Most of Berit's nights are pretty busy now that school is in full swing. Spelling words are given out on Monday and quizes happen on Friday. Piano assignments go from Wednesday to Wednesday, and we try to practice about 15 minutes nightly. And homework is given out every school night except Monday. We've also been trying to do 20 minutes of reading each night.

I've started working Hooked on Phonics with Rowan, which has been cool because she likes the CD Rom that goes with it. She's actually started reading a few basic words, but we need to go back and work on her sounds a little bit more.

Griffin? He still loves to be read to. Tonight it was "The Trouble with Grandad" and "Baby Beluga." Berit also read "Horton Hears a Who" to the other two.

Berit blew me away at her Soccer game! Berit is typically a hanger-back on offense, but today she really got after the ball! It was really cool to watch her repeatedly steal the ball from the other team and dribble it back down towards their goal. It didn't end in a goal for her any time, but she got so close with it several times and was very persistent. A couple of the parents commented to me how good she looked, too! I was very proud.

Tough night for Berit. First she practiced piano, then she did her homework, then we drilled spelling words, and finally we read.

She enjoyed it all though, I had fun working with her. I especially enjoy helping her with piano. :)

Have I mentioned that Rowan spends much of her time listening to and dancing to the Shrek 2 soundtrack. It pleases her to bits when I'll come dance in her room with her. Me too.

What a great weekend!

We all went to Pioneer Days, an annual event that the Boulder Historic Society puts on at this ranch in the foothills to teach folks what it was like to live without electricity, running water, the internet...

Rowan was pretty tired which translated directly to pretty whiney and cranky. Still, she thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the seat of the big plow. We toured the ranch and were schooled in the fine arts of blacksmithing, lasooing, and spinning wool. It was obvious that the big winner for the kids was getting to manually wash, dry, and hang a sock (Berit did about 10 socks).

Pam and I square-danced with a handful of adults, and then Berit and I did the Virginia Reel. She didn't want to do it, but I think she had a good time, in spite of her efforts not to.

Berit has started soccer again, and is doing GREAT! She played hard this morning, running after the ball like I've never seen her do. She also had a chance to show her prowess in the goal.

I was being a little harsh with Griffin as I hurried him to bed for the umpteenth time, when he turned to me with his face all scrunched up in mock anger and said, "I'm going, you big, stupid man!"

It was a great weekend in Vail. On Saturday morning, we hooked Griffin up to Pam's bike in the burley trailer, Rowan rode behind me on the trail-a-bike, and Berit rode under her own steam on her one-speed. From East Vail to the way cool playground at Ford Park and then into Vail for lunch, we rode as a family. It's about 7 miles, and we rode there and back, which I thought was INCREDIBLE for Berit. No complaining, either.

Early in the ride, though, she seemed to lose control around a corner for no reason and ditched off the side of the trail. She was luckily not hurt.

If Griffin's not throwing a fit or destroying something just for the sheer fun of it, he's usually merely not paying attention to what I'm telling him to do.

Right now, he's screeching at the top of his lungs.

We all went to Berit's opening night of Seussical the Musical on Thursday. She played a Who. She was very cute singing and dancing up there in her Who outfit with all the other Whos, and she even had a line:

"It came without tags."

We feared she'd get into trouble with the director for all the discreet waving and smiling at us.