It's been a busy few weeks since my last post. Barry enjoyed his Salt Lake City trip and managed to fit in some sightseeing in between the skiing and work. He visited some Mormon sites and returned with a very positive impression of parts of the Mormon faith.

Back in Brookline, Izzy and Rachel had their final basketball matches of the season with the local Joel Loe League. Sadly, both teams lost but the girls have enjoyed the experience and made some new friends. Rachel's team, which was made up of Rachel and three of her 5th grade friends from Pierce School and seven 4th grade girls from Baker School (another Brookline school) had a post-match party at Coach Kenny's house where they were all presented with trophies.

Rachel in action.

Team Liberty with Coach Kenny and asst Coach Ryan

Rachel and her friend Eve

Rachel and her friend Sydney

Isabel in action

 Once the basketball season was over, rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz moved up a gear. The two weeks running up to the performances were full on for Rachel, with three or four-hour rehearsals almost every day after school. Unfortunately, the school was piling on the homework too in preparation for the following week's MCAS tests (similar to the UK SATs and sat by every grade every year) so it was a tiring couple of weeks for Rachel. However, it was all worth it in the end with a fantastic show and amazing performances by Rachel.

There were two separate casts, the Lullaby League and the Lollipop Guild. Rachel was a Lullaby and her cast performed the opening night on Thursday evening, to the younger grade children on Friday morning and then the closing night on Saturday. Rachel enjoyed herself thoroughly and performed her two solo songs, "If I only had the nerve" and "King of the Forest" with great confidence and aplomb. The director Jacob told me afterwards that he and his co-directors had spotted Rachel's potential for comedy in the audition and wanted her for one of the funny parts. He added that he had had to fight for her as the producer was very wary of awarding one of the major parts to a 5th grader as usually the main parts all went to 6th graders and she had certainly justified his faith in her. It was all very pleasant to hear!

"Put 'em up! Put 'em up!"

"What'ya do that for?"

The gang see the Emerald City for the first time.

"If I was the King of the Forest!"

" 'Fy, 'fy was King!"

Facing the Wizard.

"OK, I'll do it."

"I need you guys to talk me out of it!"

 "I've got a medal!"

Saying goodbye to Dorothy.

Rachel and her friends Alex and Lili (the Munchkin Coroner and Munchkin Barrister) with Jacob, the show's director.

With the show over, Rachel's attention turned to her new basketball club, the Mass Commanders. The first couple of practices were a bit of a shock for her - not only was the basketball training several levels above what she had experienced so far, so was the fitness training! Keith, the coach, spends the first half an hour or so of each training session giving the girls fitness drills which is without a doubt Rachel's least favourite part of each session! Now that she knows what to expect and is finding the fitness side of things less intimidating and more manageable she is enjoying the practices, which are now twice a week. The first tournament is this weekend in Providence, Rhode Island. First match Saturday 8am - aaargh! Coach wants the girls there by 7.30am so it's going to mean leaving home by 6.15am at the latest. I'm not sure Rachel will be fully awake by the time the whistle goes. Her team has two matches on Saturday morning and then another on Sunday morning with the two top teams playing each other for top honours on Sunday afternoon. We're hoping to spend a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon exploring Providence before dashing back to Brookline so Rachel can go to a birthday party. On Sunday we will have to dash back as Barry is flying out of Boston on Sunday evening for the UK/Sweden/France for two weeks. Life is never dull here!

We had a lovely weekend just gone in Sunday River ski resort in Maine. It was a lengthy four hour drive but definitely worth it. The resort was great - large by New England standards with more than 100 runs. Rachel was beside herself with excitement to discover that one of the peaks was named "OZ" after the Wizard and several of the runs from the peak were named according to the Oz theme. She was desperate to do The Cowardly Lion run but unfortunately, despite excellent snow conditions it was windy all weekend so some of the top lifts were closed including the one to The Cowardly Lion. She did manage to ski Kansas and Cyclone though, so all was not lost. Our accommodation was great too - a two-bedroomed condo right on the slopes with a swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna in the condo block. Much fun was had by all and it is the favourite of the three New England ski resorts we have visited this year. Proof that the winter has been long and cold - Sunday River is expecting its ski season to last until May!

On the mountain.

Quick pit stop to warm up and fill up.

Thumbs up!

Ready for action (ish...)

Yes it was cold.

Off we go!

Speaking of the weather ... it may be spring officially but it doesn't feel like it here. We had more snow last week and snow and gales were forecast for yesterday but thankfully the storm system moved further out to sea than had been anticipated so the snow bypassed us. Sadly the gales didn't. It was like being in Porthcawl. Everyone is saying that this winter is unusually long and cold. The temperature is still well below freezing every morning when the girls go to school at 8am and I walk Dougal and on more days than not, the temperature hasn't peaked above freezing in the day time. According to the weather app on my phone, the current temperature at the time of writing, just after 10am, is 25F - that translates as almost -4C. We're still wearing thermals, snow boots, ski gloves, hats, scarves, anything we can to keep us warm. The good news is that the temperature is forecast to start rising in the next few days although I think it may still be a week or two before we reach the heady heights of double figures in centigrade. I'm trying to stay optimistic though. Those who know (ie people who live here for more than one year!) say that the transition between winter and summer is usually fairly short and they are expecting it to be even shorter this year because of the much longer winter. We can't wait to start stripping off the winter wear. We don't ask for much - just being able to go outside without gloves and a hat would feel like a tropical paradise.