April Art a la Carte

I volunteered for Eric's monthly art class yesterday (Monday). I didn't get a chance to get a picture of his art from last month's art class because it was a two-part lesson and I wasn't there for part two. They made "sculptures" using wire that they shaped and placed in a green block that is usually used for flower arrangements. They then stretched a stocking over the wire and covered the stocking surface with white liquid glue. The second part was painting the sculpture.

This is Eric's finished (and dried) sculpture. He chose to paint it all black except for some orange accents. Most of the other sculptures were painted a shimmery light purple, so Eric's sculpture stood out. He is definitely has his own individual taste.

April's art class project was based on the work of a Japanese artist named Katsushika Hokusai, a painter and printmaker, who is most well-known for his woodblock print named The Great Wave of Kanagawa. The kids were going to mimic that work using simple items--colored paper, scissors, pen, and glue.

Mrs. R started by showing them different ways to cut the paper into waves--big and small, curved or pointed, lots of cuts or just one or two. Then they basically doodled on each piece of paper to add some texture/interest, then combined them all and glued them onto a white piece of paper. The final piece was to cut a boat out of a small piece of red paper and put that as the focal point.

It's a good thing that this was a simple lesson, because this lesson was interrupted several times by various school-wide "drills". They had the "duck and cover", which was supposed to be what to do in case a tornado was in the area. All the kids heard "duck and cover" and they all immediately got up from their chairs, went under the tables, and tucked themselves in little balls. Mrs. R had to read her little guide and it turned out that they were supposed to do this in the hallway since the classroom was on the exterior of the building, and you're supposed to move to the interior of a building in case of a tornado.

They had a "lockdown" drill in case there was an intruder, like an active shooter. I thought it was sad that nowadays we have to prepare our kids for cases like that. They all huddled in one corner of the classroom, turned out the lights, and covered up the windows. The last drill was, of course, a fire drill. We got outside just in time for the light drizzle to start. Fortunately, we didn't have to be out there that long. Apparently there was one more drill, an evacuation drill, where they would all go to the nearby church, but that would have caused too much chaos, so they didn't do that one.

Despite the multiple interruptions, most of the kids were able to finish their artwork. Eric perched his little red boat high up on the very tip of the biggest wave. He obviously had a lot of fun with this little project. :)

Instead of bringing him his usual (meaning for the last five years) lunch from Wendy's, he requested Sonic Jumbo Popcorn chicken and a grape slushie instead. Last month, when I went to get his usual request lunch, I found out that Wendy's no longer offers the spicy chicken nuggets. I went ahead and got myself some of their Ched'R Peppers. I haven't eaten Sonic in about two years, but yesterday, I decided to eat Sonic food with my son. He is growing up so fast, and I want to savor every moment. Look at that sweet face! LOL ;)

Happy 10th Birthday, Eric!

Today is Eric's 10th birthday! My youngest baby is now in double digits! I wanted to start this blog post with the big group photo of everyone that was able to go to Eric's birthday dinner tonight, including (left to right) Uncle Geoff, Patrick, Alex, Alex's girlfriend Coral, Natalie, Alejandro, Me, Eric, Grandma, and Grandpa.

The day started with a trip to Krispy Kreme. Eric wanted to go there for his birthday breakfast. He had lots of sugar with the free glazed donut they give to everyone, then two chocolate iced donuts, and apple juice. Natalie went with us and had three glazed donuts (including the free one). I had my usual chocolate iced custard filled donut.

When we got home, we woke up Alex so he could watch an episode of The Flash with us (Season 2 episode 19). We don't usually wake him up so early (around 9am), but he had said that he wanted to watch The Flash with us whenever we got to the next episode, so we did. In the middle of the episode, Anthony called to wish Eric a happy birthday. After they chatted for a bit, I got to talk to him. I miss him so much! He filled me in on why he's been so busy this week (Greek Week at his fraternity). He hurt is wrist during one of the activities (something similar to Dancing With the Stars), and promised to send me a video explaining how he got hurt. He was also excited that their Spring Formal was going to be a dinner cruise on a yacht. I'm looking forward to pictures.

At around 11am, Natalie and I went to the gym. Even on the weekend she has been trying to get some swimming in, to work on her technique in a more relaxed time frame than during swim team practice during the week. Patrick met us there about an hour later with Eric so I could take him rock climbing while Patrick got some cardio exercise in. Patrick then took Eric to the pool at the gym while Natalie and I left to go have lunch at McAlister's Deli.

During lunch, Natalie and I watched the next episode of The Magicians, a show we started watching together during Spring Break. We've both been so busy since then that this is the first time we have watched since we got back. We finished up the episode when we got home.

By the way, the picture above is of the dessert we had after dinner at El Mirasol. The manager came by our table to say "hi". He knows us from when we used to go to the other location on Blanco where he used to be a waiter. I mentioned that we were raising our kids on El Mirasol because Eric had specifically requested to go to El Mirasol for dinner for his birthday. I think that this was the reason why we got this huge (free) dessert complete with a candle for Eric to blow out. It's pretty much a combination of all the different desserts that they serve there. Even with so many people, each person had plenty of dessert.

This is a picture of Patrick with his youngest sibling, Geoff. Geoff is visiting his parents for maybe a month or so. They recently sold their house in Colorado (it sold in one day for the asking price!), and Geoff is going to help them empty the house, probably among other things.

When Patrick and Eric got home from the gym, Alex presented Eric with his birthday gift. Alex had bought a small trash can with a lid for Eric's room on which Alex had written "NOT A TOILET". On Friday night, when Patrick went into Eric's room to sing goodnight to him, there was a bad smell. That smell happened to be some old urine in Eric's trash can. Apparently he decided one night to pee in his trash can instead of going to the bathroom down the hall. Alex and Natalie were as horrified as we were. Alex wanted to give Eric a little reminder.

It was about 2:30pm by this time, and Eric and I took a walk to nearby Hardberger Park. I needed some more "steps" and he always enjoys climbing and swinging at the park playground. The temperatures got up into the 80s, and it was humid, but at least there was a breeze. It still felt pretty hot by the time we got back to the house around 3:30pm. Grandma, Grandpa, and Geoff had just arrived.

This is a yearly picture I take of Eric with his "other brother" Alejandro, or at least I try to take one every time Alejandro is able to join us for Eric's birthday. Alejandro recently got engaged, so we got to congratulate him in person. Anthony will be his best man, so at least I know that we get to see Anthony at least once in December of this year (December 2nd is the wedding date). Unfortunately we didn't get to meet Alejandro's fiancé Maggie. I'm sure we will have other opportunities.

This is a picture of Eric and his presents from today (minus the trash can). Grandma and Grandpa got him the Under Armour hoodie. We got him the other three presents, a stomp rocket set, a Munchkin Deluxe game, and a Star Wars Bladebuilders light saber that he picked out himself at Target yesterday.

We were updating his wish list at Target yesterday. I told him that I could buy him something yesterday, and we would give it to him today. This toy must have been the one that he absolutely had to have, because this was the only one he wanted to buy yesterday. Normally, I would have had to go back to Target later, like today, to buy him something else, but we ordered the other items from Amazon instead for next day delivery. The Amazon package arrived shortly before this picture was taken. Thank goodness for next day delivery and large gift bags.

I told Eric tonight that I wanted to make him feel special on his birthday, and I asked him if he felt special. He replied, "Yes." That's all this mother wants. Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy.

Saturday Activities

My poor neglected blog! I had a breakdown of my workflow for my pictures last year, which affected the pictures I could upload to my blog, and I'm still recovering. I think I've found a solution with Google Photos now, and I am going to start posting again--hopefully.

Today has been a busy day. We decided to go to Magnolia Pancake Haus for breakfast this morning. Alex was still asleep and Natalie didn't want to leave the house, so it was just Eric with Patrick and me. Eric ordered his usual kids' pancake with sausage and apple juice to drink. This time he "forgot" he wasn't at IHOP and ordered the blueberry pancakes, but of course that was okay. Patrick ordered his usual "Eggs And" which includes scrambled eggs, bacon, and chocolate chip pancakes. I ordered my usual, which is the Bananas Foster French Toast with a side of Corned Beef Hash.

I took this picture before we even ordered. Eric and Patrick have big smiles because Patrick was holding Eric's hands down to prevent Eric from doing his "thumbs up" that he likes to do for pretty much every picture nowadays.

When we got home, Eric and I watched Legends of Tomorrow on Netflix. All of us started watching a bunch of these DC Comics shows that usually air on the CW Channel (to include Arrow, Flash, and Supergirl which started out on CBS) this past year, and Eric and I are ahead of everyone else, so the two us end up watching by ourselves.

After that was done, I picked up a work friend of mine AC who moved to a nearby neighborhood recently so we could go to a get together of a bunch of lady anesthesiologists from work (including two residents). The two residents, AD and AM just found out that they were selected to be chief residents next year, so we got to congratulate them. HN brought food including nice serving plates all in her large bag! We all got to know ZZ, who just started working at SAMMC a couple of weeks ago. It was so fun to socialize while painting our pottery pieces. I'm curious how my piece will turn out once it's fired in the kiln, but I'm sure I can post about it when it's done in 7-10 days. I really loved how everyone else painted their pieces and I hope I will love mine half as much!

Meanwhile, Patrick took Alex shopping at Men's Wearhouse to get a suit for his upcoming graduation. They got a good deal on a second suit, so now Alex has a suit for my sister's upcoming wedding also. After that, he took Eric to UTSA for his Achievement Auditions. Natalie used to do this also, and it's the event where Eric plays two pieces from memory in front of a judge who critiques his performance. He then gets a "rating" and he happened to get the highest rating they give out--"Superior Plus"! He did such a great job!

After I got home from my social gathering, I went to the gym with Eric, anticipating doing some cardio and then taking him rock climbing. I didn't realize that the Rock Wall closes at 4pm, which is when I was done exercising. Eric missed out on rock climbing, but Patrick plans on trying to take him tomorrow.

To make up for missing rock climbing, I took Eric to Target to make up his wish list for his birthday tomorrow. He picked out mostly weapons (bow and arrow, Nerf guns, lightsabers, etc.) and Lego sets.

By the time we got home, it was time for dinner. Patrick picked up a Papa Murphy's pizza, and we ate while we watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. By the time that movie was done, it was time to go to bed. Whew! What a busy day!