Choir and Band concerts

Anika's school switched a bunch of things up this year so choir and band are now electives which made for much smaller groups. Also, it means two separate nights of concerts as all the bands (7th - 12th) are one night and all the choirs ( 7th - 12th grade) are another night.

The choir concert was held at a local church and the band concert was held at a local school.  Anika's school does not have its own auditorium, so its always a bit of a toss up where we will end up.  So she is part of the 7 - 8th grade choir and the 7-8th grade band. This means she doesn't have any of the other electives, but this was her choice and she seems to be enjoying them both. 

Whenever her band teacher is gone and has a sub that doesn't know music, Anika is put in charge of conducting, which I find quite entertaining. I guess she makes the band go through each song, so that's something.

Father Daughter Dance

Last summer, the YMCA had a father/daughter dance and all three girls got to go and enjoy themselves. This year we were gone the weekend of the dance and I was so sad they missed that opportunity. But then school starts and the school announces they are having a father/daughter dance. I was quite excited. I did up their hair, pulled out some fancy dresses and off they went for pizza and a party. They did the limbo, danced, and played on the swing set at school.  Why not play when you're all dolled up I guess. And I was home alone for over an hour.

Spirit Week

And Anika goes for it.
Monday - Mismatch day - she wore two different socks and two different shoes
Tuesday - Twin day - she and two other girls wore tie dye shirts and red capes and black pants
Wednesday - Celebrity Day - Olaf
Thursday - Neon Day
Friday - Warrior Day - Green and White - school colors

It's time to dance in the rain

or at least play on the pudding can stilts.

And so it begins

I have no good reasons, but I love soccer season. I love watching my kids play soccer. I love how much fun they have. I love all the neat families we have met. I love how much they have learned. I don't so much love how busy it is, but such is life.

Brandon prefers mid field and forward. Maria defense. Anika doesn't care and will play goalie to forward depending on the game. Jessica LOVES to play goalie but will also play anywhere depending on the game.

Meet Charlie

Charlie is the newest recruit to the Eenigenburg dog sitting world. Charlie's parents were gone for three weeks. Jessica has decided she is going to own a Sheltie some day. She also says she is never going to get married and just have dogs... a great dane and a sheltie. Time will tell.

Charlie is very easy to have around. He hates fireworks and thunderstorms. He likes to sleep on a bed with the kids. Charlie sheds... therefore the kid's beds are no longer hair free. Lovely. Charlie also gets very upset when I leave the house - as in barks, tries to bite me and runs in circles.  Not sure what that means.

Labor Day Weekend

No major plans for Labor Day Weekend, but we did manage to have all kinds of fun.

On Saturday, we traveled a bit to my cousin and her husband's cabin - almost 3 hours from our home - but so much fun. Aunt Kathy came along and the kiddos all had fun playing together and tubing. We took a tour of the lake on the pontoon towards the end of the evening. It was a great couple of hours!

The Nina and the Pinta sailed into town - literally. These are exact replicas of the actual ships, made by descendants of the actual ship builders.  They were cool to look at but as a Y member we got to tour them for free, which was a good thing. There wasn't much to see once you got on board and I would have been very disappointed if we had actually spent money on the tickets. The dock was not far from the YMCA, so the crew showered at the Y which gave all of us free passage onto the boat.

Then on Monday we were off to the Dutch Village. I hadn't been there since I was a very small child and it is such a fun place. The weather did not cooperate which made me very sad, but I noticed on our tickets that the free passes the kids got from the library are good all through 2015 so we can hit it again in the spring. That made the day much better. If you look at the picture, you can see how hard it was raining and how drenched the kids were. They had fun ... ferris wheel, flying swings, videos of Holland, wooden shoes, Delft, carousel, farm, zipline..... and the candle shop.