Magic

Hattie had her dance debut this weekend, dancing to the disco classic "Magic". (you know - "have to believe we are magic...") She has been taking ballet here in ABQ for about 2 months. When she started, the rest of the class had already ordered costumes for the recital, so we agreed that we would just be taking these last few classes of the year for fun and not be doing the recital. That was fine with us, and Hattie can be very shy and reluctant in front of people anyway.

Well, last week, one of the girls in her class dropped out and all of a sudden there was a hole in the dance formation and an extra costume available. They asked if Hattie would like to jump in and do it since she actually had learned the routine pretty well. I hesitated a bit, but David and I decided that Grace has gotten to do so much and Hattie so little so far that maybe it was Hattie's turn to do something big.

I don't think it's only a mother's love that says this kid is a gorgeous little creature. Seeing her in a pink sparkly dance outfit with the little ballet shoes that are on their second generation of dancers just makes me flutter. She can really get into things when she lets her guard down, so I thought maybe between the "princess" outfit and all the attention on her she might pull through and shine. But my heart sank when I saw the recital instructions saying that you had to drop the kids off 30 minutes prior to the recital and they would be backstage for the entire thing, no parents allowed. I knew this wouldn't go over well with Harriet, knowing that I've had to pretty much sit with her in her church class for all 2 hours up until just a few weeks ago. She's been pretty worried about me leaving her since we moved.

Friday night was the dress rehearsal at the Popejoy Theater at UNM. It's definitely a neat theater - the Wicked and Beauty and the Beast musicals are both going to be done there soon. I was totally amazed when Hattie let me drop her off with her teacher. She bravely went out on stage with her class and shyly threw out a few dance steps too. She even remained unflustered when a series of "wand stealing" went on when the girls picked up the wrong wands from the stage and proceeded to take them out of each other's hands. After the whole thing though, I think it overwhelmed her to the point of breakdown on Saturday.

(outside the theater right before dress rehearsal)

Saturday night, Hattie cautiously went backstage, rose in hand for her teacher. She seemed like she would be ok. Whew. I went around to the theater and found our seats with David and Grace. Not 10 minutes later, a voice over the loudspeaker asked if Hattie Chapman's mom could please come to the side curtain. She was in sobbing tears. She said she didn't want to dance. She was scared to go onstage. She didn't want to be backstage. She wanted to leave. Oh no. I didn't want some wicked stage mom to come out in me and make her do something she really didn't want to do. But, at the same time I wanted her to stretch herself a little and do what she had come to do (and seemed excited for in the beginning.) Ok, maybe a little selfishly, I wanted to see her dance onstage and have her daddy get to see her too since he wasn't allowed at the rehearsal.

Luckily, the studio staff were extremely understanding and kind and let me come and sit with her in the green room. I got her calmed down enough that she said she would go onstage if I would go with her. Again, they were very very nice and let me stand right at the curtain while she danced.

I was so proud of that little sweetie. She dried her tears, got very brave, and stepped out with her hands on her hips with her class. She didn't go for the gold medal performance, but she earnestly tried to keep up and got a few moves in.

In the end, I think Hattie's stage fright got her the best deal. She got to come back to the audience with me and watch all the rest of the performances while the other dancers had to stay in the stage basement. The whole recital was done to disco music and I have to say it was pretty darn cool to see classic ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop, set to 70's disco tunes. She had the absolute best time watching all the numbers and jamming out with the music, and I think she might have been proud of herself that she had been part of it. I am so proud of my brave beautiful little Hattie.

(you earned those flowers sweetie pie)

(silly sisters after the recital)

what we've been up to

(Grace and Hattie sitting on a really cool tiled chair at the zoo during Grace's 1st grade field-trip.)

I feel like we haven't said much about the daily comings and goings for a while. We seem to keep pretty busy. Here are some updates from youngest to oldest:

Harriet: is liking her dance class, but is a bit of a reluctant performer. She's a little shy and reserved, but when she lets herself go, she has a blast. Her first recital will be this Saturday. We'll be sure to post about that. She has enjoyed lots of time at home with mommy, going on lots of outings and shopping, and is my best helper. She folds laundry, unloads the dishwasher, makes her bed... She's loving her new swing-set that we got with the help of some birthday money from Grandma.

Hattie is currently on a play-date with Abby down the street. They play quite a bit during the day and it's nice to be able to go back and forth between the houses. Hattie took her other birthday money and bought a Cinderella princess dress complete with "glass" slippers that light up. She wears it several times a week and is counting down the days to when we go to Disneyland to meet all the princesses!

Grace: has 2 more days of 1st grade after today. She has loved first grade, but unlike her kindergarten year, she is excited for the last day of school and the beginning of summer. She misses her old class, but has learned to like her new class too. Hopefully, she won't get off the bus in tears like she did on the last day of kindergarten. She ran the 50 yd dash and did the softball throw in the regional school track and field meet last week. She was pretty pumped about doing it and can't stop talking about it or wearing the t-shirt.

Grace has been keeping in touch with friends in MA by virtual play-dates on the computer and phone as well as post cards and e-mail. She has a friend, Lizzie, who's mom hosts a basketball club for the girls and teaches them how to play, so she's been loving that. She's still doing karate twice a week and getting ready to test for her first belt (gold sash) in Chinese Kenpo. Her instructor, Mr. Kao, has graciously let her wear her kung fu blue belt this whole time instead of making her go back to the white belt.

We are really proud of Grace. She has once again saved up her money for a long time to buy something she really wanted. She bought her first guitar a few weeks ago and paid for most of it herself. She took one private starter lesson and learned the strings, a little fingering, and a couple of songs. She will take a summer session of group guitar lessons and then we'll look into permanent private lessons after that.

Michelle: Did I mention I'm loving the sun? I'm sure that's getting boring for people to hear, but I seriously can't get over how much I love it. I am also loving sitting outside on the front porch in the evening with a book while the kids ride bikes. Last night we ate on the back patio in the cool shade with not a single bug to bug us. It was heaven. I knew I wasn't making up how much I missed being able to do that when we lived in New England. I really missed being able to go outside in the evening and linger until the sun went down.

I found a book club almost right away after moving here, so I've been reading a lot. For the first time in the 10 years I've gone to book clubs, I'm finishing the books every single month! (does that have something to do with not working?) I've also been reading a lot about Henry Eyring (the chemist) lately. He is so interesting and has so many good things to say about the world and life and how to explain it all. I've made quite a few friends here and spend quite a bit of time getting to know them as well as keeping in touch with old friends in MA and in SLC. I'm also getting excited to join David in Hawaii when he goes there for work next month. I'm a little nervous to leave the girls and go so far away, but it will be great to get away with David.

David: has been doing lots of cycling lately. He rides to work whenever he can. It's an hour commute (18.something miles each way) with some pretty big climbs both ways. He's planning to ride in a 100 mile bike tour of ABQ next weekend. Crazy dude. He seems to like his new job (especially his every other Friday off) and has been traveling a lot with it too. I'm trying to think of all the places he's gone since we moved here. I know he's been to LA a couple of times, New England, San Diego, He's going to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks and then Hawaii 2 days after that.

What else does Daddy do? Well, his chore list has shrunk quite a bit since moving. Our yard here takes about 15 minutes to do on Saturday morning and then he's home free. He definitely isn't missing the 2 hours of mowing and the endless upkeep of the huge yard and old house that we used to have. Our new house is treating us pretty well. There are lots of things we COULD do to it, but nothing that has to get done anytime soon, so we're kicking back and relaxing for now. He did take the girls camping a couple weekends ago and they all had a blast. Did they take any pictures? Not that I have seen.

Well, that's us in a nutshell for the last several weeks. Time to go outside and enjoy my 87 degree day with no wind!

sun-worshipping

It's no secret that I quite literally worship the sunshine. Living here in NM is awesome for that. The sunrises over the mountains every morning are always gorgeous and we have a great view through our big upstairs windows. The sunsets reflect off of the sandy stucco colors of the houses and make everything glow and look warm. Someone told me the sun shines brighter here than even in Arizona. Fine by me. Arizona is too hot anyway. Whatever the case, I have so much more motivation during the day when the sun is out. But, what I didn't know, is that our funny Velvet dog is also a sun-worshipper. She's always liked to lie around in the yard in a sunny place, and she used to enjoy her bed underneath the only sunny window in our house in MA. But here, she's taken it to a new level.

As soon as Velvet wakes up in the morning, she finds a spot of Eastern sun, somewhere near the stairs or on the landing. As the sun is gradually blocked by the house, she moves from window to window until all the sunny spots of warm carpet are gone. Then, she goes outside and basks in it for as long as I'll let her stay in the yard. She's even been caught sleeping on the gravel with the sun beating down on her, getting warm from top and bottom. I think Velvet and I are more closely related to reptiles since we seriously take on lizard form and warm ourselves and absorb energy however we can all day.

(favorite spot on the stair landing)

(in the girls' room this morning)

(sometimes you just need to warm your nose and your toes)

(sometimes you stay until the last sliver is gone)

(then you go outside for the real thing and some good Vitamin D)

An unexpected visitor

This morning as we were just about out the door to church, Shadow our flat coat retreiver became very interested in our gas insert and had her nose against the glass and was pawing at it. I went over to investigate and saw something brown moving around in our gas insert. At first I thought it was a mouse, but upon closer inspection it was a little male house finch. I wasn't quite sure what to do. The little

guy was pretty freaked out and I wasn't enthralled with the idea of roasted bird for breakfast. So we delayed going to church while I tried to figure out how to get the bird out. I ended up going outside and taking the vent cover off. That provided a 4 inch opening and eventually the little guy saw the light and was free. Shadow was probably very disappointed and I'm sure spent the whole time we were at church staring at the fireplace hoping for some more excitement. As it turned out, there was a start of a nest in the vent pipe. One of the wire meshes was bent and allowed birds to get in. No eggs though, so I while I ruined a nest, I didn't ruin a family.

He probably didn't want to start his day off this way either.

There was no way out and I'm sure Shadow was freaking him out.

Grace was also pretty interested in the house finch. Check it off the list of birds seen in New Mexico.

Miss Hattie Marie is 4 years old!

She's a total princess, our Hattie. We love her for it and we love her in spite of it. She is the most smooch-able, cuddliest, sweetest girl alive with big, wide, light-blue/green eyes that can melt anything with their accompanying dimpled cheeks just below. Then, in a nanosecond, she can turn into to an ear-piercing siren with the biggest pouty lip and sassiest mouth you've ever seen or heard.

She turned 4 years old yesterday. We really can't believe it. She has come so far and grown up so much. She wishes she could do everything the bigger kids do, but at the same time, she loves being the baby. I think she'd go right back to being a baby if she could. I asked her tonight what she wants to be when she grows up. First she said "a princess", then she said "a mommy" then, she thought about that one (must have thought about all the things I do) and said, I don't want to, I just want to be a kid.

She does live life for the moment and in the moment. Yet, she loves to make plans too. Every night before she goes to bed, she asks what we are going to do when we wake up. She loves to count down to big events like Christmas, birthdays, trips, and outings.

She says the sweetest prayers. It's amazing how much she actually thinks about her day and what she liked about it (thus what she is thankful for) and then also how much she thinks about what will happen soon so that she can ask for blessings too.

Harriet is a perfectionist. Everything in Hattie's life is perfect, and if not, you know about it. We like to call her the princess and the pea. She notices every pea in the mattress of life. She lives for comfort and is thrilled by things being just right. She likes things to be in the right place at the right time, which makes her into a great helper around the house. She likes to put things away, and make things neat. She does not tolerate those who don't live up to her high standards.

She has been called our "hall monitor." Remember the kids who used to have that job in elementary school? That's Hattie. She makes sure everyone follows the rules and reports on those who don't.

Hattie loves pink and princesses and baby dolls. She loves animals, specifically horses, doggies, and elephants. She loves dressing up in pretty dresses and playing beauty shop (although, you will be lucky to get a brush through her hair in the morning.) She loves to write the letter H for her name, but is reluctant to learn to write the rest. She is a monkey. The monkeys at the zoo today did not hold anything over Hattie's climbing skills. She can often be found hanging from the stair railing, a door knob or balancing on the edge of a piece of furniture.

Harriet is thoughtful. She ALWAYS "gets something for Grace" whenever we are out and about during the day. She is constantly making pictures for Grace or Daddy or Mommy. She is the best mommy to her baby dolls and tries to take very good care of Shadow and Velvet.

We just love our little princess Hattie and we are so happy she had her 4th birthday! Happy Birthday little girl! aka - monkey breath.

little stinkers!

Melissa's plane just landed in Salt Lake a few minutes ago. She hasn't been to my house in over 2 years, so her visit this week was completely overdue and very exciting for both of us. I'm so proud of her that she dared get on a plane with her kids all by herself. Good job Lissie! Hope your flight home wasn't too rough...

David is gone on business this week, so it was just the two of us and our little stinkers. The biggest little stinkers are namely, Sean and Hattie. I don't know what the 4 year-olds have against peace and harmony, but their conviction is strong! Despite the cousin rivalry, we had so much fun. We spent lots of time in the playroom just laying on the floor and talking while the kids played. The weather was luckily pretty nice so we tried to do as much outside as we could too. I pulled them to the park in the wagon one day, and we played in our little yard.

Poor Gracie had to go to school and miss a lot of it. But, she did have an early release day yesterday so we jumped in the car right after lunch and went to the zoo and the aquarium during naptime - an epic outing for sure. When you go somewhere with Lissie, be prepared to make it snappy! I can't believe we did pretty much the whole zoo and then drove to the aquarium and finished it all in about 3 hours. It's great that our kids' favorite animals tend to be the same: polar bears, wolves, big cats, giraffes, and elephants.

(note the pouty face on Hattie)

(Grace and Sean are convinced if they chase the birds, they will eventually catch one.)

(do I get to vote for my favorite wild animal? It has to be the giraffe. It has been my favorite ever since I saw them running on a beach in Kenya. This is the little baby at the zoo. very sweet little family...)

But, Sean's favorite thing on Earth right now is a shark. The kid is pretty darn funny. I knew we had to make it to that shark tank before the end of the day! Oh my goodness sakes, what is that?!!!

On the way home from the zoo, we stopped to grab a pink birthday cake and some pizza for dinner. We had a cute little impromptu party for Hattie so that she could eat some birthday cake with her cousins. It is STILL not her birthday yet, and already, I have so many pictures of this kid blowing out candles to celebrate it. We're going to have to label these pics carefully so that in 20 years we can figure out why on Earth she had 4 different birthday cakes when she turned 4!

Grace and Sean probably have the best time with each other. They are both little science nerds and love all things informational about nature. Here they are reading "what sharks eat for dinner" as a bed-time story together.

Well, 3.5 days just flew by. I knew they would which is why I asked her to come while David was gone - so his trip didn't seem so long for us. I'm glad the kids have been able to spend lots of time with Sean and Kate and Melissa lately since it had been so long before this spring that they had seen each other. That is one thing I am REALLY loving about living here. We are so close to so many family members. I don't feel so disconnected and distant. I was starting to feel like I had to imagine everyone all the time. I really felt like I lived on another planet in MA.

Thanks Barnhisels for coming to see us Chapman girls. The house is sure quiet and empty today without you.

random thoughts and what's been keeping me busy

So, I think the hardest thing about moving for me so far (aside from leaving friends) is recreating the kids' extra-curricular activities. Before moving, we were so settled into the things the girls liked doing and totally happy with all of their lessons. Having as much (or as little) access to the barn as we wished was just a dream come true. Then, as I've said before, the karate school and Master Doug are just not replaceable. I knew music lessons would be on the horizon soon, but other than that, I was all set for a long time.

I have been so torn lately. The balance between finding places that are similar to what we had before, while keeping driving times short and lesson times reasonable has been very hard. Also, the balance between letting the kids do the things they are most interested in and allowing them to go separate ways (thus creating more lessons) and keeping the costs under control is also crazy. Am I the only one who obsesses about these things?

I do not do well when I am on the go all day long. I like being home. I like the kids being home, and I don't like feeling frazzled and short on time. I don't want the girls to be in lessons every single evening so that we don't ever have time to do anything else. I don't want our weekends to be packed with places to go so that we never get to spend time with David and as a family. But, I also want the girls to experience lots of different things. I want them to have skills, be active, and have responsibility for and feel the accomplishment of mastering something. At the same time, I don't want to be so committed to any one thing right now that we just live at the barn or the karate studio or the dance studio. I don't want to sell my soul to anything thing like that when they are so young. And, I don't want to unknowingly make the decision for what they spend the rest of their life doing just because the lesson was easy and convenient for me.

We finally did settle on a karate place for Grace. Harriet did love going with her in MA, but she was starting to fizzle a little bit and now that we've moved, I don't think she'd like the kinds of schools we've found. They're a bit too serious and hard-core for her personality and her age. Where is the Master Doug of NM? He's not here. I have looked high and low. Grace continues to thrive on the martial arts though, and seems to be doing ok in her transition from being a blue belt in Kung Fu to starting over in Chinese Kenpo. It was the best compromise we could come up with.

Grace also wants to learn to play the guitar. She wants to be a rock star. Far be it from me to shatter her dreams at the age of 7. I don't know if she will really turn out to be a rock star or not, but it won't hurt her to learn to play a musical instrument in the mean-time. So, I have been carefully searching out guitar instruction for her. It is very expensive (or at least seems to be double what piano is), and/or is taught by a lot of greasy old washed up former "rock stars" who, quite frankly, are not going to come within 50 feet of my little girl. Still, the cute little gal has been saving ALL her allowance, birthday money, and other little earnings for several months now to buy her own guitar. I am so proud of her for doing that. We're going to try out a place nearby that does group lessons at first and then move her into private lessons if she does prove to be as serious as she seems about it.

Little Hattie, my princess, is going to try out dancing. I have always felt bad that the pink-hating, princess-avoiding, Gracie girl got to do 2+ years of dance when she was little and Hattie hasn't had a chance yet. I guess that may be a good thing about taking her out of karate, which I wouldn't have had the heart to do in MA. We have found a studio that seems to fit the bill, so the little darling will officially start this week. She did a trial class last week and totally loved it. She kept up with the class and the teacher, and looked just like the little princess that she is!

So, I feel pretty good about our list so far, but it has taken me many weeks to find these places and come to these decisions. My only hang-ups now are the other things we could be doing. I want my kids to be good swimmers, so we really have to fit in swimming somewhere. I feel like it's a safety issue, not a fun activity issue. Grace also likes sports and I know she'd love to play on a little soccer team. But, we just can't do everything nor should we. It boils down to choosing between lots of good things.

Then, there's the barn factor. I just flat out miss riding myself and frankly haven't done much of it in the last couple of years. I have sincerely tried to be as objective as possible and not make my kids ride if they didn't want to. But, I don't know if they really had a chance to turn it down when I put them on a horse with reins in their hands for the first time before they were each even 2 years old. They truly loved Hybid Farm and "their" sweet little pony, Tink. Hattie misses her. She talks about her all the time. Grace hasn't had a lot of time to miss her yet, but I know she will. Trying to ride without working at a barn just breaks the bank. I don't want to tie myself up again working right now. I am loving the freedom I have to really take care of my kids during the day and catch up on things at night. I am trying to let the horse factor go for the moment, but I know it will keep calling me. I'm hoping we can just do some random riding here and there and fill my horse bucket (and the girls') in a different way for now.

Well, like I said, random thoughts... but that's what I have been mostly occupied doing lately! It has consumed my days by phone and my nights by internet to research it all and figure it all out.

Oh, and I've also done a little painting. People who are on my facebook have already seen these pics, but for the grandmas who have avoided the facebook era, here is my latest home improvement project/settling-in-task to be done (which is to say that I tried to make the girls' room as exactly like it was in MA as possible!):

(closet with stenciled ponies at the top)

We have tons of other projects we'd like to do in the house. But, we're just going to do them one at a time as we have time and money. I'm very happy to have this room done though. It is so much more cheerful and feels more like our home than just a place where we put our furniture and sleep on it.

catching up - Easter 2010

(cool flowering thing at the bio park, wish I knew what it was. whatever it is won't grow in my yard.)

Ok, I'm way behind on my blogging. I think I hit a point this month where I had to choose between living my life and writing about it. You can guess which one won. I've actually started several posts, but haven't finished any of them. I know very few people really care whether I've got all the family events out there on the internet or not, but this is my journal and my scrapbook too, so I'm catching up for me. Here's the first one I need to do:

Easter was simple and sweet this year. I feel like it was absolutely ages ago. It was nice that it fell on General Conference Sunday because it was a completely relaxing day at home, but it was also strange to not dress up and go to church on Easter Sunday

(we wore the new dresses the week before.)

Easter weekend was quite filled with fun activities. Grandma and Grandpa Chapman along with Aunt Christine had driven down for a few days to visit and see our new house. Poor Grandpa got stuck doing David's honey-do list. But, we sure like the new shelves in the laundry room. Thanks Earl! While they were here, we also met up with our friend Alex and his kids for our first trip to the aquarium and biopark gardens.

(Aunt Christine and the girls in front of the shark tank.)

(our little Asian culture lover standing in front of Chinese sculptures, several hundred years old.)

(naturalized crocuses on the lawn at the bio gardens. I've always wanted to try this, but never have had the time or the guts to do it to my lawn.)

Then, of course, we had a couple of egg hunts. One with friends from church over at the park:

Then E.B. himself did visit our house and left quite a great egg hunt in our new territory. We are still finding eggs that he hid because we are not used to our new house and the new hiding places!

I think the pictures probably say it best.