Hooray For the USA!

America The Beautiful

The Kindergarten classes just finished a social studies unit on "America" and they performed a selection of patriotic songs for the parents today. Annalise's class chose "America the Beautiful" and I have been listening to her practice that song in the car non-stop for two full weeks! I thought I'd die if I ever had to hear it again. The worst came when Justin was in the car because he'd try to sing louder than she was singing and they would, of course, correct each other each time they didn't think the other had used the words "thy" or "thee" correctly. My favorite debate was about how you should properly sing "...and crown my hood, it's brotherhood..."

Justin has always been a ham on stage and, as you can see, Annalise has no fear up there either. The teachers have been telling me all week that Annalise carries the class in rehearsal and she certainly didn't let them down today! Before she went to line up for her walk to the stage, I told her to sing for her Daddy. She most certainly did! I'm quite sure that all of America heard her singing her little heart out. I was, as usual, the crying mom in the front row so you'll have to forgive the shaky video recording.

Little Angels

Annalise and Coach Miguel

Annalise left Pixie Hollow to join the Little Angels for winter soccer and she loved her new team as much as she loved ours! The Angels were very different than the Pixies. They had a much larger roster (13 players), there were boys as well as girls on her team, the goal boxes here huge, and they got to use the entire field. It was all rather daunting, but the most important thing to her was the oranges at halftime and she was very pleased to see that this team ate oranges too.

Playing Goalie was a new experience for her and I'm not sure that she liked it initially. The first time a ball got past her, all of the kids from the other team were celebrating and I think she finally realized that she really was the last line of defense. She came out of the game and told me she didn't really like soccer anymore, but I was very proud of her when she decided she wanted to go back in. All of the kids rotated positions so she didn't play goalie the rest of that game. When she did try it again the next game, Justin went down to stand by her and he helped her get ready as the ball came down the field. As much as those two fight, it's rare moments like this one that make me know they really do love each other because when the ball came down the field, she listened to what he said and she picked it up right before it went into the goal!

It's funny to watch her play soccer because even though she seems to thoroughly enjoy it, she is usually busy dancing up and down the field with her toes pointed beautifully and she tends to throw in a pirouette any chance she gets. She enjoys the social aspect of the game and she's not as comfortable this time with going after the ball. She's generally dancing along right behind the crowd when the ball moves down the field encouraging everyone along the way.

Spring Soccer starts soon and she's excited to play again. She's been on a two week break between seasons and she gets confused when Wednesday rolls around and she has to go to football practice instead of getting her shin guards and cleats on. She's also asked if she can take piano lessons, guitar lessons, gymnastics, karate, swimming, kung fu, and most recently more dance so we'll see if soccer still makes her eyes sparkle after this season.