Ella plays the piano.

Recorded with a potato (ie. sorry bad sound quality).

After 1 month of piano lessons.

Come, go sailing with me, its exciting, you'll see
What a feeling, so free, when you're sailing the sea!
Feel the wind blow in your hair wile the sun shine warms the air.
When you're sailing on the ocean, life's the best it can be!

Radioactive

Ella got a real iPod for her birthday so Felix got her old mp3 player. It's really a piece of junk and it has never worked right but I got it uploaded with Felix's favorite song from the radio, "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. He thinks it's Spider-Man related (his favorite thing ever), because well, the radioactive spider, and they say things like "painted red" and "I feel it in my bones" in the lyrics.

When I picked the kids up from school the other day, I gave him the iPod and pressed play. He started dancing in his seat, and the look of pur joy on his face when the song came up made my heart melt. He's been listening to it on repeat non-stop for days.

The video is a bit shaky due to Ella being the one recording.

A Circle of Friends

First day of school 2013

We now have a 2nd Grader and a 5th Grader!

Felix memorized a poem he learned in class: "A Circle Of Friends"

A Reading Medal for Ella, 4th Grade

Number of tests taken: 62
Total points: 114.6
Types of books read: Magic Tree House series, Ramona Quimby series, Holes (favorite, read 4 times), Baby Mouse series, Wimpy Kid series, Dumb Diary series, Wayside School series, Weird School series.

 

Fourth Grade was great! Almost done, on to Fifth Grade, last year of Elementary School!

Felix Fall Semester Dance Show

Now in 1st Grade, Felix and his class have been taking Dance with Ms. Wall. Here's a short segment of their end of semester show. After a demonstration of the warm-up, they performed several dances. At the end, all the parents were invited to join in with the circle dance with the kids.

The sound is not synchronized with the picture, due to poor quality recording equipment. The kids really did clap and dance to the beat.

Ella and her 4th Grade class are getting Ballroom Dance classes but we don't get to see that until the end of the school year.

Also, here are their Fall school photos. They picked their outfits & the digital backgrounds themselves.

My beautiful almost-9-year-old 4th Grader

Ella, at work with me on August 31 (school-free day).

Almost the last week of school!

Just one more week to go and the 2011-12 school year is over! Ella was accepted into the school orchestra (for kids who have never played before) and she chose the flute. I didn't suggest it at all, she picked it herself! This week was their end of year recital and here's one of the songs they played - "Let Me Teach You How To Dance" from the movie "Miss Potter". Ella is sitting in the back row at the right side of the stage to the left of the white raised part.

It was Felix's turn to be the VIP of the Week in his class. On Monday he shared the poster he made, on Tuesday, he talked about his favorite toy (his talking Spider-Man) and on Wednesday, after he came back from his class field trip, he was allowed to read a book to the class ("Beans on Toast").

This morning, he wanted to read to me on the way to school. He read it to Jim last night, the first time he's read all the way through a long book.