I know I just wrote a post recently what we've been doin. This one is actually our late fall/early winter update, if you want to be specific. I used to blog about Paris and Scotland and now I get to describe our everyday life:) Actually, life is very adventurous for our kids as they are involved in various activities at and after school.
Katya:
Some days she dresses up like a lady on vacation.
And on other days like a business lady.
What's up with that? The truth is that was a "Dress Up Like a Tourist Day" during their Spirit week at high school. I am still battling the leggings and oversized sweatshirt look, plus socks and Birkenstocks, but whatever. Some days she dresses up really nicely and everyone notices. Her new favorite color to wear is rich yellow as she looks great it in.
And the second picture is from the day she competed in her first Speech and Debate competition in Fayettville. She took part in the Declamation category and did really well. Her next competition is coming up in January and she is very excited for that. It's a lot of memorization, but she is getting more confident with that.
Lastly, the big news as of two weeks ago is that she got a major SUPPORTING part in her high school musical "Music Man". It's a huge deal at their school as a ton of people auditioned and only a few were chosen, and especially for the actual main/supporting parts. Katya is going to be Mrs. Paroo, the Irish mom of the main character:) For her audition Katya sang the song that Mrs. Paroo sings and added a bunch of (she thinks) Irish accent. It worked! No one else could do it nearly as well as she did, so now she just has to watch a bunch of movies to refresh her memory of the Irish accent and get to work. The show is in early March but until then she has rehearsals after school almost every single weekday and some on Saturdays. It's intense.
Alex:
Alex is blessed to have Robert as his Boy Scout Master. They have just one year left to start working and finish his Eagle Scout Project as our church will no longer be affiliated with the Boy Scouts after next December. Alex loves scouting just as much as Robert does, so this is wonderful. They get to camp together and do projects together.
Alex also competed in the Head of The Chick regatta in Williamsburg on Nov 10th. The middle school boys were some of the few rowers who actually got to race that morning as the wind picked up so much that the whole regatta had to be cancelled around 10 am. It was very sad. But it was also very dangerous to continue as they had some hypothermia emergencies and one boat overturned because of the waves. Crazy stuff. The boys won first place (out of two) with Katya coxing, so they were happy.
At school Alex has been working hard on getting great grades. He is succeeding most of the time, although finds Math most challenging. He is good about doing his homework and us never having to remind him to work on his projects. He has a ton of friends at school. This year he tried out for the basketball team. As a 8th grader he had a good chance of making it, but the competition was stiff and after three days of two hour try outs even his 5' 11.5'' height didn't help him. He was a bit bummed as he was really hoping to do it while rowing is not in racing season to stay in shape.
But Alex has definitely been noticed for his musical abilities. He got to perform at the Veteran's Day ceremony on Nov 9th at the school's auditorium, in front of hundreds of his school mates and a large group of veterans from all military brunches. He sang "Come Home" by One Republic and played the piano. It was very touching. Mark and I were there and saw how many people appreciated his emotional song. Alex is never afraid to speak in public and is confident at presenting himself, especially before he performs. He said that after the ceremony, as he walked downstairs during lunchtime, all the kids in the room started cheering and clapping for him:) Girls would come up to him and tell him he did so well that it made them cry (that always makes me smile:)).
And then Alex was asked to also sing the National Anthem before their home basketball games. It was a huge honor and Alex practiced whenever he could at home. He did great singing it (a cappella) and, of course, everyone was again impressed (I might have to start buying him bigger hats as his head grows bigger😂).
Finally, Alex is a percussionist in his school band. And he is fantastic! It's amazing what their band teacher, Dr. Duval has done in the last year with the kids who came from three different schools. I actually ENJOYED listening to the 7th and 8th grade band concert this year. They did great!
Mark:
We talk a lot about Mark and his tennis and more tennis. It's because he wakes up and thinks of tennis, goes to bed trying to wear his tennis shirts and spends his time watching youtube videos of famous tennis matches. If he is not outside playing with friends he is playing ping pong inside with those friends or with himself by folding up one side of the table. I have quite sad news though--he has chosen to completely neglect his piano for the last four months. It breaks my heart. At the same time, it's a relief because there is no more anxiety around piano....I don't know how he could have gone from loving every moment of playing the piano at age 6 and simply devouring each piece of music that we gave him to not wanting to practice at all. His expectation of himself and his focus shifted to tennis so much... I still hope to get him back into playing, so we'll be working on that.
Mark is still a funny guy who is kind of struggling this year with liking school. He has no issues with learning or socially (although he says he has no friends but somehow everyone always wants to be around him) but it's more of an enjoyment of school that is lacking. His last year's teacher just set really-really high expectations of how learning could be so he is just disappointed that it's not the same this year. He still loves math and hopes to do well at the Spelling Bee this winter.
I just signed him up for indoor soccer season that will last 2 months during slower tennis months. It's recommended that even these kids who spend hours on tennis courts also have another sport to play as it helps prevent burn out AND helps their footwork. I am excited to see how he likes this indoor soccer deal as they are letting him play on the 11-12 team (he is almost 10).
Here is a funny morning picture of him--he needs a haircut but is trying to convince me to let him have longish hair like some other famous tennis players-haha.
Oh, and lastly, I took a picture of Mark's Christmas wish list. For his posterity:) There are a lot of tennis and sports items, but some of the funniest ones are on the second page. As you can see, he didn't number them in ascending order, but instead he rated them on a scale from 1 to 10 how much he wants each item.
The first one is Go to RR which means Go to Red Robin (he just loves their mac and cheese). The ones towards the bottom are Wimbledon Finals and US Open Finals. He basically wants tickets to see tennis, but not from far away, it has to be close up. He had two more items on the third sheet and they were Tickets to Austrlian and French Open. Great to dream, right? Someday, I know we'll make US Open tickets happen, but probably not close up at all!
And here are Robert and I partying at his work Christmas get together. It was a huge party--with at least 200 people. They rent out Prestonwood Country Club building in Cary and make it super fancy. We enjoyed the appetizers and desserts and I even convinced Robert to go dance with me since they were playing our iconic Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls songs. How could have we resisted?? So many memories from the late 90s and early 2000s:) We came home at midnight and didn't feel old at all.
Lyana.
