Oliver!

Jakob was in a performance this evening at his school. The performance of Oliver! It was really cute. He did a narration. There was mostly singing, and periodically throughout the performance a child would come forward and narrate the next part of the show. He did a good job memorizing his part. It was about 3 sentences long.

I need to have Robert send the pictures he took of him, so I can post them...he looked so cute!

I really like the school that Jakob is going to. It is called New Horizon. It is a Charter school for K-6th grade. I wish I would have put Jakob in there last year. He went to Ben Franklin last year. Cause I had to get him into the 'accelerated' school. Well, I am almost glad that they told me he would have to go to kindergarten, again...if he were to stay at Ben Franklin. It made me frustrated enough to search for something different. I like the balance at New Horizon. They state that they focus on academics and performing arts.

The owner of the school has a grandchild in Jakob's 1st grade class. His name is Brennon. Brennon is actually 1 month younger then Jakob. They are really good friends. Love to get together and do things. Over Spring Break Ms. Jan (the owner/principle of the school) First took the boys out for tacos, then to Freestone park, where they road the small amusement rides that they have there. (whenever we go to Freestone park, we only play at the pond, etc...I don't even know how much the amusement rides are, I haven't dared to ask). After the rides, she took the boys to a show: Bridge to Terabithia. Close to that was Cold Stone Creamery, so she took them in for Ice Cream. Then her grandson reminded her that she had said they could do ceramics. So they stopped to paint castles (chosen because of the movie they had watched). When I found out all that they had done, I was amazed. They did more in one day then I would probably do in a whole month, if at all.

I have actually kind of started to try to find free to somewhat inexpensive activities that we can do the kiddos. Get some culture and fun in their lives. Rather then do the same thing every weekend and summer.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to a Museum sponsored tour of a large Hohokam temple mound. It is here in Mesa. There is a free continental breakfast. Then there is a Tempe Arts Festival all day tomorrow, too. I don't know if we will get to that, or not. But I think I am going to try and do something fun, and knowledgeable like this, with the kiddos each month. Get at least a little culture in their lives. It's tough to do much with Ben, cause he is ALL OVER THE PLACE. I think Zae and Jakob actually do really well in public situations. Ben just doesn't have the patience or the attention span for it. We will have to take the stroller, to keep him strapped in.