Lots of fun and excitement during the month of February. This month the kids had a break week from school. Tim had work travel to Boston, so Alicia, Cordelia, and Anthony tagged along for the break week and did site seeing in Boston. We did walking around Plymouth, the Minuteman Battle Road, and took a revolutionary history walking tour. Lydia and Natalie went trailer camping with Grandparents Powers for the break week. They went to Legoland and to the beach. While things have been active, it’s been a lot of positive activity.
Cordelia finished up soccer season at the beginning of the month. At the end of the month Basketball practice started! She had a fun time with soccer and hopefully basketball will be equally or more enjoyable. She’s still struggling with finding her friend group and the social dynamics. But sports is a great way to build teamwork. Academically she’s doing great. At the beginning of next week she will be participating in the 6th grade science fair. Her project is on bouncing eggs in different solutions. She’s enjoying most of her classes and the education has been very good for her. She’s been a little lacking in her music practice lately. With all the other demands it can be hard to find the time. But she’s still doing piano lessons and has band practice twice and week. Cordelia enjoyed the trip to Boston. She especially enjoyed the ice cream museum and playing in the snow. In ice skating, her synchro team had their first competition. Overall the team skated very well and she had a good time. The team will have a second and final competition at the end of March.
Anthony is still doing well in school. He’s learning a lot about the revolutionary period so the trip to Boston was extra special for him. He was very excited to see the site of the Boston tea party. He also had a lot of fun playing in the snow and going to the ice cream museum. Back at school he’s working on his 3rd quarter historical figure report and getting ready for a speech competition at the start of April. He just finished with an afterschool tennis activity and gained some basic tennis skills. He’s still working hard in soccer. His team finished their regular season and first playoff game. They have one more game and then they’ll be done wit this round of games. Anthony tried out for two different club soccer teams the last week in February. We’ll see if/where he gets placed. Anthony’s piano skills are really improving. He can play very well and is enjoying his new video game and Pokémon song books. He will occasionally sit down and play for fun.
Lydia is still mostly enjoying school. Sometime we think maybe it is a bit boring for her. But she seems to be having a good time with and is making some friends. Lydia is also getting ready for a speech competition. Her grade will also be having their first field trip to the flower fields at the end of March. Lydia participated in the after school tennis activity and improved a lot over the 6 weeks. At the start she was missing the ball completely, but at the end she was starting to connect and return tosses. Lydia is continuing in swim class and working to refine her stroke and increase her speed. She’s still playing piano, but has been pretty lack-luster about her practicing. On the break week Lydia had a really fun time at the beach. She especially liked the tidepools.
Natalie is inching closer to fully reading. She’s got the basic concept down but still figuring out the details. She seems to be getting a little more challenge at school, hopefully she’ll keep progressing. She does have a few friend she especially likes. Outside of school, she’s still playing soccer and swimming. She has fun skipping around during soccer scrimmages. Hopefully she’s actually improving her skills too. In swim class her new coach is really making sure her freestyle and backstroke form is very good. He’s also working on her dives and still getting the fundamentals of the breast stroke. She had a fun break week and liked all the activities.
Alicia is keeping this going on all fronts. At work she’s pushing hard on some critical path items to make sure the production line does not grind to a halt. She’s being recognized for her leadership and her boss has hinted at moving her towards a supervisor role. Of course that would requiring getting back to full time. On the home front, Alicia has been managing the various school and afterschool activities. She had a fun time in Boston with Cordelia and Anthony. It was fun seeing lots of new and interesting places and getting share that experience with them. AWANA continues on as well and pretty soon things will start gearing up for the end of the club year.
Tim has been very work heavy this month. There was a big push to get his system ready for their customer demo. And for the second have of the month he’s been supporting the customer demonstration. So it’s been lots of time and work and not very much time for house stuff. He did squeeze in some time to finish the new bookshelves at the end of our hallway renovation. He also spent a weekend cleaning up the yard, that was starting to look very neglected. He’s been taking Anthony to his Sunday evening soccer games. He’s also still serving in AWANA by doing the weekly Sparks lessons.
As we head into March, we’re hoping to get a bit better work-life balance for Tim. With the weather turning to Spring, hopefully we can take the opportunity to do some more family activities and outings.
