Year 2, Day 235: Flips and Bowling!

Well, we didn't combine the flipping and the bowling, but we did seem to be out a lot today.  Gymanstics in the morning, home for lunch and school, and Bible Bowl in the evening.

She's got a lot to learn, but at least Keturah loves gymnastics and it's the one thing she is willing to practice hard at!  Super nice coach, too!

Oh how I hated anything where I had to flip upside down.  That's why I only took a couple of classes.  Sure you do some spins in ballet, but you pretty much remain upright the whole time.  And spins (sorry, I forget the real ballet lingo) aren't for a long time anyway.  Keturah reminds me of my sister Kristina, who, was nearly an Olympic level gymnast.  No joke, she was either Level 9 or 10 when she quit in high school and trained 3-4 hrs a day 6 days a week! She had/has back problems and numerous sprained ankles.  She lived and breathed it for 10 years.  Not I.  Ballet and Horsemanship.  So, Keturah might have glasses like me, but she likes short hair and has my sister Stefanie's personality, but loves gymnastics like Kristina.  Interesting combination!  No wonder she drives me nuts sometimes!

Practicing on the only available wall at home.  I tend to fill every wall with a bookcase or other furniture.  No joke!  I see a spot and think, "Hey, I missed one!  Now what container for my stuff can I put there?"  Anyway, She's trying to walk up the wall to practice her handstands.

Nice arch!

Push me super big high, Mom!

Mr. Kenny playing with Abishai during Bible Bowl practice.  Kenny is super friendly, but because he had a brain tumor when he was 5 and again at 15, he has some trouble speaking and seeing.  It's been a couple of months since we have seen Kenny, and although Abishai didn't mind him then, he is afraid of him now.  I know it's a toddler phase and he did to better the next week (when I'm typing this), but I feel bad for Kenny, who would never want to be seen as scary.  It's something to work on for sure.

Man child has permission to occasionally practice the drums at church.  He's getting quite good and his talent is becoming to be noticed.  They need him on tech team but his goal is to play for youth group at the very least, but I think he could "climb up the ladder" and play for a regular church during and after college once he gains some more practice with a live band and audience.  Meanwhile, he told us tonight that he is a) going to play the PIANO and sing (you're welcome for the lessons I taught you, kid) at his school's chapel next week and b) The choir teacher at school game him one of the major/leading roles of the Christmas musical they are doing.  I think I said this before, but it's a slightly revised version of a musical the Indian Creek Children's Choir did when Benaiah was in Kindergarten or First grade.  He is super stoked to have a major role again.  He has consistently had solos or a part or a major role in all the plays and musicals he has been in.  He loves the stage!  In that way, he's like his Grandfather.  Ok, well, I don't know if Gary loves the stage, but he's very comfortable on stage.  Gary certainly doesn't particular like the limelight and pedestal that comes from being up there all the time.  But anyway, Benaiah is making a name for himself by working hard, working WITH his teachers, not against them, and just staying busy.  He might be part of the highly respected (and expensive) FC Singers and he probably won't try out for America's Got Talent, but, he's happy and healthy in his corner of the world.  And we are all grateful for that.

Time to go down Memory Lane:
(I can't help it! These are way too good to pass up! Thanks Facebook for saving them for me!  I'm glad I took all that time to load them up, too!)

Drew Tapp, who is now a Sr. in high school, as Gabriel.  Benaiah says he's playing the part of Michael, which might be the adult angel in the other pictures from 8 years ago I saw.  Hm,...

I'm sure the kids at SCS will do fine with this musical, but Mrs. Christy, our children's choir director, has mad skills when it comes to hand motions!

Justin makes that same goofy face! I think Uncle Aaron has a goofy facial expression he has used for years and years, too.  I think it runs in families.

Speaking of Bible Bowl, here's my Beginner Bowler back in 2nd grade.

The caption on Facebook read something like Justin wanted his transformers to see Baby Jesus.

I think this was one of the only times Gary and Leah took the kids to see Santa at the mall. Probably because I started taking them to the Children's Museum instead where we didn't have to pay for it.

I took one look at this picture and said, that's Abishia's evil eye!  Aha! Justin and Abishai could be twins!

And the whole "setting up of guys/cars" thing.  Yup, J and A did/do the same thing!

See, Justin did have very light colored hair!

And here's the man child at age 15 at school in English class.

Man child again with his friend Emma, the one who got him into Rubix cubes.

And here's man child 8 years ago, in his Angel Alert t-shirt.  I can't believe he's about to do the same play again!  And yes, the kid had a mohawk.  And yes, the "halo" was supposed to be there.  And darn it, I think I finally threw that halo away because I was like "why on earth do we have this?" when we got out Christmas decor last year.  Grrrr.....Oh, and the shirt had angel wings printed on the back.  Clever!  Sweetness!