 3:00 when MPA actually started. Her band practiced from 10 until lunch, hung out for a couple of hours, went over and watched some of the smaller bands, went back to the school and changed, and then watched the bigger bands. She performed last.

The bands received ratings of superior (best), excellent, and good for music, marching, auxiliary (flags, batons) and overall performance. I think there are lower ratings, but they don't call them out. For one band they called "comments only" instead of a score.

 I watched Jessica perform in marching MPA for three years. 

It took me a bit to get a picture of her because she burst into tears when they got straight Superiors. There was a lot of stress on them for this performance.

We're glad this is behind us. The bands have concert MPA in March, so it's going to get stressful again after Christmas. They also have a band trip to Chattanooga in April. 

Play Week

This week Jasmine, Kaleb and Kayla tried out for "The Little Mermaid." This is an original play by Missoula Children's Theater that only vaguely resembles the Disney version. It has all original songs. 

On Monday The Missoula people arrived, and 80 kids showed up to try out for 60 parts. Depending on where the Missoula people are, they have from 20 kids to 450 kids show up for 60 parts! It's open to ages 5-18. Our oldest one this year was 17 followed by Jasmine who is 14. 

The kids had to say lines like "Frozen is the worst movie ever", "There's a monkey in my soup", and others. 

Kayla saying "It's a bird, it's a plane, oh it's nothing."

Kaleb saying, "Basketball? Not basketball again!"

They had to sing row, row your boat as a group, then in groups of ten kids. It was a close try out for the main parts. They had to sing in smaller groups as they narrowed down who would get each part. Jasmine had to sing with only one other person at one time.

These are the kids who got the main parts. One merboy, four mermaids and a starfish.

 Practices started the same day. In fact tryouts ended at 11:10 Monday and practice for Jasmine started at 11:30. We did a quick run to Burger King! Practices were Monday through Friday, and the first performance was Friday at 5:00.

Someone back stage slammed down one of the props, and one of the mermaids jumped. Jasmine started laughing.

Sea Scout

Mer people

When they did photo call for town criers, Kaleb wasn't paying attention and thought he was supposed to go change, so he left!

This year there was a second show Saturday at 3:00.

Ready to go to rehearsal this morning. 

 Kayla as Sea Scout

 Jasmine as Amelia mermaid

 Kaleb as town crier

 Kaleb

 town criers

 Sea Scouts

The kids are already talking about next year. Right now we're watching the video that shows what the Missoula Children's theater does all over the world because Jasmine is interested in working with them after high school. I think that would be great. (Okay, so maybe I suggested it to her, but I encourage my kids to follow their dreams and use their talents.)