The play auditions

Unfortunately, for Clair, she did not get selected to play Roxy. She seem to take it in stride. She was happy that her friend Andrew was given the role. She did decide she wanted to learn all the lines anyway. I told her she should talk to her teacher about what she needs an understudy. I haven’t heard about the outcome of that conversation yet.

Growing up Clair

This girl is relentlessly, full of new ideas and making commitments and promises to write books, build things, paint things, do things, and it goes on and on. The one thing that has been consistent since I remember, Claire proclaiming what she would do when she grew up (after she got over, becoming a Tiggerr) is that she was going to become a doctor, specifically a pediatrician. Today she asked me if I would get her some fifth grade math books. She said she wanted to get good at math to make sure she could become a doctor. I joked with her and said well why don’t you just start studying for the MCAT now. A few minutes later after asking and understanding with the MCAT was she was looking for books and tools that could be used to help start her studying. 

Sunday, on the way home from church, She asked me if she could start researching colleges. I decided to let her. A few minutes later, she calls to me from the office and starts asking me about the top three medical schools that she’s found Dash Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia. Talk about an expensive plan. She started taking notes and trying to figure out which she wanted to go visit. 

I am not sure what to do with this girl and I love her energy and sometimes I worry. 

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Max brings a good time

Generally speaking, Max knows how to live in up environment. He really tends to bring a positive energy and a good time to the situation.

This past weekend we were outside all day on Saturday for some cold soccer games with Clair. He came with David for the afternoon games and he was great company. He was talking to me some. He would tell me some jokes. He would snuggle a little bit. He would go off to play soccer a little bit and come back. He would cheer on his sister, mostly. When we were sitting in the car between games trying to warm up he was also really good at bringing some jokes did the table. He reads her room and tries to make people laugh. I love my boy!

Max really tries to be helpful

If I ask Max to do something quick, such as run, an errand between floors for me, I’ve noticed he’s always willing to help. He likes to lend a hand and gain immediate gratification in the process. He really tells me no when I say it’s time to do some thing. I appreciate this about him. I hope that he learns to take pride in the work that he does when he takes on harder tasks. 

Last weekend he painted one of our older outside chairs. He was looking for money and asked for jobs he could do around the house. David tried to teach him about the basics of painting. For his first time he did all right. I was frustrated that he didn’t be more careful with the paint and that it ended up everywhere including my kitchen counter. We did end up settling on paying him $10 for the chair. There’s another one for him to do and I’m hoping that he learned from the first one, because we will pay him more money for higher quality. 

Ellie shows great patience with others

As Ellie grows, it’s interesting to watch her development. One thing I have noticed is that she has great patients for younger children, and I watch her extend this to her sister often. It makes me very proud of her.

Tonight when Ellie came in from piano lessons, Claire ran up to her to show her a drawing she had made of lady gray. Ellie stopped what she was doing and admired the drawing, and was really kind to Clair. In that moment, I could see great heart shining from Ellie towards her sister. I can’t help but hoping that they are building a lasting relationship where they look after each other and support each other throughout their lives.

Here they are together about a month ago, enjoying their hot chocolate bombs. They got in there Christmas stocking. 

Family day

This Sunday we decided we would make a family event out of going to see a free concert at Hood College. It was a brass quintet and one of the musicians is Claire’s orchestra teacher. We knew we would take Claire and we decided to make Max and Ellie tagalong.

We spent a little time walking around the main college club before the show started. The first half of the show was enjoyable, but there wasn’t a lot of songs that we knew. It was quiet and it halftime. The kids asked if we could leave. We said no.

The music in the second half of the show was great, and several pieces were recognizable. Everybody seemed to admit to enjoying the show. After the show we went to dinner nearby. This is a restaurant we’ve been to many times over the years, including before Clair was born. We often would go when Bob was in town. We always have the same table as there are not many tables for more than four people in this restaurant.

We had a nice meal, and everybody was happy to be out. We don’t take the kids out to eat very often because it’s expensive. They were happy to be up and choosing their own meal and everybody seem to get along. It was a nice family day.

Cleaning out Clair’s closet

This past weekend we cleaned out Clair’s closet of all that it has collected over the past 6 1/2 years since we moved in. David has started the process of renovating her room to add a bathroom.

As part of the clean out process, we had to decide what to do with the bag of things that she made for her future kids a few years ago. They are lovely arts and crafts made of paper, many of them with a Christian component, like a heart or verse about God. 

She looked through the bag and then began to acknowledge that these would not last for 20 years until she has her kids. So we decided to take a picture of her with all of the things that she made so that we could preserve this memory.

Clair auditions for the school musical lead

Clair decided to not only participate in the spring chorus concert at school, but also to try out for the lead role Roxy!

For the past 2 to 3 weeks, she has been memorizing the role of Roxy, with emphasis and focus on the sections of the script that would be required for the auditions. I’m so proud of how hard she worked to be ready for the auditions. She took feedback about being louder and slowing down. She also thought about the motions and the movements that would best suit the character for the script.

We had a lot of conversation about how trying out means not necessarily getting the role. She was happy to work through the audition process and acknowledge that there’s a good chance she won’t get the role. There were 23 students, according to the teacher, I tried out for this role.

Today at lunch were the tryouts. Claire recap the experience for me. She told me she was so nervous that she could not eat her lunch while she was waiting her term. She was one of the people who went earlier in the group. She made a point to be loud. At one point she got a chance to restart and she slow down. She says the hardest part was at the end when she knew she needed to bump the jukebox with her hip, but she felt embarrassed to do that. But she said she consciously told herself that she should do it because it would give her a better chance of getting the role because it would show the teacher that she would be willing to do it on stage. 

I could not be more proud of Claire for putting herself out there and giving something hard a try. Clair is not somebody who likes to be the center of attention. But she decided she wanted to be this lead role and put the work in and the effort in. She is excited to hear the outcome, and so am I. We don’t know when we were here. I love this girl and her energy and willingness to try things and work hard at different things.