Teacher Gifts

The kids don't seem to want to give teacher gifts beyond elementary school. I would have been willing to give even small gifts to the boys' teachers, but they didn't want to give them. Natalie, on the other hand, was excited about giving gifts. When we were out shopping last weekend, we got two little cartons of Godiva Ice Cream Parlor Neopolitan Truffles, one for her main teacher and one for her GT teacher. She also wanted to give Barnes and Noble gift certificates to them plus she also wanted to include one of the other fourth grade teachers who used to be Alex's teacher.

Yesterday she chose red wrapping paper to wrap the cartons. They were a bear to wrap because of their circular nature, so I did that part. She filled out the gift cards which came with their own holders and then she affixed them onto the top of the packages. To personalize them, she added some shark stickers that I had given her for her birthday last year. She said that she had been saving them for a "special occasion". I'm pretty sure her teachers, and pretty much everyone else in the school who knew her knows how much she loves sharks, so I'm pretty sure they'll know who these are from, even if they don't read the front of the card. It's nice to have an enthusiastic child. :)

Yesterday was also the "Mindfest" activities at Natalie's school. All the kids participate in this, not just the GT kids. They are split up into teams and do various brain teasers to "stretch their minds." Patrick and I both participated. I was happy that Natalie was in one of the groups I was helping. She let me take her home after that, which I was a little surprised at since she likes to take the bus home. I spoiled her by taking her to Starbucks to get her favorites. I cherish these mother-daughter times.

I usually tell Natalie to be "good for Papa" whenever I say goodbye to her when I'm going to work. I'm on call tonight, so when she said goodbye to me this morning, she said to me, "Be good for work." That girl just cracks me up!

Women's Shoes

Natalie is growing up, isn't she? I took her to get some new dress shoes this morning. Her other ones never seemed to be comfortable, but now they're even more so because they're getting too small. I've never bought shoes for her anywhere else but Target, but this time we went to the mall. I didn't realize that they don't have kids' shoes at Macy's. They only offer kids' shoes online. We were at Macy's to get a gift card for her ex-swim coach's wedding, which was tonight. They had requested gift cards from Macy's as presents. We went all the way to the third floor to the children's section before we found out they didn't sell children's shoes.

On the way out of Macy's, we went by the Women's shoe section. I was glancing for something for me when I saw some Lucky Brand ballet type shoes. I've been looking for this soft type of shoe for Natalie. The ones I've seen at Target or Payless (which is where I've bought her shoes) are hard and they hurt her feet. I've looked for something similar for kids online too, but there really aren't that many varieties of kids' shoes even online. Natalie picked one up in a color she liked. They looked small enough but I thought that certainly they had to be too big for her. When she put the shoes next to her feet, they looked like they might fit, so I told her to try them on. I couldn't believe that they actually fit! I told her to walk around in them and she was able to walk normally. Whenever she put her other dress shoes on, she always walks funny, probably because they didn't feel comfortable. I felt where her toes ended, and sure enough, they were close enough to the end that I had to believe that they fit.

The sales lady that was helping us, scanned them for the price. Of course, the sale sign on the table ($39.99) didn't apply to these particular shoes. That also meant that my coupon, good only for sales or clearance items, wasn't going to be applicable to these shoes. I was taken aback a little by the price--$59.99. I barely spend that much on MY shoes. I was even more surprised when she told us that they were size 5 1/2! I wear size 5 1/2! I tried them on and they did seem a tad snug, so maybe they run small. I had Natalie put the sandals that I was wearing on and they were bigger on her than they were on me, so my feet are still bigger than hers--but not by much!

Still, I was happy to find shoes that she was comfortable in. She still has a little room to grow, so maybe we won't have to buy another dress shoe for a while. The sales lady was kind enough to give us the floor sample discount of 10% even though she said she was told she wasn't supposed to. I told her that at least that would soften the blow of finding out my daughter can fit into women's shoes, at least for this first time.

The wedding was at 7:30 and both the ceremony and the reception were held at the Grand Promenade Room of Pat O'Brien's. The bride was beautiful. We also saw Natalie's current swim coach and got a picture with her too. One of Natalie's swim buddies, Kate, was also there with her family and the two of them hung out together and had a blast. Kate's brother, Kate, and Natalie played Rock Paper Scissors and many other variations for most of the time. They were really enjoying themselves, even bouncing their hands to the beat of the music playing in the background. Natalie and Kate did some line dancing too, but I was amused to see Natalie step out to the side before the song was over. She looked at me and said, "It's too confusing." She had a hard time following everyone else, I guess. The two of them also ran to participate in the bouquet toss. It's interesting that all the single females, girls and women, usually run to participate in that, as do the boys, but the single men always hang back. In fact, one of the young boys caught the garter when all the men stepped aside.

We didn't get home until around 11pm. Natalie fell asleep in the van on the way home and went straight to bed. My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore.

Field Day

Today was Field Day at Natalie's school. I met Eric and Patrick there after my hair appointment. They were helping out at the Snow Cone station. For some odd reason, they had put the Snow Cone station outside next to the gym where there wasn't any shade. I asked Eric if he wanted to go sit on a bench under a tree. He told me that he had been using the shade under one of the tables. Sure enough, he went there after this conversation and I snapped this photo. Poor thing! Soon after this, we got some help and moved the Snow Cone station into some shade. I benefitted from this when I took over for Patrick for the next volunteer shift. We learned from last year that we shouldn't try to keep Eric with us the whole time we volunteer, so Patrick took him home after his shift was over.

I snapped this photo when we were in the shade. I love looking at that cute face. Notice his many tattoos? I've been indulging him with putting on as many Dinosaur Train and Cars tattoos as he wants and that will fit on his forearms.

He seems so serious, but really, he was in a good mood. Just before Patrick's shift, the two of them turned in the paperwork to officially register Eric in kindergarten. He was excited to be a "kindergartener"! He got a celebratory lunch at Sonic after that. :)

I didn't even see Natalie until the very end of my shift/end of school. She was soaking wet! We weren't supposed to give the kids more than one snow cone (to make sure everyone got at least one), but she grabbed the one I was eating and ran away with it. She came home on the bus with a huge shirt worn over her own shirt that she had borrowed from one of the teachers.

The kids only have two more days of school next week. We've got a busy weekend and week ahead.

My New Lens

I just got my Mother's Day present today--a new camera lens. Yay! Natalie was the closest one to me and she was a somewhat willing model. Even with the dim and less than ideal lighting, I love this photo because I love looking at her beautiful face. Her hair is wet on most nights since she swims at least five or six times a week and then takes a shower when she gets home.

Besides the swimming, Natalie has had a busy month or so. She has had several dentist and orthodontist visits concerning a back tooth (baby tooth) that was draining. Her orthodontist was concerned about the possibility of infection, but he didn't want to lose the tooth because it would change her bite. She went to two dentists, including a pediatric dentist, who both recommended pulling the tooth. Finally, they pulled the tooth, and then she had a couple of visits to the orthodontist for a new retainer since her old retainer wouldn't fit after the tooth was gone. She gets her new retainer on June 7th.

Today she was in a school play. The fourth graders do this play about the beginnings of Texas every year. When Alex was in fourth grade at this school, he played a conquistador, a fairly minor part. He just remembers hating the hat he had to wear. Natalie tried out for a meatier role that involved singing. She ended up with two parts that involved singing in the center of the stage and actually had to change costumes between them. The musical/play itself is an entertaining look at Texas history with a number of fun jokes and songs designed to help the children learn about Texas history whether they planned to or not. Patrick and Eric got to go watch the play and at home tonight, I heard Eric talking about the song Natalie had to sing. He seemed to really like the song. Natalie said that she sang it for him before the play.

Speaking of Natalie and Eric, they're both sleeping in Natalie's bed tonight. Eric had an accident in his bed early this morning and we hadn't made his bed back up again when it was bedtime. I asked him if he wanted to sleep in Natalie's room in the bottom bunk and he said, "Yes." When I asked Natalie, she said that he could sleep in her bed. He was all over that, of course. I wanted so badly to play with my new lens and take a picture of them, but alas, even with that lens, the room was way too dark. Oh well, I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow.

Kindness

Anthony's school promotes four "core values", which are Perseverence, Integrity, Commitment, and Kindness. There are 16 teachers in his magnet school. He also takes classes with the rest of the main high school. Each of his magnet school teachers can pick one student that demonstrates one of the core values for each quarter of the school year. Each student can only get one award per year. His freshman year, Anthony got the award for Integrity from Mr. G. Last year he got an award from Mrs. F for Commitment. Today he got an award from Mr. G again for Kindness. Mr. G is his AP Physics teacher and he clearly enjoys having Anthony as a student. As an aside, Mr. G has experience taking these pictures. He went outside to the hallway for pictures instead of the dimmer lighting and busy background in the classroom where the awards were given. He also made sure to turn Anthony's body towards his. I found it humorous that he was directing the photo in this way.

This awards ceremony was held at 7:45 this morning. Speaking of kindness, I was able to attend this due to the kindness of my colleagues, who covered for me, especially Heather. Thanks, Heather!

I took this second picture this afternoon when Anthony was reading a Thomas the Tank Engine book to Eric at Eric's request. Speaking of kindness again, Anthony has such a way with his baby brother. He had homework to finish, but Eric approached him with this huge book and without sounding perturbed or irritated in any way, he just started reading the book. Eric loved it, of course, and he was captivated. Anthony is such a sweet boy. I'm proud to be his mother. :)

Spring Recital 2012

Natalie's piano recital was today at 2:30pm. We were a little concerned yesterday because she was acting so tired in the morning (grouchy, quick to snap at Eric, etc.) and that was before a swim party and sleepover for her friend's birthday. She was not going to get less tired at a sleepover and she had this recital today. We decided in the end that she's worked so hard for everything (school, piano, swimming) that she deserved to go, so we let her. When Patrick picked her up this morning around 10am, she denied being tired, but she was uncharacteristically quiet and I could barely get her to interact with me (i.e., talk to me, hug me, etc.). I strongly suggested to her that she lie down to rest. She isn't a napper, so I didn't expect her to actually sleep, although I hoped she would. She at least seemed to be in better spirits after a short time in her bedroom.

She played the Star Wars Theme by John Williams and a piece titled "Folk Dance" by Bela Bartok. She told me after the recital that her piano teacher said that if she forgot some part of the second piece, she should skip to the end since she knew the end. She did just that. It wasn't super obvious, but the piece was a lot shorter than I remembered it to be. I already knew that she was having trouble remembering because I asked her to run through her pieces once this morning after she got home and she had a lot of trouble with the second piece. I couldn't do anything about it so what else could I do but tell her (after the recital) that I was still proud of her for getting up there and performing.

In case you're wondering--Anthony was eating a cupcake when I took this picture. Alex stayed home to play PS3, but Anthony decided on his own that he wanted to come and watch his sister play at her recital. He even dressed up for it. These two have an obvious love for each other when they interact. We took her to get frozen yogurt afterwards as a reward. She was eating her red velvet yogurt quickly, so he told her, "Don't eat so fast!" She replied, "Why not?" He just cracked up laughing. That was totally something he would have replied also. She laughed too as we all did. Outside after she finished (Anthony didn't have any), she was hugging him and telling him that she'll never be as big as he is. He was hugging her back and saying that she is "tiny". She says she doesn't want to grow up and he tells her that she can't. She also told him not to go off to college, but at the same time she knows he will. I love watching these two.

Eric came along also--his decision. We had to keep reminding him to be quiet and to not move his legs up and down rhythmically causing his shoes to make a slight noise. He was pretty well behaved for a five-year-old boy. He seemed to enjoy some of the music and he definitely enjoyed his yogurt with gummy bears.

Across the Pool

During Eric's swim lesson today, he swam all the way across the pool for the first time ever. That's 25 meters. He had to turn on his back and float for a little bit several times to rest, but he made it all the way without touching the wall or the lane guide or the bottom of the pool.  Awesome!

As a reward, Patrick bought him a Dinosaur Train coloring book (with included tattoos) when they went to the grocery store. I had to put a tattoo on him after his bath, of course. He is in this odd position because he has an old Cars tattoo on the other side of his left forearm and although he has no tattoos on his right forearm, he wanted that T-Rex right there on the same arm. He's been posing for me long enough to know that he has to have his face in the picture along with the tattoo. :)

Papa and Eric Time

Eric's last day of preschool was Friday, May 4th. He's been home with Papa since then. Patrick planned it this way so he could do some special things with Eric before the other ones are out of school. He also realizes that he won't be able to do these types of special things when Eric goes to Kindergarten full time starting in the fall. Last week was really gloomy and wet, so they did mostly indoor stuff:

Monday the 7th--Library then Eric played quietly and contentedly by himself in the gameroom

Tuesday the 8th--Dinosaur Quest

Wednesday the 9th--Eric's weekly swim lesson at Lifetime Fitness then Natalie went to the dentist to have her tooth pulled (so the activities are not always "fun" for Eric)

Thursday the 10th--Witte Museum

Friday the 11th--I was off from work so we did a variety of things I might detail later

The above picture is from the Witte Museum. I had to turn it black and white because of the funky color cast from the indoor lighting. Eric has been fascinated with dinosaurs lately, and he's learned quite a few facts and can say some pretty big words as a result of watching the show Dinosaur Train (like "omnivore" and "paleontologist"). They had to see the dinosaur bones at the Witte, of course. When they went to Dinosaur Quest, there were even lots of videos that Eric stayed still for, which is amazing for an active five-year-old.

This week hasn't been as exciting with another stay at home day yesterday and an orthodontist trip for Natalie today. The only down side has been that Eric doesn't automatically lay down for quiet time like he does at school. He also apparently gets up as soon as I leave (around 5:30am) to play in the gameroom so he isn't getting much sleep and getting cranky as a result. We'll see what happens in the next couple weeks before school ends. Patrick is going to really miss the little guy once school starts. We're going to savor this time with Eric as much as we can. He's growing up so fast.

Natalie's Mother's Day Gift

This is part of my other present for Mother's Day. Natalie loves the color red as I do, so that explains her wonderful choice of colors here. :) She couldn't wait until Sunday and presented me with this on Friday. For once I was happy with the picture they took. Often in the past, the photos seem rushed and the smiles seem forced on these projects.

I plan to display this on my desk at work next to the photo of her when she was almost four. She has obviously changed a lot since then. I get a little sentimental when I see her face and know that her face is maturing. My baby girl is growing up.

This is the paper that Natalie gave me along with the picture and frame. Click on it will enlarge the photo for a closer look at the content. She told me that her teacher had given them the option of typing this out, but she wrote it out by hand instead. She knew that I would prefer her handwriting so I could keep it and remember it. This is one of the scrapbooking "rules". ;) I guess I've trained her well, haven't I?

Happy Mother's Day 2012

Wow, I haven't gone this long without a blog post since I started this blog! Today is a good day to write a new entry. Today, of course, is Mother's Day. I worked last Saturday (May 5th), so I got this Friday (May 11th) off for a long weekend. I'll post about the other days another time.

We left the house about 8:30am so we could go to Magnolia Pancake Haus, a local breakfast/lunch place. Yes, the big boys actually consented to getting up early today. Magnolia Pancake Haus is always super crowded and they don't take reservations. We got there before 9am and had to get in line just to put our name on the list. The wait was quoted at 90-105 minutes. Luckily, we are able to leave our phone number so they can text us when our table is ready. That meant we could leave the premises and come back close to the quoted time. We went home.

I decided that this would be a good time to take a picture with my beautiful children. This photo is one of my two favorites. I wasn't as happy with the pictures as I was last year, but maybe that's because we were wearing more colorful clothing last year. I'm carrying Eric because I wanted to be able to crop in closer. The big boys are almost the same size now, but Natalie is getting taller too. I'm amazed at how she seems to be getting longer legs, like Anthony.

Natalie gave me my present on Friday. I didn't take a picture of it yet, but she wrote down some things and gave me a framed picture of herself. Anthony presented me with my present this morning. He had designed this website as part of a class assignment. I was so touched! I took screenshots of all of the different pages, but this one is on the home page. Hopefully, if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see a bigger picture and be able to read the sweet poem that Anthony wrote. He was the last child I saw this morning but the first one to greet me with a "Happy Mother's Day!" He is truly a blessing.

After the pictures, Anthony practiced driving with Patrick for about 30 minutes. When they got back, we left for Magnolia Pancake Haus and got there by about the 90 minute mark. They texted us at about the 100 minute mark.

Brunch was wonderful and filling. We all ate too much, although Alex complained that they didn't have fruit crepes, his favorite breakfast food. He had a bacon and cheddar omelet, just like his big brother and father, except he got chocolate chip pancakes as a side item with it. Anthony got bacon pancakes as a side item. Patrick and Natalie both got chocolate chip pancakes. Patrick's was also a side item. Natalie's was the "full" short stack and she could barely eat one half of one pancake. The regular pancakes are huge! I got the spinach and mushroom omelet with a side of blueberry pancakes, which Eric had requested. We have lots of leftovers we can eat for breakfast this week.

After brunch, we dropped off Patrick and Eric at home and the rest of us went to a 12:30pm showing of the movie The Avengers in 3D. We actually made it to the theatre by noon, but the boys wanted to be able to sit through all the previews. That also meant that we had lots of time for more pictures. I looked around for an Avengers poster and found this big stand-up ad. Today was the day they allowed me to take lots of pictures and I was happy that they obliged with this one.

After the movie we went to Brindles for ice cream. This has become a weekly trip for us lately. My excuse is that I want to keep them in business. We go there enough that one of the frequent employees there knew that Alex was going to ask for a Dreamsicle shake. Alex loves his routine--always has. I splurged on a chocolate cone for Natalie to have with her Red Velvet ice cream. Anthony also had Red Velvet and I had Creme Brulee, even though I shared a Creme Brulee with Eric when we were there on Friday. Yes, I definitely try to do my best to keep them in business.

I would have wanted all my children with me, but Eric showed that he was clearly too tired to be able to sit still through a 2 1/2 hour movie. Patrick volunteered to stay with him. They ended up going to the pool and Eric got lots of exercise swimming back and forth the width of the pool at least five times. He was so tuckered out that he fell asleep later during church. He didn't even want to meet us at Brindles for ice cream.

After church we picked up P.F.Chang's for dinner. I was happy eating at home with the family while watching a taped episode of The Finder. We're sad that this series has reportedly not been renewed for next season. We've actually been watching a lot of shows together as a family and it's tough to find the time to do that together sometimes, but I love it when we can do it.

I wanted to close with a bad iPhone photo of Natalie in the 3D glasses at the movie theatre. The glasses were obviously too big for her. She decided to wear them even after the movie and she was laughing because they had fallen while she was washing her hands in the bathroom. This is exactly what I look for on Mother's Day, spending time laughing and having fun with my children. I couldn't ask for any better Mother's Day present.

Blue Whale Project

Natalie has a big project due this Friday. Since I knew I would be helping her with it and that she has swimming every weeknight, we had to finish it by this past weekend. She had to make a diorama of her chosen animal--the blue whale. For those of you who know how much she loves sharks--yes, she did ask if she could do a shark but that was not one of the choices.

First she did some research on the computer. Alex was actually the one who helped her with that. He can be sweet to her sometimes. I tried to take a picture of the two of them huddled in front of the computer, but he saw me and started hiding. One of these days I'm going to catch them.

I wanted her to find pictures of the blue whale and other sea life so we could use those in the diorama. It was her idea to use the blue tissue paper. It's a good thing I keep all the tissue paper we receive with gifts! I think that part turned out pretty well. She cut out some of the sea life including the blue whale, but I ended up cutting out the rest. She said she needed "help" cutting out the small fish. Boy, that was tedious. I think she just didn't want to do it. She did the background gluing of the tissue paper to the shoe box and I glued the sea life onto the tissue paper.

I like to think that she really appreciated all the help she got and that she knows how lucky she is. With each project she learns a little more about how to do research on the computer and hopefully one of these days, we won't have to help her. I dislike doing school projects because I'm done with school and project make me feel like I'm in school again! I also motivated her a bit by saying that if she finished her project early, she could read the new Kane Chronicles book, The Serpent's Shadow, that just came out yesterday and arrived in the mail today. I always want to encourage early completion of school assignments. She was very happy when she got to read that book today and I was very happy I didn't have to add to our busy weekday schedule this week.