Girls Ballet/Tap Class!

The girls have a Ballet/Tap class every Friday in Rancho Cucamonga. It counts towards their PE curriculum for home school, and the Charter school pays for it! They go to Valverde School of Performing Arts for both dance classes. We love Valverde! The teachers are great, the staff super kind, and the girls learn a ton!

Valverde is across the street from the Victoria Gardens, so if anyone in the area is interested go check them out. They give you 1 FREE lesson so your child can try it out and see if it's a good fit or not. They also use that FREE lesson to make sure that class is not too hard or easy for your child. Did I mention that we love them?

Unfortunately their Holiday recital is on a Sunday this year so we will be unable to attend. Both girls were great about it though. When I told them that it was on Sunday they both looked at me and said, "Oh, so we won't be able to go because that's not a Sunday activity."

Don't you love it when something that you've taught them comes out? I always get so excited and think "Wow! You really were listening!" Don't ask me why I still get so excited. It must be a mom thing!

The girls doing tap with their Ballet/Tap teacher, Miss Yesenia. Her and her husband own Valverde.

Here they are in class practicing their piece for the Holiday recital.

And practicing some more! I got to go in and watch the whole piece they are going to be doing fro the recital! Lucky me! I love it!

At the barre doing their ballet warm-ups.

More warming-up. . .

And more!

Feeding The Ducks

The girls have their art class every Thursday in Riverside. We leave at 3:00pm and get there at about 3:20, we left one day at 3:15 and were almost late. Their class doesn't start until 4:00. Gotta love California traffic.

So we have been coming up with fun things to do right around the Riverside Art Museum to kill some time. Thank goodness Erik has two offices within 15 minutes of the museum so he is pretty familiar with the area.

Today we went to Fairmont Park to feed the ducks, one of our favorite past times, though we haven't been there in while.

I let the girls pick what spot on the lake they wanted to stop at to feed the ducks. We got out of the car, walked over to the lake and look down. I only see a couple of ducks but I think it's okay we can use half the bread and bring the other half back next week.

No sooner do the girls throw in the first piece of bread then ducks start swarming from all over.

When the girls go back to the bench to get another piece of bread the ducks follow them up out of the lake. The girls climbed on the bench and fed the ducks there. The ducks were so close. And I was in the middle of the ducks trying to snap some pictures without stepping on ducks.

When the bread was all gone, the ducks did not want to leave. So, the girls started yelling "Shoo, the bread is all gone." "Go away , ducks." "We don't have anymore." Not that the ducks were really phased at all!

It was so funny, I was laughing so hard!

Feeding the ducks!

The "stampede" of ducks, that's what the girls called it!

Up close feeding time

If they get any closer they will be on the bench with the girls

Halloween!

Yes, I know I am late sharing our Halloween pictures. But, better late than never!

Anyway, here are some pictures of the fun at Mammy and Grandpa's Ward Halloween Party!

Mia having to eat whipped cream, a marshmallow, and chocolate sauce off of a plate without using her hands. Go, Mia!

Emma bobbing for apples. This is Emma's favorite game, she will get out a bucket and fill it with water and apples at home to practice!

Erik and the girls in their Halloween costumes. Mia is Silver Mist from the new Tinkerbell movie, Emma is Snow White, and Erik is Jack Bauer from the TV show from 24.

Art On Exhibit

The girls are so super-dee-duper excited about this! They have a picture from their art class hanging up in the museum.

Granted the pictures are hanging up outside their art classroom, but it still inside the museum and anyone who goes in can see the pictures!

They were talking about symmetrical and asymmetrical paintings. They had to paint either a symmetrical or asymmetrical face!

They are pointing to their painting!

Carving Pumpkins!

We carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening last night. Mia loved it, so did Emma! Each of the girls had their own pumpkin, so did Erik and I.

We also invited our friend Melody to join us. She loved hearing the girls squealing because it was so squishy. We've "adopted" Melody into our family! Love ya, Melody!

We also toasted the pumpkin seeds. The girls loved the pumpkin seeds, too! I was kinda surprised by how much they liked the seeds.

Mia cleaning out her pumpkin, she cleaned the whole thing with her hands!

Emma cleaning out her pumpkin, I made her use her hands for the picture, the rest of the time she used a spoon!

Erik cleaning out his pumpkin, he used his hands!

Mia carving her pumpkin. I know I bought a pumpkin carving set and I put it in a safe place, it's so safe I still can't find it!

Emma carving her pumpkin. Since I couldn't find the pumpkin carving set we had to make do with regular knifes, which are not as good!

Melody sorting through the pumpkin guts for the seeds!

Erik with his pumpkin, he did a stencil of the Marshmallowy guy from HomeStarRunner.com. Look at his arms they're orange from cleaning out the pumpkin! I thought that there was something wrong with my camera or the Kodak program at first!

Mia and Emma with their pumpkins! Didn't they turn out cute? The girls did it all by themselves, well mostly all by themselves!

Art Class

This fall the girls have been taking an art class. They attend the art class at the Riverside Art Museum, and their Charter School pays for it!

The art class that they attend is called Kids Open Studio. They go to class each Thursday evening for 1 1/2 hours. The first part the teacher introduces a new painting and concept. She talks about it and then does a real quick demonstration. Then the kids make something using that technique or concept taught.

After they complete that project the kids are then free to use whatever supplies they have to create whatever they want. They have paper, markers, paints, crayons, colored pencils, clay, all kinds of stuff!

The girls love it!

Mia working on a project using markers and paper

Emma made a bowling ball out of clay, they leave the clay there to dry
and then paint them the next week.

Mia's project, she's using the shape markers to make shape designs.

Emma making her bowling set.

Go Ducks!

While eating at Red Robin last week, I filled out a couple of forms for the girls to be entered into a couple drawings. A couple days after our visit we get a call, Miriam's name had been drawn and she had won FREE tickets to an Anaheim Ducks Hockey Game!

We had never been to a hockey game, so we decided to give it a shot. It was a blast! Watching it on TV doesn't come close to being there in person. And even though we were up way high, we were still able to see everything and follow the game well enough.

Mia had won four tickets, so we all got to go for FREE. We only had to pay for gas and parking. Not bad at all!

We got to go out on the ice and sit in the penalty box to watch the players warm up. We got to see and talk to the guys that run the sound effects, countdown, scoreboard, etc. They showed the girls how it all worked and even let them push the button to test the horn! They even got to see a Stanley Cup ring, Emma even got to wear it!

Family Pic in the Penalty Box

Watching the players warm up

Emma wearing the Stanley Cup Ring, working the equipment

Mia working the equipment.

After we left the ice we had to wait to meet Wild Wing--whoever was in that suit was great! He did a great job playing and communicating with the girls. The girls got to be on the big screen Honda Vision with Wild Wing. They were famous for about a minute!

The girls and Wild Wing!

The girls on the Honda Vision

After their shot at fame, we went up to our seats to enjoy the rest of the game. The girls even got FREE Gatorade and Kettle Corn! The Kettle Corn was really addictive.

The girls sitting in their seats

The girls even got real pucks that were signed by a couple of the players. They also got a Ducks pencil case with some school supplies in it. As home schoolers we can always use school supplies!

The only thing that could have made the night better was if the Ducks had won. They lost by 1 point, but we had a great time!

The rink from our seats

Girls in front of the players seats