March 15-22

The remainder of our trip to Florida went well. Sunday afternoon was a trip to Gator Mike's for bumper cars, go-karts, and bumper boats. The girls attended karaoke night on Monday and loved it. They discovered that Mamma Mia songs are well received by the snowbird crowd and also that karaoke tends toward the original ABBA version rather than the soundtrack version, so some words are different. Murry and I discovered that when Kaitlyn sings “I fought the law and the law won” she affects quite a southern twang.

Our flight out on Tuesday was very delayed because of cancellations the day before due to weather. We didn’t find this out, of course, until we were already at the airport. Security lines were the longest I’ve seen them in the past 5 years and when we arrived at our gate the whole area was so packed full of people that we ended up retreating down the hallway to find a place to sit on the floor. By 1:00 we were able to find floor spots at our gate and Kaitlyn checked in with her teacher for the remote learning day that Ohio was having. At 2:00 our 11:45 flight finally boarded and we were in the air at 3:00. Alison had a warm van and dinner waiting for us in Detroit when we landed. We had planned to visit for a bit before leaving, but that didn’t work out, so we just headed straight home and finally made it gratefully to our beds around 9:45.

The rest of the week was a lot of catching up on homework, but everything got turned in by Friday so that the kids could relax and enjoy their weekend.

Kaitlyn and Olivia had Music Evaluation Day on Saturday morning. This is something the piano teachers in our area do and each student is tested at their level (1-5) on various music related things. There’s a solo portion, sightreading, technique (scales, chords, harmonization, etc), ear training, and a written theory/history test. Both girls did well and received their plaques.

Last night we had friends over and today we’re headed to Bargliokiewicz, which is a three family get together that we have about once a month. Well, 5 of us are headed there. Theo isn’t feeling well and a parent has to stay home with him. I’ll probably volunteer as tribute so that I can get my lesson plans for the week done.

Theodore has developed marker opinions recently. I have some paint pens at school that I use to mark seat spots. Theo uses them to draw pictures on the days when he comes to my room after school. He wanted a pack for at home, but I hadn’t been willing to buy them. He dug through all of our markers and managed to find six acrylic brush pens (I’m not even sure where those came from) and they are now his treasured drawing markers. They do have unique colors and are very vibrant.

Jillian and Caleb were here at the beginning of the month for card club. Jillian sent me a couple pictures of her playing games with the girls, and also one of a drawing by Theodore.

Theodore: Annemarie is learning cursive at her school. Or Japanese.

Pictures:Jillian and the girls playing Genius Square:

Children playing nicely to avoid bedtime:

Matthias's blanket in Florida:

Theodore's Legendary Dragon:

Our shed after the windstorm:

Gretchen and Matthias playing cards with Grandma:

Bumper cars:

Gretchen line dancing at karaoke night:

Waiting for a turn to sing:

Kaitlyn and Olivia singing. Gretchen sang, too, but I guess I didn't get a picture of that: