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Yesterday was the last day of Emily and James's gymnastics lessons. As usual, Mums and Dads were invited to watch as the kids showed off what they had learned. Of course Ann and I went and I took a few pictures. The one at the left is fairly indicative of the sorts of moves that they are learning. (I suppose that the feet together and toes pointed will come later.)
Yesterday evening Ann and I went with Jocelyn and Puxley to see God of Hell at the Neptune Studio. It was a black comedy by Sam Shepard about the US government's moves toward a police state. I quite enjoyed it but the consensus seemed to be that it was a bit too strange. We had a very nice dinner beforehand at a new Thai restaurant called the Talay Thai. As we didn't have time for dessert, we stopped in again after the show for some mango sticky rice and mango sorbet.
Today the church band, in which David plays electric guitar, had their world premier, leading a couple of hymns and playing one other number at today's service. The minister made a point of telling me how well he thought they played. This afternoon we were all back at the church for the annual Advent Supper, held in the church basement. This is a pot-luck affair in which everyone is given one of four colours. Before the food is served, all the reds have to get up and sing a carol together; then all the yellows, and so on. This year Ann and I were both blue and had to sing Joy to the World. As usual there was more than enough food and everyone went home stuffed.
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By our standards it has been a reasonably calm week; for the most part it was school, work, and our regular extra-curricular activities except that, on Tuesday, instead of meeting at the church as usual, the Cub pack went swimming at the Sportsplex.
Yesterday David attended the Nova Scotia Secondary Students Association conference at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax. It was a gathering of about 600 students from all over the province. I am a little unclear about what they actually did, but it lasted all day yesterday and half of today (they all brought sleeping bags and camped out in the gym). David arrived home early this afternoon looking quite tired, not the best condition for his first soccer game of the winter season which was at 5 o'clock. They played the Valley losing 2-0 in a fairly close game with lots of chances for both sides.
Meanwhile Emily had another basketball game yesterday against the same team they played last week. They won the game, despite being out-scored, because the other team only had six of the required eight players. In the afternoon Ann, Emily, James and I spent some time raking leaves, cleaning the deck and clearing out the eavestroughs.
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This year James is in the school choir. They practice one a week during the lunch hour and on Thursday they had their first performance of the year during the school assembly. Since the school is just down the road from DRDC, I popped in to watch. The theme of the assembly was Remembrance Day and the choir began it by singing O Canada in both English and French. There was then a short video followed by presentations by three or four of the classes; Emily's "sang" a song in American Sign Language. The choir then sang two more songs after which I snuck out.
Friday was a holiday for Remembrance Day. As always we went down to the cenotaph for the ceremony at 11 o'clock. This year all three kids were in the parade: James and David with the Cub pack and Emily with the Girl Guides. Shortly after we got home Emily went off to the birthday party of her friend Darien. They saw the movie Zathura. In the evening we were all invited to our friends the Harvey's for dinner.
On Saturday Emily had another basketball game. Unfortunately I missed the middle portion as I had to pick up David from his guitar lesson. When I left it was pretty even with the other team leading 8-6 but by the time I got back, with only about five minutes left, it was 18-6. We did score one more basket finally losing 20-8. In the evening David went to the birthday party of his friend David Foster while the rest of us went for pizza at the house of our friends Mae and Marcel (I share an office with Mae at DRDC, though she has been on maternity leave for the past few months so I have had it to myself).
This morning, in honour of the fact that Ann didn't have to prepare a lesson for the church youth class, we decided to go out for breakfast at Cora's. The rest of the day has been fairly sedate. Emily went to her friend Keara's for the afternoon and, as it was a gorgeous fall day, I rode my bike to the end of the Lake Charles trail (I took a spare inner tube and a pump this time after what happened a couple of weeks ago).
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Monday night was Hallowe'en. This year Emily dressed up as an elf (again) while James was a dragon master. Ann stayed home to dole out the candy while I took Emily and James out trick or treating along with Max and Rachel and their Dad, Paul. For once it was dry and quite mild, so it was a pleasant walk around the neighbourhood. As usual, enough treats were collected to last for a month or two.
On Thursday evening there was a concert at Dartmouth High School, including a performance by the Senior Concert Band in which David plays trumpet. There were also performances by the Grade 10 Concert Band, the Jazz Band, and several smaller ensembles. Ann, Emily, James and I all attended, though James spent most of the time reading his book and Emily fell asleep. I thought the calibre of the performaces was very good.
On Friday evening Emily went with her Girl Guide troop to a special event at Penhorn Mall after all the shops had closed. The theme was fairy tales, and everyone was encouraged to come dressed up as a fairy tale character. Emily went as one of the three blind mice (I suppose a nursery rhyme is close enough). The girls were given the run of the Mall for various games and activities followed by a special screening of Ella Enchanted in the movie theatre.
On Saturday in the early afternoon, after her morning swimming lesson and before her late afternoon gymastics lesson, Emily had a basketball game. As you can imagine, by the end of the day she was completely worn out, especially after the late night the evening before. The game was much better this week than last with the teams very evenly matched. The Celtics (Emily's team) got out to an early lead but the other team gradually wore them down and nipped them at the post by 18-15. Emily is emerging as the dominant player on the Celtics, partly due to the fact that she is the oldest and, by a small margin, the tallest on the team. Yesterday she scored 10 of our 15 points and also did stalwart work on defence.
On Saturday evening Ann and I went to see Frozen at Neptune. For a change, due to the hectic schedule, we didn't go out to dinner with the usual gang, though we did find time to have dessert, just the two uf us, at the Argyll Bar And Grill, just before the performance. The play was well done, though not one that leaves you with warm and fuzzy feelings as you leave; it is about a man who abused and killed several young girls, and raises questions of how society should deal with the criminally insane.
Meanwhile David went to his friend Graham's for movie night with the church Youth Group. The movie was A Walk to Remember, much to the consternation of the male members of the group. Afterwards Brenden and Alex came back to our place to sleep over so that their parents didn't have to pick them up until church on Sunday.
Luckily, Katy came home for the weekend, arriving on the bus on Friday evening, so we got her and Liam, her boyfriend, to babysit Emily and James for us while we were at the theatre. This afternoon I drove her back to Acadia, took her out to dinner, then went to see her play in a concert with the Acadia Band. They were fabulous! They played five pieces, none of which I knew, all completely different, but all very enjoyable. It must be fun to play in a group that is that good and I am sure that it is especially gratifying since one of the reasons that Katy chose Acadia was so that she could continue playing music.
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