College Trips and Making Choices

This is Patrick, hijacking Melanie's blog again. I was supposed to hijack this earlier, but, well, time got away from me. Melanie wanted me to post about the college visits I just made with Anthony over the past few weeks, as well as Anthony's college decision.

First, I have to start out with a small preface. We have always done our best to raise our children to be able to go off into the world and fend for themselves. When we watch their grades and their school performance it isn't so much to make them get "A's" but to be prepared for their future and to have as many options and choices available to them as possible. This is why certain children have actually gotten in trouble for school work that was an "A" but that they didn't really work hard on, or were disorganized in completing. I have often told the kids (and still do), "I am not your friend. I am your Father. My job is to help you become the adult that I want to be friends with." I am proud to say that, so far, the children are developing nicely.

Okay, on to the real meat of the post, and the reason for the hijacking of the blog today. Anthony and his college choices. Anthony was accepted to several Texas schools, including UT-Austin, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M. He was also accepted to Rice University (his parents alma mater), RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute). Unfortunately, we did not do a good job of visiting colleges before this entire application process, a mistake we will not make in the future. I wanted Anthony to visit these top 3 choices so that he could make an informed decision about where he wanted to go.

Our first trip was to Rice University, which I must say has changed a great deal since Melanie and I were there, where we spent a Monday visiting with students, listening to presentations, and Anthony also attended a class. Melanie and I already knew that Anthony was not as likely to pick Rice as one of the other two schools because he has already said that he wanted to go out of state. Yes, our baby bird wants to stretch his wings and fly away from home. (Picture: Rice Business school entrance, there is a Bear on one side of the door and a Bull on the other) Anthony liked Rice, and the students there, as well as the campus. He also stated that he knew what the weather would be like.

The following weekend we made a whirlwind trip to Albany, New York to see RPI in Troy and then drove to Boston to see my sister Lisa and her family before visiting WPI. Our Friday travel plans were, well, pretty disastrous and exhausting as we waited in various airports for bad weather to pass areas we needed to fly over, or to. We made it though, and were at RPI the next morning to hear more presentations, go on a nice tour and meet with students. Like Rice, RPI has a great, friendly student body, beautiful campus, and a collaborative environment where the students all seem very happy (in spite of being only a week away from final exams). At this point, I believe RPI was a top choice for Anthony.


While at RPI we were able to look at the "second most acoustically perfect" music hall in the world. Anthony even joined with some students working on trying to set a new record for a "box fort." After we wandered around a bit more, we found a place to eat lunch before making the drive to my sister's house so that Anthony could meet his Uncle Derek for the first time (only Natalie and I were able to make it to the wedding) and we could both meet my newest Nephew. I will try to post a separate post about our visit with Lisa and Derek, but I need to include one little picture for now.

The next day, Anthony and I went to a soccer game so that he could meet Derek's other children before we packed up and headed out to Worcester, which is only a 25 minute drive away. We got there a bit early so we could walk around the campus on our own before going to meet Anthony's host (he stayed overnight). Anthony's good friend Jake has also been accepted to WPI and he made the trip too so we met Jake and his dad at the same time as we met Anthony's host for the rest of the evening and the next morning. Melanie and I suspected WPI was the lead choice before Anthony and I even made the trip, after our short walk around the campus and meeting Sam, Anthony's host student, I was almost certain that this would be his choice. The campus is beautiful and it is another school with a happy student body and a collaborative working environment.

All three schools are fantastic schools and I have constantly told Anthony that he can't make a bad choice and that he needs to choose a school where he believes he will be happiest. WPI did indeed win out. WPI has been very communicative, offering a travel scholarship to make a visit, scholarship money, and simply going out of their way to get in touch with Anthony and attract him to the school. Melanie and I are thrilled because now we will have a great excuse to go to the Boston area and visit Lisa and Derek more often so that we can watch our newest nephew grow up. Having my sister close by also means that even though Anthony will be far, far away from home, he will still have family nearby if anything happens or he needs something.

Later this year it will be very tough for us to see him go, but we know that we have done the job we are supposed to. We have helped raise a young man to make his own choices in life, we have encouraged him to strive for the good grades and good habits that can give him the greatest number of opportunities in life. He has made an excellent decision for himself and I am very proud of what he has accomplished so far, and the paths that are open to him in his future.

Eric's 6th Birthday Party

Eric's birthday was earlier this month, on the 9th, but we were still recovering from Spring Break and trying to schedule Anthony's college visits. Because Eric is so dinosaur crazy, we booked a party at the Witte Museum Dinosaur Exhibit. It was a pricey choice, but we thought well worth it. At the time we booked it, they didn't have an opening until today.

This is the dinosaur cupcake cake that we got from our local HEB--one half was chocolate and the other half was vanilla. We thought the dinosaur bones theme was perfect to go with the museum exhibit. We had no idea how many kids were going to show up, because only four RSVP'd that they were coming. Three others said they couldn't come. The rest of Eric's class didn't respond one way or another. We had to rely on the teacher to distribute the invitations since Eric was sick most of last week, but because we did get SOME responses, we knew that they kids had to have received the invitations.

One of the kids got sick today, so only three made it. Because one of them was Christopher, one of Eric's "best friends", we knew that he would have fun no matter what. Luckily, there were two girls and two boys, so they each had someone to hang out with.

The very first thing in the exhibit is this "sand pit" where you could dig for dinosaur bones. This was by far the kids' favorite spot. I think it's because they could interact with it rather than just see the dinosaur models and read about them. At one point, Eric lay down and wanted his friends to cover him up. He only asked that they not cover his face. Of course, what does one of the kids do but throw "sand" on his face--not on purpose, but still. Anthony went over there to help and he exclaimed, "Wow! Look what I found! An Eric-osaurus!"

There was also this little photo op set up in one corner of our huge party room. All the kids (including Natalie and her friend Margot) took turns posing there. Most of the time the kids were in the Treehouse part of the museum including the rock climbing wall. Eric's friend Emma got scared just as it was her turn to go, but she waited there until Eric and Christopher finished. Eric didn't go up very high, but he did it. While the three kids were rock climbing, our neighbor Sophia was in the Treehouse playing with Anthony and Alex. She loved the attention and the boys seemed to be enjoying themselves too.

My sister Melissa talked about how this was the last celebration of Eric's birthday "month". My sisters and my parents arrived on Friday for a visit. They originally thought they might be attending Eric's party, but because the party was on Sunday afternoon, they had to leave by then. Still, Eric got even more presents from them. At one point, Eric was giving his Aunt Melissa a very nice, big hug. She told him, "Do you know what this makes me want to do?" He answered, "No." She said, "It makes me want to buy you things!" Eric got the biggest grin on his face!

I made some really great treat bags--dinosaur grabbers, stickers, stuffed animals, and tattoos. His classmates that couldn't attend didn't know what they're missing. Doesn't this look like the face of a boy who is having a great time at his birthday party? That was the most important thing and thankfully he enjoyed himself and so did his friends who celebrated with him.

Kinder Fiesta Parade

All the floats lined up in the gym because of the drizzly weather.

The kids are off every year on the day of the Battle of Flowers Parade. That was yesterday (Friday). On Thursday, the kindergarten put on their own Fiesta Parade. We were told to make a float using whatever theme we wanted. They wanted the kids to use their imaginations as long as their floats could be "carried, pushed, or pulled" by the student, to include any pull toy or device including doll strollers, wagons, and skateboards. In the past, with the other kids, we were told to use a shoebox, so that's what we used. As you can see from this picture, many of the other floats were MUCH more elaborate.

Eric with his simple dinosaur float.

Eric made his float. Patrick covered the shoebox with kraft paper and Eric cut out the fringe on the paper that Patrick then glued to the sides. Eric wanted dinosaurs to be his theme, of course, like everything else in his dinosaur-crazy life. We got these small plastic dinosaur toys from a friend in our Easter egg hunt. Eric did not want to glue the dinosaurs down because he wanted to be able to play with them again. I had some glue that was water soluble and would probably have washed off with soap and water, but we didn't want to take a chance that we couldn't wash them off. Luckily, I had these double-sided foam adhesive dots that we put on each dinosaur foot and luckily, that was enough to hold the dinosaurs onto the box.

The teachers were having fun too.

Although the kindergarteners were the ones marching in the parade, the rest of the school lined the parade route, especially under the breezeway at the front of the school. Some of the teachers dressed up in fun colors and accessories. This is Natalie's teacher with the guitar--he really got into posing for photos.

The parade started on one side of the parking lot and came up under the breezeway in front of the other kids. The kindergarteners waved as they marched along with their floats, and the spectators cheered and waved back. One class had made their own hats that they wore. In Eric's class, the boys wore these crowns from Burger King (which they decorated) and the girls wore flower garlands and other headband type head gear.

Eric dancing with his assigned dance partner.

After the parade, they did dances with assigned partners. I got a glimpse of Eric's future when he was holding hands with his partner and dancing. They had obviously rehearsed the dances. At one point, Eric looked like he was tired of dancing and seemed to just be going through the motions. His partner was way more "into it." Still, we got some good photos and Patrick also took video.

Natalie trying to avoid the camera.

Natalie was there with her GT class. They did the Macarena dance, the typical group dance. The kindergarteners started and then the rest of the school joined in. I tried to take a picture of Natalie dancing, but as soon as she saw me, she started making embarrassed faces and ran behind her best friend Margot. She then went through the motions of the dance, "making" Margot do the dance. I think it still made for great pictures. :)

After the parade and dances, the group disbanded. The kindergarteners got to have their own party in the kinder playground and the rest of the school went back to their respective classes. They had face painting, cascarones, snow cones, and other games. I had to leave at that point because I was on call on Thursday night and had to go to work. Patrick took Eric home after his party, but Natalie wanted to ride the bus home with her friends. I was glad that I was able to see this event in person, though. This sort of thing is better seen in person than in pictures and video.

Picking An Instrument

Natalie decided a little while ago that she wanted to be in Band when she gets into middle school next year. She played the piano for about four years before she had to quit at the beginning of this school year. She wanted to play cello in the orchestra and there just wasn't time for both. Well, she quit cello a couple of months ago, so she doesn't have any music right now and she seems to miss it. When the opportunity came to sign up for Band, she took it.

The kids who are interested in Band have to pick an instrument. There are some popular instruments, apparently--saxophone and percussion, so they suggest that kids that request those instruments have an alternate choice. They were doing "instrument interviews" earlier this week, but as I've previously described on this blog, this past week has been crazy busy, so luckily they had a session today as well. Natalie had a swim practice today from 10-11:30am, so we went there right after practice. She still had her towel and parka on from swim practice.

We were the only ones there. Apparently, a lot of kids already went earlier in the week, so we had lots of individual attention. We were greeted by one band director, who started the interview before the other one arrived. He was actually in the hallway playing his trumpet when we walked in. Natalie had planned on requesting to play the clarinet, but when he heard that she played the piano for four years, he suggested percussion, so she put that as her second choice. The choices were really just a guideline for the band directors. He was going to play to "test her" with different instruments to see what she would be good at. He started by having her tap out rhythms with her hands and feet. She was able to follow fairly easily, but I didn't think she was spectacular or anything. Still, he rated her a "9+" out of 10.

Next he gave her two different mouthpieces, one for the trumpet and one for the french horn. She had previously told me that she couldn't blow into the mouthpiece when they came to visit her music class at the elementary school. Well, she did great this time--not perfect obviously, since she has never played those instruments before, but she was able to blow into the mouthpieces and sustain a decent tone. He rated her a "9+" again for those instruments. Natalie's best friend Margot chose the french horn during her instrument interview, so Natalie was a little interested so she could be with Margot.

The other band director came in and gave her the clarinet to try. To my surprise, she actually didn't seem as good with the clarinet as with the brass instruments. The band director didn't say what her rating was, but she asked her what she wanted to play. As I mentioned previously, there is a lot of competition for percussion, but she told Natalie that with a rating of "9+" and four years of piano experience, Natalie would be assured a spot in percussion. So, what did my daughter say? She said she wanted to do percussion, because she "wants to hit stuff." Great. Can you tell that my daughter has three brothers? Can you tell that when she was about two years old, she used her baby doll's head to pound wooden pegs? Yes, she likes to "hit stuff." I was a little disappointed that she didn't choose a different instrument, but she really seemed excited about playing percussion, and I love that.

After we left the middle school, we picked up food and met Alex and a couple of his friends at the neighborhood park. They had walked from home to the park with Eric. I went home to get drinks and we had a little picnic. After the picnic, the boys played in the playground and with a soccer ball. Eric had a blast! He was showing me his flexibility on the playscape. Alex even got him down at one point saying that he has bad memories of doing something similar when he was younger.

The weather was absolutely fabulous today--sunny in the low 70s with a nice breeze. As a result, we spent a few hours in the park. Alex is having a sleepover tonight and this was perfect for them walking all over the neighborhood. It's a bit of work for me to have eight teenage boys here, but they're all behaving pretty well and they seem like they're having a lot of fun together. Eric is having a grand old time, acting like they're all his big brothers to play with and boss around. :)

School Carnival

Patrick and Anthony are galavanting in the Northeast today (Patrick will have to post about that later), so I'm a single mom for the weekend. The little ones had their big school carnival today. They only have this carnival once every two years, so it's a big deal and a big fundraiser for their school. I was volunteering at 4:25pm-5:15pm, so we left the house even before Alex got home from school. I bought a wristband for each child for $10 apiece and $20 in tickets for food and some games and activities that cost extra.

Natalie was hanging out with one of her best friends, Margot. I was volunteering with Margot's mom, so Natalie took care of Eric for a bit. That included getting him something to eat, since the food was in the cafeteria, far away from where I was. I was a little nervous about letting her do that, but lots of people knew her and a few less people knew me, so I figured that someone would let me know if she and Eric needed anything.

After I finished volunteering, I relieved Natalie of her "Eric duties". She and Margot had matching hats on that they had won in a game. They both had their hair "colored", meaning that there was a "Hair Flair" booth where they got the ends of their hair sprayed with different colored hair spray. Natalie, of course, chose red. She later found me and handed me a Beanie Baby type of stuffed animal--a Triceratops named Topper, which she wanted me to give to Eric. The rest of the time I saw her running around with Margot and another friend from our neighborhood, Paige.

Eric seemed a little lost, at first. Even when we were first driving to the carnival, he kept talking about how he was going to look for his "best friend Christopher" so they could play together. He didn't really know what to do until he found Christopher. The only problem was that Christopher is a little more energetic than Eric, which meant that he didn't stick with Eric. He kept running around all over the place. There were so many people that it was hard to keep track of him, so we lost him and found him a couple more times before they finally stuck together for the rest of the carnival. After that, Eric was clearly having a lot more fun. They played on the swings and playscape. They raced on one of the big inflatable obstacle courses and bounced in the bouncy house. They spent the most time at the "Egg Scramble" game where they had to balance a large plastic egg on a large plastic spoon. They did that one over and over again, each time claiming a prize from the prize box. Eric got a couple of hard candies, some little stampers, and a plastic spider. Christopher's mom was following him around like I was following Eric around. We were both getting tired following the little boys around.

Oh--I almost forgot to tell this one story. Before we found Christopher, Eric went to the "Dig for Worms" booth. This was his class booth, so he probably gravitated there because his teacher was there. Basically, they covered a gummy worm in whipped cream and the kids were supposed to get past the whipped cream to the gummy worm without using their hands. Eric refused to put his face in the whipped cream. Actually, he didn't want ANY whipped cream. He only wanted the gummy worm. His teacher laughed when she realized this, and she helped him get the whipped cream off. She also gave him a hug and told him that she was glad he made it to school today after being sick for four days this week. We love her.

Eric went to bed in my bed tonight, with Topper the Triceratops. I'm hoping he'll sleep well. I know I will.

Summa Cum Laude Ceremony

Last night we went to a ceremony of this year's summa cum laude graduating seniors at Anthony's school. The criteria for summa cum laude at his school is everyone who has an average of 100 or greater. There were 49 of them. Each graduate was tasked with choosing a teacher/counselor/administrator that most influenced their educational years. Anthony chose his Chemistry teacher (and advisor). The graduates had to right a short speech of 100 words or less describing how this person influenced them. Here is what he wrote:

"Tonight, I would like to honor Ms. Felger for the incredible amount of commitment she has demonstrated for me and all her students. Throught the years, Ms. Felger has encouraged me ever onwards, becoming a driving, motivational force in my life. She did not assist me in any typical way; instead, she was always the guiding hand, leading me to my own path. She has helped me discover that I truly want with life, also providing me with the skills and knowledge to do so. I only wish I could give back to her everything she has given to me."

I'm just a little biased, but I thought not only was his speech one of the best, but his delivery as well. He even improvised a little and he definitely was not reading straight from his little piece of paper. He has worked hard to be better in public speaking and it shows. She gave him a homemade card with $20 in it awarding him as the "Felger Scholarship Recipient". The bottom also read, "Scholarship Conditions: Annual visit with Ms. Val Felger and continued enrollment in a school of higher learning." So sweet!

First Long Course Meet

Natalie went to her first long course meet this past weekend. There were no 50 meter races, only 100 meter and 200 meter races for her. Patrick told her that the first time he was in a long course meet, he looked across the 50 meter pool and thought, "Wow, it's a really long way to that wall!"

Natalie's coach wasn't at this meet. There was a meet in Corpus Christi also this past weekend, and he was there with some other members of his team. The coach from the team above Natalie's was her coach instead. She wasn't that familiar with him, but Patrick told me that he seemed like a really great coach.

She swam in the 200 IM and 200 Free races on Saturday and the 100 Free, Breast, Back, and Fly (in order) races on Sunday. Her seeded times and actual times, along with how she placed amongst the 10-year-olds are listed below:

200 IM--Seeded time 3:36.51/ Actual time=3:28.36/ 8th out of 15

200 Free--Seeded time 3:10.71/ Actual time=3:07.93/ 8th out of 17

100 Free--Seeded time 1:26.66/ Actual time=1:25.36/ 7th out of 19

100 Breast--Seeded time 2:00.02/ Actual time=1:59.71/ 13th out of 20

100 Back--Seeded time 1:29.81/ Actual time=1:27.64/ 1st out of 23

100 Fly--Seeded time 1:36.18/ Actual time=1:40.53/ 3th out of 7

Note that the seeded time were mathematical conversions from a 25 yard pool to a 50 meter pool. Patrick says there really isn't an accurate way to do that since the times are affected by how well a swimmer does turns in the pool and other factors. Other notes are as follows:

--Natalie improved her seed time in all but one of the races. Still, she was in tears because she thought she could do better. Her tears were more short-lived than in the previous meets, however, so hopefully she is starting to find that balance between high expectations and reality.

--Her coach gave her specific critiques after her first race of the meet, the 200 IM race on Saturday. She took this as "stuff she did wrong". We explained to her that was not the case. He was merely letting her know what small things she could do to improve. Patrick keeps telling her that she is getting good enough that there aren't any big things, only little things that she can improve on to decrease her times.

--She really does better when she hangs out with her friends in between races. She calms down and enjoys herself more. They also encourage each other. She got a better time in the 100 Back than two of her friends (Renzi and Aspen). Renzi was the one who came up to her and informed her that she got first place.

Natalie's big goal is to meet the TAGS Time Standards so she can go to the big meet in July. She has high expectations for herself but that goal is actually very possible. I'm praying that will be the case because meeting that standard will go a long way to giving her the confidence she needs to keep going for the long term.

Sick Boy

Whenever I think we are busy, something happens that makes us even busier. We already had a busy weekend with Natalie's first long course swim meet yesterday and today. Patrick left town today with Anthony so they could visit Rice University, one of Anthony's top college choices. That meant that I would be a single parent until tomorrow evening. We thought we had everything planned. I would go into work late (coverage already arranged) and a neighbor would take Natalie and Eric as they got off the bus, and I would later (at 5pm) go pick up Alex after track practice. Luckily, Natalie already said she didn't want to go to swim practice tomorrow or that would be just one more thing to get done. As is typical with kids, though, they always find some way to remind you that you're not really prepared.

I thought Eric felt warm this afternoon, but I just thought it was because he had put on a long sleeve shirt and jeans this morning even though it was up in the 80s today. Later, when he said he felt cold, I told him to snuggle under one of our many blankets that are scattered around the house. Alex then told me that Eric had crawled into his own bed and fallen asleep. Eric doesn't nap. When he started complaining that his stomach hurt (around 5pm), I thought it was because he had not had a snack and he was used to eating early. When he started complaining that his stomach hurt and complained that he felt cold but his whole head felt hot to me, plus he was crying and refused to eat, I couldn't deny it anymore. Eric was sick. Fever of 101.4 sick. Sigh.

First I had to throw out all of the bottles and cartons of expired medicines (some from 2007!) before I could be sure that we did not have any liquid acetaminophen or ibuprofen. After all, our kids don't really get sick, so we don't usually need medications--except for allergies. We have plenty of up to date allergy medications. I had to make another run to the grocery store. Meanwhile, Eric was huddled next to the toilet because he felt sick. I had to go through a whole process of "grieving" before I accepted/realized that yes, I would have to call into work tomorrow. I've never had to call in sick to work, at least not since I've worked at my current job. I've even gone into labor while at work--but I came into work that day. I felt so guilty making that phone call, but what else could I do? I refused to be one of those parents that will medicate her child and then send them to school, only to get called in the afternoon when the medication wears off or worse yet, so they can infect someone else's child while they're at school.

I could see Eric get better as the ibuprofen took effect. He was even smiling when I tucked him into Patrick's side of our bed. I didn't want Eric climbing up and down from his top bunk in the middle of the night when he is sick. So, I guess now I'll be at home with time to do all the cleaning and stuff that I didn't get to do this weekend because of the swim meet.

Last 1600 meters

This is what you get when you leave your serving plate over at a good friend's house and they return the plate to you. How cool is that? I brought my plate over to their house filled with my Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars when we were there for Easter. We left the plate and the rest of the goodies so they could enjoy them and today they brought the plate back. Chocolate strawberries are a definite favorite at our house, but I'm going to store away a couple that I can have for breakfast tomorrow. :)

Yesterday, Anthony ran in his last 1600 meter race in high school--really his last high school race period. I was wrong on the previous post. It was the next to last event, the last event being the 1600 meter relay (or 4x400m relay). We don't have the official time, but Anthony said he finished with a time of 5:14, his personal best. Even better--he didn't come in last! Yay! That just seems so fast to me, but the guy that won finished with at time of about 4:30. That's crazy fast!

We were sitting on the first row of bleachers in the stands, so we could see the track very clearly. Patrick and I had to bring Eric with us because Alex was on another sleepover last night and there would be no one to watch him. We left Natalie at home by herself so she could go to bed early for her swim meet today. I figured that Anthony would love to hear Eric's voice cheering for him, so I encouraged Eric to say, "Go Anthony!" every time Anthony passed by us. Since this was the 1600 meter race, there were four laps, and Anthony passed by us four times. Each time, Eric yelled "Go Anthony!" He really seemed to enjoy cheering for his brother. We couldn't tell whether or not Anthony heard us, until I had this text interchange with Anthony when we were on our way home from the meet.

At the end of Anthony's race, Eric told me, "Anthony did pretty good, actually." When I texted this to Anthony, he replied that he had heard Eric during his last lap (he said he had zoned out the rest of the time and didn't hear anyone). I read Anthony's reply to Eric (that Anthony had heard him) and Eric got such a big grin on his face. When I told Anthony this, Anthony replied to tell Eric that "he was as loud as a t-Rex" and Eric's grin got even bigger. It was dark in the car by that time, but I could see a lot of white teeth even in the dark! What a sweet sibling exchange!

Last 3200 meters

Anthony has only been in high school track for two years. Patrick and I encouraged him to join as a freshman and as a sophomore, but he didn't want anything to do with it. I'm not sure why he changed his mind last year, but I suspect it had something to do with one of the coaches.

He doesn't get to really train for track because he is in soccer for most of the track season. He has only run in two other meets this year. In both, he ran in the 3200 meter and 1600 meter races. In the 3200m, his time was a little over 12 minutes. In the 1600m, his time was less than 5 1/2 minutes. Patrick and I think that's fast, but Anthony was one of the last to finish those races. The boy who won one of the 3200m races won with a time of 9 1/2 minutes. Wow! That's a whole other level of "fast".

Anthony wasn't even sure if he wanted to go to the District Meet which was held today with the second half tomorrow. This is his very last meet in high school. The coach he likes so much is leaving, but he's sticking around for this last meet, so Anthony decided to go ahead and run. This is a two day meet. He had to be at school this morning at 7am so he could catch the bus to Heroes Stadium, where the meet was being held. The 3200m is the first race in all of these meets, and they were starting at 9am. They ran the JV then Varsity girls' races, then the JV then Varsity boys' races, so Anthony didn't run until almost 10am.

I was hoping and praying that either he could meet his goal of breaking the 12 minute mark or that he at least didn't finish last if he didn't break that mark. He came in last with a time of 11:56.82. He was good with that. Tomorrow evening he runs in the last race of the meet, the 1600m.

Eric's 6th Birthday

Today is Eric's sixth birthday. On Facebook, I posted a link of my blog post six years ago, describing his birthday story. That seems like yesterday.

Patrick brought cupcakes in to school for Eric's class. They have a requirement nowadays to only have store-bought goodies at parties because of all of the child allergies out there, so I didn't bother trying to make anything special. Patrick also brought Eric's favorite lunch--Wendy's Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets and a Vanilla Frosty. It was unfortunate that Wendy's messed up his drive-thru order, but Eric and Natalie didn't seem to mind. Patrick wasn't even able to be there when the cupcakes were distributed by Eric's teacher. She picked them up from the office where he had left them and distributed them herself.

Patrick also displayed a new crafty side today. He has been unable to find dinosaur wrapping paper anywhere, so he made his own. He wrapped our presents to Eric and my sister Melissa's presents to Eric in kraft paper and then he used Eric's stamps and ink to stamp the paper. Eric didn't seem that impressed, but I think because he almost expects everything to be dinosaurs anyway. What a lucky boy.

When the big boys came home around 5:15-5:30, Eric opened his gifts. Anthony's best friend and Eric's "other brother" Alejandro was already here. The theme was definitely dinosaurs from books and a Lego Creator from Aunt Melissa and cousin Emily to an excavation set from Grandma. Aunt Cynthia and her family got him a requested Nemo play set. Yes, he still loves Nemo and still sleeps with a Nemo stuffed toy in his bed every night--right next to the T-Rex. They also got him a requested Cars polo-type shirt and Cars-themed swim goggles. I was sending Cynthia pictures of everything he was asking for as Eric and I shopped at the Disney Store a week and a half ago. I'm told that he still has other presents coming. His big brothers even drove by the Toy Zone near us to get him this Brachiosaurus. This toy is $40 and I had discouraged Alex from getting it. I guess Alex knows what his brother likes. What a very lucky boy.

We went to Chili's for dinner. I'm not sure why Eric loves Chili's so much. He only ordered the kids' Mac and Cheese, which is what he gets at pretty much every place we go out to eat nowadays. I think he just has fond memories of Chili's when we used to go almost every Saturday after we went to church. Tonight he ordered the kernel corn as his side, but he was disappointed when it came. It took Alex to be able to decipher why Eric was upset. Apparently, the picture in the kids' menu looked like candy corn, and that's what Eric thought he was ordering. Um no--you're not THAT lucky a boy.

We went to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream after dinner. Yes, this was Eric's choice also. He had his favorite--Rainbow Sherbet. Afterwards, I had to take a picture of Eric with Alejandro. Alejandro is almost a member of our family, although the last year or so has been very busy for him and for Anthony, so we haven't seen him much lately. Still, he made a special trip to be with us for Eric's birthday. Now THAT is a lucky boy.

Senior Design Project

Anthony has to complete a "Senior Design Project" in order to graduate. The model is due this coming Friday. I asked him to explain what that is and I basically typed it all in as he narrated it below:

The goal of the senior design project is to pick a problem and solve it. The problem Anthony picked was the inability to charge a mobile device while on the move, given society's increasing reliance on such devices. He decided that a solar panel would be the easiest and best way to increase the battery life of a mobile device. Originally he had planned to have a special type of cell (CIGS solar cells), which are extremely efficient and flexible, as well as very thin, making them ideal to create a phone case to hold them. The company, however, never responded back to his email or phone messages about the materials. So, the problem now is that the solar panels he was able to get are not the ones he wanted. Of course, he only got them the week before last, which doesn't give him much time to modify them. Adding to his problem of having the wrong solar panels, he did not want to tamper with the actual phone battery because there would be the possibility of an explosion--a bad thing. So now, he has a larger, less efficient solar cell which is directly connected to the charging portion of solar device. This solar device is charging very slowly, which he expected, but there's also an issue with the phone receiving the power, even when it's connected to the solar device. The phone fluctuates between charging and not charging every second, and he can't figure out why. Because the project is due on Friday, he has no choice but attach the device to a case and hope that it works well enough, given enough time to charge.

Despite the problems he is having with the building of his model, he is grateful that his father is helping him. Patrick had been asking Anthony about this project and if he had the necessary materials for weeks now. Luckily, Patrick is able to give Anthony guidance as to how to attach everything and what additional building materials he needs. They both went to Radio Shack yesterday to get some materials, including a soldering iron to attach the wires. Anthony had to go back to Radio Shack late this afternoon because of the problems he was having with the charging fluctuations. Luckily the presentation and the research paper on the project isn't due this Friday. Making the model has been time-consuming and problematic enough.

I was able to get the above photos this morning. Anthony needed some photos for his presentation about his project. Patrick remarked on how Anthony had his personal photographer "on call". I knew he wanted pictures at various stages, so I hung out in the garage with the two of them, playing on my phone until they called me for another picture. I was glad to do my part.

Speaking of doing their part, Eric is starting to do chores. He helped here and there before with cleaning the game room (usually his mess anyway), folding the laundry (I think I may have already shared a photo of his folding a shirt on my blog), and emptying the dishwasher. Today he did almost the whole dishwasher, with some help with drying the things that were still a little wet and reaching the drying rack and such. I joked about how he is blurry in this photo because he is moving so fast. He knows that he will start receiving an allowance when he turns six. That's on Tuesday. I give out their allowance on Sundays, so next Sunday will be his first "payday". Of course I hope he continues to be energetic about doing chores, but I know that won't be the case, just like with his siblings.

I've been dreaming about Warm Chocolate Melting Cake since we had it on the cruise a couple of weeks ago. I found a recipe online and I was dying to try it out. We're going to be very busy on the weekends between now and the end of school, either with kid activities or with Anthony and Patrick gone on college trips. I made a simple fried rice dish for dinner incorporating the brisket leftovers from earlier this week and I made the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert. For me, the center could have been more liquid, and the top could have been more done, but the taste was pretty much the same. Even better, the kids and Patrick all loved it and asked me to make it again. It was funny how excited they were that I was even talking about making it. Natalie couldn't finish her cake, but she asked for everyone else's extra vanilla ice cream. This recipe is definitely going in the recipe file to make again.

Swim Banquet

Natalie has only been in club swimming for a little over six months, so we're still having lots of new experiences. Today was their banquet. We've just finished the "short course season" where the kids swim in a pool with 25 yard lanes. Starting next week, we are starting the "long course season" where they start swimming in Olympic size pools, which are 50 meters long. I think a lot of kids take the long course season off, so they have their banquet now as a sort of end of season/year celebration.

As we walked in, the kids all got medals based on their best times. Natalie's best times meet the "A" standard times, so she got this medal. As she took her medal, she made a sad face and said, "I was so close to TAGS times!" TAGS times are faster than "A" times, and indeed, she was very close to a couple of TAGS times. The kids that had TAGS times, of course had different medals. During the presentation part of the banquet, they called out the different categories of time standards. When they called for the kids with the "A" times to come up onto the stage, Natalie and her friend Aspen, who are on the same team, were the first ones up there. When they had the kids with the TAGS times onstage, they talked about how kids 14 and under who achieve the TAGS standard times tend to eventually be competitive at the National level. I looked at Patrick hopefully. Natalie is close enough that she will most likely be able to get a TAGS standard time well before she turns 14. He whispered to me, "I told you she's good." I still have no concept. The National level still seems very far away, but it was nice to know (since Natalie has stated her goal to make it to the Olympic Trials) that she has a chance.

Besides the awards part of the banquet, they also had some fun stuff. When we got there, Natalie immediately found two of her friends, Aspen and Renzi (L->R). They hung out together for the whole time we were there. They had a Hawaiian theme. Patrick wore his one Hawaiian shirt. I didn't really have anything, and neither did Natalie. They had a Hawaiian dance group perform during the entertainment part of the banquet. First they performed and then they took audience volunteers and showed them how to do a Hawaiian dance. They even gave them hula skirts to dance in. The audience, especially all the kids, got a big kick out of the boys that participated, especially this one particular boy that got front and center and wiggled his hips quite a bit. Natalie's two friends were encouraged to go on stage, as was she, but even though they were reluctant, they went ahead and went onstage. Natalie adamantly refused. I was hoping for a photo op--oh well.

I didn't mention dinner. They had lots of varieties of pizza for dinner. I tried their spinach and alfredo and veggie--both good. The swimmers got to line up first and there were several boys with five or size pieces on their plates. Natalie remarked on how much she loved the cupcakes, which were chocolate filled. By the time Patrick and I got to line up to eat, the cupcakes were gone. There was a big cake left and lots of fruit. Apparently, Aspen's mom made all of the desserts. I was impressed, considering Aspen is a triplet plus she has an older sister AND they're home-schooled, so Aspen's mom is already very busy on a normal day.

The order of festivities was check-in, dinner, entertainment, awards, and then dancing. At first, Natalie was fine with going home after the awards, but then she started having fun with her friends. They started doing a sort of Hawaiian congo line all around the room. This photo is a bit blurry because of the moving subject, but at least Natalie is the least blurry kid in the photo. She was having a blast. She would have wanted to stay longer, but for whatever reason, they started cleaning up the banquet hall. I guess they were going to clean first then allow people to keep dancing? That didn't make sense to me. Anyhow, at that point, pretty much everyone started leaving, so Natalie was fine with also leaving.

So thus ends our first swim banquet. There will probably be many more.

Little Things

I was just explaining to Alex this evening about how sometimes it's just the little things that make me happy. Yesterday, I got the results of the Resident Semi-Annual Evaluation of Faculty. Almost of the comments were complimentary, for the most part. They all seemed to "like me", except for one. That one read as follows:

"In speaking with other residents, it seems that Dr. Lawinger is fairly enjoyable to work with. She becomes frustrated very easily, though, and is quick to blame residents for situations/outcomes that are often out of control of the residents. She writes highly critical evaluations when she perceives something is wrong with a resident, but she writes very little if a day went well. She does not inspire much confidence from the residents because she gets frustrated and argumentative easily. Many residents voice that they do not look forward to working with her."

I was very upset when I read this. I showed it to another faculty member and he said, "That doesn't even sound like you." Today I showed it to several more faculty who assured me that this was incorrect. I pleaded with them to tell me that if there was some truth to this comment that they tell me, because I would be compelled to change something. The person described in this comment was not the person I wanted to be. What did I do that made this person so mad at me? The last line also bothered me, because they supposedly got the same feedback from other residents, although the other comments I received did not support that. Several others that I showed this to today, including former residents that are now also faculty, told me that they didn't think this was true also. I'm slowly feeling better about this, but I was pretty distraught yesterday.

Yesterday evening, I took Alex and Eric to Baskin-Robbins (Eric's request). I told Alex about this evaluation and he said the sweetest thing. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Whatever. That's just one person. You're awesome, Mama." Awww, what a sweetie! I felt so much better after that!

Today, I had to work late. I didn't leave work until after 6pm. I went straight to Heroes Stadium where Alex was running in a track meet. I missed his first two races, the 4x100 relay (they placed 6th), and the 4x200 relay (they placed 3rd). I was able to watch the 4x400 relay, the very last event where they placed fourth. After the race, I was following Alex so I could ask him if he wanted me to pick up something for him to eat before meeting his bus at the school, or if he wanted to eat at home. He said he had to run to the bathroom and he had a pounding headache. Finally he told me he wanted to eat at home, and because I know he doesn't like for us to hang around him too much, I started to turn to walk out of the stadium to my car. He came up behind me and gave me a quick hug. That was enough to totally make my day!

On the way out of the stadium, I got a call from Patrick. Eric was going to bed and wanted me to sing his bedtime songs to him over the phone. I waited until I was in my car to call back so I could sing to him. We did our little routine where I would start singing a line from the requested songs, (ABC Song, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Little Star, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town), and he would either finish the phrase or substitute a different word. He loves inserting "dinosaur" instead of "star" in the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). He seemed to enjoy it and Patrick told me that I made his night. I loved that too!

I explained to Alex tonight about how he made me so happy when he told me that yesterday and when he gave me a hug this evening. He thanked me for going to his meet and told me again that I was awesome. I told him that I enjoyed little things like that. It's those little sweet things that make me happy.

Easter Traditions

We continued some traditions and started some new ones for Easter this year. Our family couldn't make it to town to visit us this year. We didn't go out of town because we were out of town for all of Spring Break and barely got back a couple of weeks ago. While it's new that we didn't spend time with family, it was also new that we got invited to our friends' house for Easter.

We first got to know Alicia and Al when our daughters started swimming together. They live around the corner from us, and we've enjoyed spending more time with them lately. We walked over there at about 12:30pm. We had lunch--"Mexican Style" then we did our usual Easter egg hunt for Natalie and Eric and their two girls Anna (age 10) and Sofia (age 6). This time the big boys got the eggs ready before we even left the house. I heard Natalie saying to Anthony, "Hey, you're not supposed to be eating (candy)!" I just laughed and I knew she was talking to Anthony. Our friends prepared their own eggs. Here, the boys are counting the eggs so we could know when we had found all of them.

Look at that sheer enjoyment on Natalie's face! Well, actually, that looks a bit sinister. Natalie really loved mashing eggs on top of her brother's head. After they kiddos found the eggs, we moved on to our tradition of breaking cascarones over each others' heads. I am usually immune because I am taking pictures, and I don't want to risk getting confetti all over or inside the camera. Of course Anna and Sofia didn't obey that rule, and really, neither did Alex. Alex at least went for my arms, probably to avoid the camera. Each child had a dozen cascarones, plus one dozen for Patrick.

Poor Eric had a lot of eggs broken over his head because he was such an easy target. Poor Sofia had Eric breaking eggs over her head because hers was the only head he could reach. Everyone had a LOT of fun. The best thing about going to someone else's house was that all the confetti ended up inside and around someone else's house and not inside and around ours, although we did manage to track a little confetti back to our house.

After we went back inside, the kids counted and opened up their eggs. Eric still needed a little help finding eggs, so he got quite a few. Interestingly, two of the eggs had pieces of paper in them that said, "Whoops" and "Better luck next time". The adults immediately turned to the big boys, who started grinning and laughing. Yup, they had sneaked in those little notes. We had to admit that the notes were a funny touch.

Some of the eggs had money. We tried not to overwhelm the kids with chocolate, mostly because we didn't want them eating all of that chocolate. Some of the eggs had little plastic dinosaurs filled by my friend Alicia, because she knew that Eric loved dinosaurs. He loved them so much that he traded them for an egg with money in it. He doesn't really know the value of money yet, because he traded the egg with a dollar and change in it instead of one of the eggs with only change in them.

After all the activity, Sofia and Eric played on their own and the rest of us played Apples to Apples. That game is one of our all-time favorites. We always have a lot of fun conversations when we play that game. After Alicia won, we got our things together and headed home. We enjoyed our usual traditions, but we also enjoyed doing new things and making new memories.