Happy Birthday, dude.

"Soft and low when the evening comes.

Holding you sleeping in my arms

I remember there was a time

when I used to sing for you."

-Tracy Chapman

Click on the arrow to play the video I made for Eli's 11th birthday. (11? Unbelievable.) If you'd like to hear the music, make sure your sound is on. :)

Spelling Bee

Yesterday, we headed upstate and visited Echo (here's their website). It's a kids' museum that focuses on the local lake. It's got some hands-on exhibits for the kids as well as an aquarium. The kids had alot of fun.

Then we headed on over to the location for the Spelling Bee. All day, Eli had alternated between wondering how cool it would be to win and thinking that he'd be the first kid out. Remember, he's only 10 and in 5th grade. The Spelling Bee includes (and mostly consists of) kids in 8th grade and up to the age of 16.

Eli was number 43 out of 45 kids. He spoke very well, loud and slow and consistent. He didn't seem nervous at all, up there in front of all those people! He made it all the way to the 4th round and beat out more than half of the other kids! His words included FATHOM, BOUDOIR, and PYRE. His final word was NARCISSISTIC and while he knows how to spell it, it's a difficult word to spell out loud because it's long and contains so many repeating letters. He got tripped up towards the end and missed a letter. Afterwards, he was interviewed by a local newspaper.

His Principal called me today to chat and said he's never had a student make it past the 1st round. He also said that since the local Middle School does not currently hold a Scripps approved Spelling Bee (Eli must win a local Bee in order to move onto the State competition), he'll be in touch with them to let them know that there's a "local talent" (his words) and it would be great to help him achieve his goal of eventually going to Nationals. He even volunteered to hold it himself if the no one in the school comes through.

We couldn't be anymore proud of him! And he's proud of himself as well. He went into it with a good attitude, recognizing that he was one of the youngest students there and that he has three more years to practice. He feels very hopeful (as do we) that one day, you'll see him on National TV in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Dancing 'round the room

You're informally invited to a dancing party in our living room. Take your place on either the couch or the table and shake your booty.

Eli's basketball team won their first game! It was such a blast to watch because they're really learning how to work together as a team. And Eli's individual skills have improved as well. (How do you like my mad photoshopping skilz?)

Master Yogi and Busy Bee

We bought Wii Fit and we're all having so much fun with it. It's a board that hooks up to the Wii and we can exercise, do yoga, and play games with it. It keeps track of each of us and how we progress on each exercise/game. Charlotte's even becoming quite the wiz at yoga.

Eli's been incredibly busy lately. He's joined alot of extracurricular activities. He's currently in Readers Club, Writers Club, band, chorus, the Gifted and Talented Program, and the basketball team as well as studying for the upcoming spelling bee. He actually had to stop going to Homework Club because his schedule was too complicated.

When he was still little, I always swore my kids would not be overscheduled. I promised I would never be one of those parents who force their children into too many enriching activities. I never thought about what we would do when HE would be overscheduling himself. That's a much more challenging situation. I hate the idea of denying him from doing anything that might interest him as long as it's monetarily feasible

. Who knows? Maybe one of the things he tries out ends up being his niche and if we had said no, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to discover it. Also, he's not usually big on joining groups so I want to encourage him when he shows an interest.

At the same time, we're the parents and we need to decide how much is too much. Not just for him but for the rest of us. Whether it's being unable to leave town because of his schedule or it's dragging the girls all over to his games, the rest of us are affected. As of right now, it hasn't become a problem. But I'm sure there are some family discussions about this in our near future.