Audrey Art

The first trimester of middle school just ended and Audrey brought home the works she produced in art class. It's her favorite class.

She especially liked printmaking.

Click on the photo to go to the gallery. The password is always 'methot'.

First Days of School

Click on the photo for a larger version

Annie Jr.

This weekend was the Roosevelt school play, in the works since December. Charlotte was a member of the stage crew, and Carol spent many hours the past month or so designing and painting all of the sets.

There were three performances of the play. It was outstanding. And Carol, deservedly, received much praise for her work.

Only one more year at the Roosevelt for us. Then we'll have two middle schoolers for a year!

As usual, click on the photo above to see more.

First Day of School 2015

Today was the first day of school. Audrey is in sixth grade this year, starting middle school. Charlotte is in fourth grade.

Even though they were sad about the end of summer, at the same time they were very excited for school to start. Audrey was excited about the "team" she's on in the middle school (there are three - they travel through the year as a group), and Charlotte was very excited about her teacher assignment.

They were so excited that they were completely ready to leave 30 minutes before necessary this morning.

Audrey got her hair trimmed and freshly colored yesterday to prepare. She's got plans to rotate the color throughout the year. I think green is next, and then pink.

The middle school starts 30 minutes earlier than the elementary, so our routine will change a little. Earlier to bed, I guess.

After school both girls were very happy. They had great first days. Charlotte thought the biggest troublemaker boy was going to be in her class again but he isn't (although he sits right next to and has a locker right next to one of her best friends, in a different class). Audrey was really excited about the expanded lunch options at the middle school compared to elementary school. She stays in her home room all day the first two days so she won't get a real sense of the schedule until Thursday. In addition to the core subjects she's taking French and Band!

The year seems to be off to a great start.

Audrey's 5th Grade Graduation

Audrey's class had a graduation ceremony and party on June 9. There were three fifth grade classes at her school, so a little more than 60 kids.

Several of Audrey's teachers from other grades were there as well. It was fun to see them again.

Our little wallflower hung out mostly with her Mom and Dad. She would make little excursions into the crowd but not for long. I think Audrey's shyness is endearing. I was quite shy as a kid and I turned out alright, so I don't worry about it in my kids.

Audrey did spend some time celebrating with her best friend, Mia. And they've spent a lot of great time together this summer.

School Play - Cinderella

Way back in January, Amy, another mom at the school, started organizing the school play, which takes place just before school gets out in June. Amy has produced the play for several years and the result is far better than I would ever expect from an elementary school play. It always has great costumes, great sets and amazing singing. This year both Methot girls decided to participate.

Charlotte had no interest in a speaking part but was quite happy to be a mouse in the chorus. Audrey also didn't want to appear on stage but really liked the idea of being a stage hand. Fine with us - that meant quite a bit fewer rehearsals they had to attend!

Carol volunteered to help paint the set. She did a great job sketching the furniture (other volunteers painted it in), and painting many of the detail objects in the backdrop. I thought it looked wonderful.

The girls worked all three performances the first weekend in June. We all enjoyed the experience.

Why look! Here's a video!

May-July 2015 Miscellaneous

Once again I've gotten way behind in posting family photos. Well, now I've got a bunch in the queue and will get them to you forthwith!

I'm going to start protecting the photo albums with a password to prevent search engines from crawling them. I don't want people to be able to google the girls' adolescences in the future. I'll use the same password for all albums going forward, and it's easy to remember - my last name, all lowercase. If you forget, there is a way to get a hint on the screen that asks for the password. Let me know if you have problems; if there a lot of problems I'll reconsider.

We've had a pretty busy late spring and early summer!

The girls finished up the school year with the school play: Cinderella. Charlotte was a mouse in the chorus and Audrey was a stage hand. They both did very well. The school plays are put on by a mom from the school and are surprisingly good!

Since Audrey was in her second year of taking flute, she was eligible to participate in the Melrose Youth Band. She practiced a lot. The first band concert was June 2 in the middle school auditorium with a large crowd. It was Audrey's first time on stage in front of an audience and she was nervous. She said later she felt like she might faint. But we couldn't tell from the seats - she did great. Here is some video of the concert.

The free state pool is just a few blocks from home and it opens mid-June. The girls have already visited many times. Sometimes I join them after riding my bike home from work. It's a great way to cool down.

Continuing in the musical theme, we've been to a couple of concerts as a family.

The Rockport Music Society received a large donation just before we moved to Boston, and they used it to build themselves a fantastic, state-of-the-art performance theater that seats about 400 people. It was designed with exceptional acoustics. But the highlight of the space is the 30' tall wall of glass that forms the back of the stage and looks out over Rockport Harbor. I read about it when it opened but hadn't yet found a concert to see there.

We went to see Pokey LaFarge, who's 7-piece band of wonderfully talented musicians play old-timey, folky, bluesy music. The girls thought it was fantastic. I loved showing them quality live music.

Later the same week we drove to Portsmouth, NH to see one of my favorite bands play on an outdoor stage in a park: Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. There's a common thread through my favorite musical acts through time: interesting instrument combinations and creative arrangements. Thao has them both.

The evening was absolutely perfect and the setting was gorgeous. We all enjoyed the concert very much and ended it by all dancing together to the last few songs, right in front of the stage. The girls learned how to clap and yell until the band comes back for an encore.

The girls have also been off at a plethora of camps this summer, and we've had a couple of camping trips. Those will be the subject of more posts in the near future.

Winter Photos

Winter 2015

Now that winter has finally broken, it's time to go back and see what it looked like.

Here are 86 photos for your enjoyment.

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial Day Parade

Every year the public schools are represented in the Melrose Memorial Day Parade by anyone from each school who wants to join in. Some kids walk, some pull wagons and some ride their bikes. This year we decided to participate on our bikes.

I often refer to Melrose as Mayberry. It really does have that feel. And nothing makes it feel more like Norman Rockwell's America then when Main Street is decorated with flags on all the lamp posts and people are marching down the street wearing red, white and blue.

It's charming.

This video contains some footage of us riding on the parade.

Heading Off to Elf School

Two elves heading off to school this morning.

Squishy Circuits

Squishy Circuits 2012

The second annual Melrose STEM Expo was held on November 17. STEM, if you're not aware, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. It's an area gaining a lot of attention and emphasis in schools due to the perception that the United States is losing the technological edge it has held for decades.

Our family has hosted a booth at the expo both years. We present Squishy Circuits, which teaches kids about electricity and circuits using homemade play-doh that is made either conductive (containing salt) or insulating (containing sugar).

Audrey and Charlotte really love working in the booth - being "behind the table." And they are pretty good at teaching. The expo lasts three hours and that challenges the girls' attention span but they switch back and forth between teaching and playing themselves.

We estimate that more than 120 kids stopped by the booth! It's rewarding to watch them build a circuit - when they succeed in lighting up an LED you can see their mind light up a half second later.

Our neighbor Jen is one of the organizers of the event. She took a great photo of Audrey and me working in the booth and that photo made the local newspaper!

We'll be back next year.

Fall Photos

Fall Photos

This is a mishmash of photos from the past few months. In chronological order:

• In mid-September we had a fun day apple picking at Russell Orchards in Ipswich. The weather was such this year that the apples ripened 2-3 weeks earlier than usual. So even though we went a week or two earlier than we usually do the apples were already beyond peak. We managed to pick enough for a delicious pie, though. After we had secured our apples we drove to nearby Rockport and had lunch on Bearskin Neck.
• At the end of September Tess brought us a live chipmunk again. Twice. Carol read somewhere that when your cat brings you a dead animal she is paying rent. When she brings you a live animal she is trying to teach you how to hunt. We keep capturing them and letting them go. Tess must think we are very stupid.
• At Roosevelt School third graders can opt to take musical instrument lessons all year long. Audrey chose cello. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing her practice lately - I need a refresher to see what she's learned!
• We visited the Topsfield Fair in October. The fair hosts a contest for largest pumpkin every year and often sees world records set. Last year the winner was about 1600 pounds. This year the record was blown away with a pumpkin coming in a few pounds over a ton!
• We had two batches of leaf raking this year: one after Hurricane Sandy brought down about half the leaves and another the weekend before Thanksgiving when most of the leaves have fallen. Both times I made a big pile for the girls. They spent hours jumping into it and burying themselves. Usually a few neighbor kids join in.
• Charlotte finally lost her first tooth after it was loose forever. Then not long after, she lost the other lower front tooth. It's hard to get a photo of the gap!
• In early November we visited the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary. As you know it's our favorite place. It's especially fun in the fall and winter when the birds are eager to eat our of your hand. We keep the car stocked with bird seed now. We visited on a Saturday and stayed for a few hours.

  The girls wanted to return the next day so I took them while Carol did a project at home. I had no agenda and just let the girls lead me. We spent five hours there! We fed birds, of course, and we also wandered the trails and we spent almost an hour just sitting on a bridge playing with sticks in the mud on the pond bottom.

  We had so much fun that weekend that the girls begged us to go back again the next weekend! We spent several hours there again and even branched out to some new trails.

• Friday of Thanksgiving weekend was forecast to be unseasonably warm so we headed to the beach. With a steady wind it wasn't as warm as we hoped but we still had a picnic and flew kites and enjoyed the sunshine and the atmosphere.

Halloween

Halloween

We all had fun around Halloween this year. Both girls liked their costumes so much last year they decided to repeat them this year: Charlotte as a vampire and Audrey as a devil.

As usual we went to the Halloween party at the girls' school a few days before the actual day. It's a cacophonous madhouse with millions of kids running around a crowded gym, occasionally crashing into each other. Both girls are always excited to go but Audrey gets surprisingly shy once she gets there.

I was happy that my porch haunting project came together at the end. I need to start planning next year's display a little earlier. Well, I planned this one early enough but I didn't start building it early enough. In case you missed it in an earlier post, here's video of the Halloween porch display.

Methot Family Film Festival, Continued

Way back in May I got caught up on family videos but then I went and got behind again! So here, for your enjoyment and exhaustion, is a collection of ten videos covering events since the last big batch. They are in chronological order. Click each image to watch that video. Once you're watching a video on Vimeo, you can see all of my other videos in a strip across the top of the page so you don't need to keep coming back here and clicking Enjoy!

Last spring Audrey completed her first big school project. She had to choose a historical character and perform research on the person's life. The final results were a report, a project and a recitation of what she learned. This video is of Audrey dressed as Susan B. Anthony delivering her report on Ms. Anthony's life.

Our neighbor Parker got a slackline as a gift and they had it strung between two trees in their backyard. We added a handline to help other kids learn how to walk on the line. That inspired me to grab a pulley from my climbing gear and turn the handline into a zip line. Scott even had a disc swing seat that made it easy for the younger kids to ride. Viola! Six months on and the zip line is still in place. Parker was riding it this morning.

This video contains a miscellaneous collection of video from May-August 2012. Some neighborhood activities, family outings, a couple of camping trips, a bit of Tessa, Audrey figure skating and science camp and finally a day at the beach.

We didn't shoot very much video during our Richland and Seattle vacation in July. This video contains the best of what we filmed.

Charlotte likes to grab one of our phones and shoot some video of her own. Her narration is pretty funny. Maybe she's a budding filmmaker!

In early August Audrey attended Girls Rock Camp Boston. The culmination of a week of learning an instrument, forming a band, and writing and rehearsing a song was the showcase. Twelve bands from camp performed. This video shows the highlights of the event and the complete performance of Audrey's band "One More Minute". The song is "One More Minute [of Summer!]".

The weekend after school started in September we headed to norther New Hampshire to revisit Santa's Village. I only shot a little bit of video, but it's fun.

For the third year in a row Audrey and I went to New York for World Maker Faire. Maker Faire is all about do-it-yourself technology, art, invention - what have you. There's always tons of interesting things to see and do. It's part of my plan to make sure my daughters know they can be geeks if they want to.

Come November the trees shed their leaves. We have one large oak and one large maple and we get plenty of leaves from neighboring trees as well. It's become tradition for dad to make a large leaf pile and then the girls have a blast jumping in to it and burying themselves in it.

One of our favorite places in Massachusetts is the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary, and one of our favorite things about it is that in the fall and winter the birds there will land right on your hand for food. Audrey and Charlotte are fascinated by it. We were there for a couple of hours today and they told Carol at bedtime that they want to go back tomorrow. We might have to do it!

School Starts

School Starts

Man, have I gotten behind again! Too many projects and too little time these days. It seems to be getting worse!

It's almost two months ago that school started. Audrey is in third grade and Charlotte in first grade this year. They both like their teachers. Carol and I went to open house a week or two after school started and met them; we have conferences next week so we'll get to know them better.

Charlotte is getting better and better at reading and also learning addition. Audrey is learning multiplication (and teaching it to Charlotte). Audrey can't get enough of reading: every night we have to harp on her to stop reading and go to sleep.

In third grade students can start taking instrument lessons at school. Audrey chose cello and she has a rental instrument for the year. She is thrilled. Unfortunately her lesson is on Tuesday and the past two Tuesdays have been a field trip (to the Museum of Science) and an early release day. She has been very disappointed and looks forward to her second cello lesson next Tuesday.

Catching Up Again

It's been a busy spring and I've fallen behind on blog posts again. We leave on summer vacation in two days so I'd better get caught up! As always, click on each little picture on the left to go to a photo album on that topic.

School Photos School Pictures The girls had their school photos taken way back in November but I hadn't imported them until now. Neither girl especially likes having her pictures taken. Charlotte is afraid of formal portraits, as you can tell from the very forced smile.

Crazy Hair Day Crazy Hair Day April 24th was "Crazy Hair Day" at Roosevelt School. Carol was able to make a cool mohawk even with Audrey's new shorter hair style. Charlotte went with three crazy pony tails. Audrey reports that she had the craziest hair at Crazy Hair Day.

Rockery with Zack Rockery with Zack It was Zack's parents that first showed us the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary and its Rockery. We're forever indebted since it has, as you know, become one of our favorite places near home. One Saturday I decided to take Audrey there for a "one on one" outing. I asked her if she'd like to invite Zack and got a very enthusiastic "Yes!" He was available so off we went. They had a blast playing together at the Rockery. We also saw deer in the woods near the trail and Audrey and Zack tracked them for a few minutes. After great outdoor time we all went to the Ninety Nine restaurant for dinner - kids eat free the day after the Red Sox win!

Field Trip - Seacoast Science Center Audrey Field Trip: Seacoast Science Center During the last full week of school Audrey's second grade class went on a field trip to the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH. They explored the tide pools and examined lots of critters they found there. Audrey says classmate Emma was the bravest because she held the biggest crab.

Plimoth Plantation Plimoth Plantation The first time we went to Cape Cod in 2010 we saw signs for Plimoth Plantation. We checked it out online and have wanted to go ever since. A few weeks ago we finally made it. We drove down Saturday morning and first went to visit the Mayflower II. It's a replica that was built in the 1950s and is moored in Plymouth Harbor a couple of miles from the plantation. The girls appreciated how small the ship was and they also enjoyed wearing period sailor clothing. After touring the ship and making a brief visit to Plymouth Rock we headed for the KOA campground in Middlebourough about 20 minutes away. KOAs always have good pools and jumping pillows and playgrounds and we knew the girls would have a good time there. It didn't take very long at all for the girls to make friends with a brother and sister. We spent the afternoon and evening with them on the pillow, in the pool and at the ice cream social and outdoor movie. Sunday morning we had breakfast at Dave's Diner in Middlebourough and then headed to Plimoth Plantation. The plantation has a Native American village and also a replica of the pilgrims' settlement with staff dressed, acting and speaking like people of the time. It was quite educational. The girls mostly enjoyed trying out the furniture.

Cape Cod Camping Cape Cod Camping It's become a tradition for us to go camping at Nickerson State Park on Cape Cod in late June. This was our third year and we were really looking forward to our four night trip. We have a favorite loop in which we camp because it has great bike riding and a short walk through the forest to a wonderful swimming beach on Cliff Pond. The water is always a perfect swimming temperature. We arrived in the early evening and went straight into the water. Friday morning we headed to the pond right after breakfast with plans to spend the whole day there. Around 11am, though, a ranger appeared carrying a sign to install in the beach sand informing us that Cliff Pond was immediately closed to swimming due to a blue-green algae bloom that was potentially toxic. Our plan was to spend most of the trip swimming in that pond so we were all disappointed. There was another swimming beach at the next pond over, Flax Pond, but we would have to drive there - it had been our intention not to start our engine all weekend. We figured Flax Pond would be crowded since everyone would head there so instead we went to a movie ("Brave") and then for ice cream. Saturday morning we headed for Flax Pond right after breakfast. The swimming beach was great and we spent almost seven hours there. Carol has been wanting to try a stand up paddleboard for a while and the boat rental company near the swimming beach had them so we gave it a try. Easy peasy! The girls loved riding on the back of it with either Carol or me paddling. We have a blast just staying at the state park but I have also wanted to see more of Cape Cod. On Sunday we decided to head to the ocean. Coast Guard Beach in Eastham is not too far from Nickerson so we headed there. There is no parking at the beach (the parking lot was washed away in a big storm in 1978) so you park a mile or so away and the park service runs shuttles. We loaded our stuff, rode the shuttle and found a great patch of sand to call our own. The girls had been swimming with boogie boards in the ponds but had never boogie boarded in surf. When we arrived at Coast Guard Beach the surf was perfect for it - thigh deep on me with 2-4' waves. Audrey loved it. For about 30-40 minutes Audrey and I surfed wave after wave. Once I taught her how to spot the waves that were going to break near her she got really good at it. It was one of those moments as a parent when I knew I had really given my child a great experience - she was so happy. It is also rewarding to see how comfortable and confident Audrey is in water. Charlotte is more intimidated by surf but she has fun playing in the shallow water and in the sand. The tide was out when we arrived and came in the whole time we were there (again, seven hours). The surf was never again as good as during the first hour we were there but it was still fun to play in. Audrey also enjoyed just being lifted by the swells. We saw a sea lion or seal off shore for a while but no great white sharks; they are regularly spotted a few miles south in Chatham. Monday we headed to Flax Pond again for a bit of swimming before aiming for home. There had been a threat of thunderstorms the entire weekend but they kept going around us or evaporating before they reached us (I was watching the radar on my phone). We would have welcomed a dramatic thunderstorm while in the camper but Boston was having all the fun instead. Finally Monday morning our luck ran out. About five minutes after the girls got in the water it started raining and with thunder within earshot we cut that swim session short. Besides, we still had to visit the Pancake Man and Four Seas Ice Cream. After those stops were checked off we had an uneventful drive home. We had a fantastic time and will be back for the fourth annual visit next June.

May-June Fun May-June Fun To write the text that goes with these "miscellaneous" photo albums I scan through the photos and pick a few stories to tell. This batch, however, is all over the map. Suffice it to say that May and June were pretty nice and produced lots of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, to get wet, and to eat ice cream. Both girls had really great years at school with Charlotte finishing Kindergarten and Audrey finishing 2nd grade. They both brought home excellent report cards. I first saw Cirque du Soleil in about 1996 during my first stint living in Boston. I thought it was spellbinding and one of the best live performances I had ever seen. I've seen several performances since then, both road shows and permanent Las Vegas shows, and have loved them all. I have fantasized about taking the kids but the "list" prices are so high that it didn't seem worth it. Cirque du Soleil is performing "Totem" in Boston at the moment. A neighbor sent along a link to a fantastic "local deals" site that was offering tickets at a huge discount so I snapped 'em up. We all went to the show on Father's Day and the girls found it just as magical as I did. I loved being able to share it with them.

Homework-o-bot

Audrey brought home some school work she did around "inventions". Her invention is a Homework-o-bot that contains both a Math-o-maniac and a Math-o-matic. Can you tell which subject's homework gives her the biggest challenge?

My dastardly plan is working - my geekdad activities are rubbing off on Audrey!

Click on the image for a larger version.

Melrose STEM Expo

Melrose STEM Expo

This past summer a group of parents in Melrose formed the Melrose Education Coalition, which aims to encourage improved STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education in the Melrose schools. Our neighbor Jen is active in the MEC; she let us know about the Melrose STEM Expo to be held on November 19 and asked if I would like to volunteer to present an activity. Of course I agreed immediately.

I originally hoped to present something that is related to biology, but after much searching I couldn't find an activity I could do that would be hands on and fast enough for people just stopping by a table at an expo. Most of the biology experiments I could find consist of growing plants or other similarly long-timescale things.

My fallback was an activity the girls liked at Maker Faire in September: Squishy Circuits. The web site provides easy recipes for homemade play-doh of two types: conductive and insulating. Then kids can just take wire leads attached to batteries, LEDs, buzzers and motors and stick them in the play-doh to build circuits.

I used the project as an opportunity to check out a local electronics store I recently discovered: You Do It Electronics in Needham. You Do It is like Radio Shack used to be before they shifted to consumer gadgets, but four times as big. It was perfect for getting materials for squishy circuits.

The weekend before we made a test batch of the conductive play-doh and it worked great. I played around to find the right type of wire leads to attach to the various components to make them easy for kids to use and also as durable as possible. In the end I also packed tools and materials to make on-the-spot repairs which turned out to be a good idea.

The girls practiced with me a little and seemed to have it down. They were very excited that they would get to be behind the table with me. Carol was excited to help, too, so it turned into a family affair.

The expo was held at the Middle School. The high school robotics team I mentor was scheduled to be there as well as the middle school robotics team and the LEGO robotics program that I'll volunteer at this week at Audrey's and Charlotte's school. But I had no idea how many attendees to expect.

Well, I was blown away. There were probably at least 200 attendees and a pretty large collection of fellow exhibitors with lots of great activities for kids. Squishy Circuits was a huge hit! We had six "stations" at our table and they were all full almost all of the three hours that the event ran. We had kids from pre-school to 5th or 6th grade. Parents seemed equally excited about it and many of them worked hard to keep their kids focused on what we were teaching them.

Carol and the girls were really into it. Audrey was a wonderful teacher. We also had two parent volunteers with us: Amy and Chris. Chris happens to be the girls' art teacher in after-school art classes they are taking. They were fantastic.

Walking around the event almost brought tears to my eyes. I was inspired by both the volunteer energy that was apparent and by the interest of so many parents. It bodes very well for what MEC is trying to do.

I also had a conversation with James Horne who is the overall head of the robotics programs about starting a Junior LEGO League team at Roosevelt School. I'm very excited to do that.

Charlotte is Reading!

Click for Video

At the end of my last post I mentioned that Charlotte has begun to read. That really deserves a special post all its own!

The other night night before bed Charlotte read us a poem called "Apples" from her Kindergarten Poem Journal. Audrey was a great helper and teacher. Click on the photo to go to the video. Somehow a third of the way through the video and audio get out of sync but you still get the idea.

Charlotte obviously received a good grounding in letter sounds in her Pre-K class last year. We've also worked on them at home, and I think Charlotte has learned a lot from watching Audrey.

I've mentioned before that for me watching my kids learn to read is the highest point of parenthood so far. Reading is such a huge part of my life that I am thrilled about the universe of knowledge and adventure that awaits them in the realm of the written word.

October Octet

October Octet

The fun just keeps coming in the Methot household!

A couple of weekends ago we made our annual apple picking pilgrimage. We returned to the first farm we visited after moving here: Cider Hill Farm. They have a big variety of varieties. And they also have delicious apple cider donuts. It's really easy to spend a fortune on apples that never get used, so this year we went with a plan: pick eight apples for a pie and 6 apples for eating. Worked great. The pie Carol made with the Jonagolds was really, really good. She also made some fantastic apple sauce out of some old apples she found in the refrigerator.

The girls have been excited for Halloween since Labor Day, I think. Audrey saw a new princess outfit at the Disney Store that she really wanted as her costume, but with all the accessories she wanted it would cost more than $75. Our idea of a Halloween costume cost is more like $12. I'm not sure how it happened but eventually she settled on being a devil. She already had red pants, a red shirt can be used as normal clothes, and the horns and pitchfork were cheap. Win. Charlotte chose to be a vampire with a simple dress.

Just this week we completed the conversion of our home heating and hot water from oil to natural gas. Now that the situation in Libya is resolved oil prices might start to fall, but at the beginning of summer we were looking at almost $4000 to heat our house and water for the next year. That made it easy to pull the trigger on the conversion. We still have to have the oil tank removed and then the project will be complete. I'm looking forward to at least 1/3 lower energy bills. Natural gas prices have been falling steeply.

We've recently acquired several books of kids' science experiments. A couple evenings a week now the girls ask for a project and we pick one from the books to do. Recently we put a candle in a glass, then put vinegar and baking soda in a taller glass. We poured the invisible heavier-than-air CO2 from the vinegar/baking soda reaction into the first one and put out the candle without blowing on it.

Audrey has been wanting to take figure skating for quite a while. Last year she was taking ballet but she decided not to continue that this year, so we signed her up for skating. She was sooo excited for it to start. The first scheduled week was cancelled due to the ice not being ready. We didn't find out until we arrived at the rink and Audrey was very disappointed. But yesterday it started and she had a blast. What a different vibe from the youth hockey program "learn to skate" series she took two years ago! Almost all girls and much more peaceful without the sounds of pucks and people hitting the boards. It's a 20-week class. I'm excited to watch Audrey become a real skater.

Charlotte is taking gymnastics at the Y and a cooking class in an after-school program. She loves them both.

I don't have a photo of it, but Charlotte is also learning to read! I think she got a good grounding in letter sounds in pre-K last year so she's really taking off in Kindergarten. Carol and I are amazed. And Audrey has shown to be a patient and wonderful teacher to her little sister. At first she was a little jealous because Charlotte was getting attention for reading, but we made an effort to praise Audrey more for her chapter book reading and her unprompted reading and she quickly came around.