J's tap rehearsal went well. They'll need more than this one practice, though. The teacher was an hour late and only about 2/3 of the kids showed up, but it looks good. J did great even though she was the littlest one. B and I decided to use our free trip credit for dance Nationals. We'll use some this year and some next year. The 2006 Nationals will be driveable so we'll use about $700 for the hotel. 2007 Nationals is probably going to be in Las Vegas, so the rest of that money will go to airfare and hotel. It's a big load off our backs to have that expense covered.

The kids had a ball today playing with Stuck-on Marbleworks. It's a marble run with pieces that suction-cup to flat surfaces. We were hysterically laughing at how many times we just couldn't get it to follow the trail we made. It has lots of cool pieces instead of just flat slides and chutes. J didn't put Marisol down all day and then found out that there's a new American Girl named Jess who is HOMESCHOOLED. So now you know she wants that one, too. BIG SIGH. J was on the phone today with her friend from her old school. They talked for over an hour, catching up on different things. She said the 4th grade teacher is really mean and gave them a lot of work to do over the vacation. J just looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back.

K and I watched almost all of the Degrassi episodes. Ok, so they're not so bad. There was one episode where a sex-ed teacher was showing the kids how to put a condom on a banana, but I asked if K would just fast-forward that and we kinda laughed at it. There were other episodes on porn, internet stalkers, and periods, but we talked about that as it was on and she didn't seem uncomfortable or embarrassed. I do like the fact that we can talk about things (although I am totally cringing inside! LOL). I know the newer episodes (on The N channel) deal with a lot more sex and drugs so we'll just stick with the DVDs for now. One thing at a time. K also spent time today writing back to her penpal in Spain. Frances and K were in Kindergarten together. Frances moved to Spain that summer and she and K have been writing to each other ever since.

Link of the day:
http://www.livefreelearnfree.com/5Laquidara.htm