What a handsome young man all dressed up for Cotillion

Today Jude started Cotillion classes. This is a class for 4th graders (they have other ages but you have to be in at least 4th grade) where they learn manners, social graces, etiquette, respect and formal dancing and dining. Marcy discovered this while talking with a mom of a boy on Jude’s soccer team and we decided it would be great for Jude. He has been complaining about having to go but he was a good sport and did it anyway. I think it helped to have a friend who was also doing it – one of his classmates from school.

It is a six week course on Sunday afternoons and now that football season is over our Sundays are wide open. While Jude didn’t have great things to say about his first class by the way he talked we could tell he enjoyed it. So far, it seems to be quite a confidence builder. One of our hopes for both kids is that they are comfortable in their own skin. As they begin to navigate the awkward tween and teen years, this class looked like a good opportunity to learn how to manage social situations. These lessons are better received from people other than us.

The kids had this week off school so on Wednesday night (after Jude’s soccer practice) we drove up to Keystone to stay for a few days. The snow had been great with Keystone having one of their best years in a long time.

Anna on a pile of snow at the bottom of Keystone Mountain

The kids skied with Marcy on Thursday, went ice skating on Friday and then all of us went skiing on Saturday. It was really cold but the snow was pretty good. While both Jude and Anna are excellent skiers Saturday was not a great day. We took them down a run that was a little beyond them and they both got very upset and ended up taking their skis off and sliding down the last part of the run. They were both very unhappy with us. That and the bitter cold made for a relatively short ski day.

Anna showing off her new tennis racquet (and the no shoe look)

Somehow we lost Jude and Anna’s tennis racquets after last summer so we bought them new ones this month. The old racquets were probably getting too small for them anyway. Anna was so excited when the box showed up she wanted to go and hit the ball around right away. The courts at South High School are just a five minute walk away so we went down there to test out the new racquets.