Addie's Turn

Addie has been waiting for 2 years (ever since Libby started violin at age 6) to be allowed to learn an instrument and take lessons.  She began last fall taking piano lessons, and had her first recital at the end of April.  She played a cute song called Hoppy Toad Hop and did an awesome job on all those staccato notes.  I'm unable to locate the video at this time but here is a photo. I will post the video if I find it.

May 1st we went to pick up our new black female lab puppy, who is Addie's puppy, even though she is also everyone's puppy.  A few years ago when we got Tana, she was Libby's puppy. We thought it would be nice for the kids to have to be responsible for a puppy, learn to train it, and tath it might also help with the fighting over the puppy.  For example, if there is arguing, the owner of the puppy gets her.  So this time, the puppy is Addie's.  She was so excited she used her own money to go buy a collar and some toys, over a month in advance.  She named the puppy Ponca (after a tiny town here in Arkansas where we like to got for getaway weekends, in the Buffalo Wilderness Area).  After 3 weeks we are starting to sleep without interruption most nights, Ponca is starting to sit to wait for her food reliably, she retrieves and is doing pretty well on house training.

Carol --at the girls' request--wore her Lab dress for the occasion.  She really hams it up when I point a camera at her.

Ponca likes to sleep on anything soft, in this case a stuffed puppy. Maybe she felt some camaraderie with it.  The other day she found a black cloth shopping bag to lay on and we couldn't find her... twice!

This is under the table in our laundry room.  We keep her food on the table.  She is VERY excited about meals (typical lab!), and for a few days would scramble up the buckets trying to get closer to the food. 

Well, It's About Time!

I have an accumulating list of events for which I would like to email pictures to family and friends.  But life isn't slowing down, and the list just gets longer.  While Libby has gotten to an age (almost 9) of being extremely helpful and responsible, and Addie is becoming more and more so every day, Ben and Carol aren't quite there.  They both tend to leave a trail of destruction like the Tasmanian Devil.  Ben is willing to clean up after himself, just not very strong on follow-through.  We just finished our home school year and Rich has finished his school year, but we are beginning work on an addition to our house, which needs to be worked on as much as possible by Rich to get it livable by the time school starts again in the fall.  And I will need to help him and pick up the slack of chores that normally fall to Rich to help the process.  So where is the free time I was hoping for to catch up on sending pictures to those who love us and want to share our experiences?  I'm thinking maybe keeping a blog of these photos might be  more efficient...  Whether it ends up saving any time or not, I think we are more or less still in the stone age by emailing pictures rather than blogging. So here we are showing up to 2012 a little late.  But better late than never, right?

First offering:  Video of Libby's violin Recital. She played one of the most advanced songs at the concert and did a perfect job.  Next post: Addie's piano recital.