Not back to school...

The week after Labor day is always a weird week for me.  People start to look at you strangely again when you go to the supermarket with your children during school hours.  There are "not back to school" picnics.  People are posting about what their plans for the year. Or not.

Over here it feels like it might be the year of the entrepreneur.  Tristan is now going great guns on his little business idea.  He wrote a business plan this week. He created a product list and researched recipes for his dishwashing liquid.  He ordered ingredients for the soap making.  He watched a webinar on making dishwashing soap and made some.  He has been using us as dishwashing detergent testers! His detergent is better than mine, thicker and creamier, yet it washes off your hands more easily and smells better.  He found quart glass jars with a flat surface so his labels will adhere better.  Now he needs to find hand pumps to attach to his jar lids.

In other business news, Claire has found a family who wants to adopt Lucky!  This family previously had a beloved Pitbull mix who had cancer and had to have her leg amputated.  She died a week later.  When they saw Lucky on Petfinder, they felt it was fate and seem very keen to have her.  They are coming to Claire's adoption event on Sunday, at Choice Pet Supply in Danbury.  Claire has had some interest in Romeo too.

Claire is in a flurry printing out all of her adoption contract materials and squaring away all the details for her event.  She has a bunch of people coming and hopefully her first two rescues will have forever families by the end of the weekend.  Now that Lucky might leave us, we are realizing just how much we have grown attached to her.  She is so much healthier and happier now than when we found her in the shelter and such a love.  We will definitely miss her a lot and so will Tuggles (our forever dog).

...and we have been to a few "not back to school" special treats!  We went to the matinee of Peter and the Starcatchers on Broadway on Wednesday with some friends.  It is an amazing play, the prequel to Peter Pan.  The storytelling is wonderful and the actors do an amazing job with only a few props.  The theatre was gorgeous.  Every square inch was decorated.

We took this picture as we wanted to remember the stage facade.  It was elaborate yet whimsical with egg beaters, rolling pins, rakes, golf clubs and pineapples (to name a few) stuck on and spray painted. It was very effective.

We thought it would be a great way to start our year in Destination ImagiNation, a program where the children have to tell stories and create amazing props on a tight budget.  Afterwards we went to the Starlight diner where we were serenaded by wannabe Broadway stars!  They were good too!  The food, just OK.  It was worth doing...once anyway.  Claire also started her new musical theatre class and singing lessons.  Next week she has to sing Defying Gravity (from Wicked) solo in front of the class.  I get goosebumps thinking about it.  It is so good for her.

Tristan will start his hip hop breakdancing classes with other boys starting Tuesday.  He has a breakdancing recital in 4 weeks with rehearsals starting Sunday.



Also the challenges for Destination Imagination
came out and we had our kick off last night.  We read through all of the challenges and my team picked Challenge B: the science challenge which explores wind and art. I will be posting the details later.

Tristan's team is undecided.  They have narrowed it down to two challenges to choose between.  One is a community outreach challenge to make a documentary about a community need.  The other is an improvisation challenge where the children have no props, but have to research communication techniques and have 4 randomly selected elements that they have to include into their presentation.

The children had fun at the kick off, dancing to music at our "disco" and watching the Lorax.  It was an exciting night!