Just A Swimsuit Trip

I'm on call tonight and I'm trying to post this while standing up in the hallway, so please excuse any errors.

While Patrick and Natalie were at her orthodontist appointment (to get her new retainer), Alex, Eric, and I went to Academy Sports and Outdoors to get Alex a swimsuit. As we were looking for the men's swimsuits, we saw these kids' portable chairs for $5.99 and one of them had Lightning McQueen for $12.99. Eric had to have it, of course. Since the kids' current portable chairs are not so easy to carry around, and Eric is able to sling this one on his own shoulder, I went ahead and splurged.

Alex was still picking out a swimsuit when I saw this hat. Since I volunteered to take photos at the swim meets, sometimes I have to stand out in the sun. I wear sunscreen but it would be nice if I could keep the sun off of me too. I have a large head, and this hat was an extra large and didn't squish my head like some other hats do, plus it was on sale for $12.99--bonus!

I also bought Patrick a new white long-sleeved rash guard and I looked around for one from me with no success. Alex finally found a swimsuit that he liked that fit him for around $30. He didn't like the cheaper suits, of course. The both of us also got sunglasses for $9.99. By the time we checked out, we had almost $140 worth of stuff! That one trip to buy one swimsuit cost us a lot of money!

Found Toys Are New

The kids were cleaning the game room today (and apparently they were getting along while doing that) when they discovered this dinosaur stuffed toy. I must have bought this for Alex from Kohl's a long time ago and as frequently happens when you have so much stuff, we had forgotten about it. Now it's Eric that loves dinosaurs, and he was excited about this toy. His favorite toys now are the Dinosaur Train toys he got from his godfather for his birthday and his Cars cars that he's received from different people over the past year or so. He often plays with them at the same time--the cars and dinosaurs have parties together. :) FYI, for those of you on Facebook, I put a video up on my wall of Eric singing a song from Dinosaur Train about T. Rexes.

Swim Meet #1

Natalie had her first neighborhood swim meet of the summer season today versus Castle Hills Forest. We knew they were a smaller swim team too, based on the heat sheets we got last night. They had also put some younger swimmers into the older age groups because they didn't have enough older kids to swim those events just like us.

Natalie's first race was event #5, the Girls 11-12 100m Freestyle Relay. Each swim team only had one relay team in the race. Natalie swam the first leg and this picture shows how huge the 12 year old girl swimming for the other team was compared to Natalie. I could feel my heart pounding. This would be a challenge for her. Luckily, she was not intimidated. She smoked that girl in the first leg. She got to the other side with probably a third or more of the pool ahead of that girl. The total time for her relay team was 1:11.59.

Natalie's next race was event #37, the Girls 11-12 100m Individual Medley (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle--I can never remember the order). She competed only against one other girl and it was that same 12 year old girl as her first race. Natalie won that race by almost 21 seconds for a personal best time of 1:50.97. My heart was pounding for this race too. I was so proud of my little girl and she was proud of herself for her personal best. She's been almost obsessed with swimming the IM since last year and now she's done it.

This is Natalie's best friend Maya. I've mentioned on this blog before about how they've been friends since Maya was about six weeks old (they're about a month apart) when they were in the same daycare "class". Maya was the number one breaststroke swimmer in their age group (8 and under) last year. Natalie really respected how good Maya was, especially since Natalie's least favorite stroke is the breaststroke. She doesn't like it mostly because it's her worst stroke. She's not confident as a result. For some reason, the new neighborhood swim coach this summer, the same one that put her in the older age group (as well as some other swimmers) chose to put Natalie in the Girls 9-10 25m breaststroke and not Maya. Natalie was able to hold her own, at least. She got first place in her heat and second place overall with a time of 28.79 seconds, much better than she swam it last year.

I never get tired of seeing Natalie swim the butterfly. She looks so graceful compared to many of the other kids. It just looks effortless for her. She swam butterfly in her last two events, Event #55 Girls 9-10 25m Butterfly and Event #67 Girls 11-12 100m Medley Relay (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle--again, I can't seem to ever remember the order). She won the 25m Butterfly pretty easily with a time of 20.63 seconds, which is what her time has been lately. Her team for the Medley Relay won pretty easily also. Patrick was no longer the stroke judge for that race, but he found out later that they were disqualified because the girl who did the breaststroke apparently did two strokes under water. On our video later, it didn't seem like it, but then we had a different angle. Either way, Natalie actually wasn't disappointed. She barely seemed to care about any other ribbon besides the 100m IM. Of course this afternoon she was busy playing with her cousins and the swim meet this morning seemed so long ago.

Three first place ribbons and a second place ribbon isn't too bad at all. She's on the young side of her age group so I didn't expect much this year. I guess age doesn't matter right now.

Hyatt Hill Country Resort

My sister Melissa arrived yesterday with my parents and her daughter Emily and our niece Aly. After visiting with me for a bit, Melissa and the girls headed to the Hyatt Hill Country Resort where they are going to be staying for a couple of days. They also took Eric. After Natalie's swim team practice, we headed there too so Natalie could spend the night and so I could bring Eric home. He was having so much fun that he didn't want to leave!

Melissa texted me this morning to tell about how the girls were giving each other massages. They had wanted to get massages at the kids' spa, but Cynthia and I nixed it for our girls because they're so ticklish. Melissa sent a picture, but the girls insisted that she take the picture with their heads cut off. I was able to tell who was who regardless!

Today my sister Cynthia arrived with her son Nick. We bought some Rudy's Barbecue for everyone and all of us headed to the hotel for lunch. After lunch, the girls, Patrick, and Eric all enjoyed their "lazy river". The girls kept running away from my camera, but Eric had a big smile for me every time he saw me.

Later, Patrick played with Nick and Anthony at the basketball hoop they had set up in the water. My sisters and I walked around the grounds. My parents stayed in the hotel room. My mom actually brought Alex's hoodie along so she could repair the hole in the sleeve. Dad was playing with his iPad as usual.

Alex had resisted going to the hotel. He wanted to stay home by himself. Patrick and I weren't successful in convincing him but my Mom told him he could just stay in the hotel room and he seemed to like that offer the best. When we were there, though, he seemed to be having fun. He got into a pillow fight with Anthony and Nick. My mom was pretty surprised at how rough they were with each other, but that's the way the boys are. After that they headed over to the arcade. Alex won a mini whoopee cushion that he was trying to show Eric how to use. It was hilarious because that small whoopee cushion made a small tooting sound--perfect for Eric. Alex told Eric to use it over and over all the way home in the van and told us not to tell Patrick to see if he would notice. Hilarious.

Cynthia stayed at the hotel with Melissa and the girls, and the rest of us came back home. Natalie has a swim meet early tomorrow so she needs her sleep. We got some unexpected news today about her swim meet. She is swimming three races in the Girls 11-12 age group! She is nervous about it but since she is usually more concerned with her times than actually winning, so this should push her harder. I'll report on the outcome tomorrow.

Teacher Gifts

The kids don't seem to want to give teacher gifts beyond elementary school. I would have been willing to give even small gifts to the boys' teachers, but they didn't want to give them. Natalie, on the other hand, was excited about giving gifts. When we were out shopping last weekend, we got two little cartons of Godiva Ice Cream Parlor Neopolitan Truffles, one for her main teacher and one for her GT teacher. She also wanted to give Barnes and Noble gift certificates to them plus she also wanted to include one of the other fourth grade teachers who used to be Alex's teacher.

Yesterday she chose red wrapping paper to wrap the cartons. They were a bear to wrap because of their circular nature, so I did that part. She filled out the gift cards which came with their own holders and then she affixed them onto the top of the packages. To personalize them, she added some shark stickers that I had given her for her birthday last year. She said that she had been saving them for a "special occasion". I'm pretty sure her teachers, and pretty much everyone else in the school who knew her knows how much she loves sharks, so I'm pretty sure they'll know who these are from, even if they don't read the front of the card. It's nice to have an enthusiastic child. :)

Yesterday was also the "Mindfest" activities at Natalie's school. All the kids participate in this, not just the GT kids. They are split up into teams and do various brain teasers to "stretch their minds." Patrick and I both participated. I was happy that Natalie was in one of the groups I was helping. She let me take her home after that, which I was a little surprised at since she likes to take the bus home. I spoiled her by taking her to Starbucks to get her favorites. I cherish these mother-daughter times.

I usually tell Natalie to be "good for Papa" whenever I say goodbye to her when I'm going to work. I'm on call tonight, so when she said goodbye to me this morning, she said to me, "Be good for work." That girl just cracks me up!

Women's Shoes

Natalie is growing up, isn't she? I took her to get some new dress shoes this morning. Her other ones never seemed to be comfortable, but now they're even more so because they're getting too small. I've never bought shoes for her anywhere else but Target, but this time we went to the mall. I didn't realize that they don't have kids' shoes at Macy's. They only offer kids' shoes online. We were at Macy's to get a gift card for her ex-swim coach's wedding, which was tonight. They had requested gift cards from Macy's as presents. We went all the way to the third floor to the children's section before we found out they didn't sell children's shoes.

On the way out of Macy's, we went by the Women's shoe section. I was glancing for something for me when I saw some Lucky Brand ballet type shoes. I've been looking for this soft type of shoe for Natalie. The ones I've seen at Target or Payless (which is where I've bought her shoes) are hard and they hurt her feet. I've looked for something similar for kids online too, but there really aren't that many varieties of kids' shoes even online. Natalie picked one up in a color she liked. They looked small enough but I thought that certainly they had to be too big for her. When she put the shoes next to her feet, they looked like they might fit, so I told her to try them on. I couldn't believe that they actually fit! I told her to walk around in them and she was able to walk normally. Whenever she put her other dress shoes on, she always walks funny, probably because they didn't feel comfortable. I felt where her toes ended, and sure enough, they were close enough to the end that I had to believe that they fit.

The sales lady that was helping us, scanned them for the price. Of course, the sale sign on the table ($39.99) didn't apply to these particular shoes. That also meant that my coupon, good only for sales or clearance items, wasn't going to be applicable to these shoes. I was taken aback a little by the price--$59.99. I barely spend that much on MY shoes. I was even more surprised when she told us that they were size 5 1/2! I wear size 5 1/2! I tried them on and they did seem a tad snug, so maybe they run small. I had Natalie put the sandals that I was wearing on and they were bigger on her than they were on me, so my feet are still bigger than hers--but not by much!

Still, I was happy to find shoes that she was comfortable in. She still has a little room to grow, so maybe we won't have to buy another dress shoe for a while. The sales lady was kind enough to give us the floor sample discount of 10% even though she said she was told she wasn't supposed to. I told her that at least that would soften the blow of finding out my daughter can fit into women's shoes, at least for this first time.

The wedding was at 7:30 and both the ceremony and the reception were held at the Grand Promenade Room of Pat O'Brien's. The bride was beautiful. We also saw Natalie's current swim coach and got a picture with her too. One of Natalie's swim buddies, Kate, was also there with her family and the two of them hung out together and had a blast. Kate's brother, Kate, and Natalie played Rock Paper Scissors and many other variations for most of the time. They were really enjoying themselves, even bouncing their hands to the beat of the music playing in the background. Natalie and Kate did some line dancing too, but I was amused to see Natalie step out to the side before the song was over. She looked at me and said, "It's too confusing." She had a hard time following everyone else, I guess. The two of them also ran to participate in the bouquet toss. It's interesting that all the single females, girls and women, usually run to participate in that, as do the boys, but the single men always hang back. In fact, one of the young boys caught the garter when all the men stepped aside.

We didn't get home until around 11pm. Natalie fell asleep in the van on the way home and went straight to bed. My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore.

Field Day

Today was Field Day at Natalie's school. I met Eric and Patrick there after my hair appointment. They were helping out at the Snow Cone station. For some odd reason, they had put the Snow Cone station outside next to the gym where there wasn't any shade. I asked Eric if he wanted to go sit on a bench under a tree. He told me that he had been using the shade under one of the tables. Sure enough, he went there after this conversation and I snapped this photo. Poor thing! Soon after this, we got some help and moved the Snow Cone station into some shade. I benefitted from this when I took over for Patrick for the next volunteer shift. We learned from last year that we shouldn't try to keep Eric with us the whole time we volunteer, so Patrick took him home after his shift was over.

I snapped this photo when we were in the shade. I love looking at that cute face. Notice his many tattoos? I've been indulging him with putting on as many Dinosaur Train and Cars tattoos as he wants and that will fit on his forearms.

He seems so serious, but really, he was in a good mood. Just before Patrick's shift, the two of them turned in the paperwork to officially register Eric in kindergarten. He was excited to be a "kindergartener"! He got a celebratory lunch at Sonic after that. :)

I didn't even see Natalie until the very end of my shift/end of school. She was soaking wet! We weren't supposed to give the kids more than one snow cone (to make sure everyone got at least one), but she grabbed the one I was eating and ran away with it. She came home on the bus with a huge shirt worn over her own shirt that she had borrowed from one of the teachers.

The kids only have two more days of school next week. We've got a busy weekend and week ahead.

My New Lens

I just got my Mother's Day present today--a new camera lens. Yay! Natalie was the closest one to me and she was a somewhat willing model. Even with the dim and less than ideal lighting, I love this photo because I love looking at her beautiful face. Her hair is wet on most nights since she swims at least five or six times a week and then takes a shower when she gets home.

Besides the swimming, Natalie has had a busy month or so. She has had several dentist and orthodontist visits concerning a back tooth (baby tooth) that was draining. Her orthodontist was concerned about the possibility of infection, but he didn't want to lose the tooth because it would change her bite. She went to two dentists, including a pediatric dentist, who both recommended pulling the tooth. Finally, they pulled the tooth, and then she had a couple of visits to the orthodontist for a new retainer since her old retainer wouldn't fit after the tooth was gone. She gets her new retainer on June 7th.

Today she was in a school play. The fourth graders do this play about the beginnings of Texas every year. When Alex was in fourth grade at this school, he played a conquistador, a fairly minor part. He just remembers hating the hat he had to wear. Natalie tried out for a meatier role that involved singing. She ended up with two parts that involved singing in the center of the stage and actually had to change costumes between them. The musical/play itself is an entertaining look at Texas history with a number of fun jokes and songs designed to help the children learn about Texas history whether they planned to or not. Patrick and Eric got to go watch the play and at home tonight, I heard Eric talking about the song Natalie had to sing. He seemed to really like the song. Natalie said that she sang it for him before the play.

Speaking of Natalie and Eric, they're both sleeping in Natalie's bed tonight. Eric had an accident in his bed early this morning and we hadn't made his bed back up again when it was bedtime. I asked him if he wanted to sleep in Natalie's room in the bottom bunk and he said, "Yes." When I asked Natalie, she said that he could sleep in her bed. He was all over that, of course. I wanted so badly to play with my new lens and take a picture of them, but alas, even with that lens, the room was way too dark. Oh well, I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow.

Kindness

Anthony's school promotes four "core values", which are Perseverence, Integrity, Commitment, and Kindness. There are 16 teachers in his magnet school. He also takes classes with the rest of the main high school. Each of his magnet school teachers can pick one student that demonstrates one of the core values for each quarter of the school year. Each student can only get one award per year. His freshman year, Anthony got the award for Integrity from Mr. G. Last year he got an award from Mrs. F for Commitment. Today he got an award from Mr. G again for Kindness. Mr. G is his AP Physics teacher and he clearly enjoys having Anthony as a student. As an aside, Mr. G has experience taking these pictures. He went outside to the hallway for pictures instead of the dimmer lighting and busy background in the classroom where the awards were given. He also made sure to turn Anthony's body towards his. I found it humorous that he was directing the photo in this way.

This awards ceremony was held at 7:45 this morning. Speaking of kindness, I was able to attend this due to the kindness of my colleagues, who covered for me, especially Heather. Thanks, Heather!

I took this second picture this afternoon when Anthony was reading a Thomas the Tank Engine book to Eric at Eric's request. Speaking of kindness again, Anthony has such a way with his baby brother. He had homework to finish, but Eric approached him with this huge book and without sounding perturbed or irritated in any way, he just started reading the book. Eric loved it, of course, and he was captivated. Anthony is such a sweet boy. I'm proud to be his mother. :)

Spring Recital 2012

Natalie's piano recital was today at 2:30pm. We were a little concerned yesterday because she was acting so tired in the morning (grouchy, quick to snap at Eric, etc.) and that was before a swim party and sleepover for her friend's birthday. She was not going to get less tired at a sleepover and she had this recital today. We decided in the end that she's worked so hard for everything (school, piano, swimming) that she deserved to go, so we let her. When Patrick picked her up this morning around 10am, she denied being tired, but she was uncharacteristically quiet and I could barely get her to interact with me (i.e., talk to me, hug me, etc.). I strongly suggested to her that she lie down to rest. She isn't a napper, so I didn't expect her to actually sleep, although I hoped she would. She at least seemed to be in better spirits after a short time in her bedroom.

She played the Star Wars Theme by John Williams and a piece titled "Folk Dance" by Bela Bartok. She told me after the recital that her piano teacher said that if she forgot some part of the second piece, she should skip to the end since she knew the end. She did just that. It wasn't super obvious, but the piece was a lot shorter than I remembered it to be. I already knew that she was having trouble remembering because I asked her to run through her pieces once this morning after she got home and she had a lot of trouble with the second piece. I couldn't do anything about it so what else could I do but tell her (after the recital) that I was still proud of her for getting up there and performing.

In case you're wondering--Anthony was eating a cupcake when I took this picture. Alex stayed home to play PS3, but Anthony decided on his own that he wanted to come and watch his sister play at her recital. He even dressed up for it. These two have an obvious love for each other when they interact. We took her to get frozen yogurt afterwards as a reward. She was eating her red velvet yogurt quickly, so he told her, "Don't eat so fast!" She replied, "Why not?" He just cracked up laughing. That was totally something he would have replied also. She laughed too as we all did. Outside after she finished (Anthony didn't have any), she was hugging him and telling him that she'll never be as big as he is. He was hugging her back and saying that she is "tiny". She says she doesn't want to grow up and he tells her that she can't. She also told him not to go off to college, but at the same time she knows he will. I love watching these two.

Eric came along also--his decision. We had to keep reminding him to be quiet and to not move his legs up and down rhythmically causing his shoes to make a slight noise. He was pretty well behaved for a five-year-old boy. He seemed to enjoy some of the music and he definitely enjoyed his yogurt with gummy bears.

Across the Pool

During Eric's swim lesson today, he swam all the way across the pool for the first time ever. That's 25 meters. He had to turn on his back and float for a little bit several times to rest, but he made it all the way without touching the wall or the lane guide or the bottom of the pool.  Awesome!

As a reward, Patrick bought him a Dinosaur Train coloring book (with included tattoos) when they went to the grocery store. I had to put a tattoo on him after his bath, of course. He is in this odd position because he has an old Cars tattoo on the other side of his left forearm and although he has no tattoos on his right forearm, he wanted that T-Rex right there on the same arm. He's been posing for me long enough to know that he has to have his face in the picture along with the tattoo. :)

Papa and Eric Time

Eric's last day of preschool was Friday, May 4th. He's been home with Papa since then. Patrick planned it this way so he could do some special things with Eric before the other ones are out of school. He also realizes that he won't be able to do these types of special things when Eric goes to Kindergarten full time starting in the fall. Last week was really gloomy and wet, so they did mostly indoor stuff:

Monday the 7th--Library then Eric played quietly and contentedly by himself in the gameroom

Tuesday the 8th--Dinosaur Quest

Wednesday the 9th--Eric's weekly swim lesson at Lifetime Fitness then Natalie went to the dentist to have her tooth pulled (so the activities are not always "fun" for Eric)

Thursday the 10th--Witte Museum

Friday the 11th--I was off from work so we did a variety of things I might detail later

The above picture is from the Witte Museum. I had to turn it black and white because of the funky color cast from the indoor lighting. Eric has been fascinated with dinosaurs lately, and he's learned quite a few facts and can say some pretty big words as a result of watching the show Dinosaur Train (like "omnivore" and "paleontologist"). They had to see the dinosaur bones at the Witte, of course. When they went to Dinosaur Quest, there were even lots of videos that Eric stayed still for, which is amazing for an active five-year-old.

This week hasn't been as exciting with another stay at home day yesterday and an orthodontist trip for Natalie today. The only down side has been that Eric doesn't automatically lay down for quiet time like he does at school. He also apparently gets up as soon as I leave (around 5:30am) to play in the gameroom so he isn't getting much sleep and getting cranky as a result. We'll see what happens in the next couple weeks before school ends. Patrick is going to really miss the little guy once school starts. We're going to savor this time with Eric as much as we can. He's growing up so fast.

Natalie's Mother's Day Gift

This is part of my other present for Mother's Day. Natalie loves the color red as I do, so that explains her wonderful choice of colors here. :) She couldn't wait until Sunday and presented me with this on Friday. For once I was happy with the picture they took. Often in the past, the photos seem rushed and the smiles seem forced on these projects.

I plan to display this on my desk at work next to the photo of her when she was almost four. She has obviously changed a lot since then. I get a little sentimental when I see her face and know that her face is maturing. My baby girl is growing up.

This is the paper that Natalie gave me along with the picture and frame. Click on it will enlarge the photo for a closer look at the content. She told me that her teacher had given them the option of typing this out, but she wrote it out by hand instead. She knew that I would prefer her handwriting so I could keep it and remember it. This is one of the scrapbooking "rules". ;) I guess I've trained her well, haven't I?

Happy Mother's Day 2012

Wow, I haven't gone this long without a blog post since I started this blog! Today is a good day to write a new entry. Today, of course, is Mother's Day. I worked last Saturday (May 5th), so I got this Friday (May 11th) off for a long weekend. I'll post about the other days another time.

We left the house about 8:30am so we could go to Magnolia Pancake Haus, a local breakfast/lunch place. Yes, the big boys actually consented to getting up early today. Magnolia Pancake Haus is always super crowded and they don't take reservations. We got there before 9am and had to get in line just to put our name on the list. The wait was quoted at 90-105 minutes. Luckily, we are able to leave our phone number so they can text us when our table is ready. That meant we could leave the premises and come back close to the quoted time. We went home.

I decided that this would be a good time to take a picture with my beautiful children. This photo is one of my two favorites. I wasn't as happy with the pictures as I was last year, but maybe that's because we were wearing more colorful clothing last year. I'm carrying Eric because I wanted to be able to crop in closer. The big boys are almost the same size now, but Natalie is getting taller too. I'm amazed at how she seems to be getting longer legs, like Anthony.

Natalie gave me my present on Friday. I didn't take a picture of it yet, but she wrote down some things and gave me a framed picture of herself. Anthony presented me with my present this morning. He had designed this website as part of a class assignment. I was so touched! I took screenshots of all of the different pages, but this one is on the home page. Hopefully, if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see a bigger picture and be able to read the sweet poem that Anthony wrote. He was the last child I saw this morning but the first one to greet me with a "Happy Mother's Day!" He is truly a blessing.

After the pictures, Anthony practiced driving with Patrick for about 30 minutes. When they got back, we left for Magnolia Pancake Haus and got there by about the 90 minute mark. They texted us at about the 100 minute mark.

Brunch was wonderful and filling. We all ate too much, although Alex complained that they didn't have fruit crepes, his favorite breakfast food. He had a bacon and cheddar omelet, just like his big brother and father, except he got chocolate chip pancakes as a side item with it. Anthony got bacon pancakes as a side item. Patrick and Natalie both got chocolate chip pancakes. Patrick's was also a side item. Natalie's was the "full" short stack and she could barely eat one half of one pancake. The regular pancakes are huge! I got the spinach and mushroom omelet with a side of blueberry pancakes, which Eric had requested. We have lots of leftovers we can eat for breakfast this week.

After brunch, we dropped off Patrick and Eric at home and the rest of us went to a 12:30pm showing of the movie The Avengers in 3D. We actually made it to the theatre by noon, but the boys wanted to be able to sit through all the previews. That also meant that we had lots of time for more pictures. I looked around for an Avengers poster and found this big stand-up ad. Today was the day they allowed me to take lots of pictures and I was happy that they obliged with this one.

After the movie we went to Brindles for ice cream. This has become a weekly trip for us lately. My excuse is that I want to keep them in business. We go there enough that one of the frequent employees there knew that Alex was going to ask for a Dreamsicle shake. Alex loves his routine--always has. I splurged on a chocolate cone for Natalie to have with her Red Velvet ice cream. Anthony also had Red Velvet and I had Creme Brulee, even though I shared a Creme Brulee with Eric when we were there on Friday. Yes, I definitely try to do my best to keep them in business.

I would have wanted all my children with me, but Eric showed that he was clearly too tired to be able to sit still through a 2 1/2 hour movie. Patrick volunteered to stay with him. They ended up going to the pool and Eric got lots of exercise swimming back and forth the width of the pool at least five times. He was so tuckered out that he fell asleep later during church. He didn't even want to meet us at Brindles for ice cream.

After church we picked up P.F.Chang's for dinner. I was happy eating at home with the family while watching a taped episode of The Finder. We're sad that this series has reportedly not been renewed for next season. We've actually been watching a lot of shows together as a family and it's tough to find the time to do that together sometimes, but I love it when we can do it.

I wanted to close with a bad iPhone photo of Natalie in the 3D glasses at the movie theatre. The glasses were obviously too big for her. She decided to wear them even after the movie and she was laughing because they had fallen while she was washing her hands in the bathroom. This is exactly what I look for on Mother's Day, spending time laughing and having fun with my children. I couldn't ask for any better Mother's Day present.

Blue Whale Project

Natalie has a big project due this Friday. Since I knew I would be helping her with it and that she has swimming every weeknight, we had to finish it by this past weekend. She had to make a diorama of her chosen animal--the blue whale. For those of you who know how much she loves sharks--yes, she did ask if she could do a shark but that was not one of the choices.

First she did some research on the computer. Alex was actually the one who helped her with that. He can be sweet to her sometimes. I tried to take a picture of the two of them huddled in front of the computer, but he saw me and started hiding. One of these days I'm going to catch them.

I wanted her to find pictures of the blue whale and other sea life so we could use those in the diorama. It was her idea to use the blue tissue paper. It's a good thing I keep all the tissue paper we receive with gifts! I think that part turned out pretty well. She cut out some of the sea life including the blue whale, but I ended up cutting out the rest. She said she needed "help" cutting out the small fish. Boy, that was tedious. I think she just didn't want to do it. She did the background gluing of the tissue paper to the shoe box and I glued the sea life onto the tissue paper.

I like to think that she really appreciated all the help she got and that she knows how lucky she is. With each project she learns a little more about how to do research on the computer and hopefully one of these days, we won't have to help her. I dislike doing school projects because I'm done with school and project make me feel like I'm in school again! I also motivated her a bit by saying that if she finished her project early, she could read the new Kane Chronicles book, The Serpent's Shadow, that just came out yesterday and arrived in the mail today. I always want to encourage early completion of school assignments. She was very happy when she got to read that book today and I was very happy I didn't have to add to our busy weekday schedule this week.

A Night at the Museum

Guest Blogger time. Taking over for a short post about the visit Natalie and I made to the Witte Museum last week. The GT (Gifted-Talented) program at Natalie's elementary school makes an overnight visit to the Witte Museum during the 4th grade year. The GT program is small enough that this year 3rd and 5th graders were invited too. This is a great, fun, educational program that involves walking through whichever special traveling exhibit the museum has going as well as other special group experiences. (Un)Fortunately, we couldn't stay overnight due to some early morning soccer games. Natalie would have loved the overnight stay, but the other group there was a group of cub scouts that was rather wild and unruly. I am certain not much sleeping would have happened. According to the schedule, we stayed for all of the major parts of the visit. I forgot the good camera so I had to settle for cell phone pictures.

We were split into two groups, the school children in one group and the cub scouts in the other and then began our journey. Our first stop was to the special exhibit, right now that exhibit is "Darwin: How One Man's Theory Turned the World on its Head" This is a fantastic exhibit that describes much of Darwin's journey, making it clear how much work and thought went into his research. It was interesting to see how the children could all find different parts of the exhibit that they were generally excited about and interested in. All of the children enjoyed the short video on natural selection, mostly due to the discussion of special poisonous salamanders and snakes resistant to the poison that like to eat them. Yes, they are children, poisonous salamanders are apparently very "cool." Natalie enjoyed most of the exhibit, even stopping to read or interact with different parts of it.

The next stop for our group was something that Alex did for his Witte Museum visit too, Tom, one of the museum staff that has been there for a long time, discussed natural selection with the children and showed them various animals. He talked about habitats, and how different animals fit into their habitat, and then, in a high point for the children, he brought out several animals for the children to touch. The animals included several snakes, a tortoise, a few rats, and a madagascar hissing cockroach. My lovely little girl was happy to touch or pet ALL of them. Including the rats and cockroach that sent several parents running. It is probably a good thing Melanie wasn't there, possibly even a good thing I only have these poor quality cell phone photos.
Natalie told me a story about a parent we know and how this parent scared a teacher at her school with a hissing cockroach during a science class a few weeks before. Clearly, all of the children thought the story was hilarious. I think the teacher in question might not be so impressed. It was wonderful to see how curious and involved Natalie can be, and how she hasn't developed the fear of snakes, rats, and creepy-crawlies that most people have by the time they are adults.

The final part of our visit was a larger group exercise to teach about habitats and animals and how they are involved. Both groups were mixed up and then the staff member picked various children to be deer, water, food, and trees (environment). The deer then had to tag one each of the water, food, and trees to "survive." Water and food could only be tagged once, then they had to sit down. If the deer couldn't tag food and water in the right amount of time they would "starve." It was a very nice, fun exercise that made it very clear to the children that there has to be a balance between food, water, and the population of the animals in the area. It also had the kids running around a bit before it was time to settle down for movies and bedtime. It was also impossible to get pictures due the room being a bit dark and the children running all over the place. Natalie and I left before the movies (it was already 10:30PM) and headed home to get ready for a weekend of soccer games.

Baseball Farewell

We had a work-related function tonight. Several people are leaving work in the next couple of months and we bought group tickets to the local minor league baseball game. There was also a "picnic" included with hotdogs and hamburgers, sodas and ice cream, etc. I say "picnic" because it was held in a covered area to one side of the field inside the stadium. There were picnic tables and a concession stand where they served the drinks.

Just to show what an airhead I can be, I gave the organizer my check on Tuesday. This morning Patrick asked me where the tickets were, and I said, "What tickets?" So I called the organizer and he said that he had all of the tickets (except for the people who had already picked theirs up), so we met him before the game at the first base gate. We got there super early to meet him (about 5:30) and they wouldn't let us in the gate until 6pm. In the meantime we sat in the shade. Eric decided to lie down on Patrick's lap. I had also given him his sunglasses to keep the sun out of his eyes. He also thinks it looks cool. :)

Alex really didn't want to go, but we wanted the whole family to go. He seems to prefer being at home or doing anything else besides hanging out with his family. He could have really put his foot down like he has done at other times, but I was glad he didn't this time. I like to think he had a good time in the end. He enjoyed having unlimited refills on the orange soda during the picnic. During the game he got to have nachos (one of his favorites and mine too). As we were leaving the game (after the fourth inning), he got to have a churro. Yes, I bribed him with food, just like I've always done since I had to keep him occupied during swim meets when he was two years old.

I took this picture during the game. Natalie was actually paying attention and trying to learn some of the rules. She played some T-ball a few years ago, but obviously she never paid attention to the rules. I look at this picture and I'm reminded that her face is changing, as is the rest of her body. I told her not to grow up too fast. She says she doesn't want to.

We had some good conversations during the game, not about baseball, of course. The kids were laughing at some of the players' first names. One of them was named "Jedd" with an unusual last name. They couldn't understand why his parents would have named him an unusual first name when he already had an unusual last name. I think they thought that was a mean thing to do.

Another was named "Jaff". I said, "Maybe Jaff is a nickname." Anthony responded, "Short for what? Jaffigan?" Later he said, "Hey, maybe it's short for 'Jaffar'!" We had a few laughs. It was nice weather. It was nice company. We had a nice time. I thanked Alex for going with us even though he didn't want to. He seemed to understand how important this was to me. At least he still cares about how I feel. What a sweet boy.

Fiesta Parade

Just a quick post tonight. This is a picture of Eric at his Fiesta Parade at school this morning. Fiesta is a two-week party here in town. We don't usually participate because Patrick hates crowds and we're usually pretty overbooked in activities as it is. The young kids almost always make shoebox floats in school and have a parade around this time, though. They love that stuff.

Right now Natalie and Patrick are at the Witte Museum here in town for some nighttime activities with Natalie's GT class (Gifted and Talented). They had the option of staying overnight, but with two soccer games tomorrow and a nighttime activity planned tomorrow night, Natalie needs her sleep. I'll hopefully get a few pictures from Patrick and post a little about it tomorrow.

They had to be there by 7:30pm and Anthony had an after school bible study group at school until 5:30, so I picked him up and we met the rest of the family at the local Olive Garden. I wanted to at least have a family dinner before we went our separate ways. What's interesting about going to the Olive Garden is that I've ordered takeout at this particular location for the last ten years (since it's close to work) but I've never actually eaten there until tonight. I haven't even eaten at any other Olive Gardens in that time either. We'll have to change that in the future.

Tight Scheduling

This is a picture of Natalie swimming at Lifetime Fitness where she is on the swim team. Notice my shoes in the photo, which I included on purpose. I'm able to relax for a few minutes after my workout and before we go home and I've been enjoying that since the weather has been nice lately. This month she started swimming there four nights a week, Mondays through Thursdays. We're okay usually okay on Wednesdays, because we don't have anything else scheduled, but our scheduling is a little tight on the other three days. On Mondays Patrick has pick her up at school (3pm-ish) to take her to her piano lesson (3:30 to 4:15), then he comes straight home so she can quickly change and eat dinner. I usually get home with Anthony at about 4:30 and hurriedly eat and get dressed so I can leave at 5pm to take her to swim practice (5:30-6:30).

On Tuesdays and Thursday, we do everything above except for the piano lessons, but Patrick usually has to head out around 4pm to pick up Alex for the carpool. Natalie usually stays home so she can do homework, practice piano, and eat dinner. After swim practice, she takes a "quick rinse off shower". I put that in quotes because she is not quick. She can take 10 minutes or more to "rinse off" if I don't get after her to hurry up. Once when I was working late, Patrick and Eric were both able to finish their showers and get dressed before she finished.

We have to rush home after that so we can get home by 7 to 7:15 so that someone will be home to watch Eric because Patrick has to bring Alex to soccer practice and then pick up Anthony from soccer practice. He leaves the house around 5:30, goes back and forth to the two soccer fields, and doesn't get home until around 9:15. Alex doesn't go to bed on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 10pm. He doesn't take quick showers either. Sometimes Natalie and Alex are more alike than they will admit.

It's felt busier this week. I had to work late on Wednesday plus Anthony stayed after school a couple of days to work on a project. I feel like I haven't seen this little guy very much. We have this new "game" this week. Eric puffs out his cheeks, then I flatten his cheeks with either my finger on one or both sides or the palm of my hands. He lets out the air and starts joyfully giggling. I love making him laugh. I probably shouldn't have done this right before bedtime, but he was so playful that I couldn't resist.

The van reached 100,000 miles this week after less than 5 years. We bought the van right after Eric was born. Patrick has done a lot of driving and shuttling kids around in that van. He is currently teaching Anthony how to drive in that van. I hope it holds up a little longer. We don't have time to get another one.

Life Is Good...For Natalie

I still have some Easter photos to share, but I'll hold off posting those for the moment so I can post these. I told Natalie several times today about how I was spoiling her and how life is good for her today, so I want to describe here what I mean.

I didn't take a picture of the first two things. First of all, she put some books on hold at the local public library. She's been fascinated with the "Warriors" series by Erin Hunter recently and she's on the last group of books named "Omen of the Stars". She borrowed the first book already and finished it, but then she got a notice that the next four books were waiting for her at the library. Of course she begged and begged for me to take her to the library. She had to wait.

I was post-call today, so I napped this morning after making pound cake waffles for breakfast, then I went to Alex's soccer game. Alex scored his team's only goal to tie 1-1, despite injuring the other side of his back. He's been suffering from some sort of muscle pull for the last few weeks. Today he said it wasn't hurting, but he did feel stiff. His coach decided that leaving him in the game was the best thing for his back to get even stiffer, and his team was rewarded by his goal. Go Alex! Sorry for getting off topic!

After we got back, I decided to go ahead and take Natalie to the library. Eric wanted to tag along too. That was the quickest library trip ever. Natalie returned some books for herself and for Patrick then checked out the books on hold for her. Eric and I grabbed the first three children's books with "dinosaur" in the title that we could find. That was it. Natalie was happy about getting four more books to read.

When we got home, she changed into a dress and we headed off to her Achievement Auditions. We left Eric at home watching "Dinosaur Train" on the iPad and Alex playing on the PS3--what a surprise. Before we went the UTSA for the Achievement Auditions, however, I stopped by Starbucks to get her a snack. She wanted a strawberry smoothie and an old-fashioned donut--her usual order there. Let me add that yesterday I took her to the doctor for a follow-up visit (dermatologist) and I got her a strawberry smoothie on the way back to school. I didn't get her the donut then because she was going to be in recess and then lunch soon after her return. Today I totally spoiled her by getting her both and she knew it. That girl is almost as addicted to Starbuck as I am!

When we got to UTSA, we registered then quickly found her room. Her teacher happened to be helping out in the room she would be playing in, so it was nice that she got to see him and get some words of encouragement beforehand. She also had a chance to "warm up" first. She wisely only played her two pieces one time each because she didn't want to get too nervous. I was just outside the door and I winced when I heard her miss a couple of notes that she never misses in practice along with a phrase at the end of one piece that she has always had trouble in (but that she's worked on quite a bit). She was definitely nervous but she handles her nervousness with smiles. She came out of the room smiling, admitting to making a couple of mistakes but she was upbeat and not upset. This picture is when she received her judge's comments. She got a Superior Plus and I can't remember right now what the highest category is. There may be one or two other higher categories, but she definitely did well. I'll type out the comments below as is directly from the paper (note that I erased her full name from the paper):

Cossack Ride--great energy with dynamics, accents, and tempo. The contrasting quite section could be even softer. Very strong performance overall.

Star Wars--Don't start till you're ready! God job counting, and good handling of the LH chords. excellent dynamic and rhythmic energy.

Gymboree has a new boys' line that is called "Shark Alert", which peaked my shark-crazy girl's interest, so we headed there next so I could use my Gymbucks. She liked three of the shirts the best, the orange one in this picture as well as the "Shark Zone" and "Beast of the Deep" one. We bought the other two for Eric who I think likes sharks because his sister likes sharks. We didn't try to make them match this time. I also convinced her to get some denim shorts (so I could use both of my Gymbucks) even though it had a girly braided belt that she didn't want to wear. I cut off the belt as soon as we got home. She had wanted a pieced boys' short with sharks on it, but that's where I drew the line. I refuse to buy her boys' shorts. I'm fine with the shark shirts but I still want her to look somewhat like a girl. She was happy enough to get these shirts.

So life is good for Natalie today. She agreed with me and thanked me. I'm going to milk this gratitude as much as I can. :)

Cascarones 2012

We've had a tradition the last few years of using cascarones to have a little fun on Easter. Cascarones are confetti-filled eggs that we have fun breaking over each others' heads. I usually try to stay out of the fray with my camera, but inevitably, one of the kids (this time it was my brother-in-law John) breaks one over my head anyway.

This is the pre-event photo. Despite the mixed lighting, I love it because of all of the different facial expressions. They were all raring to go.

This photo was probably the best one for capturing the chaos when they first started running around. They were so excited that they may have used a little too much force in breaking those eggs over their loved ones' heads. Aly was almost in tears when Nick broke one over her head. He said he didn't hit her that hard, and I'm sure he didn't think he did. Maybe the excitement got the best of him or maybe she was a little tired and couldn't tolerate it.

Natalie and Anthony almost got into their own little fight. Here you can see Anthony trying to take Natalie's cascarone. She ended up hitting him for that, and he didn't even actually take it. He just pretended to. Recently, for an assignment at school, Natalie wrote about how Anthony was her favorite person--not me or her Papa, but Anthony. We thought that maybe she was too tired from her sleepover and overreacted, hitting her favorite person. We'll have to see if we keep doing this year after year. After all, the kids are only going to keep getting bigger and stronger.

There was also something about fathers hitting their sons. Here Patrick got Anthony. Anthony got him back, of course. I remember one year when Anthony got Patrick and then took off running at top speed. Patrick took off after him but Anthony's long legs and speed were no match. This time also, the yard was too small to allow for any sprinting.

John and Nick were at each other too. There's this picture and then I have some other ones showing John chasing down Nick and grabbing him by the shirt to slow him down and then to take him down so he could break the cascarone over his head.


Here is Anthony being the good big brother that he is and allowing Eric the opportunity to crack the cascarone over someone's head. Poor Eric. One of these days he'll be tall enough to reach without having to have the other person bend over so much. He was being a neat little boy, though. He helped Uncle John clean up some of the biggest egg shells from the yard.

Notice that Alex isn't in any of these pictures. He didn't even come outside to watch. I tried to talk to him and even John tried to talk to him to convince him to at least come downstairs. He stayed upstairs to play on his iPod Touch. He's changing so much. Maybe I shouldn't worry, but I do.

Egg Hunt

I still haven't shared photos from our Easter Weekend in Houston. I had Good Friday off, so we left after lunch. We went directly to Lolo and Lola's house and my sisters met us there. Patrick and I were starving since we had fasted for Good Friday. My mom had three kinds of fish, Mac and cheese, a shrimp and noodles dish, Hot and Sour soup, and mangoes for all. That's not counting the treats she had for dessert. Love you, Mom!

This blurry photo is an iPhone photo (thanks Cynthia!) of our girls watching TV and Eric taking advantage of the attention from the girls. That evening, the boys went home with Cynthia. The girls went home with Melissa. We let Eric decide where he wanted to stay and he chose to stay with the girls.

On Saturday, we all met at Cynthia's house. When Melissa got there, we started stuffing eggs with candy and money until we ran out of candy. We actually had more bags that we didn't open, but after 119 eggs, 17 per child, we decided that was enough. The girls hid the eggs for the boys first. It didn't take the boys long to find all of them, although I think we were missing one (that they found later). Eric needed a little help from the girls to find his allotment of 17 eggs. As soon as he was done finding his eggs, Eric sat down to investigate their contents. At first he wasn't interested in the money, in fact he expressed an interest in trading for candy. The other kids were disappointed later when he changed his mind.

Next, the boys hid eggs for the girls. They decided to each concentrate in one spot to frustrate the girls who would be looking all over the yard. My sisters and I just wanted all of the eggs to be found quickly so that the candy would not melt.

Cynthia caught this picture of Anthony hiding 16 of 17 eggs all in plain sight. He said he purposely only put 16 there to frustrate the girls, who would each be looking for 17 eggs. Alex also hid a couple in plain sight in a different area of the yard.

The girls were looking for the hidden eggs, not the obvious ones. They also didn't look up--the obvious eggs were higher than their eye level. Then, Emily was the first one to see Anthony's eggs from across the yard. We just heard someone running quickly by us (the photographers--two video cameras and one regular one). As soon as the other two girls saw Emily run in that direction, they started running too. I love this photos because you can sort of see the big smile on Aly's face as the three of them compete for those 16 eggs. Anthony is so sneaky, isn't he? Emily was also the one who found Alex's two eggs that he had "hidden" on the fence in another part of the yard.

Tomorrow I'll try to post about the kids' Easter baskets and our cascarones battle.

Happy 5th Birthday, Eric!

My baby is five years old today! All I have right now are these iPhone photos, but I know they'll tell a good story. Patrick brought cupcakes to Eric's school today, and the kids had them with lunch. That's what Eric wanted, and that's what he got. Here he is saying, "My mouth is blue!" Some of the kids had the cupcakes with yellow icing and asked their teacher if their mouths were yellow. The effect wasn't quite the same. Surprisingly, Eric asked to go home and play after lunch instead of staying at school, so Patrick brought him home. He asked Eric if he wanted to go to the park or anywhere else, but all he wanted to do was play at home with cars and dinosaurs.

Eric got to watch his current favorite show, Dinosaur Train on Patrick's phone while he was at Natalie's piano lesson with Patrick and Natalie. That part is fairly routine.

After everyone got home, we decided to go ahead and open presents before going to dinner (from Grandma and Grandpa and from us), then we went to Chili's, Eric's choice for his birthday dinner. We had also invited Anthony's friend Alejandro, affectionately called "Eric's other brother". The wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to Eric and presented him with a warm brownie and vanilla ice cream. He really seemed to enjoy the attention. Can you see that little smile on his face that he seems to be trying to hide? He refused to eat the brownie, however, which was fine. He did manage to get a little of the ice cream before his brothers (all three of them) finished it.

Eric's choice for dessert was Brindles, of course. He had his favorite, mango ice cream. This isn't the greatest picture, but here he is sitting in between Alejandro and Anthony. He usually sits at one of the tables and they really had to convince him to sit in between them. Eric kept saying that there wasn't much room and that he didn't want to be "squished". Alejandro pushed Anthony over some more and finally, with Alex's help in moving, Eric sat on the sofa.

What a lucky boy! When we were in Houston for this past weekend, we also celebrated his birthday there with my family. I'll have to share some more pictures later this week.

iPad Extreme

I've shared pictures of Eric playing on the iPad since he was two, which is when we first got it. He's always been a bit iPad crazy, but it's been almost an obsession lately. The biggest reason is that he has started watching a show called Dinosaur Train, which is on both Hulu Plus and Netflix, two online streaming services we currently subscribe to. He wants to watch that show ALL THE TIME. Usually we find him underneath the train table in the game room. In this picture he is actually laying on the living room sofa. His body position is the same, however.

Yesterday he took this obsession to the extreme. Patrick left Eric home with Alex so he could take Anthony to club soccer practice. I had already left to take Natalie to her swim team practice. Eric was watching Dinosaur Train on the iPad, of course. Alex, such an attentive baby-sitter, fell asleep. Apparently, Eric was so busy watching that he didn't want to stop to go to the bathroom. Yes, that's right. He peed in his pants. Sigh.

Of course when Patrick came home, he found this mess, cleaned it, and gave Eric a bath. That must have been a lot of fun. So, this means that Eric is not allowed on the iPad for a while. We'll see how it goes. It'll be difficult to keep him off the iPad on the car trip to Houston.