The Continuing Adventures of Bonnie and Clyde

I know I’ve been a bit delinquent; the end of the year has culminated in multiple activities with hardly a chance to breathe.  Let’s see … a quick recap.

• We’ve successfully finished another scouting year.
• The kids are working towards their next TaeKwonDo belt test.  The black belt isn’t the end of the road, but merely a beginning.
• The kids were finally able to attend “Take Your Kids to Work” Day with their dad, and got to play on some cool technology that was recently featured on NCIS.
• They finished their last pottery project (which I just remembered needs to be picked up).
• They finished up another fun year of chess club, and finished 1st and 4th in the tournament.
• They helped their dad check out the airplane for its annual inspection.
• They went on an amazing field trip to the National Portrait Gallery.

There, now you’re all caught up.  Today was the annual Spring piano recital, and the kids were pleased to have some grandparents in the audience, as well as a couple of friends.  They said it made them a little more nervous than usual, but all in all, it went fine.

Bonnie, in particular, was very nervous and excited.

If Clyde was nervous, he disguised it well; or put his nervous energy into some outstanding playing for him.  He should be right proud of how he performed today.

And then the two of them closed out the recital with their duet.  It always amazes us that the two children who can bicker through every practice pull it together so nicely in front of an audience.

Bonnie and Clyde and one other student tied for most books completed this year, and brought home a trophy.  Then, we were pleasantly surprised when Bonnie won the Most Advanced Award for the younger students, and then Clyde won the Most Advanced Award for the middle schooled students.  They’ve accomplished a great deal in 3.5 years of lessons, and they should be proud of what they’ve learned.

But, we’re most pleased about the fact that they just love to play.  There are pianists on both sides of the family, and we’re glad the tradition continues.

So, I was informed the other day that I had slacked off on publishing pictures to the blog.  You’re right, you’re right - it’s just been a very hectic time.  In many ways, I’m still back in February (and the temperature sinking to the 20’s tonight isn’t helping dissuade me from that.)

But, one way that I know it’s April?  When it’s time to celebrate my birthday.  Inspired by my mother’s bowling birthday party, the venue for our celebration was the local Putt-Putt course.

Bonnie enjoyed being on the Fireball team

The fireballs were inspired enough to all wear the team uniform of red t-shirts.

while Clyde was on the Turtle team

Don’t they look like they belong on the Alps?

In pottery, the kids are finished making their masks.  They had originally made some other creation, but there was an accident when the masks were being fired, and all the original ones were destroyed.  So, they were only able to paint these molds for this project.  The next project, they threw a bowl on the wheel, and I’m looking forward to seeing those.

Hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

In 2004, we decided to start Clyde with TaeKwonDo to help address some of his SID issues.  He was 6.5 years old, and Bonnie was adamant that she be allowed to try, too.  She had just turned 4 about two weeks before, and that was the youngest age the studio would allow.

So, they started without any belt at all.  Here’s Bonnie, trying to figure out what the kid next to her is doing.

And here they are, learning the 10 basic movements.

Along the way, I’ve periodically posted some updates and pictures of them climbing through the belts, and they can be found with the TKD tag.

Both kids were ready to take their Black Belt test sometime last year, but between a broken arm, sickness, vacations, and other circumstances that conspired against us,  we missed a bunch of chances to take the group test.  But, we finally made it!

Here they are now.  Big difference!

The first Friday night, the kids were tested on their kicking skills …

like the flying side kick …

and their forms …

and a little sparring.

That was about an hour and a half of the test.  The kids had had a practice earlier in the afternoon, so they were wiped out.  Clyde fell asleep at the dinner table, and Bonnie barely made it upstairs herself.

The second half of the test took place on a Saturday morning about a week later.  They were tested on their forms and their board breaking skills.

They were really impressed by some of the older kids (and adults) who had to break concrete blocks, and walk on glass … and they were glad they didn’t have to do that for their belt.

A celebratory tea ceremony later, they had their new uniforms, belts and certificates.  Congratulations to Bonnie and Clyde!  Not only on the final accomplishment, but on sticking with it.

Both kids have said they want to be instructors, so we’ll see how THAT step of the journey goes…

As is typical, after a long dry spell of extra activities, now everything is happening all at once.  Bonnie and Clyde are back to their pottery class, and the project for the month of February was to make birdhouses.

Here’s Bonnie’s.  She made a birdy drive-through!  Before you ask, we don’t make too many trips to the Starbucks.  It’s the bank. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

And Clyde’s.

And yes, those are the new braces that you can see.   Clyde’s mouth is feeling a little better, so we can actually take a picture of them now.  It’s nothing like when we were kids, though, now the braces are just glued on the front.  No evil headgear, either.

So - the Redskins’ colored braces.  Now, that’s a fan. Think that’s good enough for free tickets to a game?

They really changed the look of his face, though.  No doubt that we have a pre-teen here.

It’s been a hectic time for us, and I hope to get back to our Sunday updates, soon.  As a brief overview, though…

• The kids did well in their piano recital.  Clyde scored an Excellent from both judges, and Bonnie scored a Superior from both judges.  Good job, kids!
• Clyde was awarded his trophy for his 2nd place win at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby at the troop’s Blue & Gold dinner
• Bonnie has been selling Girl Scout cookies with mad abandon.  She asked her dad to stand outside at the cookie booth this year, so he would get to experience selling cookies in howling winds and freezing temperatures.  Of course, it was 45° and reasonably sunny that day.
• Clyde did finally get his braces put on.  He picked Redskins’ colors for the braces, so when he smiles at you, you can cheer for the Burgundy and Gold, too.  No-one doubts he’s a true fan.

That’s been about the last two weeks.  The kids have been fighting off the virus that has been floating around.  Some days they’re down with the sniffles, other days they seem fine.  I think we just need a good dose of sunshine and good weather to kick it.

The first half of their Black Belt belt test is coming up this weekend, so I hope they’re feeling well enough to do well at it.

Bonnie and Clyde’s piano teacher has her students perform in one piano recital a year, and the kids usually perform during the Spring.  This year, however, they’re getting additional performance experience as she is having them perform in their first piano festival.  The festival is this upcoming weekend, and they’ll be graded on their memory, accuracy, rhythm, technique and musicianship.

For those who won’t be able to attend, here are the pieces that they’re going to play.  (These were recorded a few weeks ago, but they’re still practicing!)

Bonnie playing Mystical Tarantella by Robert Vandall.  A Tarantella is a southern Italian dance.

Bonnie playing Le Petit Rien (The LittleNothing) in D Major by Francois Couperin.

Clyde playing L’Arabesque by Johann Friedrich Burgmuller.

And finally, Clyde playing El Zapateado by Dennis Alexander.  The Zapateado is a popular Spanish dance.  It is always in triple meter (usually in 3/8 time).  Althought it is danced by only one person accompanied by a guitar, there is considerable noise made by the feet.  Sounds perfect for Clyde.

Good luck, kids!

Our family has been involved in scouting since 1996, when my stepson joined his first cub scout den.  It was fun to do activities with the other boys, but the highlight of the year for my husband stepson was planning, building and racing the little car out of a block of wood to race at the pack Pinewood Derby.

We raced every cub scout year, and each year the guys would improve their technique.  A slightly more aerodynamic design. Better spinning wheels.  Optimum placement of the weights.  Testing, weighing, racing.  And then, suddenly, my stepson had moved on to Boy Scouts, where they don’t race in the derby any longer.

So, Dad was quite happy when Clyde became old enough to race, and the Pinewood Derby tradition could start all over again.   We had the monorail car, the Mater car, the arrow car, and this year, our final year, was a street racer.  We jokingly call it the Al Capone car.  (The second choice was a hamster-mobile.  I’m glad to see that good sense won out on that one because there’s nothing aerodynamic about our hamster.)

As I’ve mentioned in the past, each car races three times.  There are three different lanes on the track, and each car races once in each lane, and then the times are averaged.  Clyde’s car won in its first race, with a great time, and he was quite excited!  Victory was within reach, finally!

And then, as it’s wont to, near tragedy struck.  Another scout picked up Clyde’s car from the track, to hand it to Clyde, and dropped it.

Little car weights and decorations everywhere.  The thunderclouds rolled into Clyde’s countenance, and a year ago, that would have been the end of the Derby for us.  But, a timeout was called, and Clyde was allowed to re-pitstop his car, since it wasn’t his fault.  Dad and Clyde didn’t have time to glue on the pieces, but they were able to make do with some heavy-duty tape and some creative decorating.  Re-weighed the car to make sure it was within the weight standards, and Clyde’s car ran in the next two races.  And won them both.

Here it is, the 2nd race, on lane 2.

Slightly slower times than the first race (we think a wheel went off-kilter when it was dropped, but there was no time to fix that), but no-one could say that he rigged the car to go faster.  And most satisfying of all was that Clyde was able to pull himself together to keep racing.  And that made our final Pinewood Derby the most fantastic race of them all.

Long-time readers of this blog know that one of the perks of homeschooling for our family is the flexible travel schedule.  We don’t worry about the school calendar (except to know when NOT to tour the museums), so after Christmas, we pack up the new things, grab some snacks and hit the road to Florida.  This year was to be a little different, as we were going to fly to Florida:  a quick trip the first day to southern Georgia, a lunch stop near Orlando, a dinner stop near Tampa, and then on to our tropical destination of Naples.

That was the plan, anyway.  Yeah, the plans never quite work out the way we plan.  Long-time readers know that, too.

We woke up early on Saturday, and the weather was a bit questionable to fly our plane.   We would probably have been safe enough to make it, but that’s not quite good enough for my very conservative-minded husband (at least in matters of air travel), so we threw the kids, the toys, and the snacks into the car, and started driving.  We had plans in Orlando the next afternoon’s lunchtime; a quick plane ride, and a very, very, long car ride.  But we did it.  We drove further that first day than we ever had before.  And not one, “Are we there yet?”  Success!

Our plans changed again the 2nd day when our plans near Orlando fell through; we ended up in Tampa a little early.  It was a very fun and relaxing stop.

The kids played on the Wii with their friends, we enjoyed dinner, the adults had drinks and laughs, and we had just a short drive the next morning to make it to Naples.

At first, it seemed that the rest of our vacation would follow the regular plans.  Bonnie and Clyde quickly got into the spirit of card games and swimming.  Then, too quickly, it was New Year’s Eve.

Our New Year’s Eve tradition is to have pizza and shrimp, and then stay up too late watching the ball drop with Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve show.  More change.  We ended up having dinner at Mel’s Diner instead, because the kids were adamant that they have dinner with George Henry on this trip again.  George was very generous with his time; and it appears that he remembers us from year to year, and we enjoyed catching up on his exploits from the past year.  He even taught the kids a new Christmas carol … we’re hoping that they unlearn it very soon.  There’s a reason that George got nuttin’ for Christmas!

So, the shrimp didn’t come out until almost midnight, but we did watch Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest see in the New Year.  We didn’t do much on New Years (the kids actually slept in), but swim. Beats the snow!

Sometimes there’s a little too much leisure time, so it seemed like a good time to take a field trip.   We piled in the car and drove to Shark Valley - Everglades National Park. It had been a few years since the adults had been there, and Bonnie and Clyde had never been.  Count it as a school day!  We saw lots of great Florida wildlife, and the park ranger tried to make her talk interesting for the kids (i.e., she included as many gross facts as she could think of).

An ominous greeter in Shark Valley

Nesting Ahinga

Great Blue Heron

Baby alligators

Overall, the tour was fascinating, but really, did we need to know that turkey buzzards can projectile vomit over 6 feet as a defense mechanism?  Or that they defecate on their feet, and that’s why their feet are white?  Though it was interesting that their stomachs contain enzymes, etc. that can kill off botulism and E. coli - seems like that would be a good field of research to delve into.  I’m sure that part went over the kids’ heads, though, as most of the kids on the tour were still giggling about vultures throwing up …

That’s a lot of school work, and we had planned a very quiet weekend, but our plans changed again.  Our friends in Tampa had their plans change, too, and we decided on an impromptu visit to the beach together.  So, the kids and I piled into the car and made a quick trip up to Sanibel Island to Bowman’s Beach to spend the day in the sun and surf.  The kids enjoyed a day of building sand castles, playing football in the surf, and playing in the sand.  A fisherman a little further up the beach landed a 4′ nurse shark while we were there, even.  Pretty neat to see a bald eagle, too.

We had planned a quiet Sunday at the pool, but again, plans changed, and we ended up at the Museum of Science and Discovery in Fort Lauderdale with friends from Port St. Lucie.  The kids enjoyed taking a simulator ride to Mars, figuring out puzzles, making dinosaur molds.  They did not touch the snake, though, even though he was quite friendly.  A nice little museum - plenty to do to fill the day, but you didn’t leave feeling like you had missed out on half of it.

Feeling the winds of a plane as it takes off:

The future Air Force pilots enjoyed the flight simulators.

The pilots of this plane didn’t notice the thing affecting their wind resistance on take off.

And then Dad figured out that unraveling interpersonal relationships can be tricky.

The rest of the vacation was pretty peaceful - more games and more swimming.  Now that the kids are home, they really miss the 80 degree weather (me too!).  Next week - back to school!

As we take our annual break from the blog due to our holiday obligations, Bonnie and Clyde wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We’ll be back with updates on their adventures in 2009, and we look forward to hearing from you, as well.

I just realized that this post, last year, was entitled almost the same way… only it was just a bit like Christmas last year.  We’re further along the Christmas path this year, I guess!  The house is almost entirely decorated, the Christmas CDs have been converted to mp3, and the plans for the cookie baking have started.  The annual Christmas letter has been written, and the cards are being folded and addressed.  We’re doing pretty well this year (as long as we don’t talk about the state of the shopping).

Here’s one side of the family (the Asian side).  Grandma thought it would be fun to buy all the men/boys Christmas suspenders.  The big question is why all of the suspenders are red … except for the Caucasian guy.  I mean, it’s not like he isn’t already going to stand out in this crowd.

Bonnie and Clyde model their “Santa we’ve been good” expression.

But the real Bonnie and Clyde quickly peeks through.

It’s also time for the annual piano Christmas recordings.  The kids have been playing Christmas songs for the past few weeks, but they haven’t quite worked their way up to the TSO version of “Christmas Eve - Sarajevo 12-24″ (made famous on youTube with the house with the blinking Christmas lights.)   I’m putting in my request for next year, though.

Bonnie playing “Do You Hear What I Hear”

Bonnie playing a Christmas Medley

Clyde playing “A Christmas to Remember”

And Clyde playing “Carol of the Bells”

Gaily they ring

while people sing

songs of good cheer,

Christmas is here,

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas!