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Whale Watching Cruise


This morning we went on a whale watching cruise. Dan and I took Talia and Kayli with us on the cruise and left the rest of the children at home with Dan’s parents. We all had a great time! We left out of a harbor in Long Beach. We went on a Harbor Breeze Cruise. The cruise was scheduled to last 2 to 2 1/2 hours. When we hit the 2 hour mark and still hadn’t sighted any whales, I thought that we wouldn’t be seeing any on this cruise. But thanks to a very determined captain, we ended up seeing two grey whales.

It was so interesting to watch them. The would come up to the surface and clear out their blow holes. Like this:

Then stay at the surface for a few minutes. Then they would dive back down and if you were lucky, you got to see their tale.

We also saw dolphins

Sea lions

and Pelicans.

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A Walk Thru Ancient Times


Today Talia’s class participated in the “A Walk Thru Ancient Times” program. They have been preparing for this for weeks. The class was divided into three groups: Roma, Greece and Egypt. They all had to wear costumes that reflected the attire worn by the people of their country during ancient times. Talia was choose the group leader for the Greek group. They had to make up a skit all on their own that gave information about the ancient Greeks. They did a board game with commericals. It was very creative and I thought it was the best of the three skits. All the kids were given cards to learn for the program. They all did very well with their parts. You could tell that they had work hard to prepare for it. You could also tell that they had a great time during the program. I also enjoyed watching it.

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Lip Sync Show

Aidan, Talia and Kayli participated in the annual lip sync show at their school today. Talia and Kayli did songs with their friends and Aidan did a song with his kindergarten class.

This years theme was television theme songs, but they basically allowed any song done on any show that was on tv.

Talia’s song was “The Party’s Just Begun” by the Cheetah Girls. Kayli’s group also did a Cheetah Girls’ song, “Amigas Cheetahs”. Aidan’s class did the Mickey Mouse Club Song. The teachers did songs from several commercials and it was hilarious!

This video is about 16 minutes long and includes Aidan, Talia and Kayli. It also has the teacher’s and a few of the other groups.

Aidan’s Class

Talia’s Group

Kayli’s Group

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Talia and Kayli’s School Christmas Musical


Talia’s Class

Kayli’s Class

Talia and Kayli had their school Christmas musical yesterday. The kids in grades 1-6 participate in the show every year. That means that this year was the last year for Talia to be in the show. Everyone sang great and the show was a lot of fun to watch. The kids had props and did moves to a lot of the songs. Talia said she is sad she doesn’t get to do it next year, because she loves to sing.

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Girl Scout Ice Skating


Yesterday was the annual girl scout ice skating event. Talia and Kayli both attended the event. I went skating with them. We all had a great time.

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Report Card Time

Talia, Kayli and Aidan got their first trimester report cards yesterday. They all did great and I’m very proud of all of them! Talia continued her perfect record of making the honor roll with all A’s and one B+. Kayli got straight A’s on her report card. This is the first year Kayli has gotten letter grades. She won’t be elligible for the honor roll to next year though. Aidan doesn’t get grades, but instead gets “S” for satisfactory or “N” for needs improvement. He got all S’s.

In addition to their report cards, Talia and Kayli got the results of the Iowa Basic Skills test they took earlier in the year. They both scored in the 99th percentil. I guess I can’t ask for more than that! I told them they needed to keep up the hard work so they can get a college scholarship.

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Christmas Choir Concert


Talia and Kayli had their Christmas choir concert last night. They both did a great job! They knew all the words to all the songs they sang, which is more than I can say for all the kids in the choir. They choir sounded lovely and everyone enjoyed the performance.

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Outdoor Science Camp


Today Talia left for Outdoor Science Camp. The 6th graders at her school go there every year. They will be coming back on Friday. I’m going to miss her a lot. The longest she has been way from home before now is two nights. She was a bit nervous about going, but was very excited too. Kayli was horrible upset that Talia was going to be gone all week. She is going to have a rouch week without her big sister. She took two disposable cameras with her to take pictures. She also took letter writting stuff to send to us. I sent her letters last week, that will be given to her each day she is there. Kayli also wrote her a bunch of letters, as did her grandparents. I know she is going to have a great time there and I can’t wait to hear all about it.

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Braces Again


Talia got braces again today for the start of “phase 2”. We aren’t sure how long they will have to stay on this time, but when they come off she will have perfect teeth.

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Our Cheetah Girls


The neighborhood girls have formed their own version of The Cheetah Girls. They have assigned the members of the group different jobs – wardrobe, make-up, choreography and song writing. They have written several songs that are actually pretty good, they rhyme and have a proper beat. They got their wardrobe all set up today and had me do a photoshoot for them. I doubt they will take this much further before getting bored and moving on to something else. But I hope they at least have one concert so I can video tape it!