Bebop with Aesop

Thursday evening, the family attended Bebop with Aesop, a musical performed by the elementary school students. Back in December, the girls auditioned for parts in the musical, and have been practicing every Wednesday since then. It all paid off, because the musical was great, and was very professionally done. The kids with speaking parts even had wireless microphone headsets. Aesop and some Greek goddesses retold several of his fables, each with it's own catchy clever little song.

Grace was cast as one of the sassy Greek goddesses/muses, and was present on stage for the whole performance. When we entered the theater, she was standing as a statue against the wall. She did some narrating, sang a little solo, and looked beautiful!

Sarah got the part of Antonia the Ant in the fable about the grasshopper who played all summer, while the ants worked hard to prepare for the winter. Sarah got to reprimand the grasshopper and she did it with attitude! She was so cute and spunky.

The final song...I actually got both of the girls in one picture.
After the show, one of the directors came up to me and told me how talented both Grace and Sarah are. They really had a fun time performing, and after the show, they were a little disappointed that all the practicing and performing is over now until next year! I'm so happy they had this opportunity to develop some talents! Ladies, you both did a fantastic job! I love you!

Lluvia de Estrellas Gymnastics Event

At her last gymnastics event, Sarah ran an obstacle course, but she has since been moved up a level and competes in several individual areas. We were really surprised and excited (and maybe a little more nervous) when we arrived at this event and saw the gym all set up with the bars, beams, vault, and cushioned floor. I was totally impressed with all that Sarah has learned this year in gymnastics and with how well she performed at the event. She really loves it too!The end of Sarah's floor routine...
This bin is full of the magnesia bicarbonata, the white chalk...Sarah really enjoyed getting her hands ready for her bar routine.


I don't think we got any pictures of the vault exercise, but here is her last exercise...the beam! I think this was the hardest for her, as she practiced this one over and over at home. It was fun to watch!

The competition...each row is a different school or gym.

Sarah and her coachesThe awards ceremony. You did great Sarah!

Greetings From Planet Nerunus!

For my science class, I had to make up my own planet. My planet's name was Nerunus, and it was between Neptune and Uranus. It is green because of some of the green clouds that appear on Uranus. It has 12 moons and 10 rings. It is four times the size of Earth, as you can see. -Grace

The Pledge of Allegiance

Every month at ASFM, the girls' school, they hold a flag assembly. The one at the end of January was a bit more elaborate with the Honor Guard presenting the flags of Mexico and the US. The national anthems of both countries were sung too. Picture me as the only American woman standing in a group of Mexican families singing "and the rockets red glare" by myself, and yes, this was also the day of my dye-blond, "no hablo ingles" incident. The redeeming part of the morning was that Sarah and another boy said the pledge of allegiance in front of the entire school and lots of parents. Sarah did a great job! I'm so happy she did well...the kids don't say the pledge every day like in the US, so she had practiced for a week! Practice makes perfect, right Sarah? Good job, I love you! (Thanks to Sarah, I could hold my head high as I left the assembly, even after my unintelligent comment, and my poor attempt to get my alto voice to reach those soprano notes...)

It's terrible that this is the best picture I got of Sarah's pledge. We need a better camera.

Horno3, Museo del Acero

We visited a great museum in Monterrey, the Museum of Steel. It is built in and around an old blast furnace, named Horno Alto #3. It had lots of hands-on exhibits for the kids, a ride up the old rock loading conveyer, and a movie/fire/lights show right at the furnace. I think the furnace functionned for about 80 years, it closed in 1986, and was transformed into a museum several years ago. Monterrey is a very industrial city, and it was cool to get a taste of the pride the people have in that heritage.

This is the furnace that the museum is built around. This theater shows a movie that explains how the steel is made--they filled the furnace with rock rich in iron ore, heated it with coal fires, drilled a hole at the bottom to let out the heavy iron, then sealed the hole up again--and different parts light up to show the process. The movie also has footage of past workers sharing their feelings about working there. After the movie and the demonstration, there is a crazy fire and lights show to music. Unexpected and cool. After the show, we walked around inside the furnace too.
We all had fun playing with the exhibits...







This is the ride up to the top of the refinery. We were locked up in a cage and pulled(backwards)up the old track to the top. This is the track that would carry the rock up to dump into the furnace.


This is the top of the furnace where the rock would have been dumped in...we are outside on top of the same furnace where we watched the movie and fire/lights show.

The views from the top of the factory were great in every direction. You might recognize Chipinque(the "W" mountain). We live over the hill from this part of Monterrey.


We can see this factory whenever we are driving around Monterrey, so it was great to finally go inside and see it!