Future kindergarteners

I have spent hours today completing school registration forms for Turtle and Tadpole.  OMG, I had no idea that they would be this involved and complicated.  I'm still not sure I've done everything right, but I guess I will find out tomorrow at registration.

Our city has multiple special programs, including a Spanish immersion, a bilingual immersion, and a Montessori program, but we've decided after a lot of debate to just stick with our neighborhood school.  It's considered a very good school, it's centrally located near the community pool and the library, and it's an easy bike ride from our house.  Our kids don't need Spanish or bilingual immersion since we already speak Italian at home, and I wasn't that impressed by the Montessori program presentation last week.  Plus, it would make the kids dependent on me for transportation through the entire elementary school years, whereas here, they can ride by themselves to school as soon as I feel they can manage it safely.  Not to mention, I always see groups of kids riding to school together here, sometimes with just one parent herding whole groups of kids together (the biking version of a carpool, I guess!).  We live right across the street from the bike path that goes directly there without crossing any other streets, so it's incredibly safe.  And this way, they'll also be able to make friends within our neighborhood, which is a big plus as well.

So!  That's done.  Whew.

Back to life updates.  The kids are still doing violin, but really protesting practicing now, and I'm struggling to keep everyone motivated, including myself.  I don't know what to do.  I'd like to stick with it a little longer and hope they get more interested.  They really do like lessons, it's just the practice at home that I can't ever get to happen.

We went skiing two weekends ago, on a bit of a whim.  It was a blast.  The kids really love it.  I'm getting pretty excited to take them skiing in Italy with their grandparents.  We even went over jumps with them this last trip, which of course they loved.

I'm keeping really busy with work right now, my usual March madness combined with our upcoming trip has me just about over the edge, but I'm working pretty well on time management and I think things are pretty under control.  The house is suffering a bit, and I have lots of underlying things to finally get to, like decluttering, filing, etc., but I am actually working on that slowly here and there.  I still have lots of little things to do, and I think we'll be filing an extension for taxes, which is ok.  I can only do so many big projects at once.

That being said - it's time to get back to work.