Life: Idiotropic

This last week has been an exciting one in the world of AL (Aria and Luci).

First, after Kirk came home last weekend, we all went out for a bike ride. I walked with Luci and Elise watching them. Tiara hopped on her bike. And Kirk, walked with Arianna. Within 5 minutes, I heard across the tall grass, "She's riding, she's riding!!!!" And, seconds later saw Arianna flying around the corner coming towards me ALL BY HERSELF and Kirk jogging behind her. We all started yelling and cheering including Arianna's German friends and from there, she just kept going and ended up doing 5 more laps around the new streets behind our house. Then, getting a bit too confident, she started playing around, moving her handlebars back and forth, so as she rode by Kirk and I, wiggling her handlebars speeding fast around a corner, he and I in unison shouted "don't get too fancy" just as she went down. Tears and a really roughed up elbow this trip, but she was doing amazingly well. The next outing with her she didn't get hurt, but fell a couple times deciding that her bike is too big for her and she needs a tiny short bike like her friend David who can barely peddle because his bike it too small for him. Yesterday we rode again. We were going to the new roads again near our house where there are no homes built yet and consequently, no traffic either. I walked again with the little girls. Kirk tried to walk with Arianna until she sped up and took off not to the new streets, but toward her friend's house. She sped down the hill by his house towards ours almost out of control. I couldn't see anything. When Kirk found her she was sitting on the curb by our house in tears because she couldn't stop, so again, she's convinced that it's her bike. 3 rides since she learned and she expects to be perfect. Figures. This is also the girl that took only 3 months of ballet classes and is absolutely convinced that she's learned it all and can be a ballet teacher when she grows up without ever learning any more ballet.

Last Monday Arianna and Luci tried out for the Little Mermaid play. Missoula Children's theater was here for the week, so I'd signed the girls up. Tiara was sick, so she stayed home the entire week. Elise, though enthusiastic, is too young, but AL had a great time. They, along with 13 other kids their age, got cast as seahorses who ran on and off the stage a lot and had one singing number with a giant cowboy starfish.

They rehearsed 4 days - just for a couple hours each day and though the play itself was pretty corny (really dumb humor), the kids had fun.

After the performance, several families that participated took the kids out for ice cream. The photo above is the Spaghetti Eis - vanilla ice cream extruded through a machine that makes it look like spaghetti, then covered in strawberry sauce.