Be Awesome

First some background information--Alex and Anthony have this inside joke. I'm not sure how it started, but once in a while we'll be talking about whatever and one of them will turn to the other and say, "She's calling you fat." Then they'll both get big smiles on their faces and start cracking up. We try to discourage them from saying this when their younger siblings can hear because frankly, Natalie is a girl and there's already pressure on girls her age to be of a certain weight. Eric of course will not know what this means and repeat it, which will probably not be a good thing. Still, I laugh when they laugh because they really seem like they're enjoying each other when they share this inside joke.

So today Alex showed me a piece of paper from school that he needed me to sign. They were supposed to write three goals for this school year. His three were: Be awesome, Don't Die, and Don't get fat. He was being a goofball, which can be annoying, but I had to laugh because this was so "him". I begged him to let me take a picture of it because this is a good example of his type of humor right now. I don't know if his teacher will appreciate the humor, but he's a good student, so hopefully it'll be okay.

Speaking of school, Eric asked Patrick this morning why he was going to school again. He must still be used to only going every other day like last school year. Tonight, I didn't know that they had this conversation. As I was putting Eric in bed and telling him that he had school tomorrow, he asked me why he was going to school tomorrow. Then he said that he wanted tomorrow to be a "summer day" instead of a school day. I think he still loves going to school, but I suspect he is tired and maybe wants to do his own thing instead of having the structure of a school day.

For Anthony, school will start extra early tomorrow and onward. His soccer coach wants all of his players to run Cross Country, and that practice starts at 6:45am tomorrow. Ouch! Patrick will have to drive him, which means that Alex will be the one responsible for getting Natalie to the bus on time. When Patrick gets home he can take Eric to school and then Alex. At least for tomorrow Alex will have a ride to school via our carpool. At least once or twice a week I'm planning to go into work just a little later and take Anthony just a little bit earlier so Patrick can get a break. Despite the hardship, this will be good for Anthony and he seems to be looking forward to it (the track and field part and not the 6:45am part).

I don't want to leave Natalie out of this. Her swim tryouts are tomorrow at 6pm. We're not sure what to expect, so wish us luck! Alex's "goal" will work well to encourage her--"Be awesome!"

Oh, I almost forgot that Anthony got behind the wheel of the family van for the first time tonight. After Anthony's soccer practice, while waiting for Alex at his practice, they drove around the big Blossom Athletic Center parking lot across the street. Anthony described the experience as "nerve-wracking" and Patrick described it as "pretty scary at times". Patrick apparently stayed calm, though, so I told Anthony that was why his papa was teaching him and not me! :)

First Day of School 2011

Today was the first day of school for all of the kids. Here is Natalie in her boys' shark shirt from Gymboree and boys' sneakers from Payless. The red backpack actually caught my eye first, but when she saw it she honed in on the red color, of course. It's just a plain red canvas with Aeropostale's logo. At first she hesitated because she already has a good backpack from last year, but that one wasn't a nice solid red. I also took a picture of the backpack on her back. Patrick gave me a hard time because I had her pose looking over her shoulder so I could see her face and the backpack.

I got up early to make them cinnamon crescent rolls, requested by Natalie and Alex. Natalie got up and dressed right away, but then she had to wait for me to finish breakfast. She doesn't eat fast nor does she get ready fast, so we were running out the door. I barely had time to get pictures before the bus arrived. She has a new bus and a new bus driver. There were actually only five kids at the bus stop this morning.

She didn't actually say too much about her first day except that she still wishes that she had Mrs. F for a teacher instead of Mrs. C. She said that every time she saw Mrs. F today she gave her a hug. That was nice. From what I heard, she'll like Mrs. C a lot when she gets used to her. She only said that Mrs. C talks a lot like she does.

It was Eric's turn for pictures after Natalie left. He looks a little excited here, don't you think? The poor boy had to use his old Thomas backpack, the one with the hole at the top and torn side pocket, but at least it matched his chosen shirt. He chose Cars underwear instead of Thomas underwear though, and Cars sandals. We took him to school after taking the boys.

He was a little tentative when we got to his classroom, where his teacher was reading to the class. There were only about seven kids in his class when we got there, although there were twelve on the list. He hid behind Patrick's leg--until he saw one of his good friends, then he was almost running to join him. At the end of the day, the teacher said that he was a good listener. When I asked him how his day was, he merely replied, "Good."

He kept dry all day and I picked him up just before picking Natalie up from school to take her to her piano lesson. I asked him there if he had to go to the potty. Of course he said "no" and unfortunately he ended up wetting the chair he was sitting in. Note to self--make him go to the potty even when he says "no". You'd think I would know that with the fourth child!

The big boys barely wanted to get their picture taken. Luckily I've gotten faster with my camera settings. This is the first picture. I even took a second one but Alex was purposely frowning in that one. They didn't want to wear their backpacks for the picture and I didn't want to push it.

Alex gets to wear a white polo shirt for his uniform this year. He is wearing his P.E. uniform shirt underneath. Don't ask me why this boy who gets so hot and sweats so easily is wearing TWO shirts to school. He quickly took his white shirt off after school because he didn't want to stain his white shirt. He didn't have too much to say about his first day except that he got to see his friends.

Anthony actually said that he enjoyed his first day, the only child to actually verbalize those thoughts. He said that his Calculus teacher said that she was going to try to make some improvements after last year, something he was glad to hear. He also enjoyed all of his classes. He mentioned AP Physics and AP U.S. History/English in particular. A friend brought him a stuffed bear from her trip to Las Vegas. A new requirement in soccer this year is to run Cross Country, so he'll be in track after all, after a lot of back and forth the last two years.

Patrick grilled steaks tonight. The kids were content to read their books after dinner. It was a good day. Tomorrow we get to see how soccer from 6-9pm fits into our schedule.

Last Pool Day

Actually, the weather will still be appropriately warm for going to the pool for another couple of months here, but we won't have as much free time after today. School starts tomorrow, and all four will be in school five days a week. Eric will be starting preschool at the same daycare center where Alex went to preschool. We were still in Illinois for Anthony, and Natalie went to PreK at the same school her brothers went to school.

Eric is so close to swimming that with a little more instruction, we're certain that he'll be swimming in circles around us. Patrick has been trying to do a little bit at a time. In the last month or so Eric has been able to float on his back on his own, something Patrick says is key to learning how to swim.

Here Patrick is having him swim with his arms straight out and only kicking his legs. He was able to "swim" back and forth from Patrick to me pretty easily. The best part is that it was all a game to him and he kept wanting to do it over and over again. Once school starts, we've discussed getting him into swim school too. That's how Natalie started swimming when she was in PreK.

Natalie and I had some girl time this morning. I took her to get her nails done at the nail place nearby. I wanted a spa pedicure but they were getting new machines so Natalie was all done getting her fingernails and toenails painted by the time they got around to me.

She was hilarious and annoying at the same time. She talked constantly for at least an hour straight. She herself even talked about how much she was talking and about how she could talk about anything or nothing at all--nonstop. I knew that the lady who was doing my pedicure couldn't speak English very well, but she proved it because when I turned to her and said (about Natalie), "She gets her talking from her daddy", she barely cracked a smile. ;)

Natalie has swim team tryouts on Wednesday. She did a few laps today, which is nowhere near the amount she used to swim on a regular basis, but it was still good. Patrick doesn't want to push her or make her nervous for her tryouts. If she makes it, we'll have pool days for her about three times per week. We'll miss these lazy days like today.

Braces

Natalie got her braces applied on Friday. She was a little apprehensive ahead of time, but she has a lot of support. Anthony is her biggest supporter, and she's lucky to have someone so experienced around. Her best friend M.E. is going to get braces soon and she was there with us at the orthodontist's office while Natalie was getting the braces.

She has the braces on the top and also has a bite plate over her bottom teeth. The reason why she has to have these is that her bottom incisors overlap her top incisors, when it's supposed to be the other way around. She'll have to wear the bite plate constantly, even during eating and sleeping. Leaving it alone would mean that her permanent teeth would get worn down--not a good thing for a young kid. The good news is that she will probably only have them for 6-9 months and she probably won't have to wear them again. We're hoping for the best.

The two things it seems that Natalie will miss the most while she has the braces on: popcorn and nachos. Apparently, every time she goes to her friend L.L.'s house, they eat popcorn. The nachos at school are also everyone's favorite lunch, and Natalie has really been lamenting not being able to have them. She is at a friend's birthday party right now and she lamented at not being able to eat the Doritos that they were going to be having.

On the plus side, she wants to have these braces off as soon as she's able, so she is taking a lot of time to do what she's supposed to do. Since she's not at school yet, she has more time to brush her teeth and her bite plate after every meal and she's doing just that. She even wants to have a toothbrush to take to school. I just hope that the kids at school will be kind. We've had to remind Alex that this is one thing he shouldn't tease her about. On the up side, she loves that her O-rings are red, her bite plate is red, and her bite plate case is red too! Oh, and Eric thought she had jello in her mouth yesterday when it was only the bite plate. Natalie was tickled about that.

We're gearing up for the first day of school on Monday. Hopefully we'll have another great year!

Howdy Night, Frozen Yogurt, and Cars

We were concerned on Tuesday, because a couple of the other fourth graders on our block had received their cards from the school indicating who their teachers were but Natalie did not. Every year Patrick writes a letter to the principal asking that Natalie not be put in the same class as one of the boys on our cul-de-sac who is a troublemaker. Because she knows him, we think she'll be distracted by him in class and we don't want that, of course. We never received any sort of reply from the principal, who is new this year.

Patrick also mentioned in the letter that if possible, we would love to have the same teacher that Alex had in fourth grade. We were just coming back into the public system from private school and we were worried about whether or not he would be challenged in school. One of the reasons why we moved schools was that he was definitely not challenged at the other school. Mrs. F. was a god-send! Even with a full class, she knew after about a week that he needed to be challenged, so she gave him different work that did that without giving him extra work. We didn't want to be one of "those" parents plus the school has so many good teachers, so we didn't try to request Mrs. F.

Mrs. F is a "friend" of ours on Facebook, so I sent her a message on Tuesday night asking if Natalie was in her class. I got her reply back on Wednesday morning. I was very disappointed when she said that Natalie wasn't in her class, but I was alarmed when she said that Natalie was in Mrs. C's class and that there was one boy who was a troublemaker in that class. She couldn't name names, of course, but I told Patrick right away and he couldn't rest until he found out more information.

To make an already long story shorter, that boy is not in Natalie's class, and she met her new teacher last night at Howdy Night, better known as Meet the Teacher Night. We're still disappointed that we didn't get Mrs. F, but even Mrs. F gave glowing reviews about Mrs. C. We're looking forward to the new school year with Mrs. C.

After all of that school business, Natalie requested that we try out one of the new local frozen yogurt places. We had gone to one place in Houston when we were visiting in June, and she was excited when she heard that we now had our own frozen yogurt shops. These shops are "new" in that you pick out your own flavor from the many choices, dispense it yourself, pick out toppings, and pay for it all by weight. This particular new shop is called Orange Leaf and they have a few locations here and elsewhere.

Natalie served herself quite a bit of chocolate yogurt. They only have huge cups at these places and it's easy to get too much. I'm sure that helps their bottom line, but not mothers who let their children serve themselves. At least Natalie didn't ask for any toppings with her 8 ounces of chocolate frozen yogurt. Eric had the mango flavor, also without toppings. I had the strawberry and cheesecake mixed together with fresh strawberries on top. Yum!

I almost forgot--Eric was intrigued by the funky shaped spoon at Orange Leaf. He commented to me about the spoon and then before I realized it, he kept the spoon instead of throwing it away and he asked if he could take it home. I thought, "Why not?" I still laughed at how he would even notice a small detail like the shape of the spoon.

In other news, after breakfast at IHOP this morning, Eric reminded Patrick and me that we had said he could have the Cars toys today. Doesn't he look excited? He got a little worried because just after he asked us about the toy, Patrick had to look everywhere to find where he had stashed it. We were all giving him a hard time about it, actually, especially since I was the one to find it. :)

Sometimes I think I need to break up these posts instead of cramming all of these topics into one post, but sometimes a lot of stuff happens all at once! I'll save the post about Natalie getting her braces for tomorrow.

Backwards Underwear

Isn't this the most adorable boy ever? Okay, his big brothers were pretty adorable at this age too, but I'm biased. As I posted yesterday, Eric wore underwear today, but he wore it backwards. When Patrick tried to tell him that they were on backwards, Eric didn't understand why the picture would be on the back. In the afternoon when I got home from work and took this picture, Natalie showed him that the tag was in the front and told him that the tag was supposed to be in the back. Again, Eric asked me, "Then why is the picture on the back?" I didn't have a good answer that didn't involve telling him about the hole in the front. I didn't want to go there.

His pullup was dry from last night and he kept his underwear clean and dry all day today. We're planning on giving him his well-deserved toy tomorrow. After all, he doesn't have any sense of time anyway, and tomorrow is the "end of the week" after all. I'll be sure to take pictures. Hopefully he won't think that he gets a toy every Friday.

Potty Training Update

When I don't have to go to work, I tend to go to bed around midnight and get up around 8am. Getting up at 5am on Monday for work, after having that vacation schedule for 10 days was super-painful. I haven't even had enough energy to take pictures and post to this blog! I had to take a two-hour nap yesterday, but I only have to make it through tomorrow and I'm off for another four days. Yay!

Yesterday when I got home from work, Patrick was at our gym pool with Eric. Natalie was with her friend LL's family at Fiesta Texas. Patrick came home just before I took my nap. He had to head off to take both big boys to soccer practice, so it was just Eric and me. Luckily Eric likes to watch on the iPad, because I fell into a deep sleep and he was happy as a clam during that time. He certainly was hungry around 6pm when I woke up and made dinner for us. Natalie didn't get home until after 8pm, around the same time as Patrick and the boys.

In my last post, I mentioned that I bought Eric a toy of his choice at Target on Sunday. I had really only planned to bargain with Eric that if he stayed dry for a whole day, then I would give him the toy. Well, Alex started talking about it on the way home and he said ONE WEEK. One week sounded like a good idea, so I went with it. I was a little skeptical, but hopeful that Eric could pull it off.

So far so good--Eric has stayed dry since then. The remarkable thing is that as far as we can tell (since he changes himself), he has been dry both day AND night. Way to go, Eric! I knew he was close, but who knew that sheer bribery was the little push that he needed!

Because he has done so well and because we don't want to transition to underwear next week with all of the first week of school chaos, Patrick laid out a pair of Cars underwear with his clothes for tomorrow. This isn't the first time he's worn underwear. Patrick tried putting him in underwear a few times this summer, with messy results each time. I'm confident that the little guy will stay dry tomorrow. He is VERY excited about wearing underwear tomorrow. Go Eric Go!

School Prep Starts

Yesterday I made turkey bacon and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Natalie is just like her father. Even though I had already put lots of pepper in the eggs, she added more pepper even before she tasted it. We had to wake Anthony up around 9:30 am because we had an appointment with the director of his school. Every time we've seen Mrs. F she is so positive and enthusiastic about whatever it is she is talking about that we can't help but be positive and enthusiastic as well. We hoped for a good solution to Anthony's schedule conflict.

I mentioned briefly last week that there was a conflict between Anthony's soccer class and Calculus BC. Both are only offered during first period. Calculus BC is supposed to cover two college semesters of Calculus whereas Calculus AB, the class he is registered for, is only supposed to cover one college semester over the whole school year. After our meeting, the details of which I won't explain fully here, we decided that Anthony would stay registered for Calculus AB (last period) and soccer (first period). He would also, however, get the Calculus BC textbook and possibly other materials and study independently for the Calculus BC Advanced Placement (AP) test at the end of the year. He has to be more of a self-starter/self-motivator in order to be successful at this, and we are all confident that he can do this. It'll definitely be good preparation for college.

We also talked about what classes he plans on taking his last two years of high school and how this fits in with his plan for college. Mrs. F gave Anthony some great suggestions and reading materials to help him decide his career path and what he needs to do to get there.

After the meeting, we fed Anthony and then dropped him off at a local arcade to meet up with some of his friends. There were a few plan changes, but the end result was that he and two of his friends spent the night at our house. I prefer knowing where Anthony is and what he is up to. They ended up staying up to watch Fight Club. Patrick watched with them so he could interact with them. I love that he wants to get to know Anthony's friends. They're much more comfortable with him than with me.

Because the three teenagers were crammed into Anthony's room, I tried to keep the little ones from making too much noise. That meant indulging them with some iPad time. I have to say that when I walked into the game room, this sight made me smile. They don't always get along, but it's wonderful when they do.

Eric also cracks me up with his constant use of his Lightning McQueen slippers. They look gigantic on his feet, but he puts them on every night and every morning until he changes clothes. Then he puts on his Lightning McQueen crocs. Occasionally he asks for the Lightning McQueen stuffed toy from Target. He's been even more Cars crazy since seeing the Cars 2 movie. Today when we were at Target he asked for some cars from the Cars 2 movie again. I bought them but with the agreement that if he can keep his pull-up dry for a whole week, he'll get to play with the new toy. We'll see what happens. He's so close to being potty-trained. It'll be nice if he is when school starts in another week.

We're in the middle of a drought here, and we currently have "Stage 2 water restrictions where we can only turn on our sprinkler system one day a week. The rest of the time if we want to water the lawn we have to hand water. Patrick has been the one to do this for most of the summer, but recently we decided that the boys should help while they're still out of school. Tonight Anthony and Alex were both outside watering the lawn. They both sprayed themselves as well as each other. Eric saw them both outside from the upstairs window (the one on the stair landing) and tried to get their attention. Finally Anthony saw him and sprayed some water up to that window. Why not have a little fun while you're doing work?

Tomorrow Natalie goes to the orthodontist to get molds of her teeth made. I have to go back to work. Natalie has piano lessons in the afternoon. Our vacation is over, but we still have one more week before school starts.

Picture Recap

I didn't share as many photos of our as I would have liked, so this will be a photo-heavy post. This first post shows three very excited young ladies with their new wands. Aly and Emily have read all of the Harry Potter books and even went to a week-long Harry Potter camp this summer. Natalie knows a little of Harry Potter from some of the movies and from her brothers, but she hasn't read any of the books yet herself. She was still excited about the idea of a "magical quest" and wanted the more expensive wand.

Of course it didn't hurt that the more expensive wand was red. This is the picture I tried to upload a couple of days ago, but couldn't. Emily's wand is the top one, with the blue dragon, and Aly's wand is the one on the bottom, the one with the red dragon. The dragons were "toppers" that screwed onto the base wand. Natalie's already came with a jewel topper, although she could have switched it out if she wanted to.

Ever since she heard about the quest activity and the wands back before we made reservations, she had already set it in her mind that she wanted the most expensive wand for her birthday. That's my daughter, with no inkling of the value of money. The other wands were actually more expensive because the toppers cost almost as much as the wands, but that was my gift to all the girls. They had so much fun with them that it was all worth it.

These photos may seem a little random, but I put them in the order I took them. This one shows the model of the resort made out of Legos. Apparently there was a Legoland Discovery Center close to the resort that we could have gotten discount tickets to if we had chosen to do that. Eric loved looking at this model. There was also a building "contest" where the kids could create something and win a prize for having the best creation. Eric and Anthony sort of participated. They basically just sat on the floor next to a tub of Legos and played with them instead of trying to win anything. In the end, everyone that participated got a fish water toy. Eric loved that too.

The arcade was a fun place for all of the kids, including Patrick. I loved seeing Patrick playing with Eric and then later Anthony on this shooting game. That gun was almost as big as Eric and he had such a hard time even lifting it. I don't think he actually aimed well enough to hit anything in the game, but he looked cute doing it. We wasted about $50 in the arcade that day, and the big boys went back on our last day and spent another $15 or so.

I wasn't there when Natalie defeated the dragon, but I took this photo during one of Aly's attempts to defeat the dragon. They had to do a combination of pressing buttons and aiming at a sensor with their wands to hit the dragon to injure it and eventually to kill it. As I mentioned earlier, the girls had a lot of fun on this Magi Quest game, although it did lead to some arguments, unhappiness, and even tears. In the end, only Emily was truly happy because she got credit for everything she was supposed to get credit for, including defeating the dragon. The other two were missing just one thing each, which is weird since the three of them did the quests together.

The water park was fun for all, even the grownups. I couldn't take many pictures in there, of course, for fear of getting my camera wet. The favorite attraction seemed to be the big water slides. Eric was only allowed to ride certain ones, mostly because the big ones required the use of an inner tube that he was too small to fit in. This experience only affirmed my belief that having season passes to our local water parks suits this family best. The kids only wanted to go for a couple of hours at a time. With our season passes, we do just that, and then come back on different days through the operating season to enjoy the park again.

I took this last picture on the day we left. Check-out time was at 11am, but they allowed us to play in the water park and the other attractions for as long as we wanted. Aly and Natalie played in the water park, along with Patrick. Melissa and Emily were content to sit in the lobby. At first the big boys were there too until Alex complained about being bored and took off. Eventually both big boys ended up playing in the arcade again. Eric, as you can see from this picture, looks bored, but he was having fun just hanging out in the lobby.

I forgot one more detail. We all had to wear wrist bands for as long as we stayed there. Melissa, Patrick, and I could even charge to our room just by scanning our wrist bands. The wrist bands were also our keys to our rooms. Anthony and Emily could also use their wrist bands as keys. This was interesting because Alex always wears about five or six other bands on his wrists (rubber ones). Add the "gr8 space" wrist band that the big boys used to play video games, and Alex had quite a collection. Eric also had another wrist band to show which slides he could go on. All in all, the wrist bands were pretty cool--no need to carry anything else around.

I have some other things to say, but this post is already getting too long. I'll post them tomorrow.

Finishing up

Trying to see how this mobile blogging thing works. Eric was watching the Clock Tower Show again this morning and looked very relaxed in one of the chairs.

Aly and Natalie went to the water park this morning. Natalie didn't really want to, but Aly needed a playmate so I convinced Natalie to be a good friend.

The big boys are in the arcade and Eric was exploring the lobby. Now he is watching in my iPad while Emily is watching on her Mom's iPad.

Aly and Emily finally finished up their quests and got their "Master Magi" buttons, although they discovered that Natalie still needed a Chest of Gold and Aly needed a Painting to complete absolutely everything. We're all ready to go home.

Something Fun

Today's prompt is "something fun", a very appropriate prompt since today is Natalie's birthday. She was the one who was the most excited about this trip, because she would have her birthday during this trip.

We started the day with a buffet breakfast before 9am at The Loose Moose Cottage, one of the restaurants here. Everyone was there except Anthony, who was still asleep.

Next I took Eric to the tail end of the Clock Tower Show, where animatronic forest animals come to life around the "Great Clock Tower" in the lobby area. That activity continued into the "Wolf Walk" where a guide walked us around the lobby to show us other animatronic animals located around the lobby area. These activities were geared toward kids Eric's age. He lost interest before the end so we got ready to go to the outdoor water park.

He enjoyed just walking and splashing around the outdoor pool. His favorite part was an intermittent waterfall around a big tower with a howling wolf figure at the top. Every time he heard the wolf howling, he would run towards the tower in time for the waterfall to come down on top of him. He was pretty tired after all of that, but later in the afternoon, we did convince him to go to the indoor water park to go on the lazy river and a couple of slides. As you can see from this picture, he was exhausted.

Meanwhile, the girls had already started their quests where they had left off yesterday. They tried to start at around 7:30ish, but the sensors were not active until 9am. They did go to the indoor water park for a bit, but then got back to their quests. Eventually they got to the end of all of their quests. The last task was that they had to kill the red dragon. Natalie apparently went first and killed the dragon with Aly and Emily's help, but Aly and Emily both "died" during their turns. The girls took this very seriously and thought Natalie didn't try as hard as she could have and later when Patrick saw Natalie, she was in tears. All seemed to be well later when they all tried again together, but again, they didn't succeed. They even had Anthony watch (they think of him as the expert) and he will get up early tomorrow (at 9am) so he can help them in this final task.

In this picture Natalie has a button on her shirt that says "Master Magi", which she received for completing her tasks. She posed like this on purpose, with her wand poised to strike above her head. I took a few pictures, some with the big camera and some with my iPhone, so I could post here tonight on the blog. I told her she looked intimidating, and she broke out into laughter, so she had to stop and compose herself so she could look intimidating again.

This evening, we had P.F. Chang's takeout for dinner. The resort gave us free kids' meal coupons and the girls all got excited when they heard us say "P.F. Chang's". Natalie opened her presents after dinner and then we got Dreyer's ice cream from downstairs for dessert. After that, I took Eric to see the whole Clock Tower Show followed by the first part of Story Time. He must have been tired, because he lost interest in that too and wanted to go to the room.

The big boys went to the indoor and outdoor water park. They all went to the arcade where the girls' favorite thing was to get tickets so they could get prizes. They each ended up with a monkey stuffed toy and Alex gave Natalie his tickets so she could get a Ninja with a red headband (stuffed toy). The big boys again spent a lot of time in the "gr8 space" area playing Xbox.

We check out tomorrow. You can bet that the kids will try to do as much as they can before we head home. I guess that means that they're all having fun.

Great Wolf Lodge

I'm having a little trouble posting a picture right now, so I'll have to save it for when I get back. We drove five hours today to get to our destination. Mom and Dad left around 7am, and we didn't leave until 8:30am. The trip was uneventful, but we could tell that Eric wanted to get out of the car. We passed by some random hotel in the middle of nowhere just off the freeway. He said, "That's our hotel." Patrick laughed and said that Eric just wanted out. He didn't care where we were. We did end up stopping at a Schlotsky's for lunch after three hours of driving-- for Eric and Patrick's sakes.

This hotel is huge. We could tell right away when we drove up. Melissa arrived soon after we did with Aly and Emily. She said that Emily was content with going to a local water park like Splashtown until she saw how big and impressive Great Wolf Lodge was.

One of our rooms was ready, so we were able to check in. The second room became ready soon after, right next door to the first. Eric and the big boys were ready to go to the water park right away. They have both an indoor and an outdoor water park here. The girls got excited about the "Magi Quest" activity, especially the magic wands that came with the game.

Natalie immediately found a red wand with a red jewel on top. Emily and Aly both picked the black wand with gold accents, but with different dragon "toppers". Emily chose the big blue dragon and Aly chose the red one. We limited them to one hour so we could still go to the water park today. The water park fee is automatically included in the price of the hotel room, so we wanted to make use of it.

They had a blast waving their wands at crystals, treasure chests, and other items on their quest list. Melissa and I followed them up and down the stairs and hallways. We were happy that they were so excited. We had to bargain with them to stop and go to the water park. Luckily, they were pretty happy when they finally started playing in the water.

By the time we got to the water park, Eric said he was done and didn't need to go anymore. We're sure he'll change his mind tomorrow. The big boys went to the "gr8 space" area were they played on the Xbox for one flat fee. They were there for most of the evening.

Tomorrow will be filled with a lot more fun activities. I'm sure we'll all sleep well tonight. Oh, speaking of sleep, I almost forgot to describe the Wolf Den room that Melissa and the younger kids are sleeping in. There are bunk beds in an area made to look like a cabin, with a window and paintings of animals in a woodland scene on the walls. There was even a small flat screen TV hanging in the corner. The girls are letting Natalie sleep in the top bunk because it's her birthday tomorrow. Eric didn't want to sleep apart from the girls, so he's sleeping in the queen bed with Emily while Aly sleeps in the bottom bunk and Melissa sleeps on the sofa bed. The rest of us are sleeping in the other room with two queen beds and a sofa bed.

More descriptions and hopefully pictures will follow tomorrow.

Goodbyes

Mom and Dad left this morning. I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of them with the kiddos, so this will have to do. We always appreciate it when they come not just because the kids get to know them a little better, but also because of all the stuff they bring and do. Mom brought lots of food and made lots of food while she was here. She did loads of laundry and helped Natalie clean out her drawers of old clothes. She also took those clothes away to give to cousins with smaller children. She cleaned out my freezer, mostly of food that she had brought and frozen and that I didn't know about. The one thing I hoped that she would do (trim my one plant of all of the dead leaves) she did automatically! I know it seems minor but it's the little things. She has a green thumb where I have a brown thumb. We love you for all that you do, Mom!

Something New

"Something New" was another prompt from the August Photo Challenge that I've been sort of participating in. We've had some "new" things happen--good and bad.

Yesterday, I took Eric to the dentist to have his first cavity filled--located in back of his two upper front teeth. The dentist first picked it up on his routine visit in June. He rechecked it a week ago to see if it was an actual cavity. Apparently it's teeny tiny but at this age, cavities can get very big very fast and it would be easier to treat now than to take the chance of it getting really big.

They have a TV in the exam room at the dentist's office. At first I was a little worried because we couldn't find anything that Eric wanted to watch (they only had basic cable). I brought the iPad just in case but I would have to hold it up in front of his face which wasn't an ideal situation. Luckily, he settled for Looney Tunes after he started watching it.

As soon as the dentist reclined the chair and pulled Eric up to the top, Eric simply opened his mouth without a word. The whole thing probably only took 5 minutes. He only had to "drill" a little, so little that Eric probably only felt some vibration, which he tolerated very well. The "hardest" part was curing the putty with a lighted wand (only because it took a little time) and the cotton that they stuck between Eric's lip and gum. That must have bothered him a little, because he moved his lip a little until the cotton was almost out. At the end of the procedure, the light was shining in Eric's eyes, but all he did was squint. He didn't make a peep at all. What a good boy!

On her routine visit to the dentist in June, the dentist told me that Natalie should see the orthodontist because her bottom incisors overlapped the top ones and could cause some premature wear on those teeth. Our appointment was today. They started out reminiscing about when Anthony was a patient there and how long it had been (March 2009).

Dr. B examined Natalie's teeth and said that he would normally recommend waiting but since this was an issue of an incorrect bite pattern that was easily fixable, he recommended treatment right away. We made an appointment for Monday to have molds made of her teeth. She will have a bite plate over her bottom teeth that she is supposed to wear all the time, even during eating. On Friday she will have braces put on her top teeth and he expected her to only need them for about six months and she probably won't need anything else at all. All of that for over $2K. Let's just say that Anthony has beautiful teeth, and I want the same for Natalie.

Natalie seemed a little concerned about having braces, because she was afraid it would hurt. Anthony will be invaluable resource for her and she's lucky that he's already gone through it. She did get excited when she heard that she could have a red bite plate and red bands for her braces. That's my red-loving girl!

So, the news wasn't all bad, and both kids did well. Today we also went to get some new sneakers for Natalie and Alex. Payless is having their "Buy One Get 1/2 Off" sale" again. Eric fell in love with these "Crocs". After returning home, he put them on and didn't take them off until bedtime. He wore them around the house and when Patrick got home from taking Anthony to his high school orientation/prep thing, Eric had to show him his new shoes AND the box that they came in. Let's just say that he was just a little excited.

In other news, Anthony got his class schedule for the new year today. There's a conflict in scheduling his soccer class and Calculus BC class. Hopefully that will get sorted out by next week. We also went out to eat at Chili's with my parents on their last night here. We had a coupons for free kids' meals and a free appetizer. Saving money is always good, especially after the orthodontist visit.

First SeaWorld Visit This Year

When we first moved here, we started getting season passes to the two local theme parks, first alternating years and then both passes each year. Last year, the three oldest informed us that they didn't care to go to SeaWorld anymore. They were speaking specifically about the water park, but really they weren't interested in the shows either. Unfortunately, I had bought the two-year passes for Patrick and me and we had one year left on those. The kids had the less expensive "fun cards".

Eric has been really into "fish" lately. He sleeps with his "Nemo" and "Shamu" stuffed toys every night. He also likes to sleep on top of his Cars comforter and under his Nemo comforter. He is the right age for SeaWorld. For one reason or another, Patrick hasn't taken him to SeaWorld this year yet, so we decided to go yesterday and leave the other kids at home with my parents.

Eric had a blast! We only wanted to go for a couple of hours, mostly because of the extreme heat here but also because we needed to get back home to shuttle Anthony around on his social schedule. We arrived right around the opening time of 10am. We started out with Dolphin Cove where we could feed the dolphins if we wanted to--we didn't. Instead we watched others feeding the dolphins. Eric was content to just watch.

After the dolphins, we went to the Sharks and Coral Reef exhibit. Basically it was a big aquarium where you could see different types of fish and sea life. Eric's favorite part was probably seeing the "Nemo" fish but he also enjoyed seeing the sharks. After all, his sister was just watching shark show after shark show during Shark Week on the Discover Channel. A couple of divers were in one of the big fish tanks cleaning. One of them blew bubble circles to entertain some of the kids and also waved at them, which was an added bonus.

We had time for two shows, one was at 11am, and the other at noon. Our first stop was the "Cannery Row Caper" which was a show featuring seals and a very gigantic walrus. Eric just sat there and took it all in, even clapping when everyone else was clapping. He reminded me so much of Natalie around that age. She used to love watching the shows.

Next we stopped by the "Sesame Street Bay of Play", a new area specially for small kids, with appropriately-sized rides and water features. Eric had been asking about seeing Shamu since we had arrived at the park, but we had to bide our time with a couple of rides first.

Patrick and Eric rode on "Abby Cadabby’s Rocking Wave". That was a ride that was fairly tame but it spun around, something I don't enjoy at all. At first Eric was more interested in looking at the girl sitting next to him who seemed a little scared, but then I saw him start to enjoy himself and smile. They also rode on "Grover's Round-Up", their version of a carousel with Sesame Street friends. I loved seeing him smiling and waving each time the carousel came around to where I was standing.

Finally we got to see the Shamu show which I think is now called "One Ocean". Eric enjoyed watching the killer whales do tricks, jumping out of the water and splashing the audience. Patrick and I didn't think the show was as good as in previous years, but after a trainer was killed by a killer whale earlier this year, the trainers aren't allowed to swim with the animals anymore. The show was mostly about splashing water over as much of the crowd as possible. We stayed a safe distance away. Although the water might have been a welcome respite from the heat, I didn't want to risk the safety of my camera.

This seems like such a long-winded post already-sorry! We went to the 5pm mass yesterday, and I snapped this photo with my camera phone near the end of mass. Eric was exhausted, even though he did ride in the stroller for most of our visit. He fell asleep (on Anthony) at the beginning of mass and stayed asleep until the end. When we got to the car, we asked him if he thought that was a long or a short mass. He replied, "Short."

Party Party

We were so lazy yesterday. We were going to go to the gym yesterday morning, but we easily convinced ourselves to stay home. Mom and Dad arrived when we would have been at the gym. The Cardio Kickboxing class I like is at 10:30am on Saturdays and they arrived before 11am. We also realized that the birthday party Natalie and Eric were invited to was at 11am instead of the afternoon as we had originally thought.

The party was for one of the kids down the street and was being held in the subdivision clubhouse. His parents are always very generous with us as far as inviting us to all of their kids' parties. Natalie is a frequent playmate of AP and the party was for his brother CP, who was turning seven. It was quite a shindig. We were about 15 minutes late and we were one of the first to arrive. They had several little games outside. The picture shows Natalie trying to catch some little duckies. There was also a game where they could knock over some cans, another where they could throw hula hoops on a wooden giraffe's head, and one more where they could throw bean bags through a target. For each game the completed, they received tickets.

Natalie is crazy about the color red. My little girl shows more passion than her brothers. Pretty much every time she sees the color red, she gets all excited. She's that way with swimming, root beer, Mythbusters, sharks and the color red. Sharks recently replaced Wendy's on her top 5 list.

Anyway, at first, they were giving out yellow tickets. When they started giving out red tickets, she got even more excited. The kids redeemed the tickets for party favors in the "candy store" area. I didn't go in there myself, but Natalie and Eric did. There was mostly candy and treats, but Natalie was one of the first to go in there, so she snagged some little stuffed dogs--about beanie baby sized. I thought that was a pretty generous party favor. She also got a small plastic toy shaped like a gum ball machine with small candy in it. They each got a balloon that they could blow up and attach a rubber band to. This was probably their favorite, although Eric really enjoyed the gummy snacks. All of Natalie's party favors were in a red bag, of course (Eric's was in a blue bag). She also had enough tickets to get a few things for her big brothers, and she brought a separate bag home for them.

They also had snow cone and popcorn machines inside the clubhouse as well as a full table of Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets, fruit, pasta salad, and little sandwiches--something for everyone. Natalie of course picked the red colored snow cone (as did Eric).

Outdoors they had a dunking booth where they would put water balloons in a wire basket. If you hit the target, the booth would pierce the balloon while it was over someone and of course dump water all over them. The kids didn't bother to use balls for the target, they would just hit it with their hands. They also had a big inflatable water slide. Eric didn't want to change into his swimsuit so he didn't participate in that at all, although Natalie did several times.

Last but definitely not least, they had a "train ride" or "barrel ride". Eric rode with LL the first time, Natalie on the second, and then me on the third. He might have ridden again if someone would ride with him. He didn't seem to want to ride by himself, although it was a pretty tame ride. It was very hot outside, so we both went inside for a bit to get something to drink and cool off. We actually left not too long afterward.

In the evening we went out to El Mirasol for dinner with my parents. Of course I had left my big camera at home and of course the owner visited our table, so I had to resort to using my camera phone. We've been regulars there for almost nine years. He made a comment about how he barely recognized us because the kids have gotten so big. I told him that we were there because my parents were in town and because Natalie's birthday was this coming week. He said that we should celebrate with some cake. Sure enough, they brought out a Tres Leches cake when we were all done with dinner. Natalie was pleased that she got to blow out the candle then the big boys attacked. We laughed so hard at seeing them just taking over, although she did hold her own. Eric felt left out because he was on the opposite end of the table and not as fast as his brothers, so we made the big boys save him some.

Patrick, Eric, and I went to SeaWorld today. Anthony had a friend over to study with and then they went to the mall for a couple of hours. We went to the 5pm mass at church. Those activities are a bit disjointed, but I'll have pictures and details to share tomorrow.

Someone I Love

I've been trying to participate in an August Photo Challenge, but instead of designating a photo for each prompt, I've been using them as jumping off points to blog about. Yesterday's prompt was "Someone I Love". Of course, who do I love--Eric and Natalie, my ever-willing subjects...I mean kids!

Eric loves to play with this toy in the bathtub. He can build to his heart's content, and then everything washes off at the end and gets put in a mesh bag on the side of the tub. He calls this creation a "house". He put some figures of people and trees on the top of the houses and when I asked him about the trees on top, he replied, "Sometimes trees are on top of houses." Yes, I guess he's right.

Here are Eric and Natalie in their shark pajamas. I know there will be a time when the two of them won't fit so well in this big chair in my room. For now there is room to spare. They both like to watch shows on the iPad, usually on Netflix. They also often fight over who gets to pick what to watch and what shows they want to watch together. Eric will watch and watch until we make him get off, usually after some whining and tears. The iPad stays powered for a long time (10 hours) and he can use every bit of that charge.

Some other people I love are here now, Mom and Dad (aka Lolo and Lola). I'm hoping to get some good photos of them with the kids here in the next few days.

Family Outing At Starbuck's and Recent Quotes

I'm sure Alex won't like me posting this photo. Oh well. He never wants me to take photos of him. I had to snap this one quickly. Thankfully it's in focus. He likes to wet his hair in the morning to tame the bumps and then comb it forward. He denies that he is combing it forward and on one side of his head, the hair does grow forward. Maybe he's just trying to make both sides match. He's also been pushing our limit on how long we'll allow him to grow his hair. I insist that I want to be able to see his eyes. Patrick just wants him to get a buzz cut. I want him to have some freedom in deciding the length. This is our "compromise".

I was on call yesterday, so I was home during the day. The whole family had breakfast at the nearby Starbuck's, except for Anthony who stayed in bed and didn't want to eat too much because of soccer at 10:30am. Patrick and I shared our Venti Mocha Frappucino with no whipped cream and non-fat milk. I had a free coupon because they messed up my order on a previous visit. He had the banana chocolate chip coffee cake and I had the pumpkin bread. Alex had the
Tall Vanilla Bean Frappucino with whipped cream and orange and cranberry scone. Natalie had the Strawberry Smoothie (only comes in the Grande size) with the Old-Fashioned Glazed Donut. Eric had his usual Strawberries and Cream Frappucino with whipped cream (he got upset one time when they forgot the whipped cream) and blueberry scone. Eric has to have the same thing every time he goes to Starbuck's (definite OCD).

He was upset this morning. When I came home from work, he wanted me to take him out for breakfast. I wouldn't have minded, but I really don't want him to get used to that every morning, or even every morning that I am post-call.

I also wanted to share a few recent quotes from the kids:

--Yesterday at breakfast, we were talking about how Natalie always tries to get in pictures (and she usually has a goofy face when she does) whereas Alex likes to avoid them. He gave his sister this piece of advice, "When you get in a picture, Natalie, you don't want to look like a doofus."

--On the way home from piano one day last month, Natalie tells me in the car, "Explosions are cool except if you're the one in it." This is from the Mythbusters-lover who had just finished watching "X-Men: First Class" at the movie theatre.

--Last week, I was with Eric in a public restroom. He had finished going to the potty and I was just finishing up myself. He tells me, "Mama, you have really big underwear." Thanks, Eric. He doesn't have a good idea about sizes. After all, recently he told me, "Mama, I'm really, really, really, really big."

--Natalie and Eric were both taking a bath together earlier this week. She's always had a problem with dry skin on the back of her legs/bottom area. She tells me, "Eric has such a soft bottom. I want to have a soft bottom." Eric says, "Natalie, you'll never have a bottom like me."

My mom and dad are coming for a visit tomorrow. Yay! Dad is slowing down more and more and I cherish when the kids can spend some extended time with them so they can get to know them while they're still around. Mom and Dad enjoy keeping up with the kids' activities on this blog, but it's nice when the kids can get to know them too.

Nerf Wars

I've written about the kids playing with Nerf guns before. This evening, Natalie had her friend LL over. I went upstairs and they were both under the train table firing Nerf guns while wearing Anthony's old Ninja costumes. Natalie wore the red one, of course, while LL wore the white one. When Alex saw this picture he said that Natalie hadn't asked him if she could play with his Nerf gun. He's being a stickler, but most of those guns are his, after all.

Eric walked in and saw them playing. I was already trying to get Natalie to clean up so LL could go home and she could get ready for bed. I wanted to get Eric ready for bed too. He said that he wanted to play "Nerf Wars" first. I couldn't understand what he was saying at first, until Natalie interprested for me. He must have learned how to hold the gun from his siblings, except that he puts the end of the gun right up to his eye--not a good place for a rifle. In this picture he pointed the gun down so he could at least see me.

I was a little stressed the last couple of days because I had to give a lecture this morning. Well, everything went well, of course, and I am so relieved. I brought brownies to distract my audience, and it worked. Now I'm starting to get in vacation mode. I'm on call tomorrow night then I'll be on vacation for a whole week! I'll be taking lots of pictures then. The kids will all be yelling "No pictures!"

All Four Kids

For once I got a picture of all four kids yesterday! I started off with this wonderful picture of dear Natalie. I came downstairs in the morning and she was the first one I saw. She looked very interested in what she was watching on TV, barely acknowledging me and then I realized--oh, Shark Week starts today. Yes, she watched hours of Shark Week shows on the Discovery Channel. She also taped a few shows to watch later. Tonight she was watching a show called "Sharkbite Beach" that showed graphic footage and first-person stories about gruesome shark attacks. I was grossed out, but she loved it! That girl scares me sometimes!

Eric looked so adorable in his little shortie pajamas and Lightning McQueen slippers, so I asked him if I could take a picture. At first he said "no" but then when I reminded him that the day before he had said that I could take a picture "tomorrow" and that it was already "tomorrow", he more than willingly posed for me. He can be quite a ham! Thankfully that makes up for those other times when he isn't so pleasant.

We went to church at the Sunday 5pm mass. When it was almost time to go he dragged his feet and said that he didn't want to go to church. Then, when he was going to the potty before church he decided that he had to poop and that he needed "pry-bah-cee" (privacy). He takes forever in the bathroom when he poops, so of course we were late going to church. When we got there he said that his stomach hurt, so Patrick took him to the bathroom again just in case. He suspected that Eric was complaining because he was tired. Sure enough, Eric fell asleep at church and slept through most of the mass. He woke up just as they were singing the last song and complained that church was so long and that he wanted it to be over. When we were going out to the car he said that church didn't seem so long "this time". There was only one long song and one short song, or so he thought. Yes, not so cute but cute at the same time.

My photos of the big boys were not interesting at all, but I took them to prove to everyone that they still do exist. Anthony played some PS3 in the morning because he was going to be going shopping with a couple of friends at La Cantera Mall in the afternoon. While there he bought a couple of T-shirts and had ice cream and spent about three hours there before I picked him up. He started his club soccer training camp today. More on that later in the week.

Alex went through a lot of hiding behind that pillow before he decided he would rather watch Anthony play on the PS2 and he had to come out from behind the pillow to watch. As you can see from the picture, he is wearing some athletic-type shorts. He refuses to wear anything that buttons.

His school uniform this year is a white polo shirt and khaki shorts or pants. I had to buy him a pair of khaki shorts and pants (all that were left in his size) when I was at the mall yesterday so he would have something that fit him for school. I asked him to change his shorts for church. Last week he changed into jeans because he said he didn't have any other shorts that fit. This week, even though I had just bought him some khaki shorts, he wore khaki pants instead. This is the child that gets hot so easily but he wears pants when he can wear shorts. I don't understand him at all sometimes. He started his club soccer training camp today also. More on this also later in the week.