make a wish...

Awesome day of dog training - yay!

Yesterday Thalia had "the best" training day with Tidewater Schutzhund Club.  I am so pleased with her, and myself, and the world in general.  We finally made it early enough to partake in tracking.  Nader stomped a 3 by 3 foot square of tall grass down, and then threw down pieces of hot dog (maybe two hot dogs worth? maybe three?) and then we led Thalia over and he just petted her gently & slowly & very soothingly said "good such" over and over while helping her find hot dogs.  While it is definitely work and you can pretty much see her brain working, Thalia enjoyed this new activity quite a bit.  I think it also helped her reset her expectations of Nader, and Schutzhund in general.  She had developed a shyness and avoidance behavior the last two times we made it to training so for this exercise I purposefully held back and watched and let Nader and Thalia work together.

After tracking we headed over to the training area we use.  The facility isn't the club's, the club uses American K9 Interdiction's training area.  Thalia has been timid and spooked in the past, and while still shy when we entered the training area, she did allow me to bring her over to Corey to say "hi."  We played a little ball, showed off sit, down and heel and she stayed focused and didn't spook.  So we went on to jumping over the little barrier/wall (I don't know what they call it) and I seriously have to work on my behavior.  I keep talking to her like she's a human toddler "ready? ok, hop!" yeesh.  But I caught myself and squared up and used a better tone and she did well.  SO we tried the A frame.  Using a hotdog as a lure.  She fought the idea the first time, went along the second time, and try 3 and 4 she looked like she thought it might actually be kind of fun... The jump and the A frame are totally new for Thalia and I so "big stuff!"

But the best is last.  I've talked about the protection work a little in the past.  I bought a puppy pillow to work with Thalia and she'll bite maybe twice, sometimes 3 times, and then she's done.  She is still working on the whole concept.  But Yesterday, I held and she bit, and then Nader held the pillow and I held the leash and he got her really going.  So then he tried a different pillow.  And that worked, so then he got out the puppy sleeve.  And yay!  She bit!  So he did that twice and then I had her in a down and he did an "escape" where he runs with the sleeve and the dog is supposed to catch him and bite the sleeve.  We had no idea wether she'd chase him or not, but she did!  Nader dropped the sleeve as soon as she bit so she "won" and yay!

As we only had 4 dogs training I asked Nader if he'd get out his older dog Leo so I could hold the sleeve.  I really want to learn how to do this and while Leo totally owns the whole bite thing, he isn't as big as some of the other dogs, and he's got it down so I trust he will bite the sleeve and not my hand, or my leg or something.  So I held for him twice and it was good.  So now I need to work in an escape.  The idea of being "prey" freaks me out.  But I want to do this and Leo is a good teacher.


GREAT day.

Corey was taking pictures so I'm hoping she'll post them to the FB page so I can steal them. (later: Corey did post them to Tidewater Schutzhund Club and I did steal a few)

Pink Tutus at the Ballet

It is time for June Show!  My dancers are excited to show off their talents in the annual recital, but before recital comes rehearsal.  We were there for what felt like all day... but the fun part is getting to watch all the other dances.

My favorite is "The Waltz of the Flowers."  I love the pink, the swishy tutus, the flowers in their hair, and watching the older girls on pointe.  As it is rehearsal we are allowed to take photos (as long as we don't use the flash)

These are some of Virginia Regional Ballet's dancers at recital rehearsals.  Enjoy!

Waltz of the Flowers, rehearsal

Waltz of the Flowers, rehearsal

Waltz of the Flowers, rehearsal

don't know the name of this piece but it was *fabulous*
hard to catch on iphone without flash though

my Ladybug and classmates
waiting back stage

I am linking to Beverly's Pink Saturday Linkup

English Project

Shawn's Class Project (1920 x 1080) from Cailin Yates on Vimeo.

in the previous post (one heck of an English project) I shared pictures of the kids making costumes as well as pictures I'd taken of the kids while they were creating the video.
This is the finished product, Tim (husband) downloaded several pieces of video from my iphone to imovie, pieced them together, and added music from the actual sound track.
I kept teasing him that it was our son's project, but Tim likes to take over :-)

One Heck of an English Project

Tiger is in 6th grade.  His English teacher encourages the students to use a variety of media when creating book reports.  There is the standard "Book Report Paper"and they are encouraged to write one, but he also encourages: an interview with a character, enacting a scene or scenes to tell the story, creating a video, and other means of sharing the book.

Tiger has been reading "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and has finished the 2nd book, "The Two Towers."

He decided to create a video of the book.

I was a little worried about this as we have also watched the movies and while the movies are now "old" they are popular.  But he has put his own spin on things so it should be all right.

The last 3 weekends have been taken up with preparations, creating armor and weaponry and cloaks.

Today I told him I was tired of being held hostage by his project and it needed to be finished.

So we have been "shooting."
The cast is Tiger and his siblings, ages 15 years old to 3 years old, myself, and my husband.
*Hilarious*

costume creation, armor

M as an Orc

Uruk Hai costume

that was all Memorial Weekend...

today:

creating hobbits

creating Gimli

6th grader as Legolas

Our Merry got carried away and attacked the Uruk Hai

"on location"

our hobbits, Merry & Pippin

Tiger & his dad are currently working out the editing of the video (taken via mom's iphone) and adding in music.  I hear lots of Enya floating down the hallway.

How did you spend your Sunday?

Pink Trillium

Last weekend we were in Wintergreen, Virginia for the holiday weekend.  Our ski buddies gather there for holiday weekends, and there was a mountain bike race (we did not participate) and a small art fair, and music, and food on the grill...

My husband and I drove separately and when they arrived I received a happy text from my 15 year old "there are wildflowers everywhere!"

Pink Trillium. All over the place.

just out the front door

Those shots are on our little bit of property, just out the front door.  By the time I arrived at the house the girls had collected little posies and decorated the house with them.  There were flowers in Grandma French's cups placed in the bathrooms.  There were flowers in drinking glasses in the kitchen and on the big table.  There were flowers in a wine glass on "the grown ups" table.

posy in the main bathroom

another "arrangement" on the table

According to the Virginia Native Plant Society these wildflowers can be found from Canada through Georgia in undisturbed forest with rich soil.  I am a little sad to see the emphasis on "undisturbed" as I'm afraid we are a rather disturbing bunch.  But it also states that the rhizomes need a good 3 or 4 years to become established before they will flower.  So perhaps we will be lucky - and our Trillium will be established enough to weather us.

It has been a while since I've had something pink to link up to Beverly's Pink Saturday

Flower Child

Nana's Garden, Mother's Day 2013