Keeping up with the Arts

When we decided to homeschool Leah I knew it would be challenging to keep the arts alive in our curriculum. She came from a performing arts school so I wanted to continue to educate her at the same level that she had been learning at with her school. But lets be honest, I am not the most artistic person in the world. Even my stick people need help. I am probably the least crafty person I know and as for my musical talents...well I can't really say too much about those either. I can remember fighting my mom every day on the way to piano lessons as a kid. I hated them! I played flute as a teen and I continue to play my flute whenever my husband dusts it off so I have a basic understanding of music but I am definately not a natural talent. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful mother who knows my strengths and weaknesses and urged me to get Leah into lessons. She also bought Leah a keyboard on her last visit. Now she has begun taking lessons from a real expert (not me!) and she is loving it! Thanks mom! (Notice Dillon singing in the background. These kids definately have McKee genes!)

We also study a different artist every Friday and then recreate his painting. Last Friday we learned about a famous Russian artist named Kandinsky. He was the first artist to create abstract art. We learned about different colours and how they work together and how they make you feel. This is Leah interpretation of Kandinsky's piece.

This is Kandinsky's painting. I think Leah did a pretty good job. Dillon did one too but unfortunately his ended up in the garbage as do most of his things. He is kind of going through a destructive phase as I am sure you have figured out from my other posts!

Seafood Tonight?!

Whenever we go to Costco we are always tempted by the king crab legs in the seafood section but we never buy them as they are not a necessary item. However, on our last trip we decided to splurge and get a couple of legs.

It took quite some time to convince the kids to eat the crab legs but once they did they were sold.

Craft Time Gone Wrong

Dillon made the cutest pipecleaner carrots in his playschool the other day while learning about healthy food choices. He was so proud of his carrot...for about 10 minutes.
While I was busy teaching Leah a math lesson he was destroying his new creation downstairs in the basement. All of a sudden I heard frantic footsteps and a little cry and I knew there was trouble. Dillon proceeded to tell me that he had taken one of the googly eyes and shoved it in his ear. Why he did that, I'll never know. I guess boys will be boys. I looked in his ear and could barely see the edge of it. My first inclination was to get my tweezers and try to pull it out but on reinspection I knew it was too deep and I would do more damage than good. So I did the next best thing, I called Patrick.
He told me to bring him in to the office and he will take a look.  I drove him out to Spruce Grove and Patrick put him under the lit microscrope and used his special tweezers and pulled the googly eye right out.
I was sure grateful that I had an engineer in the family with all kinds of tools to save me from the torture of a 4 hour stay in the emergency room. Way to go Patrick!
As for Dillon, no more googly eyes for him! 

Leap of Faith

For the past year I have had a nagging voice telling me that I should consider homeschooling Leah but I had always believed strongly that homeschooling was not for me and I would never be very good at it. I had dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. Unfortunately the idea had not dismissed me. Last summer I had this horrible sensation in my stomache that was urging me to consider it more fully. Still I was not ready to be one of `those` parents. So I told myself that I would put her in school in the fall and if things went well then my concerns would be put to rest. Well, September was...how shall I say...dreadful! I knew homeschooling was the answer to my prayer but I was not yet ready to accept it. I was terrified and not in the least bit prepared to take on that responsibility. I just kept telling myself that things had to get better. So I started volunteering in the school and helping out wherever I could but nothing seemed to be working. By December we were at our wits end and I knew something had to be done. Patrick and I made a promise that if Leah was at peace over the holidays and there was happiness in her eyes again, I would pull her out of school in the New Year. That is exactly what happened so I pulled her. I was terrified but it is without a doubt the BEST decision that we have ever made for our family. Leah is so happy and doing so well. Infact I am even having fun! As it turns out I am one of those parents, who knew. I guess the Lord really did know what this little family needed He was just waiting for me to follow his promptings. Next time I won`t wait so long!

You know you are having a bad day when...

you spend six hours making a beautiful cake for your daughter's birthday and then this happens.

I cried and laughed and then I dropped to my knees and began cleaning up the mess. Leah was mortified when she saw her cake on the floor. Her first reaction was to run to her room screaming and crying while Dillon and I cleaned up the mess but within minutes she on her knees hugging me telling me how sorry she was and how awful she felt for me. I was really proud of her, what maturity that showed for her to recognize my feelings in this situation. She really is growing up to be a great little girl!!!

I spent the following day working on birthday cake version 2.0. I think it turned out better than the first (thank goodness). Now the hope is that it will survive until the day of the party. Only 24 hours left, so far things are looking good. Lets hope they continue!

How Much Sugar?

We had an early birthday party for Leah with Grandma and Grandpa Fisher before they headed down to Arizona for the winter. Leah didn't want a cake at this party because she knew she was getting a big cake at her friend party and she didn't want to over do it. So Grandma and Grandpa got creative and came up with the idea of 'bobbing for gummy bears' for dessert instead. Leah loved it but our very health conscious daughter was very concerned about how much sugar there was in the dessert.

Fall Fitness Jam

One of the things that I love to do is teach classes at the gym. I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach a variety of classes like cardio kickbox, BOSU, Max, Maxed Out, Cross Training and a variety of other classes. In October our gym put on a Fall Fitness Jam where a number of instructors had 15 minutes to teach a segment from one of their classes. The jam went on for 2 hours and had over 60 participants. Even though I was still recovering from a broken ankle I was able to participate. We were exhausted by the end but we had a fantastic time!

Unfortunately Patrick doesn't get to see me teach very often so when we do fitness jams on Saturdays he likes to come and participate whenever he can. I love having him there to support me but on this particular day I decided to use him to my advantage. I was teaching a kickboxing segment and seeing as he is an amazing kickboxer in phenomenal shape, I decided to call him up in front to show off his skills. I think I surprised him a bit but he was a good sport...what a great guy he is!