April Fool's

I know it's already the fourth of April but I'm now just posting about April 1st. I'm a little tired from a sleepless night on call last night, so cut me some slack, okay? :)

It was very late on Saturday night (March 31st). Patrick and I were about to go to bed. Anthony had just turned his lights out. I asked Patrick if he had any thoughts of something to do for April Fool's Day. He mentioned plastic wrap and how Alex once had tried putting plastic wrap on Anthony's door to greet him when he awakened the next morning. That prank didn't work completely because Anthony was able to see the shine of the plastic wrap when he opened his door, so he didn't run into the plastic wrap as Alex had intended. I went downstairs and asked Anthony (while looking into his darkened room) if he wanted to do that to Alex. Without hesitation, he said, "Yes."

We grabbed the plastic wrap and went upstairs. Patrick and Anthony spread out the plastic wrap. We needed something with which to stick the plastic wrap onto the doorframe. Unfortunately, Patrick killed Anthony's idea of using duct tape because he didn't want to have to clean up the adhesive residue. Patrick instead approved the use of painter's tape instead. It seemed like it would work well enough.

The next morning Patrick got up first to get the traditional Sunday morning donuts. He found the clumped up plastic wrap with the painter's tape still stuck to it on the floor in front of Anthony's bedroom door. There was a post-it note on it written in all caps, "NICE TRY. NEXT TIME USE BETTER TAPE." He showed it to me and we both thought it was hilarious. So did Anthony when he got up (we left it on the floor where we had found it).

Later, when Alex got up, I asked him about the note. He said that he had gotten up, opened the door, and saw the tape flapping around with the plastic wrap probably because of the air conditioner blowing. He didn't know it was tape at the time, just something long and dark that seemed out of place.

So, the prank didn't work perfectly, but it was still a fun little thing to do. :)

North Austin Swim Meet

The swim meet that was supposed to be held a month an a half ago was finally rescheduled to this past Saturday. I got to go only because Alex's game was rescheduled to another weekend. The boys stayed home while Patrick, Natalie and I drove to North Austin. It took us almost two hours to get there.

Originally the kids were supposed to be in no more than three events each. Natalie was supposed to be in the 100m Freestyle Relay, 50m Freestyle, and 25m Breaststroke. Her coach (Kris) asked for a volunteer to be in the 100m Medley Relay, so she got to swim butterfly in that one. She also practically begged to do the 100m Individual Medley, so she got to swim in that one too. I still get such a kick out of seeing her swim. She enjoys it so much that we signed her up for swimming four days a week starting this month!

In the Freestyle Relay race, Kris had grouped them according to age, mixing girls and boys. Apparently "they" wanted her to have teams that were only girls or only boys. That meant that Natalie's team was visibly and considerably older than the other two girls' teams, so they won pretty handily with a time of 1:23.02 (the times are for my reference).

The 100m Medley Relay was really close. Natalie's team started out pretty slowly, but Natalie made up a lot of time with her butterfly. The girl that swam the last leg, freestyle, really busted her butt catching up to the girl on the other team and basically touched just ahead of her with a total time of 1:44.44. Two first places for Natalie!

Natalie's times for the other three races were as follows: 50m Freestyle--42.452 sec, 25m Breaststroke--30.8 sec, and 100m IM--1:52.835. I'll have to look up how those compare with last year's times. She was the most proud of her ribbon in the IM race. There weren't any other girls ages 8-9 who were swimming the 100m IM, so she swam with two boys the same age and won handily. When the girls 10-12 swam the 100m IM after her, she said that they were "so big" and that she was glad she didn't have to swim against them. I told her to hang out by the finish line and to ask what the winning time was, because I thought she swam faster than they were swimming. She did and she was very excited to report that the winning time of the older girls was 7 seconds slower than her time. She would have beaten them! This is a picture of her rushing up to me after finishing the IM. She's been a bit obsessed with swimming the IM since last summer, I think because she wasn't able to do it before. We'll see how she competes against the older girls, because she'll be swimming against some of them this summer in the neighborhood team.

After the meet, we let her choose where she wanted to eat--Wendy's of course, and then we made the long trek back home.

Yellow Card

I'm a bit behind with my posts, so I'll try to catch up in the next few days.

I took this photo last Saturday morning. The fog was so thick that we could barely see the other side of the field. Both teams were fairly evenly matched, although there was on obnoxious parent on the other team that kept accusing our boys of being rough. The way I saw it, both teams were equally rough and aggressive, except that the refs only seemed to be calling fouls on our boys. The refs even called back one of our goals. Alex's coach was on an adjacent field with his other team and he saw the aforementioned goal. He thought it was clearly a goal and he didn't understand why the refs didn't count it.

In the second half, we were tied 2-2. Anthony ran into another boy when both were trying to get the ball. Anthony was given a yellow card. We couldn't believe it. Yes, the other boy got hurt, but they were equally trying to get the ball. One of Anthony's teammates made a verbal comment that maybe he shouldn't have. The ref gave him a red card. What happened next was confusing at the time, but we saw Anthony's coach back away from the field until he was all the way on the sidewalk. Suddenly, the ref abruptly ended the game right then and there. We later got an email from Anthony's coach that said the following (copied and pasted directly from the email):

Just wanted to let you know what happened at the game.

The ref came over to explain the red card and didnt agree so I let him know what I thought of the decision.
The assistant the proceeded to get in my face and tell me I was a nobody. I also let him know what i thought of that comment.
The ref then asked me to leave the field which I did but he never made it clear where I had to go. He then decided to call off the game as I wouldnt leave.
I did not want to leave the boys by themselves and I asked the referee to allow the game to continue as it was not about me or him but he did not agree.

If you have any questions please let me know

Sorry

Tom

I'm still a bit shocked and upset about what happened, but Patrick tells me that the referees have the final say, no matter what. Luckily, the rest of our Saturday went well. I'll be back tomorrow with a post about Natalie's swim meet results.

The Things You Do For Your Kids

I picked Anthony up from school a few minutes after the end of school. He talked with the track coach after school about joining track now that soccer season is over. He'll practice after school on Mondays and during first period every day (his scheduled soccer class). This is also when he broke the news to me that he wanted to videotape Patrick and me. What?!!

You see, I can't act. I have a hard time lying or even pretending to be something I'm not. I've tried to do skits when I was at school, and I failed miserably. Then there's the whole performance anxiety thing. Well, apparently Anthony had to put together a PSA or Public Service Announcement and his chosen topic is Suicide Prevention. As an aside, he has become very aware of some of the most talked about public issues and he doesn't shy away from them. Apparently also, he wrote a "script" of sorts describing parents sobbing in front of their house with an ambulance rolling by and a funeral scene. He didn't realize he had to also film this "script" until last Friday.

Of course our first question was "Do we have to be in it?" Anthony insisted that he needed adults in his video. There were none available at school so he had to wait until he got home so he could make Patrick and me play the part of the parents. Our next question was "Why didn't you do this on the weekend, when you had time to play hours of PS3?"

So, after lots of laughter from Patrick and me, we went outside on our front steps and he filmed us consoling each other. He purposely left the front door slightly ajar. Unfortunately, we needed several takes because either Patrick and I couldn't stop laughing, or one of the kids would run around inside the house so they could be seen through the open door (like Alex with a blanket over his shoulders), or Eric would peek out of the open door and let out a scary growl, etc. I got several bug bites in the meantime. I was thrilled. He also had to film us with Patrick's face more toward the camera so my face could be hidden because I could not keep a straight face. At least some of the shaking from laughter could be interpreted as sobbing.

For the funeral scene, he asked us to dress in black. In the meantime, he put up a sheet in the front hallway that he planned to later digitally erase and put in a different scene as a background. Natalie was eager to help. Did I mention that this is for his Mixed Media class? Anyway, we were supposed to cry and look upset. I had to blow my nose anyway after having been outside, so I used a tissue as a prop. I removed my contact lenses ahead of time so I could rub my eyes convincingly. Anthony reassured us he was only going to shoot us from the waist up. I wore a black dress, so it didn't matter. Patrick wore his shirt, tie, and dark coat with his shorts underneath.

Patrick and I are used to carting around the kids to various activities, helping with projects and homework, and that sort of stuff. This acting stuff is really above and beyond. Anthony appreciated our efforts. He definitely owes us.

A Two Game Day

Today was our first two soccer game day since the fall season (last year). Anthony's game was at 9am and it was drizzly and a little chilly as a result. He played very well but his team, not so well. They lost 0-5 in what will be Anthony's final high school soccer game of the season. Instead of staying for the second JV game and then going back to the school with his team, he came home with us. He took a shower at home and I took him back to school to volunteer for the Model U.N. activities that were being held at his school. After that, he went with a friend to his friend's house where he was having a pool party. Patrick just now picked him up at about 9pm, so he was gone all day.

Meanwhile, Patrick took Alex to his first club soccer game of the season. I came with the little ones after dropping off Anthony. I took this picture because we had a really long way to walk to the field where Alex was playing. Halfway there, Eric started holding his arms out like he was flying. He really knows how to entertain himself and the people around him sometimes. Natalie is clutching a bag of popcorn to her chest, afraid of spilling any. they were selling popcorn near the entrance and she begged to have some, of course.

I have another interesting story related to when we arrived at this soccer field(the S.T.A.R. Complex). The parking lot was full. I exited the lot to try to park in a different lot where I would have had to walk in the main road with the kids. I decided to give the first, closer parking lot another try. As soon as I entered, I told the kids to hope that we get lucky enough to find a parking spot. I then remembered that Eric often brings me luck. I told Natalie to rub Eric's head. I had just finished saying it when we came upon someone about to pull out of their spot. Lucky! Unfortunately, it didn't work when Patrick rubbed Eric's head later to bring Alex's team good luck. They lost 0-3.

At the start of the game, the temperature was warming up but it was still very tolerable, despite the still slightly wet weather. It warmed up quite a bit during the 12:30pm game and the sun came out. The boys did okay during the game despite having no subs. Near the end, Eric and Natalie started whining about how hot they were. I bought them snow cones at halftime and an Icee at the corner gas station on the way home. Good bye, cool weather.

After the game, we went home. Alex got to play Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PS3. Patrick took Natalie to the library to check out some books in the Warrior Cat series that she has been obsessed with lately. I took a nap. When they got home, we headed to La Cantera Mall. This is just a photo I took after dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I love taking photos like this from behind. No goofy faces and smiles and no shouts of "No Pictures!" I just get to see my family interact naturally. Eric insisted on carrying one of our bags of leftovers, so that bag is banging against his body. We always have lots of leftovers when we go to the Cheesecake Factory. He is wearing a shirt from his Uncle Geoff and it's huge (size 6). Soon after this, he let me carry the bag he was carrying so he could run and catch up with his sister.

I have one more interesting story about The Cheesecake Factory. When our waitress came to our table to introduce herself, she looked really familiar to me. As it turned out, she was our server the last time we were there, which was way back in December when we were there for my birthday. What was really cool was that she remembered us. She even asked if I had cut my hair (yes) and if there were some family members missing (yes--the boys). She must serve a ton of people every day. How cool that we were memorable--hopefully in a good way. :)

Tomorrow, Alex has another soccer game. I hope it's not too hot!

Stepping It Up

The last few months have felt like a vacation. Sure, Patrick and I still have to take children to different locations at the same time, but we really haven't had to do too many multiple trips in one night. Yesterday, I came home and spoke to Patrick for a few minutes, then I left with Eric to pick up Alex and the other carpool kids. I left Natalie at home because we wouldn't all fit in the car together plus she could finish her homework.

After getting Alex home, we were home for about half an hour before we left to get Chipotle for dinner. I gave Alex a choice of me making pasta at home or going to Chipotle. He was fine with pasta until I mentioned the latter. Alex has recently had almost an obsession with Chipotle's steak burritos.

After eating we came home to drop Alex off then I took Natalie and Eric to the Kinder Round Up. We finally got home at around 7:30pm. By then, Patrick had come home with Anthony after Anthony's high school soccer game. He only played a few minutes because some of the Varsity players who didn't play in the Varsity game for whatever reason, played at the JV game.

Our schedule is about to step up some more. Anthony will start participating in Track along with Club Soccer. Alex will hopefully not have so much homework so he can actually go to club soccer practice. In April, Natalie is going to start swimming four nights a week. We actually have to pay for five nights a week to do this, but she doesn't want to swim on Fridays because she sees that as her day to play with her friends.

This is an iPhone photo of her swimming tonight in her own lane. The other seven kids at swim team practice shared two lanes and she got her own lane. Her coach says that swimming on Mondays and Wednesdays will give Natalie an opportunity to swim with other kids that might give her more competition. If they don't then the coach said that she would get in the pool herself and swim with Natalie. I thought that was nice of her.

The neighborhood swim team registration was tonight. Practices start May 1st, but right now we're planning on Natalie practicing her swimming at Lifetime Fitness where she's swimming now. She'll get a lot more practice and attention there than at the neighborhood practices.

Besides everything above, the big boys will start having club soccer games on the weekends--at least two to three per weekend. Yup, our schedule is definitely going to be stepping up in the coming weeks.

Kinder Round Up

Tonight, at our local elementary school, they had a "Kinder Round Up". Basically, incoming kindergarten students could come in and see the school including the four kindergarten classrooms, and their parents could be oriented to some of the policies of the school and what their children would be taught in kindergarten. Eric was so excited to see the "big kid school"!

After I parked the car, he was basically running toward the school, with me in tow. He got a little wild while we were waiting for the introduction, but not too bad. He certainly wouldn't sit still enough for me to take a picture. This is one I managed to get in focus as he was goofing around and lunging toward the camera.

We visited four classrooms. In the first one, he sat very still on the big carpet in the middle of the room, criss-cross applesauce. In the second classroom he started goofing off with a girl that he knew. I had to threaten him that we would leave--he very much wanted to stay and visit all the classrooms!

In the third room he started to lie down and he was wiggly. By the last room (see picture) he was just lying down. Overall, I have to say that he was fairly well behaved, especially in comparison to the other kids in our group. Natalie came with us and she even listened to everything that was said, even though I offered to let her play quietly on the iPad.

Natalie also came because I had promised her that in order to "celebrate" Eric's tour of the school, I would take both of them to Orange Leaf, a local frozen yogurt place. She's been begging me to go there. Because it was getting so late after visiting all of those classrooms, Eric luckily didn't mind missing the last part where the kids could get on a real school bus and see what it was like to sit in it.

Eric got the mango-flavored yogurt with strawberries, although he decided that he didn't want the strawberries after he ate one with the yogurt. Natalie had the chocolate and vanilla swirl. I had the strawberry flavor with strawberries. Eric also loves the funky shaped orange spoons there and he asked if we could take our spoons home. This time I refused.

We received instructions on how to register Eric for kindergarten tonight. A couple of the ladies from the PTA came up to us and said, "Oh that's right. He's the last one." Sniff, sniff. I was okay tonight, but I'm not quite sure how I'll handle the first day of school in August.

Trip Photo Favorites

We got back safe and sound this afternoon, despite a little air turbulence. I didn't take too many photos on this trip, at least compared to other trips, but I wanted to share some of my favorites.

This first one was taken on our first full day in Colorado. The kids went outside to play in the snow as soon as they were able to assemble their snow gear from Grandma and Grandpa's stash. Patrick had to actually take Eric to Wal-Mart to get him some snow boots, since we didn't already have anything suitable in his size. Natalie used an old pair of Grandma's snow boots. The same pair as last year.

The kids made a snowman, of course. I asked Eric if I could take a picture of him with the snowman, and he said, "Yes." I expected him to merely sit or stand next to the snowman. Instead, true to his lovable nature, he gave the snowman a hug. What a sweetie!

As you can see, there was more grass than snow in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. By the time we left, there was only the patch of snow where the kids had built what they called snow "forts" but what were really only snow "walls". Because there wasn't much snow, there wasn't much use for a shovel, but the one they had broke. Actually, Grandma said that the shovel was already broken, so thankfully the kids weren't the reason. The handle had come off, so Eric decided to pretend to be a "bulldozer". That shovel was still bigger than he was so he had to use his whole body to push the "bulldozer".

On our last day there, yesterday, Alex didn't want to play in the snow, but the other three did. The snow wasn't very good for having a snowball fight at all, so they ended up just goofing off in the snow and tearing down their snow "walls". They only get to play in the snow once a year, so I'm glad they at least had some snow play time. Grandma bought another shovel by our last day and just in case, we forbade the kids to use it.

I wasn't able to use my big camera to take photos on the ski hill, so Patrick took photos for me instead. He took this photo of his parents when they were skiing together while the rest of us were taking ski lessons. He did a great job, didn't he? This photo is completely unedited. I love his mom's smile--so genuine and loving. His dad was ignoring the camera as usual, but it's still a great photo of the two of them.

Patrick took this photo also. I love that he was able to capture Eric while he was skiing. He looks like he's really concentrating on what he was doing. He was apparently smiling for most of his lesson. I love his cute little skis. I love that the goggles cover most of his face. Oh, and they had the kids wear those orange jackets. The orange color identified them as ski school kids, but the best part was the handle in the back. Yes, there was a handle on the back part so that if the kids fell, all the instructor had to do was lift them up like a shopping bag. So cute! When I saw Eric on our last day of skiing, he was waiting his turn and I tried to take a picture of him. He acted goofy and didn't want his picture taken, so he ended up laying down in the snow. His instructor came up and said, "Are you being a snow angel?" She promptly turned him over and pulled him up by his "handle".

I still have to sift through the rest of the photos and I'll try to share a few more later, but I had to get these up as soon as possible.

Ski Day #2

We got up early to go skiing again today. Patrick said that he is tired of waking people up and being greeted with groans and general unhappiness. The kids and I all had lessons again today. Alex missed so much yesterday, but he felt a lot better today. He and Anthony even went up the mountain again after our lesson was over. Natalie and I went to watch Eric at his lesson.

For today's lesson, we went up to the top of the mountain a couple of times. That gave us more time to practice what David our instructor was telling us since we didn't have to keep getting on the ski lift. It was also sunnier up there and therefore warmer, which was nice. David also thought the snow was a bit better up there. There were some icy parts further down.

Anthony took this photo in the morning before skiing. Eric was so happy to be skiing again. His instructor told me after his lesson that he was such a joy to have in her class. She said that he was always smiling and that he was doing so well.

When I watched him ski down the hill, he was mostly with another instructor who was always holding his hands. They were doing that for the other three kids in his class too. On the final run, they let go and just let him ski. He started waving his arms around like he was out of control, and then he just sat down. I guess he didn't know how to stop on his own. He really wanted to ski again tomorrow. As he put it, he wanted to go to the "next flag". We're going to take it easy tomorrow, though. The other kids are tired and they want to play with the snow forts they made in the backyard. I'm sure I'll have pictures to share tomorrow.

One more thing, I mentioned to the kids the possibility of going to lunch at Wendy's after skiing. Anthony said at that point that because I mentioned it, we had to go there. It was funny how excited they all got about going there. Anthony ordered the Double Baconator, of course, and the other three got the Spicy Chicken Nuggets. They all ate 10 pieces each. That's how hungry Eric was. All four of them got Frosties too--Alex and Eric with vanilla and Natalie and Anthony with chocolate. For them that was the perfect end to our second and final day of skiing.

First Ski Day

Today was our first day of skiing. I had a private group lesson with the oldest three kids at Arapahoe Basin. We found out a year or so ago that it was cheaper to do a group lesson with the kiddos than giving them regular half day lessons, since the three of them are all at about the same level. I'm at about the same level as they are, so I decided to tag along this year since it's the same price up to four people.

We had an instructor named David that we liked. Unfortunately, Alex wasn't feeling well from the congestion and from the altitude, so he went to the lodge to rest after about an hour and a half (out of a three hour lesson). The rest of us kept skiing and then went up to the Black Mountain Lodge for lunch. Patrick stayed at the base of the mountain with Eric. Alex ended up going home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Natalie did everything David said to do as far as technique, but she really has to control her speed a lot more. She's definitely more comfortable on the slopes than the rest of us, though. She also chatted with David a lot more than the rest of us. Poor guy.

After a nice lunch of salmon for Anthony, chicken tenders for Natalie, and chili for me, we had a little scare. Anthony couldn't find his skis. We thought that someone had taken them. That meant that he wouldn't have a way to get down the mountain. We talked with one of the managers and she could only tell us that this happens all the time. She suggested that we stay on the lookout for whoever took the skis to return them. Luckily, when Anthony looked again more closely, he found his skis.

Eric also had his very first day ever of skiing. Patrick mostly took video so he really only got a couple of photos. He may not look happy in this photo but every time the other kids and I saw him in the ski lesson area, he had a big smile on his face. Patrick said his instructor told him that Eric had the best smile. He enjoyed himself so much. When he talked about his day, he talked about how the skis moved by themselves. He did fall a few times, but he always got right back up, with a smile on his face, and went about what he was supposed to do. He didn't go up any hills, and we don't expect him to even tomorrow. What's important is that he is enjoying himself immensely.

Tomorrow Eric said he was going to go to the red flag instead of the orange flag. In other words, he will be in the next class. We signed him up for another lesson tomorrow. The other kids and I signed up for another group private lesson with the same instructor we had today. We're pretty exhausted after today, but tomorrow should be another fun day.

Good Travel

This is just a quick update. Our plane didn't leave until 6:05pm yesterday, so we had plenty of time to do last minute things and pack. The boys even got to play on the PS3. We had a late lunch from Chipotle before heading to the airport early. The local news said to allow for a good two hours prior to departure. As it turned out, we didn't need anywhere near that, so we waited for a long time.

This is a picture of us on the plane. Eric was in a good mood. He played in the iPad for most of the time. Natalie was reading The Hunger Games. The big boys listened to music and played on their iDevices. The trip was mostly turbulence-free, which I loved, of course.

The trip to the rental car place was the only low point. The bus driver usually helps with the luggage and/or at least helps Eric up and down the stairs since the rest of us have our hands full with luggage. This one just watched. Patrick also went through two vans before getting one that was acceptable. At least the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house went well. Eric even slept in the car and he was in a good mood for his grandparents. Grandma fed us pizza then everyone got ready for bed. The little ones didn't get in bed until 11pm.

Today is about getting ready for skiing, trying to find stuff that fits. I'll try to update tonight or tomorrow.

Endings and Beginnings

Tonight, Natalie's swim team coach Neeka told me that this was her last night coaching there. She'll be going to our local JCC (Jewish Community Center) full-time, which ironically is just across the street from our neighborhood. Natalie is really sad to see her go, after having her as a coach for the last year or so (Natalie's been on that swim team for around 2 years). She has improved so much with her. On the up side, there's a new coach now, Coach Kris, and she made some slight changes in Natalie's breaststroke tonight. That's the stroke that Natalie is the least confident in, so every little bit helps. We're sad to see Coach Neeka go, but we're optimistic about the future.

I normally suggest taking a picture right away, but it took me a couple of minutes to ask Natalie if she wanted a picture with Coach Neeka tonight. She said yes and that she wanted to put the picture in her Smash book. For those of you that don't know, a Smash book is a type of scrapbook/journal that looks like a book but that you can put keepsakes and pictures in. I got Natalie one from Michael's a few weeks back. This is as close as she's gotten to actually keeping a scrapbook, so I'm excited about that.

Speaking of endings and beginnings, Anthony went straight from his high school soccer practice tonight, which ended around 6pm, to his club soccer practice, which started around 6pm. There's one more week of high school soccer after Spring Break, which is next week. Club soccer for the high school kids "officially" starts after the high school soccer season starts. Anthony certainly gets enough exercise.

One thing I'm glad to see go away is the cough I've had for a couple of weeks now. I was actually able to sing to Eric tonight without coughing. That's a big improvement! I hope it continues...

Scenes From A Saturday

There was a little glitch in uploading photos from my iPhone to the computer this evening, so I'm going to try posting completely from my iPhone tonight. This will be a good test for when we're on Spring Break. This post is probably not going to be formatted in the usual way but I hope it's still easy to follow.

I'm going to post a few photos of what our day was like today--mostly unedited and straight from my iPhone. This first one is a bit tilted for a reason. Even with all the photos I take, I still get a little self-conscious when other people see me take photos. I took this photo without being too obvious, which meant that I took it without really looking at the screen--thus the tilted photo.

I left the house with Anthony at about 6:30am to take him to school for soccer. We passed by a huge accident on the main road near our house. There were at least two ambulances and a fire truck. I was trying to drive so I didn't see exactly what was going on, but Anthony said it looked like a head-on collision.

I got some Benny's Tacos for Anthony and the rest of the family then dropped off Anthony. On the way home, the accident was mostly clear except for a couple of emergency vehicles. That's when I took this photo.

At home we ate breakfast and then when it came time to leave for Anthony's game at 8:30am, I was coughing and sniffling too much and I was afraid that being outside for the game would aggravate my allergies even more--plus after the allergy medication I took, I was getting very sleepy, so I opted to stay home and rest.

I woke up at about quarter to 11am and heard Eric yelling about how I wasn't home. Apparently he was being bossy when Alex was trying to get him to behave. Patrick got home around this time from Anthony's game (they lost 1-2) and told Eric that he needed to go to bed because he was acting tired. If Eric didn't act better, he threatened to throw away some cars. This is a frequent conversation with Eric when he's tired.


Patrick left by around 11:30am again to pick up Anthony from school. I got up around 12:30pm when Anthony texted me about how they were going to go by Chipotle to pick up lunch on the way home. I saw this scene (second picture) when I walked into Alex's bedroom to ask if they wanted some burritos from Chipotle.

Alex and Natalie were building figures out of Legos from the Lego Creationary game. Apparently they had asked Eric to stay out of the way and he chose to stay in the closet. Alex's blurred hand is from him waving me off since he didn't want me to take any pictures with Him in it. I tried to take some other pictures, but Eric was giving me his cheesy, posed smile and I have too many of those photos already.

The third photo is of the family eating lunch together. Most of them ignored me as I was taking the photo--they're used to it. Alex still didn't want any photos taken so he purposely kept his face turned away. My purpose for taking this photo was to play with a new photo application that I got yesterday and also to document one of the few times we all sit at the table together. These times are getting less and less common, it seems.

After some time at home, I headed out with Alex and Eric to North Star Mall. Alex needed some new khaki uniform pants for school. Eric went with us because he just loves going to the mall. Natalie was over at a neighborhood friend's house (PP) and Anthony was doing homework.

The fourth picture is of Eric playing in the dressing room at the Gap. We were in there waiting for Alex to try on the pants. There were jeans painted on the wall with real shirts hung over them. Eric got a kick out of the fact that there were jeans painted on the wall and was trying to reach up at them.

The last time I got Alex some pants at this store they were Men's jeans sized 28x30. This time the khaki pants were sized 30x30. He likes to wear pants on his hips instead of his waist with his gym shorts worn underneath. He needs a little extra width as a result. The way Alex likes to wear his pants drives Patrick nuts. The pants cost $50 and they weren't on sale, of course. My boys never seem to want to go shopping when there's a sale. They want me to pay full price, it seems.

The fifth picture I took today is of Eric carrying the Gymboree shopping bag. I had a coupon and they were having a sale, so I went to get Eric the shark swimsuit and matching rash guard, hat, and flip flops. I have only one child left that doesn't mind me picking out his clothes, at least some times. I have to take advantage of that.

Eric insisted on carrying the bag on his shoulder even though it was a fairly heavy bag with all of that stuff in it. I was afraid his shoulder would start hurting and more importantly, I was afraid that he would get tired of holding it and set it down when I wasn't looking. I ended up relieving him of his package soon after I took this photo.

Natalie had wanted the shark swimsuit and rash guard too, but I could bring myself to buy my daughter a boys' swimsuit. Yes, I could shorten the swimming trunks and then they would look like girls' "board shorts", but I didn't want to buy something at that price and still have to alter it. I did get her the shark flip flops that she was very happy to receive.

Alex and Eric got Wendy's Frosties before heading home. Alex had wanted to get them and eat them in the car but Eric had for increasingly agitated as we were walking to the parking garage because he said he would make a mess in the car with his Frosty and he didn't want to make a mess in the car! This was despite multiple reassurances that he would do fine from Alex and me! Sometimes Eric's OCD really amazes me. They ate them at the mall before we got in the car.

One more photo left! We got home just in time to head out again for the 5pm mass. After mass we went out to eat at California Pizza Kitchen and then Brindles for dessert. I'm giving up most snacks and desserts for Lent so I look forward to this treat once a week.

This last picture is a little blurry again because of Alex, but I still love this photo because of the story behind it. Alex had been sitting on one of the sofas at Brindle's and taking up most of the space on it. Patrick made him get out of it so he could sit next to me. He went over to one of the chairs but Natalie was sitting in it by then. He sat on Natalie and she couldn't get him to move. Patrick and I knew that he would move if he knew I was taking a picture. Unfortunately because of the camera delay, he had already gotten up by the time the picture was taken.

Wow, this was a really long post and probably pretty boring for all of you reading this. That was our Saturday in pictures.

Note: I did have to go back and edit the formatting of this blog post on the computer. I'll have to figure out what to do about this when I'm traveling.

Random Things

I haven't feeling like pulling out the big camera lately. I use my iPhone to take photos almost exclusively. It's probably because it's always with me and the things I'm taking photos of aren't super important--mostly slice of life type photos that I'll want to remember later. They're perfect for my Project Life album but not worthy of a whole scrapbook page.

This photo is one such photo. I heard Patrick asking Eric if he had dressed himself this morning. Eric came into our bedroom and I saw that he was wearing this outfit. Patrick had been saying that it didn't exactly match. I thought it had the same colors and match well enough. I asked Eric if I could take a picture of him since he had dressed himself and he agreed. The only problem was that nowadays, when he allows me to take pictures of him, he gets really goofy. He kept moving towards me while making funny faces. Movement is not something that is captured well with a camera phone. Finally, he sat down on the floor and let himself fall back so he was laying down. I was finally able to get a picture.

We've had the same old routine lately and that doesn't inspire me to write blog posts. Still, I want to document a few random things that happened today.

I was off today, so I was able to take Natalie to her piano lesson. No matter whether it's Patrick or me that is picking her up, we have the same routine of bringing her (and Eric who we pick up first) a snack and a juice box. Today she requested that I bring some of the chocolate cake that my mom made for her while she was here. I put the cake in a plastic container and included enough for both of them. Then she tells me that Eric had been refusing to eat that cake, and that she didn't know how he could possibly refuse the cake since it was so good. I told Eric that he didn't have to eat it and he replied, "I think I will try some of the cake." He ate up almost all of it.

After piano lessons, they requested to eat at Wendy's. While we were there, a song came on the sound system. She asked me if I knew what the song was. I didn't know what it was but she came up with the song name and who sang it on her own ("Monster" by Paramour). I hadn't heard of that song before but I felt like I needed to write this down. She's never really paid attention to music and who sings the songs until just recently. Apparently this is one that she hears Alex listening to. They have more in common than either one will admit.


We brought home some Spicy Chicken Nuggets from Wendy's for Alex. I got the mail and found Alex's SAT results from when he took the test on January 28th. He took the SAT as part of some Duke University program for seventh graders. He got a 470 in Reading (39th percentile nationally), a 570 in Math (67th percentile nationally), and a 370 in Writing (13th percentile nationally). What's amazing about his scores are that those percentages are of college-bound seniors. He did better than 67% of college-boung seniors on the Math portion of the SAT! I thought that was huge! He likes to deny that he is special in any way, but Patrick and I still had to tell him how amazing he did. The best part is that he'll have some idea of what to expect when he takes it "for real".

One more story--Patrick and I were discussing yesterday about how Eric is more into music than his siblings were at this age, especially music he hears on the radio and most especially dance music. For example, one of his current favorites is "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO. Still, I was a bit surprised when we were watching one of my DVR tapes of The Voice. One of the contestants was singing "Someone Like You" by Adele. Eric asked me, "Isn't that song by Adele?" Amazing!

Change of Routine

We got out of our usual routine today. When I get home, I usually go through this routine with Eric:

Me: Eric, how was your day at school?
Eric: Good.
Me: Did you learn anything at school?
Eric: Yes.
Me: What did you learn?
Eric: I don't know.

In an effort to get him to actually tell me about what he learned, I started asking him specifics, like, "Did you learn about a new letter or a new number?" He usually still says "I don't know" or "I don't remember." Today he said, "We learned about big Q's and little q's." We tried looking for his worksheet, but Patrick had left his backpack at school. We'll have to look for it tomorrow.

On the way home from work, I also usually pick up Alex at the local middle school where his school bus drops him off. Today I got out of work right on time, which meant that I would have had to wait at least a half hour at the school before he got there, so instead I came straight home. That way also, I could spend a little time with my parents and the little ones before taking Natalie to swimming. Well, after she ate dinner, she said that her tummy hurt. I've been feeling a little tired lately probably due to allergies, so I was not disappointed at all. Here she is finishing up her homework that is due on Fridays. This way she also had time to finish that.

Patrick picked up Alex instead of me. When Alex got home, he had lots of homework so he wasn't sure he would be able to finish in time for soccer. He also complained of his back hurting earlier in the week. Again, Patrick and I were not disappointed about this. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of our weeknight routine.

Speaking of routine, I usually don't post photos of Anthony playing soccer because it's so hard to get good pictures. I don't love this photo but I do like how you can see these three running at top speed to get to the ball. This was yesterday's game when Anthony's school played the team from the school he would have gone to if he hadn't chosen a magnet school. The other team won pretty handily. Anthony was pretty disappointed in the loss. They've lost all of their district games so far. :(

Patrick picked him up after soccer practice today too. That is the usual routine because I'm usually gone with Natalie by that time. They stopped by Schlotzky's on the way home-again, another routine. Natalie and I watched our DVR tapes of American Idol--more routine. One thing that is becoming more routine is Eric playing Mario Kart Wii with different siblings. Tonight it was just Natalie and in the last 20 or so minutes before bedtime. He's getting much better. He can sometimes stay on the race track now! Sometimes it's good to break the routine!

Our Project

Alex's school sent out an email last Friday to let the parents know that there was a big project due this coming Thursday. With this past weekend being a three-day holiday for the kids, they wanted to make sure the project didn't get forgotten. That was a good thing for us, because Alex really needs plenty of time to work on this type of assignment. He was supposed to show a model of a "coniferous forest" to include the plants and wildlife.

On Sunday, Patrick went out with him and bought the little plastic animals and trees you can see in this picture. We figured that it would be less time-consuming to do this than to have Alex look through all of our plastic figures in the house. He's very distractible and just this task could have taken him a week. It was also less time-consuming than making those things by hand. While Alex was doing research on the computer, he sent Natalie upstairs to look for a rock with moss on it that he thought was in the Playmobil box. After a few trips up and down the stairs, she came back with the large rock formation that you can see in the back left hand corner. It's a little off scale from the trees and animals but again, it was a lot easier to use than finding or making something else.

While Alex was still sleeping on Monday morning, I wrapped the shoebox up with some Kraft wrapping paper. Later when he was doing research on the computer again, I used the reverse side of some wrapping paper to line the bottom of the model. He chose white because that was supposed to represent snow. He then decided where everything was going to go. He even had a raccoon standing over a rabbit that was laying on its side like the raccoon was about to eat the rabbit. He tried to cut out a river but was unhappy with it so I did that for him (the river is at the very front and looks like a shadow with the bad lighting in the study). He positioned some animals to look like they were in the river catching fish for food. When he was "taking a break" I glued everything down. He finished up by labeling everything with number stickers (hooray for my stash of scrapbooking supplies!) to correspond with the numbers on the index cards.

It was late by the time he finished the project completely, but there was enough time to play Mario Kart Wii with his three other siblings. We let the littlest ones stay up past their 8pm bedtime just because Patrick and I enjoyed hearing to their chatter in the game room while they all played together. I only had one more request for Alex--that he put his project in a safe place so his little brother doesn't decide to decorate it himself with markers. Eric does like to color, after all. Oh, and I almost forgot--Alex's reward (or bribe, depending on how you look at it) for finishing his project this weekend was a large Dreamsicle ice cream shake at Brindle's which we went out and got right after he finished.

I felt like I didn't get anything done that was on my "to-do" list, but completing this project will make OUR lives easier this week.

Daddy-Daughter Dance and a Holiday

Patrick and Natalie arrived home with plenty of time to get ready for the Daddy-Daughter Dance at our local Lifetime Fitness gym. That was a good thing because Patrick needed to rest after driving for a total of around 5 hours--lots of traffic in and around Austin. Natalie had plenty of time to play Mario Kart for Wii, which seems to be a new obsession for all the kiddos--more on that later. She also needed plenty of time to find something to wear. She wore the same red dress to the last few dress-up occasions, a hand-me-down from her cousing Emily, so she wanted to wear something different. She settled on this dress (that can also be worn as a skirt) but the strap that was supposed to go around her neck did not seem secure and she was uncomfortable with that. I had to help her find a shirt that matched and then I had to find a big safety pin to hold it up securely. She looks pretty good in it, I think, but it's definitely not a winter-type outfit. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold outside.

I didn't hear too many details from the two of them, but Patrick said that the dance seemed more scaled down from last year. Last year they had lots of food and especially dessert, which included a chocolate fountain. No chocolate fountain this year. Natalie told me that she had some pasta with alfredo sauce. She did one craft activity, but she couldn't even remember what it was. There were only four activities total, according to Patrick. Natalie was only interested in watching the movie Tangled that they were playing after dinner. The only other comment Patrick made was that there were a lot more small children there rather than some older girls that they had last year.

Sunday was a bit of a blur. Anthony had his friend Alejandro over to spend Saturday night. That meant lots of PS3 games for the both of them. Natalie and Eric played more Mario Kart Wii. Alex also played but he also worked on his project for school due on Thursday. I'll post some more info on that tomorrow. Alex and Eric also built a fort in the game room again. We went to church at 5pm again and then out to dinner at Chili's. We all agreed that the kitchen at Chili's must have been having an off night. Everything tasted a bit blander than it has before and took a lot longer. Ice cream at Brindle's finished out our evening.

The big news for Sunday was that my cousin Rachael had her baby! I remember her when she was a baby so this made me feel a little old. I'm really happy and excited for her. Such a blessing! Her brother Chris' birthday was also on Sunday, so I joked with him about his birthday being forgotten with the arrival of his niece. He was pretty happy about his "birthday present".

This morning I came downstairs and Natalie and Eric were both already eating breakfast. She was eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch and he was eating Special K bars. I said, "You're already eating?" Natalie replied, "I thought maybe that you would make something but then I got hungry." I had already thought about treating the two to breakfast at Starbucks since it was a holiday today, so I asked them if they wanted to go there. They both raised their hands as if I was asking who wanted to go to Starbucks.

The big boys were still asleep, but the rest of us had a nice breakfast there. Natalie and Eric played lots of Mario Kart Wii today. Natalie got to go to her friend Maya's house and to her piano lesson. Alex finished his project with a little help from me. Anthony played lots of PS3 and also got to practice driving with Patrick. Tonight we let the little ones go to bed late because all four of the kiddos were playing Mario Kart Wii together. Patrick and I were listening to them all interacting--not always getting along but still playing together. It was a nice way to finish out the holiday weekend.

Lots of Time Doing Nothing

We had a lot planned for today. Anthony had a JV game scheduled for noon today. He had me drop him off at Benny's Tacos at 8am so he could have breakfast with his buddies, including one kid who is now on the Varsity team. It's been raining here quite a bit since yesterday, with intermittent thunder and lightning as well. At about 9am, he called me. I was already relaxing at home getting ready to eat my breakfast taco. The JV game had been cancelled so I needed to go pick him back up and take him home. He was most bummed by the fact that the Varsity game had NOT been cancelled. He had hoped that they would go ahead and take him, but alas, that was not the case.

On a funnier note, I've been buying Eric the bacon and egg taco (the same kind Anthony likes). He'll eat maybe a third of it and then he'll say that he wants to save the rest--but that Anthony can eat the rest if he wants to, which Anthony usually does when he gets home from soccer. This time he got home earlier since his game was cancelled and he did, in fact, eat the rest of that taco.

After we got home, I let Anthony play on the PS3 to let him relax a bit after the disappointing morning. Eric was looking at a Birthday Express catalog and he pointed out a Mario Kart T-shirt and said that he wanted that. He's never really played on the Wii before, so I asked him if he wanted to play the Mario Kart game on the Wii. He seemed reluctant at first, but Alex was very persuasive and so the both of them started playing. Eric had a hard time keeping his cart on the race course. I tried to help him but of course I'm not very good at steering either so I enlisted Anthony's help. That enabled me to take a picture of my boys all playing on the Wii. I love the expressions of deep concentration on their faces. Aren't they cute? ;)

Patrick and Natalie had left around 10:30am so they would be able to get to Natalie's swim meet in the north part of Austin by the 12:30pm warmup time. They got there a little after noon and soon after that, Patrick texted me that the meet had been cancelled around 8 or 9am this morning. We were upset that we weren't contacted especially when it was apparent that most of the families had been contacted. They at least were going to give Natalie and another girl a workout since they had made the wasted trip there. They're on their way back home now. Tonight they have a Daddy-Daughter Dance to go to. Patrick's going to be exhausted from all of that driving.

For the rest of the afternoon, the boys and I were playing various games on our devices. Eric and Alex built another fort in the game room. Alex is going to a birthday party in about an hour. That party is the reason why I didn't go with Patrick and Natalie to Austin. I was sad that I was going to miss the meet, but I guess it was a good thing since the meet was cancelled anyway.

I have one more piece of exciting news from this past week. We got Anthony's SAT scores back from when he took it on January 28th: Critical Reading 680, Math 720, Writing 780. The total is 2180 out of a possible 2400. That's excellent! They only had the reading and math when Patrick and I took it way back when. One of his good friends told him that he should take it again, though, because apparently when his friend took it again he scored 150 points higher. If Anthony decides to do that, he needs to actually study or it won't be worth it. We're still very proud of him!

Alex also took the SAT as part of a Duke University program, but since they set that up, we can't access his scores online. We'll have to wait for the paper copy in the mail.

Our Day With Eric

This is a photo of the game room on Monday night. Eric had built a super structure for his cars using some cardboard bricks. We were amazed at the size of it. I'm presently trying to get him to clean it up so that the maid will be able to clean the game room when she comes tomorrow. He's singing right now so chances are that he is only adding to this.

I went to work around 2pm yesterday so that left Patrick to go to the Valentine's Day parties for Eric and Natalie. Eric's was supposed to be after nap time, which is about 2pm. Natalie's was supposed to be from 2:30-2:45pm. Patrick went to Eric's school first, but it turned out that they weren't going to have the party until closer to 3pm. By the time Patrick got to Natalie's classroom, around 2:45, they were done with the party and watching a movie. Natalie wanted to take the bus home, so he left without going to the party and without Natalie. When he got to Eric's, they were going to have the party until around 3:30pm and Eric wanted to stay for it, so Patrick left there empty-handed as well. He couldn't stay because he had to meet Natalie's bus at home around 3:15pm. By the time he got back to Eric's school, they were done with their party as well. Apparently the party went pretty quickly. The preschoolers ate quickly and were done. Poor Patrick! All of that driving back and forth and he didn't even get to attend either party. He didn't get to take any pictures either, as a result.

This morning, I met Patrick and Eric at the Starbucks near Anthony's school. Eric was supposed to have a field trip at school, but since he has swim lessons on Wednesdays, we decided to just keep him the whole day. Eric was so cuddly this morning. He kept hugging me like he actually missed me. What a sweetie!

After Starbucks, Eric went with me to Target so I could buy some of the Valentine's candy that is now on sale. We also found this red heart-shaped pillow. I got one for Natalie and I didn't get one for Eric because he has so many stuffed animals already. He told me, "But Mama, this isn't a stuffed animal" and he kept hugging on it, talking about how soft it was. I almost broke down and got him one too, but I decided that he would not care as much when we got home.

The weather was nice today, partly sunny in the mid 70s, so Patrick and I took advantage of it. After swim lessons, he and Eric played in a pool for a bit while I exercised. We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Eric played in the play area for a bit after lunch. We then went to the River Walk just so Patrick and I could get some Haagen-Dazs ice cream at the shop near the Alamo. On the way there, Eric complained that his feet hurt and that "someone should carry me." He complained so much that we didn't walk around for long. Still, it was nice to soak up a little sun before it starts raining again. Eric was very active today. He should sleep well tonight!

Tonight we're planning on pasta for dinner and then chocolate fondue for dessert. It's sort of a delayed special dinner for Valentine's Day for the family.

Classroom Valentines

I like to be crafty occasionally, but I don't have a lot of time. I spent about an hour to an hour and a half making these valentines for Natalie tonight. She didn't like any of the store-bought designs, of course, because there were no shark valentines. *Insert eye roll here.* I found this simple template on the internet tonight. She approved of the design. We went outside to take some pictures of her holding her hand out. We went back inside so I could combine the photos in Photoshop Elements. I printed them out and made the cuts in the photos to insert the pencils. Viola! Simple but cute valentines. I could have taken a little bit more time with the photo, but as Natalie put it, "It doesn't have to be perfect, Mama." I figured that if she liked them the way they were, then they were good enough.

Her school doesn't want the parents to bring any candy for valentines, and although many parents break that rule, Patrick doesn't want me to be a rule breaker. For the past couple of years we give out pencils and little trinkets like that. This year we're giving out pencils, little pads of paper, and heart-shaped erasers.

Eric's school doesn't have the rule about not giving out candy. In fact, we were told to bring a sweet treat. Eric's choice is usually Starburst or Skittles, so I bought that at Target on the way home from work today. I had bought these Cars valentines a while back at Target. I don't like to wait until the sales come because I'm afraid of not getting my first choice. When I went by Target today, everything was pretty picked over so I was happy that I had already gotten these. This package had Cars valentines AND Cars tattoos, something this little boy gets very excited about.

Tonight, Patrick had him write his name on the valentines and tomorrow they'll give out the valentines with the candy then they'll send the kids that are all "sugared up" home to their parents. Thankfully, I'll miss out on that because I'm working tomorrow night. Poor Patrick!

Cold Weekend Recap

We had a pretty uneventful week and thus the lack of blog posts. Yesterday morning, Anthony had a JV game. Eric decided that he wanted to come along. We warned him that it was cold and that he could stay home with Alex and Natalie, but he insisted on going. The game had barely started when he started asking when we were going home. He was huddled under a blanket with his hood over his head and his head buried in either Patrick's or my lap for most of the first half. At halftime we moved to a sunny area to one side of the bleachers. It was a little bit more shielded from the wind, which made it feel like it was in the low 30s. When I posted that fact on Facebook, my brother-in-law, who lives in Alaska, of course posted that wasn't cold at all. Eric must have felt warm enough to get his hands out to play on the iPad. At least that kept him from thinking about the weather. He was happy for the second half. Unfortunately, Anthony's team lost, 0-1.

We spent the rest of yesterday hanging out at home and then we went out for dinner at El Mirasol. Natalie had her friend Maya over at our house and we took her along for dinner. We decided a little last minute to have her stay with us overnight for a sleepover. Natalie was so excited! Interestingly, when Natalie has Maya over, they don't stay up late. They put themselves to bed last night by 9:30pm. In the morning, they played quietly in Natalie's room. At one point, they sat in the living room to play on the iPad, at first with just Eric, then they included Anthony. They were playing a puzzle game where they had to figure out how to clear the board in one move. Natalie gave it to Anthony to figure out; he figured it out and he went on to figure it out (at different levels) a few more times. I took this picture just because it wasn't the usual sight to see them gathered around Anthony playing on the iPad.

I had to include one more photo to show how silly Eric can be. He had been playing in the gameroom; he was singing while rocking on the rocking horse. He was so cute that I wanted to take a picture. Of course he did his usual thing and said he didn't want any pictures. He started trying to hide behind the entertainment center to keep me from taking any pictures of him. That was only a couple of minutes before I took this picture. When I moved on to taking pictures of Natalie and Maya, he came over and started saying "Squeaky Squeaky" over and over again while getting into different contortions. Yes, he is flexible.

We took a short trip to the mall in the afternoon. The kids all wanted to go to the Godiva store, which was pretty packed. Eric had a Strawberry Truffle, Patrick had the Cappucino Truffle, and Anthony had a Raspberry Dark Chocolate Truffle. Natalie wanted to buy a large milk chocolate candy bar, but we held her to the small one. Alex stayed home as usual. The only time he ventured out was when we all went to the 5pm Sunday mass. Afterwards we picked up Pei Wei for dinner before heading home. When Patrick was in Pei Wei waiting for the food, he heard others talking about how they didn't want to go out to eat because it was cold, so they were picking up food too. It's supposed to warm up this week, which is great news because we have a lot of activities planned for next weekend.

Teacher Conference

Natalie's teacher conference was this afternoon, and I happened to be off so both Patrick and I went. The way they do these nowadays is that the student herself presents the information while the teacher walks around and supervises about three of these conferences. This first picture is of Natalie looking embarrassed to be talking to us when she talks to us all the time--frequently. She read from a script that covered all of her subject areas to include what she is studying in those areas now and what her goals are. She also handed us packets of her how she did on her "benchmarks".

Benchmarks are tests the kids all took on certain days (not all on the same day) to measure how well they are doing in the different subject areas. Apparently those tests are harder this year to prepare them for the "STAAR" exam that is the new standardized test that replaces the old "TAKS" test. The schools all seem to be worried about this exam because this is the first year that they are administering this new and more difficult test. Natalie's benchmark scores seemed low to me (she made an "82" on one of them. Her teacher approached us, though, and said that Natalie is doing very well, especially in Math, and that she is very bright.

Patrick and I told Natalie that she needs to take her time and not rush through the reading and the questions. There were some answers she could easily have gotten right if she had taken a little more time. We're still very proud of her, of course.

This is one of the pieces of paper that Natalie had to fill out an that she read to us during the conference. There was also another piece of paper where she had to write "Who challenges you and encourages you?" She had written "my family", but when she was reading to us she also added "especially Alex". Patrick and I were a little surprised by that answer since she and Alex are always butting heads. We also realized how much she looks up to Alex despite the abuse she gets from him.

There was another sheet of paper where she wrote down what inspired her. Her answers included, "my family, my friends, swimming, and reading." She also added that she had also wanted to write down "sharks and red" but she didn't. Yes, that is my little girl.

Mud Game

This morning Anthony and I left the house at 6:30am so he could meet his friends at Benny's Tacos for breakfast before their JV game. By the time Patrick and I left the house at 8:30am, the temperatures had dropped and the rain had begun. The first half was wet and windy, with temps probably in the 40s with the wind chill. The boys were covered in mud, as you can see in this picture. Patrick and I remarked on how clean Anthony looked, actually, compared to his friend who had mud all over his legs. Most of the boys fell in the slippery mud at least once or twice, but Anthony stayed on his feet. I didn't realize it until I had uploaded this picture into the computer that Anthony did have mud spatter on his legs. Believe me, he still looked "clean" compared to most of the other boys. By the end of the game, the sun had come out and the wind had died down a little. Unfortunately, they lost 0-2.

The rest of the day was a quiet one. Natalie spent most of the afternoon at a friend's house (AR) and the evening at an ice skating birthday party for another neighbor (LL). Patrick picked up our tired little girl at 10:15pm. She usually puts herself to bed by 7:30pm, so that's pretty late for her.

I wanted to throw in this picture I took with my phone yesterday. I've been buying Eric different cars from the movie Cars and giving them to him when he's been a good boy. Rewarding him is just an excuse to give him presents even when it isn't Christmas or his birthday. He gets so excited when I give him a car that even I get excited every time I give him a car. Even Alex has bought Eric some Cars cars with his own money because he loves giving Eric presents. Buying $3-$6 cars gets a little expensive, however, plus he's got most of the Cars cars available already. He does play with them every single day, so they get a lot of use.

I saw these Cars tattoos at Michael's craft store last weekend. Eric got very excited when I showed them to him and told him he could have one on Friday if he was a good boy the rest of the week. Earlier in the week he apparently wasn't listening well at school, which is different for him. I used the tattoo as a reward for him listening to his teacher at school. As you can see, the tattoo was a hit and I found a much less expensive way to reward him.

I'm on call on Super Bowl Sunday (tomorrow) so I hope everyone out there behaves themselves!

TV Ad

I haven't been blogging very often in the last couple of months ago. I feel like I get a bit repetitious with talking about our schedules and such. Eric still does cute things, but I don't often get a good picture to go with the story. Today I captured this fun photo. He really enjoys the JCPenney ad where women get upset when they miss a sale. At the end one women screams, "Arrrr!" as she puts her hands up in front of her and shakes them. The ad had just come on the TV and Eric kept imitating the woman and yelling "Arrrr!" The other kids enjoy him doing this and do their best to encourage him to do it, although it does get annoying after he does it over and over again.

This afternoon, Anthony had a JV game at 4:30pm. I went there from work and Patrick met me there after picking up Alex and the carpool and taking them home. The other three stayed home and Alex fed them frozen pizza. Our children would starve if we didn't have our freezer constantly stocked with frozen pizza. It's not that we don't cook for them. They often choose HEB Extra Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza to anything else we offer, which of course makes it hard to make anything else. Anyway, Anthony's team won 7-0.

I'll try to post another update by the weekend.