Unplanned Break

I seem to have been taking a bit of an unplanned break from blogging.  It's not that there haven't been things to talk about or things we've done, it's mostly that I haven't gotten the camera out and I find myself not as motivated to blog if I don't have the pictures to go along with it.  I've been missing the blogging, though, so I'm trying to get back into picking up the camera and I do have a few pictures to share with you today after a little bit of catch up.

Davan and I had a good time at the Parkour Challenge on Saturday.  I purposefully didn't take the camera for that event, as I needed to have my hands free to participate.  By Saturday my various and sundry injuries were mostly doing well on the road to recovery minus issues all around my right hip (front, back, inner - pretty much circling the whole area where the right leg meets the hip).  I was worried I wouldn't be able to participate fully, but once I got moving, it didn't hurt more than just sitting on the couch and it didn't get worse.

Davan, while she is very able physically, is actually a bit of a wuss when it come to trying new things such as Parkour vaulting or when it comes to falling.  The guided challenge was really good for her because we were in a group of people causing her to push her boundaries a little.  Of course, that's not good for all kids, but it is for Davan who is extremely safety conscious.  She even slipped in the mud a couple of times, but just picked herself up and moved on with barely an anguished look in my direction.

While we both had fun, I don't think that seriously pursuing Parkour is going to be in either of our futures.  Davan has too many other things going on and neither of us really feel that safety is necessarily as prioritized as it maybe should be when doing Parkour.  That said, it won't stop us from playing around with it on our own from time to time.

We did quite a bit of family rotational fun over the weekend.  Ranger was pleased to participate in hide and seek several times over.  We enjoyed many games.  Adventure walks proved to be a hit this weekend.  We went out with a list of things to find and couldn't come home until we did.  There were a wide variety of things to find from a person eating to writing in a foreign language.

This week has been busy with our usual activities.  I'm still a bit anxious about my new classes at Poekoelan, but less so.  I actually feel like I've gotten something out of the classes this week and I've enjoyed going to my old regular classes and being a "mat instructor."  My injuries are all gone with the exception of something going on with my inner right thigh.  It'll heal eventually, too, though, I'm sure.

Davan, too, has been struggling with an injury.  We're not totally sure what happened, but it seems to be a really bad muscle spasm in her upper back on the right hand side.  She's still going to all of her classes, but she's mostly just stretching and doing leg conditioning.  Poor kid.  It does seem to be getting better, in spite of a bit of a set back from trying to do too much at gymnastics last night.

Lena had her last day of school yesterday.  The seniors get out about a week and a half before the rest of the high school.  So, she spent the night last night after gymnastics.  The girls wanted to go to Voodoo Doughnuts at the same time as the night we went to see Ovo to try for the deal on the doughnuts again.  I went to Poekoelan, but Anthony took them over.  They ended up having to wait nearly an hour, but ended up with day olds in a bucket - litterally.  There were an amazing amount of doughnuts.  Some a little stale...

I've eaten far too many doughnuts in the last 24 hours.  They're getting pretty stale now, though, so hopefully I'll be able to let the rest go.  Sugar is a bugaboo for me.

There is something I've been meaning to blog about for a couple of months now, but haven't gotten around to.  Davan is in a play!  I came across a homeschool theater class that isn't musical theater (Davan not being much for the signing), is super reasonably priced and fits into Davan's busy schedule.

Today was the dress rehearsal.

Her hair will be different for the production tomorrow night, as she's playing Ms. Minchin in The Little Princess and should look like she has a bun.  Here she is with her Ms. Minchin glare going.

She is doing a great job with the roll - alternating mean with sickly sweetness like that's really her.  Yikes!  I know I'm totally biased, but she's been doing really well with the whole process from the first day that was theater games/audition to learning her lines to taking direction well.

The teacher/director is great.  She's a former homeschooler.  Several of her siblings are still homeschoolers and are in the class.  With the exception of a couple of other kids, all the students have done a previous class and production with this same teacher.  We didn't know any of the participants before enrolling (yes, there are a lot of homeschoolers in Portland) and Davan has made a couple of friends.

In fact, here she is whispering to one while the group was receiving notes before the run through.

Fret not, though, they were being quiet and were not the actors in question for the notes at the time.

Most of the time, she was paying attention.

The dress rehearsal went pretty well, I thought...particularly considering the hot mess it was on the regular Tuesday class this week.  Productions are like that, though.  They tend to come together for show time, no?

So, tomorrow night at 7pm, this is where we'll be.

Sitting in these chairs, watching this smiley girl be mean, mean, mean.  :)