First Day Recap

With all of the older kids off to school, Patrick and I took Eric to ride the train at Brackenridge Park. I've never actually ridden the train until now, and it was fun watching Eric and his facial expressions during the ride. At first he looked very serious, mostly looking down at the rails as the train rode along. We encouraged him to wave to people we saw along the way. I loved seeing his little smile so we encouraged him to wave at me so I could take a picture.

We made a short stop at the Japanese Tea Garden and then went home. Patrick left to pick up the big boys around 2:45pm. After we had some brownies that I made for the kids, Eric and I headed outside to wait for Natalie. I treated him to a juice box to keep him cool in the 100 plus degree heat while we waited for the bus to arrive.

The kids varied in the amount of information they shared with us about their first day at school. Natalie talked about how her teacher kept her classroom at a very cold temperature and how Natalie was glad that she brought a jacket to school with her. She seemed excited about learning her multiplication tables and even though she didn't have any homework per se, she still sat down for about 15 minutes to work on her multiplication. Alex talked about how they spent all day with their advisor, which is what they seem to be calling their homeroom teacher nowadays. Mr. L apparently teaches Geography and they played a fun game in class. Alex also talked about how he didn't have to tuck in his shirt or wear a belt--"no one else" did. Anthony was the least talkative, as usual. When I asked him what he did for his first day, he answered, "Nothing at all." Later he at least elaborated that they spent all morning in their Advisory Period taking care of paperwork and such. He didn't even get to go to Soccer.

Today Eric had HIS first day of "school". He started Tuesday/Thursday "preschool" at the same daycare that his siblings used to go to. He started off a little grumpy this morning when we wouldn't let him play "Plants vs. Zombies" on the iPad. He didn't want to let go of me when Patrick and I dropped him off and he cried when I put him down. Oh the mommy guilt! I knew he would be fine eventually, but I was only reassured when Patrick picked Eric up this afternoon and he told me that Eric's afternoon teacher said he had a great day. I was supposed to work late tonight but I was able to come home by around dinner time. I was glad that I was able to chat with the little man about his first day. I get a kick out of how he says, "Umm" a lot when I ask him questions, but he really does try to answer them, a stark contrast to his oldest brother.

First Day of School 2010

Patrick got Natalie up at 6AM today. She usually takes a long time to dress, eat, and get her stuff together, but today she was downstairs in about 10 or 15 minutes. I was hoping to buy a new "first day of school" outfit for my only girl, but we didn't find any cute outfits that she liked when we went shopping. Natalie really likes this outfit, and she wanted to wear it today, so I thought this was as good an outfit as any we could have picked out, even if it isn't "new".

Her bus doesn't technically arrive until 7:04AM, which is actually earlier than it has been the last couple of years so she sat on the sofa reading for a bit before I took her out to the bus stop. We got to meet out new neighbors from across the street and we were glad that their old bus driver, Mr. H, was still the bus driver. The bus had a different number, so when we got the card in the mail letting us know what bus Natalie would be riding, we were afraid that Mr. H had retired. He has been the best bus driver ever.

The whole district moved to earlier start times this year. I'm not sure why they did this, but I suspect it has something to do with doing away with the block scheduling in the high schools--seven shorter classes daily instead of four longer classes with the same class every other day ("A" days and "B" days). The move was a cost-cutting measure because then they didn't have to have as many teachers. As a result, Anthony's school days are longer. The one thing he likes about it is that he has a longer lunch and that lunch is at the same time every day. In any case, the earlier start times might be due to the different schools using the same buses and bus system.

Patrick got Alex up at around 6:45AM and Anthony some time after. Generally Anthony can get ready quicker than Alex. Today is the first day of school and everyone is a little excited, so everyone got ready sooner than usual.

At first Anthony was going to wear one of his older soccer practice shirts on his first day of school. His reasoning was that he was going to wear the same shirt tonight for his soccer practice. His reasoning reminded me of Patrick's reasoning--very practical. All Patrick had to do to make Anthony change his shirt was to tell him to wear something that the girls would like instead. :)

Alex didn't get a choice in what to wear. He had to wear a uniform, which he was unhappy about, or in other words, "standardized dress", as the school manual states. Patrick and I thought he looked good, as he always does when he "dresses up" even a little. He couldn't understand why he had to wear a uniform, especially when the high school kids don't have to wear uniforms. Apparently they imposed the uniform standard in middle school to get them ready for uniforms in high school but then they did away with uniforms in high school and kept them in middle school. However, not all middle schools in our area wear uniforms.

We usually take the kids out to eat after their first day of school, but that won't be practical tonight or most days this week since one of the boys has soccer practice nightly from Monday through Thursday. Instead we picked up P.F. Chang's last night and we watched "The Spy Next Door" from Netflix. The kids had a relaxing evening in preparation for this exciting day.

No Parents Allowed

Natalie had a piano recital yesterday. Her teacher billed it as a "kids only" event. Apparently, in the effort to make it a "fun" recital and "low pressure", the kids voted to have "kids only" and no parents at the recital. Accordingly, Patrick and I planned to drop her off and stay home. Then, on Friday night, Natalie tells me, "What's the point of having a recital if the parents aren't going to be there?" In other words, she wanted me to go. So, I went. I was the ONLY parent there, except for her piano teacher and her husband. The parents did chip in to pay for pizza for the kids and many brought cookies and other desserts, but otherwise they all dropped off and picked up. No one else stayed.

Natalie played duets with two of the girls, both were younger than her and they looked and acted like it. On one duet, her partner needed the teacher to count out for her when to start playing. On the other duet, Natalie and her partner did not seem to be on the same tempo. If one messed up, the other still went along as if nothing happened, which meant that their timing was off. Still, all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, and I guess that was the point of it.

Natalie's teacher did give out a couple of awards. Her students had to compose a short song and she gave awards to the two who she felt had the best compositions. When Natalie figured out that her teacher was talking about Natalie's piece called "Excited Boy", she made the face in the picture above where she was trying to hide her face in her shirt. She was all smiles under that shirt! She has made embarrassed faces before, but she's never tried to hide her face until now. She was pretty excited that her piece won! After everyone ate, I asked Natalie if she was still glad that I came even though I was the only parent. She nodded enthusiastically and said, "Yes." I guess in the end I was glad I was there to share this with her.

On another note, I finally ordered more of our everyday dishes and they arrived on Saturday morning. This is a picture of Natalie helping me remove the labels that were on each individual piece (although I bought a complete set). We actually only needed more bowls and small plates. It cost just a little bit more to get a whole set (of 8 place settings) than to buy the pieces individually, so I bought the whole set. I started out with 8 coffee cups from this shipment. Alex accidentally broke three of them between yesterday and today. For some reason, there are only 7 coffee cups left in the cupboard. Patrick and I are wondering what happened to the other coffee cups we had. These are the perfect size for a small helping of ice cream, so I thought we had about 4 or 5 already. We're still looking for the others...

Discount Tax-Free Shopping

I had a 30% off Gymboree coupon burning a hole in my pocket and it was only good for this weekend. I can't seem to pick out clothes that Natalie likes anymore, so I had to take her with me to pick out clothes. Unfortunately, I was exhausted yesterday (from a stressful week) so I had to take a nap first. We didn't get going until about 4:30PM and this weekend is the Texas Tax-Free Weekend for back-to-school shopping. Luckily, there weren't a lot of people at the mall yet.

To my constant disappointment, Natalie doesn't like the girls' clothes at Gymboree anymore, but she did like a couple of the Halloween costumes. Her first choice was the chef costume with the white jacket and puffy white hat, but they only had three of them, none in her size. Her second choice--a firefighter costume. Yes, my little girl wanted a shapeless, mostly black outfit made mostly for boys. *SIGH* She refused to even look at the dainty girl costumes. Her doctor costume from last year will still fit easily, but she was so excited about this one and the 30% off coupon and tax-free weekend made the cost reasonable. She can always use it for dress-up and her brother will still get some use out of it. This one is still a little big for her.

Because his sister was so excited about the Halloween costumes, Eric picked out one for himself. His natural pick was this "Bob the Builder"-type construction worker outfit. It's perfect for him because there is a minimal amount of trespass. That is, he can wear it like any other piece of clothing with no extra material to worry about. He also still has his train engineer costume from last year. I love these Gymboree costumes because they really are built to stand up to constant dress-up use year round.

He might have picked the dinosaur costume, but it was furry and way too warm to wear for our usual Halloween weather. It's always a possibility that it will be cool for Halloween, but warm-weather costumes are more versatile--the kids can always wear something underneath them. The cold-weather costumes would be impossible to deal with in warm weather, especially for my children who sweat very easily.

For some reason, Alex decided he was going to put Eric's construction worker hat on and he was even willing to let me take a picture. I always joke about how Alex has such a big head. That small hat really emphasizes his big head!

So, on our shopping trip yesterday, I was also able to get another couple pairs of khaki uniform shorts for Alex. I want the option of only having to wash his uniforms once a week, so we now have 6 yellow polo shirts and 5 khaki shorts. I also bought one more pair of khaki pants to add to the one pair Alex already has. He is not likely to wear pants very much, even in winter, so I think we'll be good with that for most of the year. All of that was also tax-free AND I had a 20% off coupon. This shopping was the reason why we were running late for the Meet the Teachers Night. I did not want to HAVE to go back to any shopping area this weekend. Tax-Free Weekend is usually absolute chaos. It wasn't bad shopping on Friday night, but I could see that lots of people were coming into the mall parking lot as we were leaving at 6:30pm. I'm pretty happy with the deals I got while we were there.

Meet Mrs. W!

Last night was Meet the Teachers night at Natalie's school. It still seems weird to say "Natalie's school" because this is the first time she has gone to a school without her brothers. Anyway, we met Mrs. W, who will be her third grade teacher this year. Patrick and I didn't know that much about her, but she was a second grade teacher last year and she has been at the school for many years. We heard absolutely glowing reviews about her teaching both from those whose kids had her as a teacher last year, and those whose kids had her a few years ago. One former neighbor said that Mrs. W was the best teacher her son has ever had. Natalie knew her from last year and she was very excited to see her again!

Patrick and I were a bit more lax about going to this event this year. We skipped the principal's talk that starts everything out (plus I was running late after returning from back-to-school shopping with Natalie and Eric). There's a new principal this year because the previous one retired. We figured that we already knew the school's general policies and if anything has changed, we'd find out about it later. It was much nicer (and shorter) to just go, meet Mrs. W, and then go home.

We bought the prepackaged school supplies that the PTA sold as a fundraiser and Patrick helped Natalie unpack it and put it all in her desk. She's all set to go for Monday!

No Pictures!

I really wanted to practice with my borrowed camera today. I took this picture and realized that it's too dark because of the bright light behind Eric. He wanted me to take a picture of him with Maya the Dog. Unfortunately, he wouldn't let me take any more pictures of him with Maya the Dog. Instead, he kept running away from me whenever I pointed the camera anywhere near him, saying "No pictures!" I got around it by taking pictures of Natalie instead and occasionally, when he wasn't looking, I took some pictures of him.

Of course, what got him to let me take a picture of him again? I mentioned taking a picture of his bottom again, just like yesterday. Natalie got as excited about it as he did. They both let me take pictures of their bottoms! (See below.)



I hid behind the bed for this shot. After this, he and Natalie started fighting over who would get the gun. Either he was crying or she was pouting. Still, they love to play together. Obviously they like similar things.

Eric loves stuff animals much more than his siblings ever used to. Here he is with Shamu (that used to be Alex's) and a penguin. He really looks like he's concentrating, doesn't he? He's watching Anthony play Assassin's Creed 2 for the PS3, and so was his sister. I started by taking shots of Natalie and Anthony and after that, Eric was so busy watching that I could take all the pictures I wanted.

Alex went to his middle school orientation today. They signed up for lockers and they showed them around the school. Apparently, they'll be helping all of the sixth graders find where their classes are next week. It's nice that, even though they're "big" middle schoolers now, that the school will still "hold their hands" for a little while longer. Alex seemed to enjoy his morning there, although he wasn't all that talkative about it today.

I'll post about Natalie's Meet the Teacher night (which was tonight) tomorrow.

Middle School New Parent Orientation

Patrick and I went to Alex's middle school tonight for "New Parent Orientation". We bought Alex's PE uniform and "spirit shirt" and signed up for the PTA. The director of his magnet school also spoke to us for a bit, informing us what to expect and letting us know about the various school policies. He was very energetic about his school, and as a result, we got the same feeling of excitement that we got last year when Anthony's school's director spoke to us. Alex seems really excited about this school and it really seems like an amazing school, so we'll see how it goes.

Alex didn't go with us tonight because he was at soccer practice. One of our neighbors did us the favor of taking him back and forth to practice. Her son happens to have practice at the same time and place. Yay!

Anthony had Eric all ready for bed when we got home (Natalie got herself ready). This isn't the best photo, but I wanted to see how this camera would perform in really low light shooting. One of my colleagues let me borrow her Canon 7D DSLR for a few days and I haven't been home enough during the daylight hours to test it out. It's supposed to be better than my camera in low light, so I wanted to test that too. Eric was already in bed and his bottom bunk was basically in the dark. He happened to get in this pose without my prompting him, so I wanted to take advantage of it. The color was totally off and I tried to adjust it the best I could, but no matter what the color or lighting is, I really love this pose. He looks really sweet and innocent and totally NOT mischievous, doesn't he? ;)

Long Summer Days

Another long 12 hour day at work today--I really hate this schedule! I got home around 7pm. On the plus side, it's meant more days off, which has been great for doing fun stuff with the kids this summer, but the days I do work can be so long and tiring. Supposedly we'll go back to 9 hour days after Labor Day. I'm really looking forward to the shorter days, but I'll miss the more relaxed summer days.

When I got home tonight, I saw Eric sleeping on the sofa. He fell asleep on the way back from taking Anthony to his soccer practice and he stayed asleep when Patrick put him on the sofa. I'm not sure who piled up those stuffed animals next to him, probably Natalie. He's really been into stuffed animals lately, especially Maya the Dog (the blue one). He stayed asleep and Patrick put him in bed when Natalie went to bed. *SIGH* For him, by the time I get home from work tomorrow, it'll be like I was gone for two days. I hate that! :(

Alex was playing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" online. That's actually Anthony's game but Alex has been playing it quite a bit this summer. He's been saying that he wished summer was longer. This might be because we didn't set strict limits on video game time during the summer. During the school year, the boys are lucky if they got to play at all on a school day. Yes, the boys will definitely miss the long days of Summer.

I'm so tired that the post above probably won't make sense. Oh well!

Camera Shy

This is a child who does not want his picture taken. At first he would peek out from one side of the chair or the other and then hide behind the chair when he saw me. Next, he would turn the chair around and around to see if I was still there. He buried his face when he realized that I could just walk up to the chair and look over it. I told him I was going to take a picture of his bottom. After a few minutes, after he knew that I had been taking photos of him anyway despite his hiding his head, he got off the chair and came up to me, asking if he could see his bottom on the LCD screen. I showed him this photo, he smiled and giggled a little, then he started asking if he could play "Plants vs. Zombies" on the iPad. This tells me a few things. First, he is a boy (because he was tickled that I took a picture of his bottom. Of course that could be due to his age also. Next, he's a toddler with a short attention span and he's totally addicted to "Plants vs. Zombies"--although he did play "Angry Birds" first. :)

The other kids have already been subjects for me for my photography class assignments. It was Anthony's turn. We're learning about light and how shooting from different directions with different types of light gives you different results. I liked this one the best. One of the other ones might have had slightly better exposure, but I like this expression on Anthony's face the best--plus the fact that he has that one earbud in his ear while the other one is hanging down his shoulder. Supposedly that's so he can listen to his music AND be able to hear sounds around him, like his Mama telling him where to turn. I love this smile because it's genuine. He's still my precious little boy.

Speaking of little boy, the older three had their doctor's appointments today to get their yearly checkups for school. Both boys also got booster shots. Their vital statistics are as follows:

Anthony--138 1//4 pounds, 5 feet 10 1/4 inches
Alex--99 pounds, 5 feet 1 inch
Natalie--54 pounds, 48 1/4 inches

They're not so little anymore.

Birthday Celebration #2

We got to celebrate Natalie's birthday again today. Instead of the usual "birthday party", we invited a couple of her friends to spend the day with us. One of the friends she wanted to invite started school today, but the other two each received this cool little package, if I might say so myself. Natalie has been enjoying playing school with her friends, so this package has a "Teacher's Planner Book" and "Teacher's Grade Book", a Dry-Erase Board, Dry-Erase Markers, and assorted pencils.

One of her friends, M, is the one that she has been friends with since M was 6 weeks old when they were in the same "class" at daycare. She has a brother A who is Alex's age that Alex has been friends with for the same amount of time, when they were three years old. Their mom dropped them off on her way to work, which was around 7:30AM. When Natalie's good friend A arrived around 10AM, they all proceeded to play with the school goodies, including Eric. He got his very own dry-erase board and markers, which he LOVED.

We waited until some time after 11AM to leave the house since the Fiesta Texas waterpark doesn't open until noon. Even then we had to wait 15 minutes in the heat until they let us all in. Natalie had requested to go swimming, but our neighborhood pool isn't open on Mondays. I wanted to do this today since I'm off work today. The girls had a blast. Natalie usually has fun at the pool or at the waterpark, but she had even more fun because she had some pals her age to play with. As far as I could tell, they all got along very well. Each girl kept asking to do one more thing because they didn't want to leave. They spent a lot of time in the Lazy River and one of the tube rides as well as the wave pool. They also enjoyed the kiddie area where Eric spent his entire time. There were some slides in the kiddie area and we finished out our stay there. The boys had asked to leave about an hour before the girls were ready.

We had a coupon for free ice cream from Coldstone Creamery for Natalie's birthday so we used this as an excuse to go there after the waterpark. Eric had "white ice cream" today. At first we thought he meant the vanilla ice cream, but of course he wanted something fruity--the lemon sorbet. He followed Natalie's lead and got gummi bears mixed in with his ice cream--yuck! Natalie got her usual chocolate ice cream (with gummi bears). The girls all wanted the "medium" size but I convinced them that was too much ice cream. Usually only Anthony gets the medium or "love it" size. This time he got the cheesecake flavor. That boy has been stuck on cheesecake lately. Patrick, Alex, and I got shakes.

We had to get home to drop A off because she starts school tomorrow. The rest of them start school next Monday. It's been tough getting back on the school sleeping schedule this week. We're so used to the more relaxed pace of summer, even if it means later bedtimes for all of us. Tonight, Alex and Natalie played with their friends until about 7PM. I couldn't say "no" with less play time in the near future.

I have to end with this photo. There was some great light coming through the window at Coldstone Creamery, so I took the opportunity to take some photos for my photography class. If I had been able to get Eric to turn a little more to his right, the light would have been perfect. If I had been able to stop him from doing his "cheesy smile" the pose would have been perfect too. Notice his rosy cheeks. Yes, we spent a little more time outside today than we had planned, but at least we all had fun.

Eating Out

We eat out entirely too much, but it's so yummy and so much more convenient than cooking at home. I would have made my usual banana chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon, but we didn't have the bananas or the bacon. Instead, we got Anthony up early so we could go to IHOP for breakfast. The waitress told us that she thought it was great that all of us ordered pancakes because most of the time people order other stuff. Eric ate a little of my blueberry pancakes but he ate mostly the blueberry topping. Alex had the strawberry banana pancakes, Anthony had the New York Cheesecake Pancakes (can you imagine how many calories that must be?!!), and Patrick and Natalie both had chocolate chip pancakes.

We had such a late and big breakfast that we didn't really have a real lunch. In the picture above, you can see some yellow residue around Eric's mouth. He wanted to have a "snack" around 12:30PM and he asked for yogurt. Since he really didn't eat a huge breakfast, I told him he had to eat something else first, so he ate some Easy Mac. Natalie ate the little bit that was left and then ate yogurt too.

We went out to Chili's for dinner after church as per our usual routine. We were all pretty hungry except for Anthony who had "lunch" around 2:30PM before he played a game at Laser Quest with his friends. Despite that, he still managed to eat most of his big Jalapeno Bacon Smokehouse Burger. Patrick had his usual Ground Peppercorn Burger with Blue Cheese Dressing and Alex and Eric both had the pasta with alfredo sauce. Natalie ate almost all of my salmon (we shared this time) and broccoli. I should have given her the rest of it, but it was delicious and I didn't want to give it up. Yes, eating out constantly will eventually make us all fat, but man, it's good stuff!

Photo Subjects

Natalie has been my willing subject for my photography class assignments, for the most part. This is the first photo of a series of about 20 photos that I took of her this afternoon, and her poses rapidly deteriorated to holding her head up with her hands and repeatedly asking if I was done yet and why I had to make so many adjustments. I think I'm going to have to find a way to bribe the other kids for next week's assignment.

I had another long day at work, so as usual, Patrick had to tell me what the kids were up to today instead of me experiencing it for myself. Alex and Anthony had strength and conditioning training in the morning, one of their last two training sessions. All of them went to the library, except for Anthony, who spent the day at a neighborhood friend's house playing video games. His friend usually lives with his mom but spends summers with his dad who lives in another state, so Anthony hasn't seen much of him this summer. Patrick grilled chicken for dinner and I arrived in time to eat it. I got home an hour earlier than expected. That makes today a good day after all. :)

Right now the whole family is watching a DVR trape of "Unnatural History", one of our favorite shows this summer. I know Patrick can't wait for school to start, but I enjoy these "slower" times.

"Slow" Bath

I feel like I've been at work a lot this week. I can't wait for the weekend! Patrick was busy today with taking the big boys to strength and conditioning training and then on to getting everyone's hair cut. He had already dropped Anthony off at soccer practice by the time I got home from work. Eric had fallen asleep on the way home from soccer. He awakened in a very grouchy mood soon after I got home and then he wanted a snack and couldn't be rushed. Natalie and Eric didn't get their baths until 8:30PM so they didn't get to bed until 9PM.

I took some photos of Eric in the tub for my photography class. I had plenty of time because he wanted a "slow bath" (so he could play). We were working on white balance and I didn't like most of the photos I took, but I liked this one because it really shows Eric concentrating on what he was doing. It's also a great shot of those pretty eyelashes. I still had to touch up the color on this one, but I'm happy with the photo overall.

Natalie Turns 8

I came home from work rather tired, but as soon as I got home, Natalie was all buzzing with excitement. First we let her open her presents that we bought yesterday. I heard that light saber turn on from the other room and I just had to chuckle inside at my girly girl. I have to admit that I thought it was cool too. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Next, she kept asking when we were going to get our nails done. The place we go to doesn't open until 10AM, so she went back to playing with her new toys. Anthony had an orientation thing at school today, so Patrick brought him there at 8AM and I picked him up around 10AM. I rested for about an hour until it was time to go to the nail salon. Natalie was so set on getting that spa pedicure that I didn't want to disappoint her. Does she look excited, or what?

She didn't giggle during the foot massage part like I thought she would. After all, she gets ticklish when I'm just trimming her toenails. The lady even put little flowers on her big toes--cool! After all of that, I think she was more excited about getting a spa pedicure than the actual pedicure itself. She wore her Crocs to and from the nail salon and she would have worn them to lunch if Patrick hadn't made a comment about showing off her toenails. We convinced her to wear her sparkly flip-flops that my mom got her a few weeks ago when they went shopping.

We had lunch at Wendy's where she had the Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets and a Twisted Chocolate Frosty with M&M's. The spicy nuggets have been a favorite of hers since she had them when she was staying with one of my sisters in Houston. Alex had two orders (10 total) of the same and Eric ate maybe three of his spicy nuggets. My kids do love spicy foods! Anthony had a Double Baconator. I've posted about that before, but he hasn't had it since they closed the Wendy's near his school.

We went home. I took a shower and took a nap. Natalie played with one of her neighborhood friends then went to her piano lesson. After that we headed to El Mirasol--her choice. She says it's her favorite restaurant, but all she ever has there is refried beans, something she can get anywhere. It's Patrick's favorite restaurant, though, so he was happy.

Her choice for a cake was this Brownie Ala Mode ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins. If it seems a little mushy and melted, that's because the outside defrosted a lot faster than the middle and we probably waited a little too long. I asked Natalie if she felt special today and she said she did. That's what I was going for! Happy Birthday, Princess! :)

Birthday Shopping

Natalie's birthday is tomorrow. The only thing she really asked for was a camera. With so many cameras already in the house, some virtually unused, that it didn't make sense to get her a new camera. We agreed that she could use one of the other cameras and if she really liked taking pictures and if she did take lots of pictures, then we would consider getting her one for Christmas. The dilemma was what else to get her. In the past, Patrick has taken the boys out shopping for their own gifts. When I suggested this to Natalie, she was very excited about the idea.

We went out to a local toy shop called the Toy Zone this morning. We like to shop there because there are lots of toys that you wouldn't necessarily find everywhere plus it's small and family-owned. The owner is usually there ready to make appropriate suggestions. She picked out a variety of things--a light saber that changes colors, a 3D shark puzzle, a Smencil (which is a pencil that comes in different scents), a Furry Friends scratch art book, and a shark stuffed animal. I thought the 3D puzzle was particularly interesting. It's like one of those toys where the image "changes" when you hold it at different angles. We also went next door to the Hallmark store to get two packages of Silly Bandz (basic--star, dollar sign, etc. and sea creatures). She and her cousins are crazy about Silly Bandz. Natalie really loved shopping for her own gifts!

We decided that because she doesn't have any gifts to open, she won't be able to play with them until tomorrow. She's already pushing the limits like taking the plastic covering off of the scratch art book, and taking the light saber out of the box and "accidentally" turning it on. Tomorrow won't come soon enough for my girly (okay, not really) girl. :)

Home Safe and Sound

We're home! Everything went smoothly on the trip back home, even though we had a layover in Chicago. We even had time to eat some dinner at the airport. Tomorrow it's back to our regularly scheduled programming. The big boys have strength and conditioning training in the morning, and soccer practice at night. I'm on call tomorrow, so I don't have to go in until 6PM and I'll be off for Natalie's birthday on Wednesday. I have a lot of pictures to sort through, but I went ahead and picked out a few favorites.

I'm not very happy with the color and lighting on this first photo, but I still love it. This was taken at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. Natalie was cold, so she borrowed her father's suit jacket. When Eric saw his sister in the coat, he said he was cold too, and proceeded to get into the coat too. Both of them put their arms through the sleeves and "Viola!"--instant cute picture!

This photo was taken at a mall that was basically across the street from our hotel in Michigan. I already posted about how Eric threw a fit when we told him that he had to eat lunch before playing on these kiddie rides. His sister and cousins were playing on the rides and almost taunting him because they were trying to catch his attention when they were riding on the rides but he couldn't ride on them yet. As you can see from this picture, he was quite pleased when he finally finished his lunch and got to ride on the rides himself. Then, we needed to go so we could get ready for the wedding, he was not happy at all.

Patrick wanted a picture with "his boys", who were all in suits, before we boarded the shuttle bus to the wedding. Aren't they all so handsome? I think even the big boys knew that they looked good. :)

I got this picture of all the cousins together before the wedding. Eric isn't in the picture because Patrick is giving him a little talk about the iPad. (Left to Right, Back to Front Row): Nick is wearing one of the boys' old suit coats. Anthony is wearing the coat he wore to a couple of semi-formal dances this past school year. We had to buy the black pants this last weekend. Patrick went with Alex to buy his suit. Alex even picked out his own shirt except that we only realized the day before we left that the shirt he picked out was short-sleeved, so Patrick had to run out and exchange it--all part of the pre-trip chaos! Aly doesn't usually like to wear dresses, and if she wears them, they have to be comfortable and not "itchy". My sister found this one for her a couple of weeks ago. Emily has her own sense of style--very much like her mother. Natalie has her own strong opinion about what she wants to wear and what she doesn't. Luckily, her opinion matched mine and I willingly got her this dress. :) The only problem with it was that we forgot to get her a sweater to wear with it. She ended up borrowing Aly's sweater and then eventually, her uncle's jacket.

He did it! Even today, all of us were still in disbelief that Eric walked down the aisle with his little pillow. As you can see, he doesn't look happy, but he didn't cry or fuss, even afterwards. The flower girl pretty much stole the spotlight, however. She not only walked down the aisle without any parental help, she also waved to everyone as if she was in a parade--very precocious but very cute.

Eric was playful during the mass and didn't seem upset at all, but the mass was very long and he just couldn't make it through the entire ceremony. He did make it through about an hour before he fell asleep.

My sister Cynthia and her family had already left when I thought to take this picture of my Dad's side of the family. I was originally going to take a picture of just my aunt and uncle and the kids, but other people kept coming outside so we went ahead and included them. My second cousin is taking the picture, and his wife is there standing my Mom. (I've been so confused about all the different family members and relationships to each other this weekend that I'll have to ask my mom again if that is correct.)

I took this picture of my dad and his brothers this afternoon before we left for the airport. I get warm and fuzzy with pleasant memories when I'm with my uncle (the one in the middle) because my sisters and I basically grew up with him. He lived so close to us that we used to spend most of the summer with his family. Now he and my aunt have asked the big boys if they want to spend some time with them next summer. Patrick and I aren't sure we want to do that yet, but I'm pleased that the boys seem enthusiastic about that idea. I think that despite seeing them for such a short period of time, the boys can feel their love too. I love you, Uncle Nany! Thanks for such an enjoyable weekend!

Post-Wedding

We had a pretty relaxed day today. We didn't get up until around 9AM and took our time getting ready and out of the hotel. We proceeded to my uncle's house, which is an hour away. They had a whole roast pig, they had fish, and they had barbecue--lots of food. The best part was sitting around chatting with relatives and friends. The kids spent much of their time in the basement media room where there is a huge projector screen that comes down from the ceiling and several reclining seats all in a row. They even have a popcorn machine, although we didn't use that. The kids watched TV at first but then we all ended up watching "Star Trek". Eric ended up falling asleep during the loud movie. It wasn't until we were about to leave that he finally started warming up to my aunt.

My sisters and I used to spend most of our summers with my aunt and uncle and their kids. My aunt asked Alex if he wanted to come visit next summer and stay for a month. I'm not sure if Patrick and I want to do that, but the offer brought back nice memories of being spoiled by my aunt and uncle. For now, the kids had enough fun that they begged to go back tomorrow before we have to go to the airport. That means more driving, but being with family is worth it.

He Did It!

I don't have any pictures to post today because they're all on my camera--no mobile photos. The big highlight of today was that Eric walked down the aisle without crying or screaming-yay! He didn't look happy and he wasn't smiling, but he did it, and we are so proud of him! Read on if you want the rest of the story.

We all went to bed at around 11PM last night. We're not sure exactly what time Natalie and Eric got up, but Patrick thinks it was by 8AM. We got up around 9AM because my sisters were texting me about going somewhere for breakfast and the little ones wanted to go to my parents' room. We ended up eating downstairs in the Hospitality Room. My uncle had arranged for a complimentary breakfast for everyone that was staying at the hotel for the wedding. It was just pastries and fruit but it was filling enough. The kids especially enjoyed the chocolate muffins and chocolate filled pastries. Eric only ate a little fruit. It was also nice to be able to talk to my cousin, the bride, and some other people that we haven't seen in quite a while.

We basically just hung out at the hotel after breakfast. The girls made up a schedule of whose room they were going to be in, the traded Silly Bandz, and the boys AND the girls played on electronics. The kids all ended up swimming at the hotel pool, except for my niece who hadn't brought a swimsuit. After that we all ended up at the mall across the street for lunch. I also needed to get some black socks for Eric. He threw a fit at lunch because there were some little kiddie rides that he really wanted to go on, but we wouldn't let him unless he ate first (since he hadn't had much to eat already and we knew dinner was going to be really late). Of course, he also threw a fit when we had to pull him away from the rides to go back to the hotel. We can't win!

The shuttle bus again picked up people at the hotel to take them to the church at 4PM. It was actually pretty easy to get Eric to wear the tux, even though we pulled him away from playing on the iPad to do it. We weren't going to make him wear the jacket until later, but he wanted to go ahead and put it on. We think that's because his brothers and Papa were already wearing their suits and he thought that was the way it was supposed to be. Personally, I think he made a nice entrance into the lobby where my parents and some other relatives were. He looked very spiffy. :)

Let's just say that we "bribed" Eric with iPad game time so he would walk down the aisle. He did it! I still can't believe that he did it. The ring bearer didn't make it past the back pews. Eric was the coin bearer. He also seemed like he was in a good mood during the long mass. Just before communion, he wanted to sit in my lap with his head on my chest. He promptly fell asleep. No fussing and no crying that he sometimes does before he falls asleep--he just fell asleep. That meant that he missed the wedding party photo. That also meant that in the extended family photo, I carried him and tried to face him outward, but he was still asleep. He awakened after we rode the shuttle bus all the way back to the hotel for the reception and Patrick tried to put him down in bed. Poor guy! He asked if we could ride the bus again. He loved riding the bus but he didn't remember riding back to the hotel in the bus!

They didn't open the reception room for quite a while. In the meantime, they passed out some appetizers and Eric once again settled into my lap. My uncle (my dad's older brother who flew in from the Philippines for this wedding) asked me why Eric was always sleepy. He's never been married or ever had kids, so I explained that Eric was off his usual routine especially his sleeping pattern and that he was behind on sleep.

The reception was really fun. I always love to go to Filipino weddings because you always know there will be some good dancing music and some line dancing too. Eric even got out there and boogied with Patrick and me. Natalie was out there dancing quite a bit with her cousins. The flower girl (who was 2 years old) was such a "ham" and the girls all danced with her. Anthony and Alex really seemed to enjoy themselves on the dance floor. They also had this cool photo booth. It was just like a classic photo booth but the attendant put the photo booth photos into an album and we could sign the album with our own greeting. My whole family (all 14 of us) crammed ourselves in there and took some fun photos. We also went in with smaller groups. We didn't go up to our room until about midnight.

Tomorrow we plan on sleeping in again. There will be a brunch at my uncle's house. They are reportedly setting up tents for everyone. It's been great weather here, low 80s with a breeze, so being outside has been pleasant. I just hope the kids get some extra sleep tonight.

Shuttle Bus

My uncle hired a tour bus type of shuttle bus to take friends and family from the hotel to the church to the rehearsal dinner. Great idea, actually, since there are quite a few out of town guests.

We're here at Maggiano's right now having appetizers. My sister Cynthia and her family arrived just when the rehearsal ended because they were stuck in traffic on the bridge from Canada for two hours. They had visited Toronto and Niagara Falls yesterday and today.

Eric fell asleep just before his rehearsal, so hopefully he will be able to go down the aisle the way he's supposed to tomorrow. The flower girl is two years old and as cute as a button. Eric awakened when we got on the bus to go here, and he's on his second plate full of noodles. It's been fun seeing my relatives, but somehow, Patrick and I found ourselves at the kids' table. Oh well, hopefully we'll be able to be more social tomorrow.

Onward

We got up at 4am so we could catch the 4:20 shuttle bus. We were all so awake as you can see. (We're watching The Cartoon Network on the TV at the gate.) Chicago Midway airport is definitely used to more volume at 4:30am. They had four security lines open for business-- and all of them were being used. We only have a short non-stop flight to our final destination today and we get to see a bunch of relatives today too. Yay!

Worst Plane Trip Ever

We've been on many plane trips as a family, but this has definitely been the worst. In short, we were supposed to take off from San Antonio at 12:55pm, but we were delayed by bad weather at our destination--Baltimore. When we finally got to Baltimore, our connecting flight to Detroit had already departed, and the last flight out to Detroit was already boarding. We didn't get to go on that flight. They sent us through Chicago Midway, and we are presently staying at a nearby hotel so we can catch the 6:30am flight to Detroit tomorrow. The rest of this blog post will be about the details, which may only be important to me, but feel free to skim through them or skip them all together.

We didn't board our plane in San Antonio until around 2pm. If the times are a bit approximate, it's because I didn't have a watch on, and I kept having to turn my phone off when on the plane. We finally pulled away from the gate at around 2:20pm, only to be told by the pilot that they had received word that the Baltimore airport had shut down completely due to weather. So, we waited on the plane on the Tarmac until around 3pm.

We made up some time but also lost some time due to taking a more circuitous route to avoid some of the bad weather. We finally landed at around 7:30pm (Eastern time) but we had to wait a while because another plane was at the gate our plane was assigned to. We were told in San Antonio that all connecting flights in Baltimore would wait for us. Well, obviously not, since I already said above that our connecting flight left without us.

At the Baltimore airport, while I changed a poopy diaper, Patrick ran around to several Southwest Airlines gate agents asking what we should do. A couple of them basically blew him off and told him to look at the airport monitors himself to find which gate the last flight to Detroit was departing from and to go there. This was after the flight attendants on our plane had instructed us to ask the nearest gate attendant for information.

We all ran to the next terminal to where that last flight was departing from. Let me just say that Eric isn't that heavy unless you're trying to run while carrying him and that it's very difficult to run with flip-flops on. By the time we got to the gate, there were other people that had been on our plane already waiting there. They gave 7 of them seats. There were no more seats for us, and there were no more flights to Detroit from Baltimore tonight or tomorrow. The best they could do for us was take us to Chicago Midway and then Detroit as I already described above. The most infuriating part was that one of the gate agents (who wasn't even the one helping us) made a comment about how they had been told that the weather was going to be bad that morning. What?!!! That was such an obnoxious statement, and one that was best left unsaid.

The Chicago flight was fairly uneventful, at least, but it was already 10pm. When we got here, we had originally thought about staying overnight at the airport but quickly realized that even though we would have to take time to find a hotel and find a way to get there, we would still get more sleep or at least better sleep than if we stayed at the airport. Of course, we still didn't have luggage, toiletries, car seats, Patrick's medications, or extra diapers.

The gate agent at Chicago Midway was very helpful, and gave us a flyer with a number of hotels listed that might give us "distressed passenger" rates and a free shuttle to and from the airport. With our car seats supposedly already in Detroit, a shuttle was our only option.

A few minutes after we got to the shuttle bus stop, about 30 other people showed up to take the same shuttle, many of them of course got on the shuttle before us. Luckily, the shuttle bus driver allowed us standing room only or I would really have broken down and cried.

Kudos to the Fairfield Inn at Chicago Midway. Not only did they give a good rate of $99 for the night, they also let all six of us stay in the same room. They gave us complimentary toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo, and conditioner. Also, they gave us free detergent. Yes, just when you think all the bad stuff already happened, Eric leaked on Anthony's shorts when Anthony was carrying Eric on the shuttle bus. We of course had extra clothes for Eric in the diaper bag, but none for Anthony. Patrick is currently doing laundry, the poor guy. The job he does almost constantly at home he's doing here in Chicago.

We did have a few highlights. (I'm trying to see the silver lining.) Eric was pretty well- behaved on the planes, and he even took a nap without much effort from us. We got to eat quick Subway sandwiches at the Baltimore airport when I wasn't sure we were even going to have time to get anything to eat. We also found a place that was still serving food in Chicago Midway, so we got to eat a little more. We're together in a comfortable room right now. Even though Anthony and Natalie are sleeping on the floor, they're both asleep and so are the other kiddos. I'm praying that tomorrow will make up for today.

Testing 1, 2, 3

We're here at the airport waiting for them to tell us when to board. Apparently there is a lot of congestion in Baltimore, where we will be taking a connecting flight, and they don't want us to land there too early. Supposedly they're holding our connecting flights there so we won't end up missing them. For us that means that we have no idea when we'll finally make it our hotel room. I guess it's a good thing I got some sleep last night when I was on call.

Natalie has discovered that she can take photos with my old iPhone, which of course is now essentially and iPod Touch since it's no longer got calling capabilities. She's been taking photos including this silly one of Patrick.

Alex has been taking videos with his new phone which involves his sister appearing and disappearing. They're cute videos that I might have to share here when we got back home.

Anthony is surfing the Internet. Eric is watching the movie "Happy Feet" that they have playing on the TV screen here at the gate. Electronics--thank goodness we have electronics.

Okay, the picture doesn't seem to be adding. I'll have to try again later.

Back and Forth

This is a picture of Anthony with his new iPhone. The new phones arrived yesterday afternoon, which started the mad dash to get them activated. It was a mad dash because it took a long time and Patrick was trying to get home in time to get Natalie to her piano lesson at 4PM. I went ahead and took her to her lesson because Patrick had to get home so the boys could pack up their soccer stuff. I met him at Schlotzky's while Natalie was at her lesson and then I headed to work. He picked up Natalie from her lesson then went straight to the boys' soccer practices at 6PM. Doesn't that sound hectic? Well, on the way to soccer practice, we found out that Anthony's iPhone wasn't getting the 3G internet reception, so while the boys were in practice (and with the little ones in tow), he headed back to the AT&T store to get Anthony's 3G connected. I felt guilty since all I had was work, and we weren't even all that busy.

This morning we're still packing like crazy. Patrick is heading out yet again because Alex's Flip camera isn't working. He's going to try to exchange it at Costco. Why is it that going on a trip is always so stressful?

Tech Junkies

Can you tell he's addicted? He didn't even want me to change him out of his pajamas yet, and it was past 10AM! I think it's particularly cute that he has Maya the Dog next to him while he plays on the iPad. I left him home with Patrick and took the big boys to Velocity for their strength and conditioning. Natalie and I had our nails done so we would be ready to go to the wedding this weekend. This afternoon we've just been hanging out at home. Alex and Natalie have been playing with their neighborhood friends. Alex played on the Wii while Natalie usually goes "low tech" and plays outside.

Eric played on my iPhone while we were waiting for Anthony to finish with his training (which is half an hour longer than Alex's training) and then he had to play once again this afternoon, except he played while on the stairs instead of on the sofa since Alex was on the sofa playing on the Wii with his friend. He's not the only tech/game junkie in this family, of course. Patrick and Anthony's new phones (iPhone 4) just arrived by FedEx a few minutes ago. I got mine last week and they've been watching the email closely since then, looking for the email saying that their phones had shipped. Alex was anxious about them getting their phones too, because when Anthony gets his new phone, Alex gets his new phone. Hopefully I'll be able to get a photo of the boys with their new phones later today before I have to go to work.

Waterparks

We haven't been to the Sea World waterpark yet this year and the theme parks in general seem to be less crowded on Sundays, so we went there today. I took this picture of Eric putting his face in the water. Mind you, the water in the toddler area is probably only 6-12 inches deep, and that's why he looks so bent over, but he still kept bending over and putting his face in the water. As a mother, this site was a little disconcerting, but apparently, he likes putting his face in the water now.

We stayed there around two hours and Eric stayed in that one small area the whole time. Doesn't he look like he had a lot of fun? :)

The big boys went to the Lazy River and the Wave Pool. Natalie went with Patrick to the Lazy River and then Patrick and I switched duties and I went with her to the Wave Pool. Later, when we were about to leave, Anthony said that he liked the waterpark at Fiesta Texas better because there are more girls his age there and "they're not fat". Patrick and I did notice that there were more young adults and families with young children there today, maybe because it was Sunday and therefore a family day or maybe because Sea World attracts those groups more--we're not sure. Natalie said she liked Fiesta Texas better because the wave pool there has the waves more often and the little kids' area was bigger. Alex liked the rides better at Fiesta Texas. Patrick and I like Fiesta Texas just because it's a shorter drive from our house. Eric didn't seem to care, but he does love to see Shamu and the other animals, so I guess we'll have passes to Sea World just a little bit longer.

I just wanted to end with a photo of my "Plants vs. Zombies" obsessed little boy. Natalie, Eric, and I went to Target this morning and at first he insisted on walking while playing on my iPhone. I was worried that he would run into something, so I was relieved when he consented to sitting in the shopping cart. He ended up in a similar semi-reclined position in the shopping cart. Sometimes he'll lay like this on the sofa while playing on the iPhone. Today, he was laying like this on the floor. Maybe I should collect all of these photos of him playing video games and compare them to later when he's playing them like his big brothers? He gets away with it now because he's such a cutie. :)