Anniversary Celebration

Patrick and I planned a small little trip for our anniversary. I have Thursday and Friday off this week, and we made reservations at the Hilton Palacio del Rio, a hotel on the Riverwalk. We've always thought it would be fun to stay on the Riverwalk and have the opportunity to walk around and explore, enjoy the restaurants and sights, etc. We didn't realize that the San Antonio Spurs would win the NBA Finals and schedule their River Parade Celebration on the same day we would be going on our little trip.

I took this picture when we were in the van on the way to the hotel. That's the hotel in front of us. To control the traffic, the police closed off the street on the way to the hotel--see the orange cones? So, instead of being able to head straight to our destination, it took us another 45 minutes or so to go around several blocks to get to the hotel from the other direction. Several streets were closed, and of course there were lots of cars and even more people walking everywhere.

This isn't the greatest photo, but I had to show how packed the Riverwalk was for the celebratory River Parade. I took this from our hotel balcony with a zoom lens plus I cropped the image to focus on all the people. Patrick was a little horrified that there were even some people putting their feet into the nasty water.

We made dinner reservations for Boudro's Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk for 7:30pm. The parade started at 6pm and ended around 7pm. Instead of walking along the Riverwalk to the restaurant, we walked on the street instead. It would have taken forever if we had to fight those crowds.

On the plus side, we inadvertently got to be there for the River Parade. This is probably the best photo of the 50+ photos I took of the parade. We were on the ninth floor, so it was tough to see who was on each float, but there was no way we wanted to be down there with that sea of humanity. There were something like 24 floats or so, and I snapped away with my camera hoping to get some good photos whenever one of the floats got near.

We only recognized this float because the Spurs logo on the front was covered up by the Argentinian flag--Manu Ginobili's home country, of course. We also got clued in to a couple of the floats, the one with Tim Duncan and the one with Kawhi Leonard, because of all of the cheering from the crowds below. The one with Kawhi Leonard was greeted with coordinated shouts of "M-V-P!" Tim Duncan's float was next to the last one. I also got a blurry photo of Tony Parker.

So, despite the hassle we went through to get to the hotel, the parade added a special touch to our anniversary trip. After all, we can always say that all of those people were there to help us celebrate our anniversary.

Swim Team Party and Team Photos

I've been the photographer for the neighborhood swim team photo in the past, so I decided that I wasn't going to volunteer this year. I did, however, take this photo of the other parents getting their own photos while the "official" photographer took her photo of the team. I thought it was hilarious that there were so many people taking pictures. It's not like they won't get a free copy, but people just like to get their own photos.

For the first time this year, they not only took a team photo, they also took a team photo with the parents included, and photos of the kids grouped into different age groups. That's partly why I didn't want to volunteer to take the "official" photo--because I didn't want to have to take all of the extra photos.

They offered hot dogs as well as pizza at the team party this year. They also usually get rid of some of their extra stuff that people donated for the concession stand--drinks and ring pops included. Natalie got one of the ring pops and I was able to catch this photo of her. She was looking through the ribbons she and Eric had received for the first three swim meets this summer.

Poor Natalie. She was so happy that she has been able to swim, but she was having some back pain again since last week. There was a chance that she wasn't going to swim at the meet last weekend, but she said that her back was feeling okay, so we let her swim. When she went to her physical therapy appointment yesterday, the physical therapist noticed that her core strength had decreased. When she and Patrick gave Natalie the third degree, Natalie admitted that she did indeed have back pain even during the swim meet last weekend. Poor Natalie--she wanted to swim so badly that she didn't tell us how she was really feeling.  That's how her back pain got so bad the last time. Patrick had another talk with her about how we wanted her to look at long term gain. She may not get to swim now, but then she won't aggravate her back and she'll be able to swim pain-free in the future. So, Patrick told her coach that she won't be swimming in next weekend's swim meet. She can still go to cheer for her team and teammates, but she won't be swimming. Maybe this way she'll be pain-free again for the Championship Meet the following weekend.

Smash Up

When he got home from college, Anthony was excited about a board game called Smash Up. According to Amazon.com, it's "The Shufflebuilding Game Of Total Awesomeness!" We bought the original game plus all three available expansion packs almost three weeks ago, and the kids (and Patrick have played it almost every day. It's cool that my kids, ages 7 to 18, can play it and have fun together. This is a picture of them playing last night while watching the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game. I have yet to play Smash Up (I'm the only one), but I should start participating--maybe this weekend.

Speaking of having fun together, Anthony was off from work yesterday, and he took Natalie to lunch at Whataburger, and then to see the movie "The Fault In Our Stars" at the Rialto Theater where he works. He's been taking advantage of being able to see movies for free, and it was sweet that he took his little sister to a movie. She says she cried, just like she did when she read the book, but Anthony says he didn't cry. I'm going to miss that boy when he goes back to college.

Hunter's Creek Swim Meet

Another Saturday in June means another neighborhood swim meet. This one was at our home pool, which we love because it takes us that much less time to get to and from the meet. The downside is that there is limited parking, so they ask that we leave our cars at home and walk to the pool. Patrick is super nice to us and drops us off then walks back by himself. This week he even got me my favorite Starbucks drink and dropped it off before going home to park.

This is Eric with his friend Sofia. Sofia's mom Alicia remarked that they were both in the same events, so I took a picture of both of them showing the numbers written on their arms. Sofia was in events #1 (100 Freestyle Relay), 13 (25 Free), 25 (25 Back), 53 (25 Fly), and 63 (100 Medley Relay doing Fly). Eric was in events #2, 14, 26, 54, and 64. It usually helps me a lot that Sofia goes first, because when I see her line up for her race, I know that Eric needs to be there too.

In case you didn't notice, Eric was on the schedule to swim the butterfly for the first time in a swim meet. Patrick and I have seen him swim the butterfly in practice. Patrick, of course, knows more about the particulars of each stroke, but it's pretty obvious even to me that Eric cannot swim the butterfly legally. Patrick did his best to give Eric a few tips, but Eric pretty much ignored him. He's just his "Papa" and not his coach, after all. Unfortunately, Eric was swimming butterfly in an individual event as well as butterfly in the Medley Relay. He got disqualified in both. Luckily, he did not take it as hard as Natalie did the first time she was disqualified. Hopefully he will either listen to Patrick before next week, or his coach will give him the same pointers.

Natalie actually posed for a picture for me--yay! She was with her friend Anna, whose father was pressuring the both of them (with me) to have their picture taken together. Natalie was in the same events as Eric, except for her age group, and the same events she has been swimming in this swim season. Her back was doing okay during this meet, so she got to swim everything she was scheduled for.

She again got a first place in every event except for the 25 Free, where she again got second place after her teammate Riley. I'll describe the particulars at the very end of this post.

This meet was unique, however, because about a half hour before the meet started, the skies opened up and it started pouring. Honestly, I wasn't concerned about getting wet myself. It was already so hot and humid that the rain really helped cool things down. I was carrying my camera on my, however, and I was very afraid of it getting wet. Luckily I was under cover already, and I stayed there.

Notice how serene Eric looks in this photo, as if he is just taking it all in. He is clutching his Pokemon book (a different one from last week) to keep it from getting wet. Notice the puddles of water in the chairs behind him. We didn't sit very much after the rain because our chairs were all soaked. Notice the two girls running in the background. Interestingly, several of the kids were saying that they didn't want to get wet--even though they were all wearing swimsuits and they had already been in the pool for warmups! Thankfully, the rain did not return, and there was never any lightning or thunder, so the meet went on as scheduled.

This is Eric with his friend Cameron. Aren't they adorable? It's great that he has friends to pal around with during these meets, because I haven't heard him say that he didn't want to go to any meets since that week before the first meet of this swim season.

We have one more neighborhood swim meet next Saturday, and then the Championship Meet the Sunday after that. Then maybe we can have a little more free time.

The rest of this is boring stats, but I need to record this for my information.

Eric's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free (32.47)/ 36.34 (11th out of 11)
#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back (38.12)/ 39.82 (6th out of 9)
#54 Boys 7-8 25 Fly (NT)/ DQ
#64 Boys 8 and under 100 Medley Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (NT)/ DQ
#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 3 (2:07.83)/ 2:19.38 (3rd out of 5)

Natalie's results are as follows (seed times)/finish times (place):

#17 Girls 11-12 25 Free (13.32)/ 16.06 (2nd out of 13)
#29 Girls 11-12 25 Back (17.97)/ 18.16 (1st out of 12)
#57 Girls 11-12 25 Fly (17.59)/ 17.22 (1st out of 10)
#67 Girls 11-12 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 (1:15.07)/ 1:19.18 (1st out of 4)
#5 Girls 11-12 100 Free Relay - 'A' Leg 4 (1:03.33)/ 1:09.47 (1st out of 4)

First Week Out of School

This has been the first full week that the kids have been out of school. Eric has been doing a lot of what he's doing in this picture--playing video games and watching Pokemon videos on the iPad. He gets more electronics time because he has more time, but also because he swims almost daily. We tend to be a little busier in June that during the school year because of the daily swim practices.

There are morning and evening swim practices for our neighborhood swim team. Eric decided to take a break on Thursday, but he went to practice on the other four days. He usually likes to go in the morning (10-11am), but on Fridays like today, he likes to go to the evening practice (6-7pm) because they have snacks after the Friday evening practice.

Natalie has morning club swim practices on Mondays and Wednesdays (8:30-10am) and the nightly practices Monday through Friday (5:30-7:30pm). She's only been going to no more than 45 minutes of practice because of doctor's orders to increase the time slowly. She has been feeling "crampy" this week because of that time of the month, so she went to morning practice for club swim and the neighborhood team on Monday, but then on Tuesday night her back started to bother her, so she has been skipping the morning practices. On Wednesday, she could only swim 250 meters before her back really bothered her. Yesterday she woke up with her back hurting, so she has not been swimming since then. She says she feels better today, so she thinks (and we hope) that she will do okay during the neighborhood swim meet tomorrow morning. It's going to be a long recovery.

I took this picture shortly after I took the first one above. This is what Eric does when you tell him to get off the electronics and go to bed. He does something similar when you tell him to take a break, but he is doing better with that after our little chat. I told him that the more he complains about having to take a break, the less likely he will get to play with electronics again. Also notice the Minion pajamas. We have to practically tear those off his body--he loves them so much.

As for Anthony, he has been working almost daily. Sometimes he works during the day, like 10-2. Sometimes he works late, like tonight he is working from 2-10. He has had to clean up after people in the theaters and he made a comment about how annoying people are who make a mess just because they know someone else is going to clean up after them. The rest of the time he helps us by driving Alex around, or most likely, he sits in his chair in the living room on his computer. He did also tell us about a board game called Smash-Up. The kids have all been playing that game together and having fun. It never gets old seeing them playing with each other and getting along.

As for Alex, since school ended last Thursday, he has had friends over to sleep over or he has slept over at their houses five nights. Patrick worries about his not sleeping. Both of us just don't like when he doesn't keep up with chores or he doesn't clean up after his friends.

Besides all of the above activities, the NBA Finals have been keeping us up. Go Spurs Go! The World Cup has started also, and Patrick and Alex have been watching daily.

I've had a busy week at work. Besides my usual duties, I have had more requirements to do this week that are related to my new position as a government employee. Everything has been completed during the course of a normal day, but these things are just more to keep up with.

Today when I was about to get on base to go to work this morning, there were a lot of news vans in this small parking lot just outside of the base. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who was captured by the Taliban, and who was released in exchange for five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was reportedly transferred to the hospital that I work, for further recovery and treatment. The news vans were all set to report about the event. I was worried that they would re-institute the 100% security check that they did the last time we had a high-profile patient, but everything was normal today. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks or so.

Tomorrow we have another swim meet. We'll see how that goes.

Inwood Swim Meet

Poor Eric only has three races at these swim meets, and he was done by 10:30am. Usually I let him play on the iPad, but this time, he wanted to bring one of his beloved Pokemon books. Notice also that he wanted to use his brand-new Minion towel that we picked up at WalMart a couple of days ago. This boy has many interests.

Today was the second of four dual meets this summer. Natalie got her love of swimming from these neighborhood swim meets, so they hold a special place in our hearts. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as hot and humid as last weekend, because the weather does NOT hold a special place in our hearts. Also, we finished up about an hour earlier than last week's marathon.

This is one of the few photos I got of Natalie. Invariably, when she sees me pointing my camera at her, she covers her face with her hands. Of course here she is copying her grandparents and looking away from the camera at the last second. She's grown up with these girls, though, and bonded with them through swimming, so I have to do what I have to.

Eric's events/(seed times)/ results(places) are as follows:
#14 Boys 7-8 25 Free --(45.23 )--32.47 seconds (9th out of 10) 

#26 Boys 7-8 25 Back--(46.02)--38.12 seconds (8th out of 10) 

#2 Boys 8 and under 100 Free Relay - 'B' Leg 4 --(2:55.48)--2:33.64 (3rd out of 3)

Note that I'm not sure where they got the seed times from, because they are different from the seed times and actual swim times from last week. Eric dropped over another eight seconds from his 25 Free from last week, when he had dropped seven seconds from last year. He dropped another three seconds from his 25 Back from last week, when he had dropped seven seconds from last year. Eric swam the third leg of the freestyle relay this time, and his team consisted of two boys who were 6 years old. He's getting better and better! Now, if he would allow his papa to teach him how to swim the breaststroke and butterfly legally--then we'd be golden.

Yes, this is what I get when I try to get pictures of Natalie. At least her fingernails are clean, even if they're a little long.

Natalie's events/(seed times)/ results(places) are as follows: 

#17 Girls 11-12 25 Free--(13.32 )--15.85 seconds (2) 

#29 Girls 11-12 25 Back--(20.15)--17.97 seconds (1) 

#57 Girls 11-12 25 Fly--(17.85)--17.59 seconds (1) 

#67 Girls 11-12 100 Medley Relay - 'A' Leg 1 --(1:16.01)--1:21.28 (1) 

#5 Girls 11-12 100 Free Relay - 'A' Leg 4 --(1:04.94)--1:06.81 (1)

Natalie again lost to Riley by about 0.3 seconds in the 25 Free, the same girl she lost to last week. She won by three seconds in the 25 Back. Backstroke isn't her favorite stroke, but she certainly seems to be good at it. She won by almost a second in the 25 Fly this week, in contrast to last week when she just out-touched Riley. Natalie did the fly in the Medley relay this week, instead of backstroke that she did last week. She was originally scheduled to swim the freestyle anchor leg, and her friend Anna was scheduled to swim the butterfly. Anna's mom (Alicia) and I were laughing at them complaining, so I suggested to them that they ask their coach about it. Coach Jesse surprisingly told them to switch if they wanted to, as long as they got in the right place at the right time. They were happier, and Alicia and I didn't have to hear about it anymore.

This is the sort of picture I get when I point my camera at Eric. Even after he got tired of reading his Pokemon book, he got up and started playing. We don't necessarily want our kids to be competitive swimmers, we just want them to exercise and be comfortable in the water. It's especially nice when they're having fun despite the long waits during a swim meet. Next Saturday--another weekend, another swim meet.

School's Out!

I haven't felt like doing a lot of blogging in the last few months, so those of you that read my blog regularly may notice some posts popping up with earlier dates that you didn't notice before. I have to catch up on my old photos and stories for the blog book I'm eventually going to make.

Yesterday was the last day of school. Eric came home with this paper the day before yesterday. On the left (complete with misspellings and lower case letters starting some sentences), it says, "I'm exited that there'll be no school. I'll get to play all day! Sometimes I'll play on my ipad. I like to watch Pokemon." On the right it says, "I'm also exited to play with my biggest brother anthony. he's very funny. he's also a very good brother."

I thought it was interesting that he called my iPad HIS iPad. We had a conversation a couple of weeks ago about how both of our iPads are MY iPads. He said something like, "Well, but I use it the most." I replied with, "But it's still MY iPad." It's true that he uses it the most and in fact, I barely use either iPad at all, but I still need to be able to control his time on them.

I took this picture last weekend, when Alex covered Eric with pillows as Eric was watching Pokemon on the iPad. When he got up this morning, he came to my room and asked to use the iPad. He was very reluctant to get off the iPad last night at 9pm when I sent him to bed--after all, there's no more school, right? I told him that he could play on it this morning when he got up. He knocked on my door at about 6:45am. He was in a similar position to the one in this picture except sprawled out on my bed. Now he moved to the comfy chair in my bedroom.

This is Anthony in the chair he has been sitting in almost continuously since he came home almost a month ago. I came home from work many times and found Eric watching with him on his computer. Apparently the current favorite is "Adventure Time". Anthony also Skypes almost nightly with his friend Julia, for hours at a time. We haven't put any labels on that relationship, because he doesn't know the exact status, but you can make your own conclusions.

He has seen a few friends, especially Alejandro and Jake. He has been really useful driving Alex around. Yesterday they went by the grocery store to pick up snacks on the way home from Alex's school. They spent $70 in mostly snacks. I was happy that he did pick up pizza rolls that we ate for dinner.

He has looked for jobs, too. He almost became a lifeguard at Six Flags, but in the process of becoming certified, he lost interest. Patrick and I were fine with that, since we worried about him being outside all day and about him not being so vigilant about sunscreen. He found a job at a local movie theatre instead. He has a couple of friends that work there, and his first day is today.

These are Natalie's beat-up Toms. She wore these shoes every day for the last four months or so because she couldn't participate in PE and therefore didn't need to wear her sneakers. She had already asked me for another pair so she figured it didn't matter what this one looked like, so she allowed her friends to sign them. She wears them like this and she's okay with that, so I'm okay with that too.

I'm off work today so I can be with the kids. Patrick left yesterday for Milwaukee so he could attend his aunt's memorial service this morning. I'll be a single parent this weekend, and thankfully it should be fairly relaxed. I just need to get through tonight and tomorrow morning and I'll be more relaxed. I have to get Natalie and Eric to swim practice tonight, while going to a graduation dinner for the residents at work. Anthony will be at work until 10pm, and Alex will have an undisclosed number of friends sleeping over. Tomorrow is a swim meet for Natalie and Eric. I actually think the summer is busier for us than the school year.

Back to Swimming

This is Patrick taking the helm again at Melanie's request.

Natalie is finally back to swimming with her club team, as well as the neighborhood team. After the physical therapist asked me to get her swimming a few times before our appointment with the sports medicine doctor Wednesday morning, I was fairly certain that she would be getting back in the water again. I didn't know what the restrictions would be, or what the plan would be to get her back to swimming at the level she was before.

Natalie's relief and excitement showed up almost immediately in the form of her being her chatty self talking about whatever random topic popped into her mind (she was hungry and cold at the doctor's office). The doctor got a chuckle out of it as I tried to keep her focused.

It is strange to think that we are relieved to again be driving her back and forth to practices, but we are certainly happy with the change in her mood. Right now she can swim her neighborhood practices (and join the neighborhood meet on Saturday) but she has a number of restrictions on her club practices (and other swimming too).
First, no breaststroke until she is swimming 100% in practice for all 3 other strokes (butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle).
No Dry Land training until she is 100% in training on breaststroke.
She will start practices at 50% in terms of time/distance. This means she needs to swim hard in practice but will only do half of the normal practice to build up endurance and to make sure she doesn't re-injure anything. This will slowly increase over time.
We are hoping that in 3-4 weeks she will be swimming full practices as she was so many months ago before the injury occurred.

I guess this is a fairly short update, but we are all excited that Natalie is back in the pool--it is much harder for her to be grumpy at us when she is in the water.

Memorial Day Weekend Activities

My weekend started with a day off on Friday, since I was on call for all of Saturday. As per the usual routine, I took Eric to the bus stop in the morning. Eric was in a funny mood, and not only did he feel like sitting down at the bus stop in the morning for whatever reason, but he also felt like clasping his hands together as if in prayer. He did something similar at church yesterday, but at church this is more normal.

After Eric was picked up by the bus, I took Natalie to Starbucks for breakfast. We used to go there together more often, usually before a swim meet, but of course we haven't had any of those for four months. She has done some swimming starting last week, so she is doing much better, but I'll have to write a whole update after she sees the sports medicine doctor this coming Wednesday. I'm crossing my fingers and saying some prayers that she'll be able to officially start swimming again.

Anthony's best friend Alejandro (on the far right) took his girlfriend Alexandra (middle) to her prom on Saturday. Anthony went with Alexandra's friend so they could go together. Apparently, Alexandra's friend wasn't that interested in going with Anthony, but at least Anthony got to hang out with Alejandro. They are really two peas in a pod. I asked him for pictures, but he thought putting the pictures on Facebook was good enough. I guess I should be happy with whatever I get, even if they are low resolution photos like this one. They are a good-looking trio, aren't they?

Eric had a baseball game on Saturday that I missed. He hit the ball for the second time during a game, and this time he made it to first base for the first time! I missed it because I was at work, but apparently he was very excited. Unfortunately he didn't repeat the performance on Sunday at the game I went to. He only has baseball practice left this coming Wednesday, and one baseball game left this coming Friday. He still hasn't found a sport that he really loves. He has said that he enjoys the baseball practices, but not the games. We might try some gymnastics and/or some karate this summer.

We had some thunderstorms and heavy rains last night and then for most of the day today. We had planned to go swimming today, but not with the thunderstorms. Going to the movies was perfect for a rainy day, though. Patrick, Natalie, Eric, and I went to see "X-Men: Days of Future Past" today. We would have taken Anthony, but he saw it last night with a friend of his. A couple friends of theirs work at a movie theatre, so they took the opportunity to see their friends and to see the movie. He wouldn't have minded seeing the movie again, but since he didn't get home until about 1am, he preferred to sleep.

We would have also taken Alex, but he was sleeping over at a friend's house. Anthony picked him up after we got home from the movie. He didn't tell me until later that we could have picked him up in the morning so he could see the movie, but of course he didn't tell us that before.

This afternoon, I made some stuffed jalapeños for dinner and Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars for dessert. After dinner we watched "Thor: The Dark World" with the whole family. We had offered up some other movie choices, but in the end, Anthony wanted to watch this movie since he had not seen it yet. We didn't get the outside time that we try to have on Memorial Day weekend, but at least we got the family time.

I'd Have No Photos Without This Child

Last night was Natalie's Spring Band Concert. I didn't even bring my big camera because during their Winter Concert, she gave me looks as if she was shooting daggers at me when I took out my camera--even my iPhone camera. Also, she is a percussionist and therefore she stands in the back behind a lot of other people, instruments, drums, music stands, etc. It's impossible to get a good picture of her being uncooperative. If it weren't for Eric, I would have nothing to take pictures of.

Here is my youngest angel climbing in the kitchen. He has been climbing everything lately. When we were at my sister Cynthia's house for Mother's Day weekend, he was constantly climbing on the outside of their staircase. When I saw him doing this on Saturday, I told him, "Just so you know, Eric, you shouldn't be doing this." I said this because I didn't want him to think that it was okay just because I was taking a picture. He has been more inquisitive lately, so he asked, "Then why are you taking a picture?" I accurately predicted he would ask that, didn't I? So I answered, "So I can show Papa what you were doing." So maybe that wasn't the best answer, but it was true.

Patrick and I are embarrassed to say that we let Eric wear these shoes. We bought these shoes less than two months ago. He wears them daily, even to baseball practices and games (because he prefers them to his cleats). As a result of the daily wear and tear, he also likes to kick at the ground and other such things that are bad for shoes. Finally, this weekend when we realized that how big the holes were in BOTH shoes, Patrick ran out and got him an identical pair, except in a bigger size 12 instead of a size 11. Even Anthony was shocked when he saw this picture.

For my final story (and picture), I was cleaning out Eric's backpack this morning when I found this. He has not more GT (Gifted and Talented) classes this year, so she sent home their work. They took a picture of him and he cut it out and glued it onto this piece of paper behind a clear plastic circle with small white circles inside. The caption says, "If I lived in a snow globe..." He filled in the rest as follows (complete with spelling errors): "I whoud always follow the orders from my minion dad." That answer is so typical for him right now. He totally relates everything back to minions and it just cracks me up.

Eric brings a lot of joy and laughter to all of our lives. Alas, I know that he won't stay little forever. Just last night when I asked him if he wanted me to sing a bedtime song to him, he replied, "No thanks." Sniff, sniff--it's the beginning of the end. This morning he still gave me a big hug while he was waiting for the bus. I had to ask him for the hug, but I was happy with that for now.

May Art a la Carte

On Wednesday of this past week, Eric had his last scheduled art class of the year. The lesson was about Eric Carle and his colorful artwork. They didn't use painted tissue paper like Eric Carle uses, but instead they used a simpler, faster method--crayons.

As you can see from the bulletin board teacher's example, the kids were going to draw seahorses. The teacher took them step-by-step through drawing the head, then the back/curly tail, then the belly of the seahorse. They started with using a pencil, then they darkened the pencil line with permanent marker.

The permanent marker made me a little nervous, especially in the hands of a couple of the more hyperactive children in the class. There is one child that almost always had an extra adult watching him. This time there were three adults watching his table of four kids. Two were teacher assistant-type people and one was his mother, who volunteered to help with this art class. Luckily, another mom was helping me with the other four tables (three tables with four kids and one table with five).

After they drew the eyes, they colored it in with white crayon. They then used colorful crayons to color in the body. One of the boys at Eric's table named Marcus (one of the kids that attended Eric's birthday party), colored his seahorse red and yellow. He has had an "Iron Man" theme on past art projects, so when I asked him if he was choosing Iron Man colors, he looked at me as if he was thinking, "Hey, how did you know that?" I had to laugh. Marcus also decided that he had to draw lightning bolts radiating from his seahorse (even though he knew that seahorses live in the water). Eric decided this was a good idea and therefore added some similar shapes to his drawing except in blue instead of yellow.

After the seahorse was done, they were supposed to draw bubbles and waves in white or blue crayon, and seaweed in green. Eric decided on red for seaweed for some reason.

The last step was to cover everything in blue watercolor paint. The crayon give a "resist" effect and the watercolor doesn't cover the crayon but instead colors the paper that doesn't have crayon on it. I couldn't convince Eric to paint over the crayon with the watercolor paint. Instead he sort of painted around the seahorse. As usual, Eric did what he wanted (as did most of the kids in the class), but in the end he was happy with his creation, and so was I.

The teacher gives each class points according to their behavior--if they line up quickly and quietly, if they raise their hands, etc. She usually cuts them quite a bit of slack, of course. She totaled up all the points from this semester, and Eric's class won for the first grade. That meant that they get an extra class. They got an extra class in January, and I didn't even know when that happened. It so happens that this time, I found out about it ahead of time. They're having the extra class next Friday when I'm off work. I guess I can volunteer for one more class, which I really enjoy, so I'll be reporting back on that class next week.

Lunch with Eric

I know I have way too many photos in this post, but I just love all of them. These pictures are just further proof that Anthony is HOME, and that Eric is really enjoying his company. I took these photos yesterday (Wednesday, May 14, 2014).

Anthony had just gotten out of bed when I left home to go to Wendy's, to get food for Anthony and Eric, so I got to the school first and Anthony met me there. Eric, of course, gave him a big hug and Anthony seems to enjoy lifting Eric up for a big hug.

Interestingly, Anthony commented that the school looked smaller than he remembered it. Alex said about a year ago that he remembered the school ceilings being much higher than when he went to school there. Obviously, both boys have grown quite a bit since they went to school there.

I had to take a picture of the two boys together--sort of a comparison shot of their sizes and what they were eating. Eric had his usual spicy chicken nuggets (10) and a small vanilla Frosty. Anthony had the Double Baconator and a large vanilla Frosty. He usually gets the chocolate, but that machine was broken .

Anthony likes to post photos to Snapchat, so I took a picture of him taking a selfie with Eric, a photo that Anthony then posted to Snapchat. They really look happy in this picture, don't they?

I also took a short video of Eric raising one eyebrow and then the other. He wasn't smiling because he was concentrating so much. I then cut to Anthony's face. Anthony is much more skilled at alternately raising one eyebrow and then the other. I posted the video to Facebook, so if you're on Facebook, go look it up--it's hilarious!

Of course, I had to take one close-up of the two boys. I love these two so much!

I had to go so I could help set up Eric's art class. Anthony stayed with Eric for a couple of minutes more before Eric rejoined his classmates. Tomorrow I'll post about Eric's last art class of the year.

Mother's Day Gifts

My sister Melissa gave me this card. The front of it says, "Have a Happy Mother's Day, Sis, and Remember", and the inside is show in this photo. "Your kids will always think I'm cooler than you are." When Eric read this, he just smiled sweetly and didn't say anything. Natalie flat out said that she agreed with that statement. Anthony was the one that laughed and said, "Of course not, Mama!" I didn't realize that Alex had not read the card until just now. When I showed it to him, he said, "That's what you were talking about." I guess he had heard me saying something to the other kids but he didn't actually see the card until just now. He quietly shook his head and then said, "Of course not, Mama." Anthony and Alex have gotten so sweet! :)

Eric had a Mother's Day card in his school backpack that I discovered in there when I was cleaning it out on Sunday. I'll have to describe that one another time when I take a picture of it. I thought it was funny that he didn't remember making it.

A couple or so weeks ago, I mentioned to Patrick that if he wanted to get me something for Mother's Day, he could get me an umbrella that I had seen at Barnes and Noble when we were there a few weeks ago, or a bamboo lap desk that I had also seen at Barnes and Noble. We haven't made it a habit to get each other gifts for many, many years, but I seem to be getting more sentimental in recent years, so I at least give him some suggestions. He never gives ME any suggestions, although he is much easier to get presents for than I am. I wasn't sure if he would take my suggestions or not, since, like I stated, we haven't made it a habit to give each other anything for birthdays and other special occasions for many years.

So, when I found the huge gift bag sitting on the sofa, I was surprised. I thought at first that it was one of the gift bags for Eric's birthday gifts that have been empty but still in the living room for a month now, so I peeked inside to see if it was empty and then I planned to put it away. I was truly surprised when I saw the umbrella, but having seen the umbrella, I knew immediately that the gift bag must be for me! I didn't want a plain photo, so I had Eric hold the lap desk and balance the umbrella on his head for fun. He makes a cute model, doesn't he? :) Thanks to my loving husband for surprising me with these fabulous gifts! They're exactly what I wanted! ;)

The best gift was later, when Natalie had gone to bed early but the boys were still up and playing the game Soul Calibur IV on the PS3. Patrick took this picture because I was upstairs at the time. They all took turns playing each other, even Patrick. Eric looked like he was in absolute heaven, being able to play with his brothers AND his father. He had spent some time discussing Pokemon with Anthony earlier and showing him his new Pokemon books that his Aunt Melissa had given to him for his birthday. He has really been enjoying having Anthony home again.

I've been enjoying having Anthony home again also. I missed my baby boy. What perfect timing for him to be home for Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day 2014

I'm currently sitting at our nearby Starbucks with Natalie, writing this post. We came home to no internet, no phone, and no cable. The worst part is that Patrick and I can't do our regular Sunday viewing of the new episode of The Game of Thrones. Tomorrow will be difficult trying to avoid all of those internet spoilers out there.

I had a long weekend because of a Thursday night call (and the accompanying "day off" on Friday), so we took the opportunity to go to Houston for Mother's Day weekend. We also took the opportunity to get a discount on a return flight for Anthony from Boston. The non-stop flight on Southwest Airlines only cost us $89 vs. his going to San Antonio for $210 on a plane with one or more stops. So, my dearest oldest son is home, perfectly timed for Mother's Day. I got a warm feeling when we got home from Houston this afternoon and I saw him coming out of the pantry with one or two mini Heath bars and another three or so in his hands. Yes, my dear son is HOME!

I got a chance to see my dear mother yesterday. My sisters graciously changed their plans for me. I wanted to have a dinner at my Mom's house (with takeout from a favorite restaurant nearby--Kim Son), so we could spend time with her in the comfort of home instead of fighting all the crowds for brunch on Mother's Day. I took this picture of my mom enjoying a video of Eric's first piano recital last week. I was playing it for her on my laptop and she really enjoyed watching it. I love that Eric is affectionate and came to watch the video with her. I love that she has a wonderful smile on her face while watching the video. I love that I was able to spend time with her and my dad.

Thanks to my dear sisters for taking time out of their own Mother's Day weekend to spend time entertaining me and my family. Thanks especially to Cynthia and John for putting my large family up at their house and feeding us. John grilled steak for us on Friday night and he was amazed at how much steak my family can eat. Of course, that was without Anthony's extra mouth to feed since he didn't arrive until Saturday. Thanks to Patrick for driving me to see my family this weekend and then coming home to prepare a wonderful steak dinner for us!

Happy Mother's Day!

Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods

Eric has loved the iPad game Angry Birds for a while, and when we got Angry Birds Star Wars, he was in heaven. He has been earning allowance for a year now, and he only spent some of it on the Lego watch he bought last year. The rest has been sitting in his drawer in his rather stuffed hand-me-down wallet. So, when Eric saw a toy called Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods Star Destroyer Set at Target a couple of weeks ago, I let him buy it. The retail price was $40, but it was on sale and we got it for about $25 after tax was included and after my Target RedCard 5% off.

Eric built this structure out of Jenga blocks, a structure something similar to the wooden structures that you are supposed to knock down in the classic Angry Birds game. He was so proud of it that he really wanted to show it to me this past weekend. He of course wanted me to take a picture to document his building. He used the launcher device to launch the telepods, just like in the game.

Telepods are sphere-like in shape, and look like the characters from the iPad/iPhone game. You can also use them to unlock those characters from the game, but Eric also likes to play with them on their own. They are almost always scattered about on his bedroom floor.

Later this past weekend, he used the Jenga blocks like beds for his telepods, to give the characters a place to "sleep". Here he is pretending to also sleep. I love it when he uses his imagination. His siblings don't show their imagination to me anymore, although I'm sure they use it in other ways, like in writing assignments for school. I also love that he still lets me take pictures of him and his toys. I know he'll stop allowing that in the near future, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

Big Weekend For Eric

Wow, it's been two weeks since I've posted on this blog. I'll have to play catch-up this month, to include photos from Easter. For today, I want to talk about Eric's busy weekend.

Eric had a "soccer festival" on Saturday, where each team played 2 games, with each game lasting only 10 minutes. After the games, all the kids got a medal and a cupcake. This marked the end of his Spring soccer season. The kids all mainly travel in a pack down the field at this age, and all season, Eric has mainly been following all the other kids in the back of that pack. Once in a while the ball ends up right in front of him. He tries to kick it, but invariably another kid gets in front of him and takes the ball away--sometimes even a kid from his team.

For some reason, the kids on Eric's team usually don't show up to the games. For the last couple of weekends, only two or three kids show up, counting Eric, even when there are eight kids on the roster. There were only two kids from Eric's team this weekend, so once again we had to borrow players from the other team, which is why Eric usually ends up wearing a penny so that his team and the borrowed players match.

The ball was traveling toward the goal. Eric was behind the another kid when the other kid happened to fall down right in front of the goal. That gave Eric an opening and he kicked the ball right in. The last time this happened, he kicked the ball into his team's goal, but this time, it was the other team's goal. GOAL! Eric scored a goal, his first goal of the season! He got his first goal on the last game day! He had the biggest smile on his face.

Eric missed his baseball game on Saturday because of the soccer festival, but he had another baseball game on Sunday. His baseball team has a roster of 10 players, and they usually have 8-9 players show up. They need at least nine players, and with eight players they have to give up an out in the #9 batting slot, so we try to go to all his baseball games. The scheduling was tight on Sunday since the game was at 1:30pm and Eric had a piano recital at 3pm.

Eric usually strikes out during his turns at bat, and he usually swings at every pitch. Patrick has to give him a pep talk before each turn at bat to remind Eric that he doesn't have to swing at every pitch. He gave him that same talk on Sunday. This time, he seemed to be watching the pitches and didn't swing at every one. He took a swing and happened to make contact with the ball. He looked as surprised as the rest of us, so he didn't start running right away. The other team had time to field the ball, so he got tagged out on his way to first base. He didn't look disappointed at being tagged out, he was smiling. That was his first hit! It was nice because almost all the boys got at least one hit during this game. They're all getting better. Unfortunately, the other team was significantly better, and we lost 3-10.

To cap off Eric's busy weekend, we went straight from the baseball game to Eric's first piano recital. Luckily, the game ended a little early, because he was the first performer. He even had time to change clothes. When it was his turn, he didn't hesitate. He walked up to the grand piano at the front of the room, he took a bow, then played his first piece. He made some memory mistakes, but he didn't seem nervous. He almost got up after he finished the first piece, then he realized that he had one more piece. He played his second piece, then took a quick bow, and almost ran towards his seat. He sat still for all of the other performances. Later, he said he didn't like all the pieces that the others played, but did like some. We were so proud of him for being able to memorize his pieces and then to bravely go up there to perform them.

After the recital, I talked to Eric about how he had such a big weekend, with the first soccer goal, the first baseball hit, and the first piano recital. I suggested going out to dinner to celebrate, and Eric enthusiastically agreed. We were so proud of him, and he was pretty proud of himself too.

Spiky Hair

Eric is entering the phase where he wants his hair "spiky". This is a picture of him after his bath yesterday. I told him that I would put gel in his hair to spike it up. He liked the idea and asked if I could make it a "mohawk". The hair on the back of his head is too short to actually make a "mohawk", but I did what I could on the top of his head. Apparently he and a few of his friends at school like this hair style and have gotten in trouble for making a mess in the bathroom because of all the water they use to get their hair to stand up and be "spiky".

He got his hair cut today, so the "spikes" are a little shorter. I think he looks better with short "spikes" anyway, and his hair will stand up easier and for a longer period of time with shorter hair.

This makes me wish I had a picture of when Alex was in this phase around this age. He got in trouble at school too, except he and his friends used the hand soap to make their hair spiky instead of just water. Ah, memories.

Monthly Lunch Date

Eric's monthly art class is right after lunch, so we've developed this routine where I first get him lunch at Wendy's and bring it to him. He and Natalie both like the spicy chicken nuggets and Frosties there. Natalie gets the chocolate and Eric gets the vanilla. Eric isn't always a big eater, but he can usually finish off ten of those spicy chicken nuggets pretty quickly. Of course, he has to get every last drop of that Frosty.

The school enacted this policy last year where parents and kids eating lunch together have to sit in a separate area. That's actually fine with me because when I used to sit with their class, the other kids would want to talk to me too, and Eric and I wouldn't focus so much on each other. The drawback to sitting with just Eric is that he's eating and therefore not talking. He usually smiles at me a lot, as if to say, "I have nothing to say about my day, but thanks for bringing me lunch!" I try to get him to tell me about his day, but he has a hard time describing it.

Yesterday I decided that I would take a picture of us both trying to raise one eyebrow. It's sort of an inside joke in my family. Patrick can't raise only one eyebrow without using his hand to hold down the other one, but I can, so we joke about the look I give to him or the kids where I raise one eyebrow. Eric can also raise one eyebrow, but when he does it, he looks so serious that the sight of him doing it makes me laugh, so this was the only picture of the four pictures that I took where I look somewhat serious also. Of course I realized that it's easier to see the eyebrow raising in a video than to see that it's raised in a still picture. You can also see all my eye wrinkles too well in this photo. Oh well. We had fun trying to get this picture.

April Art a la Carte

Today, Eric had his monthly art class, called Art a la Carte. This month's theme was Mexican Folk Art. This is the bulletin board example of what the art they made in class.

They started with a purple-colored circular piece of construction paper and a flat styrofoam circle covered with aluminum foil. They first made a radial design in the aluminum foil circle to mimic designs in metal in some pieces of Mexican Folk Art. They then used two different sizes of paper plates to outline the concentric circles then they colored in patterns of their choosing with colors of their choosing.

Most of the kids chose very bright colors, some of them with contrasting colors and some with similar colors. One boy used mostly shades of blue, and it took the outlining in black to be able to see what the actual design was. Many of the girls chose pink as one of their colors. Another boy used similar shades of orange and red that almost looked like the same colors. As usual, most of the kids had strong feelings about what colors and patterns they wanted to use.

This is Eric with his artwork. I would have chosen much brighter colors, but he made his own choices and this piece is all his work. The kids spent a lot of time coloring in their designs, and some didn't actually finish. Eric, for example, was supposed to fill in all of the purple-colored paper background with oil pastel, but he didn't really have time to do the extra coloring before the teacher started picking up their artwork to put away. One of the boys seemed satisfied with drawing his design and didn't really feel like coloring more than half of his design in, despite repeatedly being told to keep coloring.

It's hard to appreciate in this photo, but Eric filled in his middle foil section with a heart with arrows coming out of it, and then a scalloped line around that--similar to what the teacher had used as an example during class.

As usual, I enjoyed helping out with the class almost as much as the kids enjoyed doing the art work. Only one more art class to go this school year. I'm so glad that Eric is still at an age and stage of life where he enjoys seeing me at his school, because I enjoy being there.

Soccer Saturday

Eric had a soccer game this past Saturday at 8am. Only two players from his team showed up (white team), but eight players showed up for the opposing team (red team), so the coaches took three of the players from the other team and put them on Eric's team. Because they were wearing the opposite color, the coaches put pennies on them.

Notice Eric's stance in this first photo. He kept putting his hands behind his back. He can't run as well with his hands behind his back. He also did his usual routine of following behind everyone else running after the ball. I know that's what happens in this age group, but sometimes we get a little frustrated watching that as parents.

This is Eric doing a goal kick. I think this is hilarious. Alex tried to show him how to kick harder and farther a few weeks ago, but Eric wouldn't or couldn't do what Alex showed him. At least Eric seems to be enjoying himself and he's getting lots of exercise running back and forth across the field.

Patrick and I asked Eric what his favorite sport so far is. At first he said that he didn't really like any of them better than the rest. He then said swimming. He meant that he loved swimming when he gets to play, though, and not swim team swimming. Maybe we need to try some other sports, like gymnastics or hockey?