Scavenger Hunt

Maclaren and Maegli have been making maps and leading each other through scavenger hunts in the back yard:  a loopty-loop around the butterfly bush, up to the playground, down the slide, twice around the tree, down to the basketball hoop, spin around in the grass, and finally up to the fort to uncover the buried treasure.  

I love these girls :)

Miss Independent

 Addison is 16 months old!

Our Addy is such a sweetie - a social cuddle bug, talkative mimic, and loud shrieker.  Addy is a charmer and is certain to not go unnoticed.  She has a HUGE personality and a knack for asserting herself.  She's independent and knows what she wants, when she wants it, and where she wants to go!

This little one keeps us all entertained and on our toes!
She is so CUTE!!!!

Hiwi and Dabs

Hair

It has always been my hope for Hiwot to love and embrace her gorgeous hair.  She has fine 4b hair - tightly coiled, fluffy and cottony, prone to dryness and breakage; and while it's nearly 10 inches long it shrinks down to appear much shorter.

Yarn twisties have been our style of choice for nearly 4 years. This style is incredibly protective, requires minimal daily care, and can last 2+ months.
That said, my very favorite look on our beautiful girl is all-natural loose curls.  
Her hair is gorgeous!

We often leave her hair loose for a week between twisties.
Hiwot is often not as confident and comfortable with her hair loose and fluffy.

This time however, Hiwot LOVED having her hair loose.
Even though it attracted semi-unwanted attention, she was so please to have her hair big for several days (our new neighbor, accustomed to twisties, thought we had cut off her hair!).  If it weren't so much effort to maintain and such a pain to keep detangled, we might be tempted to keep it loose longer.

I am thankful Hiwot is growing to embrace her beautiful curls, and I am thankful for a style she enjoys (and I can manage) that can protect her hair.  She always has fun deciding on her twist style and color - this time we did thicker twists with some teal highlights :)

Happy Girl

Dancers

We have FOUR sweet dancers!

We found a new dance studio.
It's a much smaller than the dance school we've attended the past five years, only a single studio with only about a hundred dancers; the waiting room is tight, the building is old, the wooden dance floor is worn, and the dress code is less strict, so the girls got to chose their own leotard colors.  The staff is friendly and the focus is on learning technique and joy in dance.  I think this will work nicely :)

 
Each class is a combo class.  This year, Hanna Hiwot and Maegli are taking class that includes 30 minutes of Jazz, 30 minutes of Tap, and 45 minutes of Ballet (they will perform 3 routines in the spring recital!).  Maclaren is taking an hour long ballet, tumbling, and tap class (two recital routines!).  Dabney, our tiny dancer, is enjoying her 45 minute ballet, music, and movement class (one recital routine!).  This Spring, we will have four dancers performing nine routines in nine costumes - wow! 

We're proud of our dancers, and we're looking forward to this year of dance!

Cumberland Gap

Close to home and a perfect field trip for our studies of Daniel Boone, Labor Day weekend, we ventured over to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park.

The Cumberland Gap is a prominent  v-shaped notch in the Cumberland Mountains, a gateway to the west located at the Kentucky and Virginia border, utilized by Native Americans and famously by Daniel Boone.  In 1775, Boone was hired to blaze the "Wilderness Road" through the gap, opening the primary path or pioneer migration. 

During our day at the Gap, we drove to the Pinnacle Overlook, picnicked by a stream, visited the Visitor Center and Museum, and hiked a mile along the "Object Lesson" Road Trail*, shadowing the footsteps of Boone to the Saddle of the Gap.  Along the way, throughout the day, the kids worked through the books and each earned their Junior Ranger Badges.

 *Why is the trail called "Object Lesson"?  At the turn of the 20th century, most roads in Appalachia were no better than the paths of the early settlers.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture sponsored the building of short segments of crushed rock roads graded for good drainage in key high visibility spots around the nation.  The "object lesson" was to convince voters of the convenience and value of building better roads.

We love participating in Junior Ranger programs at State and National Parks.  The kids have to compete pages in park books to earn the badge - these exercises are a great way to focus our learning during our visit - trail scavenger hunts, flower identification, colonial clothing and historical event word games, animal evidence sightings, and interviews with a park ranger.

We enjoyed this first trip to the Gap, and look forward to returning to explore the park further!  

New Player

Soccer season has begun.

10 weeks in a new league at a new location . . . and with one new first-time player - Maclaren is playing soccer this year!

We are enjoying the organization of this new community sports league.  Each age group has two set practice/game times each week.  The first week, each age groups are divided into skill-level-balanced teams and given jerseys of varying colors (blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, maroon, white).  During the set 90 minute times, each team spends 30 minutes practicing, and 60 minutes playing a game against another team.

This year, we have 3 players.  The U6/U5 teams, and the U12/U11 teams had the same weekly practice times - in our attempt to consolidate our outside activities, despite having many interested kids, it made the most sense for our family to allow Jackson Tesfaye, Davis, and Maclaren to play for the season.

It has been so much fun watching our 4-year-old on the field!
Maclaren displays her lovely "small-mouth face" in all its glory as she carefully moves her ball across the field.  She is so cute! 

Big brothers are down at the far end of the corridor of playing fields.  Jackson desperately wants to play in the challenge league (an additional 2 days of soccer a week), but is happy for any opportunity to play soccer.  We're just glad to see him on the field playing, and are so pleased Davis is out there with him.

And, we're looking forward to watching these three play soccer these next several weeks :)