De has gotten serious about gymnasics recently, and is practicing six days a week these days. Her christmas list is mostly gymastics gear — she really just wants a full scale gymnastics gym in the basement, I think.
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Ana joins Little Blades
Ana just made the Little Blades synchronized skating team, becoming the second member of the family to do so. She had her very first team practice today, and was ecstatic.
The team will be performing in the RMU christmas show on December 6th, and then in various local / regional shows and competitions throughout the spring.
Jenya is second from the right, Ana is fourth from the right.
De makes a speech
So the girls learned the hard way that other kids can be manipulative — one of the older neighborhood kids rather successfully played "divide and conquer" on the girls in order to get things to happen her way.
They came home upset and had a chat about it. Once they pooled their info and figured out they'd been had, they all got angry — but De took it to a whole new level. She climbed up on a chair in the kitchen, thumping her fists and declaring, in a speech worthy of a politician or a preacher, *we will STICK TOGETHER* and *we will WIN*. She had her sisters chanting and cheering. I wish I'd been able to get a video of the speech. If she can keep that knack she'll be a helluva rabble rouser one day.
Halloween Night
Jenya the mad scientist, De the vampire witch, and Ana the flying black cat, getting ready to storm the neighborhood.
Halloween Pumpkins
Ana picked out a cat theme for both her pumpkin and her costume. All the girls cleaned out their own pumpkins this year — a lot of work. Ana worked hard and fast and got done first, so she was the first one to get Lunn to carve her choice of designs into her pumpkin.
Jenya carved her own, for the first time, with some help from Lunn. And De picked out a pumpkin almost as big as she is. Everyone is looking impatiently forward to Halloween tomorrow.
Jenya joins Little Blades Synchronized Skating
Jenya has joined a synchronized skating team, Little Blades out of the RMU ice rink. She absolutely loves it — hard to believe we all started skating lessons for the first time only last January. She and her Little Blades team will be performing in various local/regional competitions starting this December.
Day at the Renaissance Festival
We had a nice saturday at the local Ren Fest. It's a bit of a money pit — $2 for this, $5 for that, and pretty soon you've spent a stupid amount of money on not much — but for all that, it was fun, and the girls had a wonderful time. They all got face paint — or in Ana's case, body paint, with a dragon painted on her arm. They also made wax molds of their hands and decorated them, and tried archery, and lots more. Very nice all around.
Jenya demands to learn football
Lunn was rather reluctantly coerced into the role of football coach today, when Jenya decided she wanted to learn how to play. I think she got the idea when she joined in a game with some neighborhood boys a week or so ago, but she’s certainly enjoying it right now.
Ana jumping her bike
Jenya jumping her bike
The neighbor’s kid let Jenya and Ana try his jump ramps. The girls come flying down the steep hill on the left of the driveway, go over the jump and then keep on going. They keep asking me to try it, but I figure my odds of reaching 40 improve if I just watch (and take pictures).