A Night at the Museum

This is just a quick post by Patrick to add to Melanie's post below. I will try to keep it short because I am sure that Melanie will post again tonight or tomorrow about Natalie's swim meet and Alex' Birthday. I also have to find a few pictures that are different from those Melanie picked.

Melissa's company provided her with tickets for ALL of us to get into the museum after hours and enjoy food and drinks while walking through all of the exhibits and we had tickets to see a movie about "Flying Monsters" in 3D. Yes, Eric is in dinosaur loving mode lately so you know he was excited, I would say I was almost excited as he was. The big boys might not admit it, but they all had a great time too.

Alex, as per usual, did his best to dodge pictures but even he got distracted enough by the various sights that once in a while I was able to snag a picture of him too.


The new Paleontology exhibit was the major hit, though we did take the time to visit the "Warriors, Tombs, and Temples" and the "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" which were wonderful exhibits. I enjoy walking through museums and looking at various exhibits, but I particularly enjoy seeing the reaction of the kids as they go through. It is difficult for even jaded teenagers to cover the awe inspired by the large skeletons and pictures of dinosaurs. Nothing matches the wide-eyed awe of younger children like Eric. I enjoyed the displays as much as I enjoyed watching the kids enjoy themselves. It was a wonderful evening.


When we lived in Houston we were members at the Museum and would visit with Anthony fairly often. The Museum has vastly expanded since then and I look forward to visiting again one of the next times we go to Houston. I think our Night at the Museum was easily worth the drive back and forth. It was a shame that Melanie couldn't come with us, but maybe next year. Melissa, thank you again for the tickets!

Houston Trip Minus Me

One of the perks of working for a big corporation is that they have company functions you can participate in. The next best thing is to have a relative working for a big corporation. My sister Melissa got tickets for us to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston through her company. The tickets included food, entrance to the museum and a documentary movie called Flying Monsters 3D, about flying dinosaurs. As soon as she told me about the dinosaurs, I knew Eric would be thrilled. I also knew that since this was on a Friday night, I wouldn't be able to go, so the rest of the family went without me.

This first picture shows where their table was, in the big hallway under the dinosaur bones--pretty cool. Both of my sisters and their kids went, as well as my brother-in-law. He seemed more interested in the museum than the other kids. They split up into two groups because Melissa wasn't able to get tickets to the same movie showing for all of them. Patrick took our boys and my nephew Nick. Natalie went with the girls and the rest of the family. My parents weren't interested in going, so they stayed home. My family stayed with them, so they got to see them before and after the museum and then this morning before they left for home.

My sisters and Patrick also texted me various photos through the night, so at least I felt like I was a little bit involved. Cynthia texted me a couple of photos of the girls in front of a shark mouth, and then this one of Natalie in front of a prehistoric shark, a megalodon. Natalie still loves sharks.

I'm not going to post all of those photos, but another one showed the girls with their glasses up as if they were giving a toast. Melissa said they were "raising a cup to Aunt Melanie." Awww, that was nice. Natalie said they were "trying to act all official". There was another photo of Anthony and Nick getting on a spinning ride. My sisters and I are prone to motion sickness and my sister Cynthia texted me, "Our boys are crazy!" Patrick also sent me a photo of Eric eating cotton candy with a caption that said, "Hi Mama! I am eating pure sugar at 9:45!" They left the museum at about 10pm, and Eric was clearly tired but still going. He had a blast!

Patrick was really good about taking photos for me. I'm going to have to teach him a few things about changing my camera settings, but he still got plenty of good photos. Even though many of the photos were blurry because he couldn't use a flash in the exhibits, I got to see a little of what they were seeing.

I turned this photo black and white because of the funky red lighting in the exhibit, but I love how he captured Eric's facial expression while Nick put his hand in the dinosaur's mouth. He looks a little scared but fascinated at the same time. Apparently, Patrick couldn't get Eric to put his own hand in the dinosaur's mouth.

I definitely had to share this photo. Patrick got the idea for the boys to pretend they were running away from the dinosaur that was chasing them. What a cool idea! I bet the boys were all over that one. They look like they're really getting into it. :)

Alex wasn't in many of the photos. He and Nick were constantly trying to hide behind Anthony when Patrick was taking photos. Patrick had to resort to quickly snapping photos when Alex was there, and as a result, many of them were blurry. I appreciate his effort, though, and I feel like I was almost there with them. I'm hoping that Patrick will post here on the blog with a few more details about the actual exhibits and how the kids enjoyed them.

Perpetual Wedgie

Just a quick post today. Patrick has been bringing Eric to Lifetime Fitness during Natalie's swim team class. On Monday it was because Eric's swim lesson is on Mondays. Yesterday (Wednesday) it was so he can get some active, outside time. On the way there, Eric saw Patrick's hat in the van and decided to put it on himself. He insisted that it was HIS hat since it fit on his head. Yes, the hat did sit on top of his head--but then it would flop forward into his face. Patrick figured it was all good because at least Eric was willing to put a hat on.

I snapped this picture on our way from the car to the gym. I wanted to get a photo of Eric in Patrick's hat and I happened to also catch some wedgie action. Eric is always pulling his underwear out of his crack. Today I asked him, "You seem to have a wedgie all of the time." He replied that he has a wedgie "all of these days". It just cracks me up that pretty much all of the time his hand is right there fixing things.

My family is leaving tomorrow for Houston. I have to work tomorrow so I couldn't go, but they'll be back on Saturday just so they can see me before I'm on call on Sunday. I'll post some photos from their trip when they get back.

Swim Meet Week #2

Natalie had her second swim meet of the summer season yesterday, June 9th vs. Inwood. This was an away meet, so we got to get up slightly later since our warmup time was later. This first picture is of Natalie with her friend Anna and Anna's little sister Sophia. They are posing with a "tigershark" toy owned by their neighborhood swim coach from last year. Natalie coveted that shark, of course.

The following list is of the five events that Natalie was in and the results:

--Girls 11-12 100m Freestyle Relay (1st leg)--First--1:17.11
--Girls 9-10 100m IM--First--1:49.95
--Girls 9-10 25m Breaststroke--Third--28.16
--Girls 9-10 25m Butterfly--First--20.27
--Girls 11-12 100m Medley Relay (3rd leg--butterfly)--Second--1:27.03

Some additional notes:
--She was with the Girls 9-10 category for the 100m IM this time. She would have placed fifth in the Girls 11-12 category this week, behind three of her own teammates, but at least she had her friend Anna swimming with her this time with two girls from the other team.
--She was upset after placing third in the breaststroke. She came out of the pool and said she didn't like swimming breaststroke. Patrick had a talk with her and told her the same thing I had told her earlier, before the race when she talked about how nervous she was about swimming the breaststroke. She really wants to be good at the IM, and in order for her to improve there, she has to improve in the breaststroke. I think she wasn't upset about the third place finish as she was frustrated that she still has a lot of work to do on that stroke. She improved her time last week by about 1 second, which is wonderful, of course. She just needs to be reminded about these things. She is, after all, only nine. The two girls who placed ahead of her are two strong 10-year-olds, one of which is her teammate. She made up for it by beating her teammate in their next race, the 25m butterfly, by two seconds.
--Natalie's Medley Relay team placed a close second to the other relay team from our neighborhood. She was the only 9 year-old in a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds that were much bigger than her, so she has plenty to be proud of.

The Inwood meet finished a little earlier than we had anticipated, which was great because we had to go to another swim meet at our Lifetime Fitness (LTF) gym against the other LTF gym in town. That was great because we had a chance to stop off at home briefly.

I don't have any of the times from the LTF swim meet, but Natalie lost pretty decisively to the 12-year-old dressed in the pink swimsuit shown in this picture. Those races were the 50m Freestyle, Backstroke, and Butterfly, and the 100m IM. (Notice the absence of the Breaststroke event.) That still meant four second places in four tough races after she had already been in five races. My daughter is a glutton for punishment, at least when it comes to swimming.

That last sentence was further proven by the fact that there was "another" swim meet (adults) after the kids' swim meet at LTF. Natalie really wanted to swim the 200 meter IM and the 200 meter freestyle, but none of the kids were swimming that race. There is a swim class made out of adults called the "Masters" class. They were supposed to swim after the kids' swim meet in their own races. Apparently, a lot of people didn't show up, and this swim meet was much more informal, so some of the swim coaches just swam for fun. Natalie also convinced Patrick to swim.

At first he was only going to swim the 50m Freestyle, but because one of the young guys, a high school senior, wanted to swim the 50m Butterfly but he didn't want to swim by himself, Patrick swam that race too. Another woman actually ended up joining them and Patrick had to point out that the last time he swam that race for a time, neither of those two had been born yet.

They only had one adult each swimming the 200m IM and the 200m Freestyle, so they swam those races at the same time. That meant that Natalie couldn't do both races, she had to choose one. Of course she chose the IM. The girl she "swam against" had gone to college on a four-year swimming scholarship. Natalie didn't beat her, of course, but she was so excited that she had the chance to swim. After nine other races, she swam the 200m IM in about four minutes. Like I said, Natalie is a glutton for punishment.

Patrick and Natalie were having so much fun that I couldn't complain that I wanted to go home. They swam in one more relay for fun. All the swimmers (eight of them) swam in a relay style, 25m each. They were both pretty pumped up after this, and we finally went home. No swim meet next weekend. The next swim meet will be on a Monday, a week from tomorrow.

First Week of Summer 2012 Update

Well, we made it through the first week of summer. I thought I would detail what each child has been up to in order to update the in-laws. We're still busy in some ways and not in some others.

Anthony had to do some sort of internship this summer as a requirement to graduate. He really only started looking in May, which seemed really late to us, but apparently there were others who waited even longer. He basically did this all by himself. He looked up the name of a professor at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) who did things related to Materials Science, which is what he is interested in. He was very happy when he got an email back asking him to come for a visit. That was this past Monday, June 4th, and he pretty much started right away. His first task has been to learn all about the electron microscope and he has been enjoying all of it. That means that he will be doing this every day until the end of July when he becomes the Head Counselor at the P.E. Camp at his school.

Besides the internship, he also signed up for an informal 7 vs. 7 soccer league that plays on Friday nights. He signed up with his best friend, Alejandro and some of his friends. So far he's been getting rides from his friend and it's an excuse to stay overnight at each other's houses. Anthony doesn't even know how long they'll be playing, but he scored a goal in last Friday's game and he's enjoying that too.

Anthony has decided to do a little training for Cross-Country this summer. He only started Cross-Country last Fall because his Soccer Coach wanted all of the soccer kids to start some conditioning in the off-season. He ended up enjoying it, so now he's going to try to do some running this summer. Of course, when he tried that this past week, he learned a valuable lesson. Don't eat bagels with peanut butter before running.

Alex's life has been much simpler since school ended. His main goal is to play as much on the Playstation 3 and his iPod Touch as possible. We've allowed him plenty of game time this first week, but we'll start insisting on some physical activity starting this coming week. To his credit, he did go outside a couple of times to play with the soccer ball. He and his younger siblings also did some cleaning and reorganization in the game room. He also made a "fort" made out of blankets and playhouses in his and Eric's bedroom and he's also been getting plenty of sleep. Unfortunately, late in the night on Wednesday, June 6th, the PS3 stopped working while he and Anthony were watching a movie on it. He hasn't had as much game time as he had hoped. We actually bought a new one since the other one was pretty old, but after a whole day of working with the new one and transferring the stuff on the old hard drive to the new hard drive, the new PS3 is making some loud noises and making the game discs very warm. We'll see what happens this next week with that.

Natalie has been the most physically active one. This week she went to the neighborhood swim team practice in the mornings at 10-11am, then she would go to the Lifetime Fitness swim team practice in the evenings from 5:30-6:30pm. She had the first swim meet of the summer last Saturday, June 2nd, and she had the second one today, the 9th. She actually had three swim meets today, but I'll talk about that in another blog post, probably tomorrow.

Because she has been so physically active, we've allowed her plenty of down time in the form of videos. She and Anthony went through all the available episodes of the animated show "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and now they are watching the followup series called "The Legend of Korra". She's been watching on the computer and on the iPad. She's been almost as obsessed with these shows as she has been obsessed with swimming. This morning, when Patrick went to get her up for her swim meet around 7am, he found her already in the office watching videos on the computer. She got in a lot of trouble for that one.

This past week, Natalie also went to the orthodontist to get a new retainer. She had to have a baby tooth pulled (as I mentioned in a previous blog post), so the old retainer no longer fit. She has to wear this new one all the time except for when she eats and when she swims.

Patrick has tried to plan some activities to keep Eric active. A couple of days this week he took Eric swimming. Eric loves the water and we're hoping he'll want to join the neighborhood swim team next summer, if nothing else so he can stay active since we have to be there for Natalie anyway. Also, Patrick took Eric to his swim lesson at Lifetime Fitness, which is now on Monday evenings to coincide with Natalie's swim practices.

Eric, however, has been mainly at home this past week, and especially today. Since Patrick, Natalie, and I were gone for most of the day, Eric was left in the care of his big brothers. They did play with him, but they were also preoccupied with the new PS3, transferring data from the old one, and setting up the new one. When we got home around 4pm, we asked the big boys if they had fed their little brother. Both boys were mostly silent except for some guilty looks and noises. What conscientious babysitters they were! Eric isn't a big eater and he has to be reminded to eat. We certainly don't need him to be missing meals. Hopefully he'll get more food and more fun activities this coming week.

I'll try to post again tomorrow with pictures and info about Natalie's swim meets.

Just A Swimsuit Trip

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

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

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

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

Found Toys Are New

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

Swim Meet #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hyatt Hill Country Resort

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teacher Gifts

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

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

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

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

Women's Shoes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Field Day

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

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

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

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

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

My New Lens

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

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

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

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

Kindness

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

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

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

Spring Recital 2012

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

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

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

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

Across the Pool

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

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

Papa and Eric Time

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

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

Tuesday the 8th--Dinosaur Quest

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

Thursday the 10th--Witte Museum

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

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

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

Natalie's Mother's Day Gift

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

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

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

Happy Mother's Day 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blue Whale Project

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

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

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

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