Project: Monkey Bars

Alice wants to learn the monkey bars.  She is firm in her desire to learn this playground skill, to not be afraid, and to make it all the way to the end.  She clearly says that she wishes to learn this and exhibit it before her classmates.  I'm impressed by her exhibition of will.

She asked me to take her to school after hours so she could practice.  She pushed her Mom too, when I didn't want to go back the next day.  Three days on and we are at two a day practices.  She responds well to coaching.  She seems to understand that it serves her goal and so has no problem with obedience during training.  I say this not because she has any "obedience" issues otherwise, she listens quite well for a six year old.  I say this to contrast it from her naturally skeptical or questioning nature.  Usual interaction has much back and forth.  The training mode she has found provides her with a different mode of behavior, one where she can receive more direct instruction and provide more direct response, without any sensitivity to feelings that might otherwise preclude such directness.

Look at that face, the set of her eyes, the way she is holding her lips, and the preparatory tension in her arms.  She will be a formidable adult.

click for larger image

The Oasis on Lake Travis

We went out to the Oasis this last weekend to enjoy the nice weather.  The Oasis is a restaurant that overlooks Lake Travis (what's left of it).  Really pretty view from their multiple tiers of decks.  We enjoyed watching the water and sipping our drinks.

Outside of the Oasis they built a metal, steam-punk-ish, space ship that visitors take pictures in... Alice immediately wanted a pic in this space ship when she saw it.

A few pics merged into gif... not sure why but kinda fun...

"Lemonade the Musical", co-starring Alice Bickel

All of the K and 1st grade classes performed a joint musical last night, "Lemonade";  fyi - that is a lot of kids, I'm guessing 160-240 (4 K classes *20|30 + same for 1st).  Between songs there was a narrative carried along by 16 short speaking parts (2 kids selected from each class).  Alice was one of the kids selected to represent her class, and she did a great job of delivering her speaking part!  Daddy is proud.

Cristy and Alice picked out new dress and shoes, etc, for her performance last night.  She looked great and felt confident.

On the way home she mentioned that she's looking forward to getting more lines in her next production :-)

Spring Break 2014

Since this was the first year Alice was in school, we had to take advantage of Spring Break!

Alice has never been to Oklahoma to see her relatives who lived there, so we decided that would be a good road trip. We spent 2 days at Robbers Cave State Park which was about 2.5 hours from Tulsa. We rented a pet friendly cabin, cooked s'mores, hiked, and went on a hay ride.  The hiking to the cave was beautiful and Alice did great!

Robber's Cave.  Also of note is that Alice found her name carved into the rocks outside the cave next to a date of 1910, which incidentally is when my paternal grandfather was born.  That same grandfather told a story from his early childhood about the Younger gang sleeping in his family's barn and paying for their hospitality and silence with a some cash under one empty plate and an old revolver underneath the other empty plate.

Second biggest pine tree in OK.

After we left the Park, we headed to Tulsa to visit Aunt Pam, Uncle Charles,Nana Betty, Poppa Jack And Cousin Tyler, who Alice had never met.  We spent some time at the Tulsa Zoo and spent evenings hanging out with the family. It was a nice visit and Cupcake did very good at the new houses we visited. He is becoming a good little traveler, even thought sometimes whines in the car......

Good times with Uncle Charles and Aunt Pam.

This bear was interacting with us quite a bit...  Here you see it going for Cristy's head.  Just before it had swiped a paw at Alice which startled her, which made her mad, therefore she is growling back at the bear.

Alice hugging statues outside of the Tulsa Zoo Entrance.

Nana Betty and Popa Jack with Alice.  We had a very nice dinner and hang-out at their place in Tulsa.  We also had a very nice time relaxing and eating over at the Kings the night before.  

Alice with the Tulsa Family!

We had a fun Spring Break!

Girl Rock Star

This is the first blog composed by Alice and dictated by mom......

I like this picture so much because it makes me think that I'm a rock star.

When I grow up I want to be a rock star. They get to sing and do fun poses.

- Alice

Late Winter Tea Party

During an afternoon of nice winter weather Alice set up a tea party out back for her dolls :-)

Actual Quotation

"I like it, cause its fun.
I could ride my scooter with a broken leg."