Wet Soccer

After Anthony's game was cancelled this weekend and Alex played his game in the rain, our home soccer fields were closed today. That meant that Anthony didn't have practice tonight. We're watching some of our DVR tapes instead, to make room for the new TV shows this fall season. Watching TV might not be the best family activity, but it's a lot more fun to watch a show like "Wipeout" with the whole family.

Taking pictures of the family watching TV isn't very interesting, so I'm going to use some photos from Alex's soccer game this past Saturday. This photo doesn't have the best composition, but I like it because it shows Alex handling the ball (I think he was actually stopping it so he could kick it forward), and I love the expression and intensity in his face. He also looks muscular and athletic. I'm a little biased, but I do think he's cutie. :) One of these days, I'm going to get a better zoom lens so I can capture action like this without so much blur.

I love to get photos of the boys during free kicks because I think it's hilarious the way they protect their groin areas from the ball. I took two more shots after this one, each blurrier than the next. Basically, Alex and his teammate next to him were both able to hit the ball to block the other team from scoring against them. They lost this game 1-2, unfortunately, but Alex did score the only goal.

Once again, this isn't the best photo, but it does capture Alex as he kicked the ball that scored his team's only goal (indirect penalty kick). I was so busy viewing the ball going into the net that I didn't take any photos. I usually would not have wanted to go to Alex's game because it was raining, but I was able to watch this whole game safe and dry from inside our van. I haven't seen Alex score a goal since he joined club soccer, so I was really happy I was there to see this one.

Crafty Time

I can't remember exactly, but I got a kit for making friendship bracelets for Natalie either for Christmas or her birthday last year. She has so much stuff that she just now asked to use it. I've always thought friendship bracelets were cool, but wih Natalie's recent fascination with "Silly Bandz", her thinking they're cool too seems inevitable.

She needed help to make them, of course. She helped me cut the string but then I did most of the rest. The process of weaving the bracelet is simple, but requires a consistent sequence that is easy to mess up if you don't pay attention. I thought it was a little complicated for her, but then I'm a perfectionist. About halfway through the first bracelet, she wanted to give it a try herself. At first I hovered over her, but then I realized that wasn't necessary. After all, what does it matter if it's not "perfect"? Sure enough, she must have gotten off a little from the sequence and the "diamonds" that were supposed to be in the bracelet weren't so recognizable anymore. She was happy with it, however, so again, what does it matter?

She wanted to make another one, but I ended up doing most of that one too. I enjoyed the process, so it was like I was making it for her, which was fine with me. She loves her new bracelets, and even Alex seemed a little interested also. Like I said before, I think friendship bracelets are cool.

Natalie and I went to a Michael's store yesterday. The only thing we bought was this foam haunted house kit. Natalie practically begged to get it. She really wants to decorate for Halloween. I'm not very good at decorating, but this is such a simple, inexpensive Halloween decoration, plus something to do with her.

It was a little more complicated than I had envisioned. I was hoping I didn't need to get out any messy glue so we could take the house apart, store it, and reuse it next year, but there was no way that house would hold together without glue.

Eric was very interested in what we were doing. When Natalie and I were trying to hold the house together until the glue set, he grabbed some of the pre-glittered parts and rubbed off some of the excess glitter onto the floor and other areas. Later, when Natalie's friend came over and the girls were putting on the finishing decorator touches, he was fascinated just watching them.

I don't think the final product is terribly sturdy (the round tower is duct-taped and I'm not sure how well the glue is holding), but it does add a nice Halloween touch to the kitchen and it was relatively simple to do. I'm not sure these crafts were better for me or for Natalie, but at least this way we got to spend some quality mother-daughter time this weekend.

Park For All Ages

We got the call that Anthony's game scheduled for this morning was cancelled due to the weather...after Patrick and Anthony had already left for the game. No matter--we found other things to do. It did rain at our house some, but not enough that we couldn't enjoy being outside. The temperatures were actually tolerable, so we went to the neighborhood park. The price was more mosquitoes, but bug spray took care of that. The parents of Anthony's good friend Alejandro dropped him off at 8AM to spend the day with us, so he went too. Alex actually opted to stay at home. He had a game later today, so I didn't make him come with us. While at the park, I thought it was interesting that the kids all had fun despite the large age range.

Natalie and Eric went on the swings first. Natalie kept swinging so high that she was upside down. Eric thought that was cool and wanted to do that too. Unfortunately, Eric's bottom kept slipping backwards on the swing and he almost fell off a couple of times. He decided to go on the "baby swing" instead. He felt more secure in being upside down then. The rest of the time, he either played on the playscape (getting his bottom wet on the puddle at the bottom of the slide or climbing elsewhere) or he walked around the perimeter making "choo choo" sounds and pulling an imaginary cord to blow his train whistle. Natalie spent almost the entire time playing on the swing.

I practiced with my camera, trying to get all the moving swings in good focus. Anthony and Alejandro played with the soccer ball at first, and then they played on the playscape and the swings. Alejandro has always loved playing with Eric and Eric has basically "grown up" with Alejandro, so they have so much fun together. Just look at the happy expressions on their faces.

This photo was one of my favorites because both big boys are together and they're both actually consenting to having their photos taken. Alejandro is Anthony's best friend. They were both at the top of their class when they went to the same school. They are both taking pretty tough classes now. They keep in touch despite their busy school schedules and extracurricular activities. Alejandro is a great kid, and Patrick and I are more than happy to have him around.

A GT Reply

We got a reply back from the GT teacher at Natalie's school. She knows her students so well! She even remembers Anthony when he was first in her class back in 2002. I wanted to document this interchange because of what it says about Natalie, her teacher, and Patrick and I as parents. Below is her email reply to Patrick's first note:

The absolute hardest part of my job is telling the students I have worked with that we can't be together for a year. If it's ok with you, I would like to pull the kids, including Natalie, today for a little time together. Sometimes, testing does not reflect all a student knows, and I think this is one of those cases. Because I have worked with Natalie, I know that she is a bright problem solver, deep thinker and very capable high level learner. What I haven't figured out how to do is how to take the 'child' out of the testing! Sometimes they rush, get nervous, check out, wiggle, sleep, etc....!!! (I must say that Natalie seemed very on task during testing though) We give so many tests to get by this the best we can, but it doesn't always work. Please know that quite often the jump from 2nd to 3rd in GT is a tough one for kids - higher level testing and more stringent criteria. It is not uncommon for students who don't qualify in 3rd to re-qualify in 4th....and I will let the kids know that when I speak with them today. I will also stress the importance of hard work in 3rd - reading lots and playing lots of puzzles and brain stretcher games. Natalie is blessed with such brilliant and supportive parents who value education and I know that she has a very rich environment for learning. I will miss Natalie and having a L******* this year... though I will stay in touch with Natalie throughout the year. Please don't hesitate to ask for anything you think she needs that I might be able to help with, or if you want to go over the testing further, just let me know. Best - Michelle

The following is Patrick's email reply to Mrs. A. We wanted to make sure she knew that we were not upset about the results and that we thought highly of her as a teacher:

I am sure that Natalie will appreciate talking to you. Both Melanie and I have talked to her about it and let her know how much we love her. I know that she has a tendency to rush in tests and this has been a problem before. I know that she would like to test again next year. Do you test again in Spring or in Fall?

I am familiar with that jump from 2nd to 3rd. I believe that sometimes a disappointment like this helps a child strive to do better. We always try to turn things like this into positive learning experiences (at least in the long-term). As I recall, the NEISD rules are fairly strict and based entirely on testing. This keeps things "fair" but doesn't allow teacher experience to come into play.

Neither Melanie nor I are upset in any way about the results. We are disappointed for Natalie because we know how much she loves you and being in your class. I just hope to encourage her to work hard and be ready to take her time the next time she tests.

Mrs. A had one more reply about how the talk with Natalie went this morning. Natalie had already told me that she talked with Mrs. A and that she felt better about not being in GT this year:

My talk with Natalie this morning went well - she told me she was upset until she went swimming - then it was better !!!
She knows I still love her and she is welcome in this room anytime. Am trying to put something together for some of those high kids I won't have... stay tuned!
Thanks for your kind words - Michelle

Kids are pretty resilient. I just wanted to document this because I want to remember what an awesome teacher Mrs. A is and I want the kids to remember that too.

Post-Call Day

Don't ask a customer to spell her name and then misspell it anyway! This is my Tall Mocha Frappacino No Whip that I got from Starbucks this morning. I got the feeling that he wasn't spelling it right when I was watching his hand motions as I was spelling my name and he was writing it down.

I met Patrick and Eric at the Starbucks down the street from Anthony's school this morning, after he had dropped Anthony off. I had a decent call night, with no operations after about 1AM, but since I can't seem to sleep well in the call room, I was still very tired today. The Frappucino perked me up a bit and the blueberry scone was quite tasty. I usually go straight home, but this seemed like a fun thing to do.

Eric was all over my scone, but he also wanted some of my drink. Luckily, he settled for a Strawberries and Creme drink, which is basically like flavored milk. He wanted to ride with me on the way home, and we had a nice conversation about the different Thomas the Tank Engine engines, what color they were, and what number is painted on them. He still gets off track sometimes, but it's neat that we can have actual conversations now.

When we got home, we were looking for all of the silly things on the back picture cover of our Highlights magazine. (There is an activity on the back cover where you're supposed to find things that are out of place or "wrong".) He kept wanting me to find more silly things, but I was running out of items. I distracted him by reading a Thomas book. When that was done, he wanted to watch videos on my iPhone.

At first he watched videos of himself that I had taken with my iPhone, then he decided he wanted to watch a Thomas video. Unfortunately, my phone's battery was pretty low, but of course he got upset when he thought he would have to stop watching the video. I took the phone to plug it into the charger, but he wanted to stand there still watching the video, so of course I had to document this with my camera.

Soon after this, we had to leave to get his hair cut. As you can see from these photos, his hair was starting to get in his eyes. That's my "line in the sand" with my boys. They can grow their hair "long" but I don't want their hair in their eyes. Luckily, Eric still lets us cut his hair however we want. I neglected to get an "after" photo, so I'll have to do that tomorrow.

After lunch, I started feeling grouchy and short-tempered with Eric, so I knew it was time for me to take a nap. I needed the energy for later. When Natalie got home from school, she had a snack then got ready for her swim club. I took her to that and left her there so I could pick up Alex at the nearby middle school (he took the bus from his middle school to the one closer to us). I took Alex and his friend home. By that time, Patrick was on his way home after picking up Anthony up from school, and they picked Natalie up. If they hadn't done that, I would have had to go back out again to pick her up. Then, after dinner, I took Anthony to and from soccer practice. Whew, that was a lot of driving!

This is totally unrelated to the rest of my post, but today we received one piece of important news that I must share here. When Natalie got off the bus, she was waving an envelope very excitedly, saying, "Mama! This has the results of my GT test!" She had to take the GT or "Gifted and Talented" test again to be to take the class in third grade. I opened the envelope as we entered the house. The letter stated that she was NOT accepted to the GT program for third grade. Natalie was crushed! :( At first she tried to put up a good front, going about her normal business by getting her snack, going to the bathroom, etc. She matter-of-factly replied "yes" when I asked her if she was okay. Then we asked her to come to the office where Patrick and I were sitting. It was only then that she started crying and sobbing into my shoulder. :( She stopped after a few minutes, and she seemed okay later, but we could tell she was SO disappointed. When I told Alex, he was disappointed for her too. We all know how much she loves Mrs. A, who is the GT teacher. All we can do now is just keep reassuring her that there were plenty of smart kids who didn't make it into GT (like her cousins, her good friend M, etc.) so hopefully she won't dwell on this. I don't like it when my kids are unhappy.

Typical Call Day Morning

I'm on call tonight, so I thought I would take a few photos to document what it's like on those morning where I'm still here because I'm on call. Patrick usually tries to let me sleep (what a sweetie!) while he gets the kids up and ready for school. Natalie and especially Eric are not usually very quiet so there's only so much he can do about that. Natalie gets up and ready first. Even though we don't try to wake up Eric at the same time, it's inevitable that he'll wake up with his sister getting ready in their room.

Natalie leaves the house to go to the bus stop a little before 7am. She doesn't usually want her Papa to go with her, but I guess it's "special" when I'm here, so she asked me to walk out there with her. Of course, she says that and then when we get to the bus stop, she doesn't even say goodbye. She just walks up to line up to get on the bus. I have to ask her to give me a hug and a kiss goodbye.

Today there were only three kids at the bus stop (including Natalie) but when the bus came soon after we got there, there were about five or six other kids that came running--just in time. Patrick also walked up with Eric at that point. He wanted to go with Natalie and me, but he didn't have his shoes on yet and he had been very upset when we left without him. He was still a bit tired, of course.

Alex usually gets picked up by his friend's Dad around 7:30am, and he wants to make sure and get out there in a timely manner, so he waits by the door. I haven't seen him sit on one of Eric's little chairs to wait before, so I snapped the photo above to document it. Eric wanted to sit on the windowsill right in front of Alex, which obstructed Alex's view outside, so he got a bit upset when Alex wouldn't let him sit there.

Instead he decided to ride around in his little car. My sister Melissa gave this to him earlier this year when her daughter outgrew it. It's a bit big to be an indoor toy, but it provides so much entertainment that we've let it stay indoors--for now. Here, Eric is reaching down to get his toys out of the way. He always has quite a few toys all over the house. I should probably take a picture of the game room with a lot of toys (mostly games) strewn about. It can truly be horrifying how many toys are out and not being played with.

I also read him some Thomas books--his favorite. I don't take the time to read to him as much as I used to read to Anthony. That's too bad. At least he has his siblings around to do those things for him, but I've decided that I need to savor this age as much as I can while I can. I'll be reading to him a lot more.

Eric got a Lego Racer toy from "Old McDonald's" and he was playing with it this morning. He didn't want me to take any pictures of him this morning, so I used the toy as an excuse to take a picture of him. He's usually very willing for me to take pictures of his toys. I would have tried to get a second photo of the actual toy, but he granted me permission to only take one photo and this was it. Patrick left to take him to daycare/school at around 8am, the same time that I left to take Anthony to school. Normally, we would have gone together and dropped Eric off first and then Anthony, but Patrick wanted to go to the gym this morning and I was being lazy.

Eric was excited about going to school as usual. He ran out to the van without saying goodbye to me. That used to bother me when Anthony would basically ignore me when I was leaving or returning from work. I've realized now that I'll be home tomorrow and he and I will be able to play and read together much more than today. I do still miss my family when I'm at work especially at night, but at least I get a little time back with them the next day.

The Mini-Pyramid

Alex's main teachers (excluding elective teachers) integrate their teaching material with each other so the kids can see how each subject relates in the real world and then they create one project. His project this first 9 weeks is to make a pyramid. All weekend he's been working on building this miniature pyramid. Later he will make a larger one, and I'm told by work colleagues that have had kids go to Alex's school that the pyramids are rather impressive. Like this miniature one, one side folds down to reveal a graphic of stairs and such inside the pyramid. Alex also had to write his name in hieroglyphics and he put this on one side of the pyramid. We all think this is a pretty cool project. Even Natalie is currently inspired to try to get into the same school so she can make a pyramid too.

One other interesting fact for me is that for his projects (last year included), Alex looks for certain papers. He always has an idea of what he wants, we look for it in my old scrapbook paper stash, and he usually finds something that he is happy with. He found this paper in a stack that I've probably owned for longer than I want to admit. This is also the reason why I haven't thrown any of my old scrapbook papers away. My kids need them. *WINK*

Start of Soccer Season

Yesterday was the first regular game for Anthony's club soccer season at noon. Alex's team had another scrimmage with his coach's other team at 11:30AM. For once, these two games were not only at the same location (their home fields) but they were also on adjoining fields. That meant that Patrick could set up the pop-up canopy in one spot to shield all of us from the sun and he didn't have to move it. We simply had to turn our heads.

It was a hot, humid day. People that live elsewhere want it to rain to cool things off. Here, rain only makes it more humid. The temperatures were only a handful of degrees lower, but the humidity made it seem so much hotter. As soon as we got there, Eric started drinking water. He has an interesting way of drinking water from a water bottle. He encircles the opening with his entire mouth. This makes it difficult for him to drink without eventually spilling some on his shirt. That's okay when it's only water. I tried to help him a bit more when he started drinking my red Gatorade.

I've never seen Alex smiling like this while playing soccer. I'm not sure why he was smiling, but I wanted to post this picture to show how much bigger he is than this player from the other team. Alex's coach has two teams--Alex's U12 team (meaning the players are "under 12 years old" as of August 1st) and a U10 team (meaning the players are "under 10 years old" as of August 1st). That's quite a big difference size-wize, and you would think that Alex's team would win handily--they didn't. The other team won 3-1.

According to Patrick, that U10 team has some really good players who will likely make the top division ("Division 1") next year when they try out. He doesn't think there is any shame in losing to them because they are talented and they've been playing together for 3-4 years or so. Most of Alex's team is "new" this season. Still, this afforded Alex's team with a chance to play together as a team before the games "count". That will be next weekend.

Anthony's team played a team that they were able to score 3-1 against in the Pre-Labor Day Weekened tournament, except that the other team came back and tied the game at 3-3 for the final score. Yesterday's game ended at a 1-1 tie, after Anthony's team dominated ball possession but where they didn't score until the final seconds. There were a couple of controversial calls but in the end, at least they scored at least once to tie the game.

Patrick was pretty pleased that Anthony started the game and played for about three-fourths of time. Anthony hasn't been a "starter" in the past, but lately, his coach has been starting him. Hopefully, this is a reflection of how confident his coach is in Anthony's abilities. His play has certainly improved in the last year.

Alex likes to have a snack after his games. He and Natalie love this candy called "Sour Punch Straws" which are basically gummy candy with a granulated sugar coating--ick. Eric asked if he could have some and I didn't want sugar all over the place, so I asked Alex to feed it to him. Eric didn't get sugar all over himself and I got a great photo opportunity of my boys sharing. :)

First Sleepover

Today, Natalie is sleeping over at a non-family member's house for the first time. She was invited to her friend M's birthday party sleepover with three other girls. I'm sure she won't get much sleep, but she'll have so much fun. She's been bubbling with excitement all day, asking me if we could go get M a present at 8:30AM when the store she wanted to go to wasn't open yet. She knew exactly what she wanted to get and we got it. Apparently, M loved a stuffed toy that Natalie got from her Aunt Melissa for her birthday that records your voice and says it back in a "scary voice" (a Halloween toy from Hallmark) and some fancy erasers, so that's what we got. We did get another present also, just because M is such a good friend. (They've been friends since they were about three months old.)

She packed her clothes into a plastic bag. I convinced her to at least put the clothes in a real bag. The Halloween looking bag in the picture has a sleeping bag in it, although M's family had other plans and I ended up taking the sleeping bag home with me. The pink bag holds the gifts, and the denim bag has her clothing. She almost forgot her toothbrush, of course. I'll miss her, of course, but it was very nice to not have to take her to the boys' soccer games this afternoon and to have her complain about doing so.

Night Game

Tonight Alex's team had a scrimmage, which means that it's a game that doesn't count. His coach set this up so they could mimic the conditions during a real game and practice for the start of their season next weekend. The start time was at 7:30PM which is pretty late considering that Alex usually goes to bed by 8:30PM. As you can see from this picture, this was pretty late for Eric.

Usually we would have left him at home with Anthony, but Anthony was babysitting one of our neighbors, one of Natalie's playmates. They actually invited her to play for a little while tonight so her friend would have someone to play with. Unbeknownst to me, Patrick had forbidden her to go over there today because she was talking and acting inappropriately at home (I was napping). Of course he left to take Alex to the game and forgot to tell me this and Anthony was oblivious, so he took her over there when he went over there. Oh well, at least I didn't have to drag her along to the game so I could watch her pout.

Eric and I got there late and admittedly I didn't really pay that much attention to the score. Alex seemed to play well, and that's all I cared about. Tomorrow he has another scrimmage at 11:30AM and Anthony has a "real" game at noon at their home field. Anthony's season starts this weekend. Hello Fall Soccer Season!

Riding the Bus

I'm getting readjusted to my old schedule at work with 9-hour days every day (instead of 12-hour days two to three times a week) now that some of the operating room construction is done. I haven't felt like taking any photos and the kids haven't been doing anything interesting anyway, so I'm posting a photo I took a few days ago. For some reason, Eric put one of his burp cloths on his head while he was driving his little car around. I tried to get in front of him to get a picture of his face, but of course he immediately stopped, removed the burp cloth from his head, and left his car to go do something else. He can be so silly sometimes!

Speaking of schedules, I've been getting off work just in time to pick up Anthony from school. Alex has been riding the bus with a couple of friends instead of getting picked up by me or his friend's mom. Since he is in a "magnet school", the bus from his middle school only takes him to his "home" middle school and not directly home. Luckily, we can choose which "home" middle school he gets a ride to. JMS is the school that Alex would have gone to if he hadn't gone to this magnet school. He rides the bus to EMS instead because it's actually closer to us because of the weird boundaries that each school has. Patrick takes Natalie to swim practice and then goes to pick up Alex and his friend and takes them home, then he goes back to pick up Natalie.

Alex says he doesn't mind taking the bus, because it's better than having to wait for Anthony to get out of school before going home. He clearly likes being picked up better, however. Anthony has had to take the bus already this year also, but he doesn't mind taking the bus either. Patrick and I are pretty lucky that we can usually drop off and pick up our kids from school. We're glad that we can share those duties with one of Alex's friend's parents this year, though. Still, when I have to work late, Patrick has problems doing it all. I'm glad that I don't have to work late as often anymore.

Sticker Shock

Patrick bought this Thomas the Tank Engine Sticker Activity Book from Half-Price Books during their 20% off sale this past Labor Day Weekend. At first he took the stickers off the backing and put them on his shirt. Then he put them back onto the backing to use for another time. Today, I walked into the living room and saw this sight. He had put all of the stickers on the arm of the sofa!

Just after this, we all sat down in the living room as a family to watch an episode of "Wipeout" on the DVR. Even though Eric was not sitting on the sofa at that time, the other kids respected that sticker area and kept their distance. Actually, the real reason was that they didn't want to make their baby brother mad so they stayed away from his stickers. Sadly, when we asked Eric to clean that up, he didn't put them back onto the backing very well and many of them are now stuck together and can't be pulled apart without destroying them. Oh well, he got some fun out of that $2 book!

Oh, and one more story for those of you who aren't on Facebook. I posted about an incident that occurred last night as Natalie, Eric and I were leaving Baskin-Robbins. As we were driving away, Eric asked if he could have dessert. I told him that he already had ice cream for dessert. He got upset and started crying. He insisted, "Ice Cream isn't dessert!" :)

Last Swim?

We finally dragged some of the kids out of the house today to go to the pool. Alex didn't want to come, as usual. He wanted to keep playing with his friend A at our house. Anthony told us last night that he was invited to a birthday celebration, so he didn't go with the pool with us either. Natalie was the one who was the most excited, of course, with Eric being pretty close. She spent some time just swimming laps in the pool (with a tiny bit of prompting from her father). She's just going to become a better and better swimmer.

There weren't many people there today, after the pool had been pretty packed all weekend. That may have been because the sky was intermittently gray and cloudy and the fact that it did rain briefly earlier in the day. It got pretty darned sunny when we were there, although most of time it was cloudy. We didn't mind it because that meant it was cooler.

This picture above is of Natalie being thrown in the air by Patrick. There were only 2-4 other people in the pool (not counting the two lifeguards) the whole time we were there, so there was plenty of room to throw Natalie in the air. She loved it, of course.

Eric was content to stay by the steps. As usual, he would jump up and then when he came back down he would submerge most of his head in the pool, blowing bubbles while in the water, then he would stand up to get his head out of the water. The next step was always wiping his face with both hands to get rid of the excess water.

Both the SeaWorld and Fiesta Texas water parks are closing after today and I think the neighborhood pool will no longer have lifeguards after today too. We can still go to the neighborhood pool without the lifeguards, with a "swim at your own risk" agreement, but with the school activities ramping up, I'm sure we won't be at the pool very much if at all anymore. It's a little sad that this summer activity is ending, but life goes on. We'll find more fun stuff to do together. :)

Lazy Labor Day

Yesterday we went to Barnes and Noble to turn in Natalie's Summer Reading form so she could receive a free book. She was really gung ho about reading and about filling those forms out this year. We turned one in for Borders earlier this summer. The Barnes and Noble one was almost forgotten.

While we were there, she wanted to stop by Bath and Body Works, which is probably her favorite store. In fact, my daughter is obsessed with Bath and Body Works. She is constantly asking if we can go there. She got a pocket-sized "Vampire Blood" (red-colored and plum-scented) hand sanitizer from my sister this summer, and she got a couple for her birthday from my mom. She hasn't finished those yet, but she wanted another one. We spent too long in the store, waiting for her to decide what to get. She also wanted some bath gel, but the current offer is to "buy 3 and get 3 free". Well, we don't need that many, so I convinced her to wait until the next sale. She did settle on another hand sanitizer and a hand sanitizer holder so she could attach it to her backpack.

On a side note, I loved watching her walk through the outdoor mall. She walked with a purpose ahead of me, with her purse on her shoulder and her skirt sashaying around her. She really wanted that hand sanitizer. :)

We've been taking it easy this weekend. Today, we all stayed at home all day except for dinner out. When given the choice of going to the pool or the waterpark, the kids just wanted to stay home. This afternoon and tonight we saw a couple of Netflix movies that we've had for a few weeks, "Back to the Future" and "Percy Jackson". We also watched one of our DVR tapes. Eric had gotten up too early and he lounged on his Papa during the DVR tape of "Unnatural History". He had his beloved stuffed dog behind his neck. He's been very attached to that dog lately.

Tomorrow we're planning on spending time at the pool, Anthony has a birthday gathering to attend, and then he has soccer practice--not quite a lazy day, but it's been nice to spend some family time together this weekend.

Shake Your Booty Song

I got home from picking up the boys from school and Natalie was playing with her friend M in her room. Of course Eric was there too because he just LOVES M and always hangs around with Natalie when M is over at our house. He was playing with one of his "electric guitars" that plays music. He was so cute that I had to start taking pictures. I even took some video, but I haven't edited that yet. Anyway, he was playing a song and he tells me "this is a shaking your booty song". He then proceeded to turn around and shake his booty in my direction while "playing" his guitar. He was really getting into playing that guitar, too. I have no idea where he got that phrase or those moves from, but I laughed so hard while I was taking the video!

As I was taking pictures, Eric would stop what he was doing so he could see the pictures in my camera. A little bit later, Natalie and her friend went downstairs to watch TV, but Eric was having so much fun with his guitar that he wanted to play upstairs. I started showing him the video I took of him and he wanted me to play it over and over again. I took the video with my phone, so I was also trying to figure out how to edit it like I can edit videos in my regular camera. I also had three other short videos of him and he played those over and over too.

There is a feature on my iPhone 4 where the camera can be turned to face the person operating the camera. I did that and Eric giggled with excitement! He loved being able to see his face and making faces on the screen. I even took a short video of him doing that and that quickly became his favorite video. Unfortunately, I let Eric do the pressing and he inadvertently erased the video. I loved seeing him having so much fun playing on the phone.

This is just a somewhat random jumping shot. This is a typical look at my active three-year-old boy. He was watching videos and suddenly he started jumping up and down like a frog. Notice that he still jumps with one foot before the other one. Eric can be pretty good about keeping still, but eventually he always turns into active boy. He's a typical boy, after all.

Spicy Lunch

Natalie loves it when I bring her lunch at school. She's been asking all week if I would do just that because I've been off three days this week. I wanted to exercise this morning and I didn't think I would have time to do that plus go home to take a shower before her lunch, so I told her i wasn't going to bring her lunch. Well, it ended up that I took an earlier, shorter fitness class except we ended up stopping at Costco first. I really wanted to make my little princess happy, so I decided that she wasn't going to care how I looked, and we picked up her favorite of the moment, the Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets and a Frosty from Wendy's, and Patrick dropped Eric and I off at the school before heading home to put away the groceries. Natalie was so happy to see us!

In the past I've thought that she actually wanted the food itself and not the fact that I brought it to her. I don't think that any more. She looked so happy and excited and she thanked me for bringing her lunch at least three or four times. Love you Princess!

Eric found a pack of five Thomas the Tank Engine books at Costco. We already had two of them, but that didn't matter to him. Here he is "reading them" to himself. I thought it was cute that he perched himself on the steps with the books all spread out around him. His concentration reminds me of his older siblings when they read. Patrick and I usually don't limit them when it comes to getting new books. We're lucky that they all love to read!

This little man also had the Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets for lunch. My kids love spicy food! Ironically, he usually likes Flaming Hot Cheetos also, but this afternoon he kept complaining that the Cheetos were "hot" when he was eating them. Of course we told him to stop eating them and he finally did. I'll post some really cute photos of him tomorrow that involve dancing and videos.

Babysitting Fail

Patrick and Anthony like this one website called Fail Blog. They have pictures with funny captions and they often have "FAIL" written on the photos also. This picture would probably have the caption of "Babysitting Fail".

Last night, I was on call and Anthony was left with the younger ones while Patrick went to Alex's middle school orientation/Parent's Night with him. We realized that Anthony should be left with more specific instructions when he babysits. To his credit, he was doing his homework, but the kids weren't in bed yet at 8:30pm when they should have been in bed by 8pm. Natalie still had to take a shower. Apparently Anthony had told her to take a shower, but she blew him off. Once Natalie and Eric were in bed, and while I was on the phone with Patrick, they discovered the poster board in the picture above.

All I heard on the phone was "Oh no! Oh no!" I was a bit alarmed but Patrick finally explained, "Think someone's big project due tomorrow." Ugh! Alex had this project due today (Wednesday) and he had been working on it all weekend. He left it out on the formal dining room table and apparently Eric decided that there was too much white space and he colored it with some black marker. Luckily, the project consists of printed sheets of paper that are glued on a poster board and luckily all of those sheets were saved on the computer. Patrick helped him print everything and put it together and all was right again.

(By the way, in case anyone is wondering what the project is about, they had to make up their own numbering system and present it on a poster.)

Eight Games

As I mentioned before, the boys each had four games this weekend, for a total of eight games. Anthony's games were as follows: Friday @ 7:45pm (0-0), Saturday @ noon (3-3), and Sunday @ 7:30am (3-3) and 4:40pm (6-0). His team got second place. If they had scored one more goal in the final game, they would have won. Alex's games were as follows: Saturday @ 8:45am (1-3) and 1:45pm (0-4), and Sunday @ 1:45pm (0-1 they lost to the eventual winner) and 4:15pm (1-2).

Because of my family visiting (and because of the early games I didn't get up for), I only got to see the first half of Alex's last game and part of the first half and all of the second half of Anthony's last game. Eric would not have made it the whole day so it's just as well that we only went to those games.

I got this great shot of Anthony heading the ball during the last game. He got a lot of play time, even when he didn't start the game. Both teams have new players who should help them do well this year and we're hopeful that will be the case.

I fully expected Natalie to complain a lot more about being at the soccer fields, because it was really hot and there were lots of bees. I kept them busy and cool by getting them sno-cones. I hadn't had a sno-cone in quite a while and I'd forgotten how good they taste. It got a bit windy and that kept the bees away, otherwise, they were everywhere, especially near the trash cans.

As you can see from this picture, we were sitting on some "bleachers" made out stone. The tournament was held at the new STAR soccer facility here in town and the fields are nicer than any we've played on before. They had paved parking and lots of it. Patrick had to park quite far away but by the time I got there with the little ones, some tournament brackets had already finished and those people left empty parking spots. They actually had fields that were clearly marked and they actually had nicer bathrooms instead of the usual port-a-potties or small bathrooms. They even had a permanent building for concessions and for posting the results.

They also must have had some nearby train tracks, because at a certain point, we heard a train whistle. Eric's interest was piqued and he looked and looked to see if he could spot the train. He smiled as he said "diesel" and I was lucky enough to catch the moment with my camera. Notice the red coloring around his lips. Both of the little kiddos had the strawberry flavor that left its mark.

Now we have a couple of soccer-free weekends before we start having regular weekend games. After the eight games this weekend, we certainly need the break.

Our Boring Day

Today was a pretty "boring" day overall, but I thought I would still post a few pictures. This is a photo of "the girls" or as Eric seems to call them, "the grels", playing with Play-Doh. It's interesting what a great toy Play-Doh is. Kids of all ages love it, even the older ones. This is a set where they make "ice cream". They were enjoying the different patterns that resulted from mixing colors.

Alex was gone most of yesterday playing soccer, so cousin Nick was entertaining himself most of yesterday as a result. Last night and today they made up for lost time by playing lots of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" on the PS3. I made a comment to my sister Cynthia, Nick's mom, that I never take a lot of photos of the boys because they are always just sitting there in the dark, mesmerized by their video games. What a boring photo!

Eric has been getting even less sleep than usual with the cousins here. He seems to be stumbling about and hurting himself because he's so tired. Here he is putting an ice pack on his foot and telling me, "Don't take a picture of me!" Of course I had to take a few photos anyway because he looked so cute with the ice pack wrapped around his foot. We have to keep the ice handy so he can get it himself from the freezer, otherwise we would have to get up quite often to get it for him. At least he is still at the age where a little ice and a kiss will work miracles.

My sisters left around noon and Patrick headed to soccer again for Alex's game. Anthony already had a game at 7:30am. By the time his team "woke up", they were down 3-0. They managed to come back with a tie, at least. The rest of us went to the last two soccer games. Alex and Anthony's last games overlapped today. That's a total of 8 soccer games this weekend. I was with my family for most of those, but Patrick was there for every single one.

I'll post tomorrow about soccer with some other photos.

Birthday Celebration #3

With her cousins in town, today was another celebration for Natalie's birthday. It wasn't all about her this time, however, since her older brothers had three soccer games between them today. We did start the morning with the usual Saturday breakfast of banana chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon. After breakfast, Natalie and her cousins decided that they wanted to play with Anthony. They were pretending that he was a vampire or monster or something and they were cutting him up with their play swords and knives. Eric jumped in on the action. They're all actually tickling him behind the knees in this picture--he's very ticklish behind his knees.

As you can see from the smile on Anthony's face, he was being such a good sport about this. He is SO good with kids. There aren't many "almost" 15-year-old boys who play with their 8-year-old sister and cousins and have fun with it. He usually only puts one earbud in his ear when he's listening to his iPod, and he did get upset once when they accidentally dislodged his earbud. As long as he was able to listen to the music, he let them do what they wanted. They mostly sat on his back while he was laying on the floor, so he could just lay there ignoring them.

Patrick was off with Alex for his 8:45AM game this morning. The rest of the adults wanted to go to the gym. This is probably the first time that my sister Melissa was the one prodding everyone to go to the gym. Natalie wasn't all that crazy about having to go to the Child Care Center at the gym, but at least she had her cousins to play with. My sisters and I took the cardiokickboxing fitness class while my brother-in-law lifted weights. After the gym we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for lunch then home.

Melissa wanted to take Natalie shopping at the local family-owned toy store that we like to go to, called Toy Zone. Cynthis stayed home with Eric and her son Nick. Melissa and I took the three girls. Natalie didn't find anything there that she really liked, but her cousins ended up buying Silly Bandz there. We went next door to the Hallmark shop where Natalie picked out some stationery that had "N" on them and a Halloween toy that records your voice and repeats what you said back to you in a "scary voice". She also picked out some gum and some cute shaped erasers.

After the shopping, Melissa got a manicure and spa pedicure, I got a spa pedicure, and the girls had their fingernails and toenails painted. They were super busy at the nail salon, so while Melissa and Emily were finishing up, the rest of us got smoothies for the girls to snack on to tide them over until dinner.

My brother-in-law left for home as we were leaving for church. He had to get back so he could play in his soccer game on Sunday morning. After church we had dinner at Chili's. It was so cold in there that we had to ask them to turn down the A/C. After the kids were finished with their meals, I took them outside to play while everyone else finished up. I took a bunch of photos of the kids jumping off the rocks and just running around the building. Eric even asked me to take a picture several times. I would take the picture and show it to him. He would giggle and go about his business.

So, this wasn't really a traditional birthday celebration, but Natalie had a lot of fun today, and that's all that matters.

Cranky Boy

I picked the boys up from school today, and when I got home, Eric didn't come out to the garage and greet us like he usually does. He was sitting in the dining room eating Easy Mac and he asked for Goldfish crackers. Patrick told him "no" because he already had a lot of snacks today. Of course he made a sad face and tears filled his eyes. I needed a couple more shots for my photography class, so I started snapping away with the camera. He did his usual thing and tried to hide his face, sometimes peeking to see if I was still there or not. If he saw me, he continued to hide his face. If he didn't see me, he would put his face on his folded arms instead until he saw me trying a different angle, then he would bury his face again. That's sort of how my whole night went.

After he finally finished eating, he wanted to watch the "show with songs" with me. By that he meant the show "Glee" which he watched with me earlier this week. When his sister walked in after playing at our neighbor's house, he made a big deal about wanting her to leave the room. Because he was so loud, I paused the show. Then he got mad because the show wasn't playing. It was like an endless cycle! Eventually when the show was over, he asked to watch another episode. That was my only episode, but he wouldn't accept that there were no more episodes. Ugh! He was really frustrating me.

He was still grumpy when my sisters arrived with their families. He didn't nap today but he probably should have. I think he fell asleep fairly quickly despite his sister and girl cousins making lots of noise in his bedroom. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood tomorrow.

Joint Bathtime

Natalie and Eric still take baths together. A couple of months ago, Natalie went through a phase where she preferred to take showers on her own or with me instead of baths with her baby brother. That phase was short-lived. They just have so much more fun when they're in the tub together. Tonight they wanted a bubble bath. They spent the time putting bubbles in Eric's sand wheel toy and watching the wheel turn. Sometimes I hear screaming and crying, but tonight it was mostly giggles and laughter. It won't be long before Natalie will want to take her own showers. For now, it's nice to see the two of them having fun and enjoying their baths together.