Winters Kids

Just a little update about what in the world we're doing these days…

Archive for June, 2010

Summer with a Vengeance

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

So, possibly because of the long cold winter, or possibly because of Mom’s fear of the lack-of-schedule that summer brings, we may have overbooked our summer activities just a little bit. You know, like, scheduling Swimming Lessons, Soccer Camp, and Karate Lessons all during the same two first weeks of summer. But, it was nice having something to go do, despite the chill that’s still in the air.

Soccer was just 45 minutes a day for only 5 days… a little chance for the kids to kick the ball and do some drills, and run around. But it was Mylie’s first experience with the sport, and she had a great time.

We headed straight from there to swimming lessons. I can’t take all the blame here for the back-to-back scheduling, because with our swimming sessions, you go Tuesday-Fridays for two weeks, but you don’t find out your time slot until the Sunday or Monday before hand. Luckily they were close in proximity enough that we could fit it in.

Then, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for two weeks we headed to Karate Kids – a small karate class put on by our local Parks & Rec. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I thought it was a bust and totally lame, but Mylie liked it and the price was right.

Poor Nolan mostly got dragged around to these activities, but he and I did get to play some together. Next year he’ll finally be 3 and will have many more things open to him. We’ve also got him scheduled for a gymnastics class and his own swimming lessons later in the summer.

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Summertime, and the Livin’s Easy…

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

It’s the end of June and… could it be? Could summer finally be here? After one of the longest, wettest, coldest, most grueling winters in recent memory, the Winters Family is ready to ditch our namesake for a warm fun summer. Please say it’s time!

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I Want It All

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

It was year number three of the dance recital this year, and each year just keeps getting better! Mylie, who was 4 years old until just days before the recital, danced in the 7-9 year old Tap/Jazz class. It was a tough class for her, but kept her from getting bored!

Despite my best efforts of pre-planning and trying to spread things out, it ended up that the tickets we bought her for her birthday to see Disney’s The Lion King, ended up being for the SAME DAY. So, naturally, we decided we could do it all. So, we spent Friday night at a grueling and long dress rehearsal. Then on Saturday, we hit the matinee performance of The Lion King, grabbed a quick bite of dinner, and headed to her dance recital, which happened to be just a few blocks away in downtown Portland. Mylie waited back stage until the second act before her turn to dance, and still she held out and you couldn’t even tell how exhausted she must have been. Ironically, the song she danced to was called “I Want It All,” from High School Musical 2, and we couldn’t think of a more appropriate song for our little starlet.


She knows where she's going... Pay no attention to the abandoned shoe on the floor. The kids actually did a pretty good job dancing around it.

You'll find her in the back on the right

Celebrating a job well-done

Watching Big Sis

The star receives her fans

Despite the blurry picture, there's no question who carries the title of "Mylie's Biggest Fan."



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The End of an Era

Monday, June 14th, 2010

My baby is officially not a baby anymore. On June 8th, she turned 5, signifying the end of the “formative” years; the years when it’s pretty much up to us to ensure her proper development. Now it’s time to send her off into the brave new world to fend for herself.

Okay, well, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic. I know, right? You never would have expected that from me.

Nevertheless, it did dawn on me recently that I kind of had my shot. I mean, sure, I get to lead and guide and direct for many years to come…. but any tiny amount of control I may have had over any piece of a blank slate is probably gone. Although, as time goes on, I’m realizing that the “blank slate” theory just doesn’t carry much water.

Nope. Mylie was Mylie from the time she was born. She’s a quick learner and a perfectionist. She is horrible at auditory learning but great at tactile. She’s bossy and a born dancer (which makes her perfect material to be a choreographer, which she also loves to do). She has a small speech impediment (still has trouble with those pesky ‘R’s) but she has no idea that she does.

She is social and caring, and absolutely loves to talk. When she can’t talk, she has discovered the new-found joy of note-writing. Both Nick and I receive about a dozen notes a day, and she has been reprimanded in preschool and Sunday School for passing notes. She reads at an exceptionally high level, and even I’m not exactly sure how or when that happened. I know I can’t take credit for it.

She’s a perfectionist and will often get frustrated (and sometimes quit) when she can’t do things right on the first attempt. But she is learning what a difference practicing can make. She has no fear of being in front of crowds, but gets a little shy in front of smaller, intimate groups.

She is 99.99% her father’s daughter…. they are like two peas in a pod. Which, unfortunately, tends to cause them to butt heads on occasion. She is not a girly-girl at all, but does love anything pink. She doesn’t particularly like to play with dolls, but she LOVES to mother Nolan. Fortunately, she does a pretty good job of that most of the time. Despite sibling spats that pop up frequently, the two of them get along wonderfully, and are the best of friends.

I don’t know if I did anything right in these first five years as her mom. I know for sure I’ve done an awful lot of things wrong. But we’re learning and growing together, and even though these formative years are over now, I look forward to the next thirteen even more (and many after that, of course), when I can let her take more of the reigns as I step back into the role of leader and guide. One thing I know for sure, my life wouldn’t be the same without her!

2005 – Mylie at Birth
2006 – Mylie, Age 1
2007 – Mylie, Age 2

2008 – Mylie, Age 3

2009 – Mylie, Age 4

2010 – Mylie, Age 5

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Europe: A Synopis

Monday, June 14th, 2010

As most of you know, Nick and I had our first European adventure for 10 days at the beginning of May…. which explains the lack of posts until now. Between Easter and the end of April we were focused primarily on preparing to leave… and watching volcano reports.

Luckily, we did manage to make it out and back in between eruptions and ash clouds, and were better for it. Our flights both directions were canceled, but Iceland Air moved us over to British Airways, affording us direct flights between Seattle and London. It shortened our travel time by a few hours, which was great!

Our kiddos were able to spend some quality time with Nana and Papa Winters, which is a rare treat, and they were spoiled rotten, with trips to Chuck E Cheese and a back yard complete with donkeys to entertain them. And in the process, they learned to appreciate dear ol’ Mom and Dad a little bit more. Oh, yeah, and we missed them too.

So with out further ado, here’s the quick and dirty version of our trip. We have about 420 more pictures that we will be compiling into a book of our trip, so for those of you who care… you can come see it anytime. For now, we picked our top 38. The photos below are just thumbnails… you’ll have to click on them to see the full picture.

After seeing the changing of the guard, we had to hustle back to the train station to collect our luggage and then zoom over to the metro to take the hour-long Tube ride to the airport. We sweated bullets worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time, but somehow we managed to get there just as boarding was starting. Perfect! We had to wait to take off because the Ash Cloud was forcing all air traffic onto one runway, and then we  had to head out to the east, and skirt around the volcano to the north. It felt like we were being chased out by ash, kind of like Jeff Goldblum and the T-Rex on Jurassic Park. But we made it, and have LOTS of chocolate to show for it. We had a great time seeing what few sights we got to see, but generally had the best time just hanging out with our friends in Belgium, getting a true (albeit small) taste of what life is like over there. One thing is for sure, we got the travel bug, and hope to be doing much more of it in the future!

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