Saturday July 4, 2015 {4th of July!}

1. Didn't do too much during the morning. Mom and Isabelle did some cooking and Isabelle painted Mom's nails (after declaring mine too short)

2. Isabelle cut about four inches off of my hair, which was slightly terrifying, but turned out quite well. It's not noticeably shorter to most people, but it feels shorter to me.

3. At around four, we headed to Julie's for the annual 4th of July party, which was fun.

4. There was a Klikaklu hunt, some sparklers, water balloons and guns (for those who were brave enough, which did not include me), Smash Bros, and lots of food.

5. A bit before 10, most of us headed downtown to watch the city's fireworks display, and then we headed home.

6. I had a strange experience during the Klikaklu hunt. We were on teams of three, and I was on a team with Isabelle and my friend C. We were running around the neighborhood, and I knew I wouldn't be able to run much because a) it was really hot and b) I didn't have my inhaler with me. If I had realized I was going to be running, I would have used my inhaler before we started on the hunt. I've obviously had bad experiences with asthma before, but after running for a bit uphill in the heat, I had what was definitely the worst asthma attack I have had. I usually just have my lungs close up, but my throat was closing too. One of the problems with that feeling is that it is so easy to panic because  you are physically unable to take in air. I've had enough experiences with asthma to be able to not panic and know that it will pass, but it's a scary feeling, and not something I'd like to repeat.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a fantastic Christmas!

Enjoy your day, and come back tomorrow for a real post!

Christmas Cookies 2013

One of our longest standing Christmas traditions is to decorate Christmas cookies with our cousins. Nobody could remember for sure what year was the first one, but it was agreed that this year was at least the 13th, maybe the 14th.

The first year we did it, there were two of us (plus another cousin who doesn't come anymore), ages 1 and 2. This year, there were four of us (my sister and other cousin weren't born yet that first year), ages 16, 15, 13, and 12. As we've gotten older, our enthusiasm hasn't gone away, but our cookies have gotten much more creative.
 
I don't have pictures of some of the best cookies, but there were some really great ones.


We've also gotten more competitive over the years. For the past fourteen years, we have always had four colors of icing: blue, green, yellow, and red (which is almost always more pink than red). This year, someone had the revolutionary idea to introduce a 5th color: white. As you might imagine, this changed everything. :)

Now, the race was on to make the first REAL candy cane, with both white and red icing.


 
Of the three here, two of them were both almost first, though the one on top won. Mine (in the middle) was almost first, but I sacrificed that title for higher quality. The bottom is my sister's, which is better than either of ours, but was made a while later, so I don't think it really gets to compete. This led to a long discussion over which is more important: being best (that was me), or being first (that was him). What do you think?

Here's another picture of my sister and I. We were at the Lights of Christmas, which is a beautiful and large display of Christmas lights near us. We go every year. 

I hope you're all having a great holiday season!

Busy, Busy, Busy {Life Update}

Today, I don't actually have time to write up a fancy post, so this is all that is going up. Life has been insane lately, and it's not slowing down. On Friday, we had our first choir performance, which went fine. On Saturday, I also danced with the Scottish Highland Dancers at the holiday festival at the port, and I took part in an Irish dance as part of that.

The Irish dance we did was one that a friend and I put together ourselves, the night before. It went really well, considering, but I do wish we could have practiced it a few more times. Today, I have another choir performance, and then a Christmas party, which should be a lot of fun, and, hopefully, somewhat relaxing.

Last Tuesday, our World Lit group got together to read the play, A Doll's House outloud together. It was a lot of fun. We each took a character to play. It took us over three hours, but we made it. I'll post a book review (and more about our reading) soon. My upcoming week is just as busy, with something (or multiple things) happening every day. According to Google Calender, the first free day I have is Dec. 17th. That's one of just three empty days between now and Christmas, though I'm sure they'll fill up quickly.

Anyways,  I don't need to just tell you how busy I am. This is just an update on what I'm up to, and now you at least know a little bit of it. School has been a little hard to fit in lately, but I'm planning on doing a comprehensive Homeschool Friday post this coming Friday. I'll talk a little about what's been going on and how things are going.

I've had a lot to do and think about lately, so this is all I have time to write at the moment. I'll be back tomorrow!