30 Days of Gratitude: Days 18 and 19

They're good-looking kids, aren't they? I'm thankful that I got our annual Christmas card photo done and out of the way! It was the usual ordeal to get this done, though. I've been warning the kids all week that I was planning on doing the Christmas card photo this weekend. They still plead ignorance today. Alex and Anthony were trying to play as much on the PS3 as possible, and I had to kick Anthony off the PS3 to get this photo done. That was at least easier than if it had been Alex on the PS3. Natalie had her friend Margot over from a sleepover the night before. Eric really didn't want to change out of his dinosaur shirt. Luckily, they all eventually cooperated.

Getting somewhat matching shirts was another ordeal. Eric is wearing his size 4 shirt that he wore last year. I got him a size 4/5 shirt from Target just in case, but this one still fit pretty well. Natalie's shirt is getting a little short but as she pointed out, she wasn't planning to raise her arms. I did notice that the shirt hugged a few more curves than last year, which always makes Patrick uncomfortable knowing that his dear daughter is maturing. Alex had long outgrown his Boys' Large red shirt from last year, so he was going to wear Anthony's Adult Medium except that Anthony didn't have another red shirt. Luckily, Alex has plenty of white polo shirts that still fit him from his school uniform last year. He also had his red belt and red shoes to match. Those were all his own purchases with his own money. Anthony had to borrow Patrick's white shirt and he was the only one that bothered to tuck his shirt in. All in all, not perfect in any way, but this is the way they look right now and for me, that's what the annual Christmas card photo is all about.

I've also picked out some possible Christmas cards. Now--the annual wait for Patrick to write the text part of the card. This time he has a hard deadline of next weekend for us to save 20%. I need to get these done by the end of the month!

This weekend hasn't been super great weather, but the temperatures have been nice, with the highs in the low 70s, even if it has been a bit cloudy. Because of the warmer weather, Patrick has been going outside to "play basketball" with Eric. Basically he has been showing him how to dribble and to pass the ball. Eric still needs a lot of practice, but he bounces happily outside whenever Patrick suggests playing basketball, so he's enjoying himself. That's what's important. I'm thankful that Eric is enjoying his tour of the different sports so far. We started with soccer and now he's playing basketball. Next will be baseball. Today, Natalie mentioned something about not liking basketball. Eric told her, "Natalie, I'm a basketball player." He is enthusiastic about so many things.

This morning, I got up early partly because I heard Eric playing by himself in the game room. He was doing some writing. He wrote his name (first, middle, and last) several times, along with "dinosaur" and "November", and two of his good friends' names "Christopher" and "Alexander". He still reverses his "b" and "d", but he does pretty well. I'm so thankful that he is enjoying school and writing so much. He has what his teacher calls "popcorn" words like "a" and "the". He also "butters up" the "popcorn" words by highlighting them. His teacher is awesome, isn't she? That is so cute! "Buttering up" his "popcorn" words! We are definitely thankful for his awesome kindergarten teacher!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 16 and 17

Yesterday, the kindergarteners had their annual Thanksgiving Feast. They've been preparing for it all week. On Monday, we had to bring a T-shirt that we had to cut up into strips at the bottom and on the sleeves. The kids dyed the T-shirts in class with tea bags and then tied beads on the strips. They chose "Indian" names. Of course, Eric chose "Smiling Dinosaur". Is that not the cutest thing, or what? They also made placemats with their "Indian" names on them as well as their headbands. Apparently they were able to earn extra feathers for their headbands too. Eric had five feathers.

For their feast, they had grapes, rolled up turkey sandwich meat slices, and pumpkin pie, washed down with apple juice. Although the feast was after 2pm and they had lunch at 11:40am, Eric ate like he hadn't had any lunch. He started on the grapes as soon as he sat down, then he ate the turkey like it was the best thing he had ever tasted. He tried the pumpkin pie but he said he didn't like it, so Patrick ended up eating the rest of it.

After the Feast, we signed Eric out so we could take him straight home. This is a picture of Patrick and Eric walking towards his classroom to pick up his backpack. Patrick is carrying an extra pumpkin pie that we brought but that they didn't need. There were plenty of parents and family there and plenty of food. Eric is carrying the placemat with his "Indian" name on it. The boys got a kick out of his name when they saw his placemat when they got home. Natalie didn't want to come home with us. She wanted to finish out her classes and then she wanted to take the bus so she could sit with her friends.

Patrick and I were thankful we were able to participate in such a fun annual ritual. Five and six-year-olds are at such a fun age for learning this stuff, aren't they? Eric has been enjoying kindergarten so much. One thing he has been doing recently is counting how many syllables in his name. He even told me that he has one syllable less in his whole name as Alex has in HIS whole name. He is so fascinated by that sort of thing right now, and we get excited along with him.

Today was our first relaxing weekend in a while, and the weather was so beautiful, too. Natalie got to play with her friend Margot all day and now Margot is sleeping over, too. Patrick and I got to take Eric swimming at the gym. Patrick was also trying to teach Eric how to play basketball. This season should be quite interesting. Alex finally got to play his new Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 game that he received on Tuesday. Anthony got to "play" with his friends at his old school, where they were having their annual fundraiser called the "King's Fair". We all got to go out for dinner together at Chili's and then ice cream at Brindles. Remarkably, only Margot, Natalie, and I were the only ones to get ice cream. Alex was content to just hang out there and listen to his iPod and the others wanted to go to the Half-Price Books next door. We all have different things to be thankful for today.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 14 and 15

I'm not used to posting on my blog this often anymore. It's easy for me to find things to be thankful for, however. This is a picture of Eric dancing to one of the groups performing on X Factor yesterday. They were singing their version of We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. Eric LOVES this song. Whenever we're in the car and this comes on the radio, he asks for us to turn up the sound on the radio. I'm thankful that he loves music so much. I'm thankful that he feels comfortable enough to just start dancing or singing when he hears a song he likes. I'm thankful to be able to watch him dance, especially with that butt action. The picture is blurry because of the wiggling. It's quite entertaining. I came home from work late last night but I'm glad I came home in time to watch some TV with the kids. Soon after this picture, Natalie got up and started dancing too. Love it.

Today we watched the end of last night's show and then the X Factor elimination show that aired tonight. Natalie was at swim practice with Patrick. As per our X Factor routine, Eric gets completely ready for bed first. I make him do that because he likes to snuggle on my bed under the blankets and I want him to be clean when he does that. What mother doesn't look for any excuse to snuggle with her five-year-old? I'm grateful that he still wants to do that and that I have someone to watch the show with. We didn't make it through the whole show though. Apparently, Taylor Swift isn't one of his favorites. She was performing during tonight's show and right after she came on, he wanted to turn off the TV so he could play with his dinosaurs. I watched the rest of the show on my own after I picked up Alex from the school basketball game that he attended, so I could find out who went home on the show. I got to watch a little of the end with Natalie. These reality shows are more fun to watch with the kids around. I'm thankful for that too.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 12 and 13

I know that I was already grateful for a lot with Natalie this weekend, but I'll have to continue that trend for Days 12 and 13. Yesterday when Natalie went to practice, she found out that she moved up into another team, "Team Atlanta". I spoke to her previous coach, Coach Tanya, who said that Natalie and one of the boys from her team (Jackson) had to move up because they were so much faster than the others. They often had a lot of down time waiting for the others to finish. Coach Tanya said that it was good when they were both on her team because they were able to challenge each other. Now both of them have moved up. Natalie was excited because now she will be on the same team as her friend Kate, who used to also swim at Lifetime Fitness.

Patrick and I were pretty happy with Coach Tanya's coaching. I mean--look how much Natalie has improved in the less than month and a half she has been there. Now she will be in Coach Nyssa's team. They started out swimming two 100 yard butterflies, then they swam 100 yards of each of the other strokes too. Natalie needs to be challenged, and this will be a great move for that.

This picture is of Natalie in her new swim parka. This seems to be standard wear for the swimmers, to keep their muscles warm in between events, and to keep them warm after practice when the weather turns colder. Patrick only ordered it last Thursday, and it was already ready, so he was able to pick it up today, just in time for tonight's temps in the 40s. We're definitely thankful for that! Natalie was so excited that she could barely hold still for this picture. Patrick complained a little about how fidgety she was, but I asked him if he would rather have "always enthusiastic" Natalie or "never enthusiastic" Alex. He agreed that the excitement was easier to handle.

That parka is huge on her! We were told to buy it big, because it supposedly lasts a long time. I'm not sure she'll grow into that parka, but buying it long also keeps her legs covered--again, a plus for keeping her warm when she's wearing her swimsuit in the winter months. She had her name embroidered in red, of course. I was amused when she told me that she also had her last name initial on there, because she's "not the only Natalie around". No, she's not the only Natalie, but she's the only one that's important to me.

Tonight I'm grateful to be able to eat together as a family and that we were able to give back to the kids' school. Natalie and Eric's school has a fundraiser "school night" at the local Willie's Icehouse on the second Tuesday of each month, where 15% goes to their school. Really, it was an excuse to eat out. The schedule was a little tight, because we usually have to leave by 6pm to get to Natalie's swim practice. We got there at around 5pm and they served us pretty quickly. Of course our family eats pretty fast, except for Eric, and we were pretty much done by 5:30. Family togetherness AND a good cause--you can't beat that!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 10 and 11

Yesterday, I was grateful that Natalie was able to get a little better time for her 50 yard freestyle (35.11 sec--still a BB time). She swam the 50 yard backstroke for the first time competitively since joining Quad A, and she was amazing with a BB time of 39.47 sec. At that time, I didn't know what would happen during the swim meet today--more on that later.

Alex spent the night at his friend's house on Friday, so Patrick picked him up Saturday afternoon. We are glad that the kids' grades are available online so we're able to keep up with how they're doing. All of the kids did very well on their 9 week report card (even Eric), but since then, Alex's grades have dropped a bit. He had something like a 65 for one grade and a 75 on another. He has an 88 in two classes. We are grateful that he does relatively well in school, but he seems to only want to do the bare minimum and his dropping grades are concerning. So, because of that, we didn't allow him to go to the movies with his friends yesterday evening. He was not happy, but hopefully he'll understand in the end.

I took all of these pictures today. The first one is of Natalie at the start of the 50 yard backstroke this morning. Usually Natalie would not have been able to swim that event yesterday at the B meet and then again today at the C meet, but because of her coach's slight error she was able to swim that event on both days. Thank you to Coach Tanya for that mistake, because Natalie swam even faster today. She dropped one and a half seconds from her time yesterday for a time of 37.74 seconds (A time)! She knew exactly what she needed to do to improve her time today. One of the dads told Patrick that Natalie looked confident and looked good.

This is a photo of Natalie with Coach Tanya today on deck. This natatorium is set up differently and I wasn't allowed to be down on deck with her, so this is as close as I could get. Natalie also got a B time on the 50 yard breaststroke (50.24 seconds) and a BB time on the 200 yard IM (3:16.61). It's ironic that her coach is doing such a great job of teaching her and that will only result in Natalie leaving her "team" and moving up into someone else's team.

One more thing about Natalie--she came up to me looking a little upset during this morning's warmup. Apparently, the suction cups on her favorite pair of goggles came off or something where they weren't seating correctly. She has spare goggles, but she didn't feel like they were as comfortable. She wears goggles daily, and I felt like a good pair that she was comfortable with would not only help her confidence in her races today, but also be worth the price because of how much she uses them. Luckily, they had a pair on sale there that she was super happy with. I don't know for sure if that helped her do so well today, but it sure didn't hurt. Meanwhile, I also bought her a cool quick-drying towel they were also selling there. It was red, her favorite color, and she was all smiles after that.

I feel like I'm rambling today, but I have to tell one more story about Eric. His teacher told Patrick during their parent-teacher conference that Eric is very close to reading. He has been trying to read "popcorn words" (short words like "the") and he has also been asking how to spell certain phrases so he can write them down, like "Christopher's friend" or "Which one is a T-Rex". This morning, Patrick saw Eric playing "Hangman" by himself. I guess they play this at school, and his brothers weren't up to play with him yet. I guess Eric was pretending to guess the different letters and included some wrong ones. He was up to drawing in the legs of the hangman. The word was "t_e". Patrick suggested that he try the letter "h" as the middle letter. Eric acted surprised and said, "Oh! That fits!" How cute is that? We're definitely grateful that Eric likes reading and writing so much. It won't be long before he's actually reading books.

Tonight, we were actually able to go out to eat as a family. I definitely have to be grateful for that!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 8 and 9

Yesterday, I was thankful that bought some little coloring book/crayon packs at Target. I let Eric have one in the car when we had to go pick up Alex and Anthony from school. Alex had stayed at school to finish some in-class work before the progress report today. Poor Eric was in the car for about an hour with the round trip and waiting for Anthony to get out of school. He was busy with the coloring for most of it, thank goodness, but he started crying on the way home.

He usually starts complaining about being hot when he's tired. I'm grateful that Anthony was in the back seat with him and that he started fanning Eric. After a bit, Eric said that his bottom was hot too. I had to laugh at that, but then told him that we would have to take care of that later since he had to sit in his car seat a little longer. We picked up Wendy's for the kids' dinner and they were all happy about that.

Today, I'm thankful for the fact that Anthony is such an intelligent, considerate, wonderful boy. Patrick was just telling me this morning that one of his teachers (his advisor) told Patrick that Anthony was such a smart kid but what struck her was how nice he was too. That's something every parent wants to hear!

He also got a 219 on his PSAT and that qualified him to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist. He sent in an application which included an essay to hopefully be a Finalist. Wish him luck! His school was honoring the six  "National Merit Scholars" with a breakfast this morning. This is a picture of Anthony with the principal, who had presented him with the plaque. We also got free tickets to their football game this evening, and apparently we get to be on the field with Anthony at halftime. I'm hoping that there will be someone taking pictures for us.

Alex is on a field trip today with his class. He's planning on going directly to his friend's house to spend the night. That means that we'll have to take Eric with us to this football game tonight. If everything goes well with Eric staying up way past his bedtime tonight, I'll be grateful for that too.

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 6 and 7

Yesterday, I was grateful that Patrick and I were able to have breakfast together at Magnolia Pancake Haus. It's the only time I've gone there and gotten seated right away--they're usually super busy, but then we're usually there on a weekend or federal holiday.

I'm also grateful to be able to take lunch to Natalie and Eric at their school, although I was running late. I had gone to the grocery store and got back home a little later than I had planned. I could have made it to Wendy's and then to their school in the right time frame, except that I was stopped by a train. In fact, the train stopped on the tracks for some time. I wasn't worried so much about Natalie. I knew she would just assume that I was running late. I was worried that Eric would think I wasn't going to show up with the expected spicy chicken nuggets and Frosties. Luckily, Patrick had gotten home from Costco already and he went to the school to wait with Eric until I got there. I was grateful that he did that for me and I was grateful that we live close enough to the school that he was able to do that for me!

By the way, Eric is raising his hands here to indicate that he's ready to go after lunch. I'm pretty sure they only have to raise one hand, but they seem to all want to raise both hands. Five year olds are so adorable.

I was grateful that today was my only other work day this week. I might regret that later when I need hours at the end of the fiscal year, but for now I'm enjoying it. Alex had a lot of homework today, so he wanted to skip soccer practice to finish it. That freed up Patrick to take Natalie to swimming. That meant that I could take Anthony and Eric to Pei Wei for dinner. Is it bad that I'm grateful that Alex had lots of homework?

Anthony had one of his favorites, Thai Dynamite Shrimp, and I had that new very spicy Sriracha Shrimp dish. Eric had his usual Kids' Lo Mein and we shared a Fanta orange soda. After we ate, Anthony ran off to Half Price Books while Eric and I ordered some Pei Wei Spicy Chicken for Alex. We love spicy food. This is just a picture of Eric trying to ham it up for the camera while we were waiting. A big fire truck also drove by and Eric got so excited watching it. I love that exuberance.

We met back up at Brindles. Eric and I shared a Creme Brûlée Gelato. I love that flavor, but once again, I'm grateful that I don't have to eat the whole thing by myself. This way I can satisfy my ice cream craving without as many calories. When we first walked up to the counter, he saw a flavor that ended with "Blackberry". He said, "Look Mama. This says 'black' except for the b, e, r, r, and y." I'm grateful that he is finally starting to read!

We went home, got Eric ready for bed, then we watched our X Factor tape together. I'm grateful to Patrick for doing the driving tonight so I could do all of this. It was especially worth it to see Eric dancing to the musical numbers on X Factor. So cute!

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 4 and 5

Yesterday I was grateful to have good residents on call with me. It was very busy--so busy that I didn't have time to send anyone out for lunch. I was also grateful that I had prearranged for the night float team to bring in some dinner, and even then we didn't eat until about 9-11pm, and we couldn't eat together. It's funny that everyone associates Olive Garden with me. One of the SRNAs came in this morning and asked if I had been on call. When I said "yes", she replied that she had seen the remnants of Olive Garden in the resident area and wondered if I had been on call. I was especially grateful that I got to lie down and sleep for a couple of hours. I'm definitely not able to handle lack of sleep like I used to.

Today I'm grateful that I was able to be here when Eric got home from school. He always gives me a big hug when he gets off the bus. With more days off at work lately, I've been enjoying this special perk--it never gets old.

Eric had a smiley face sticker on his hand when he got off the bus. Patrick asked him what he did to get the sticker. He said that he got it because he wrote his name in the right place on his paper. It's been so long since the other kids were in kindergarten that I'd forgotten these little milestones. :)

I went with Patrick to pick up Natalie and Alex. Sometimes it seems like a chore to pick up the kids, but I have to remember what a privilege it is. There are a lot of other parents out there who don't get off work in time to do that. I got to see Natalie coming out of her Strings class. She usually would have hugged me, but her hands were full with that cello of hers. Her first words to me, more or less, were "Can we eat at Panera Bread?" I laughed at her focus, but I did end up taking her there for dinner before swimming. I really miss my family when I'm gone.

So, despite such a rough day yesterday, that rough day enabled me to be home today and tomorrow to enjoy these events that will go away all too soon.

30 Days of Gratitude: Day 3

Today was Alex's last game, sort of. I'm working tomorrow, so I'll miss his actual last game. We've talked to him about this for a month or so. He wants to quit club soccer at the end of this fall season. He doesn't seem to enjoy it and he wants his Saturdays free to do other things. It's frustrating for him partly because most of the boys on his team don't follow what the coach says. Alex does a lot of the goal kicks and ideally he should kick to the outside of the field, for example. Well, all the boys he kicks to tend to cluster in the middle of the field--behind the other teams' players. This is only one of the reasons why they haven't won any games. It's been a few seasons of not winning games and it's frustrating for the parents too. Alex isn't entirely without fault in this. In today's game, for example, while the other team racked up point after point, he was not running, he was walking. He wasn't scrambling for the ball, similar to his teammates. The other team scrambled to the ball and won 8-0.

So, today I'm thankful that he's had the opportunity to play club soccer. I'm thankful that he wanted to play club soccer. Hopefully it will help him when he plays high school soccer next year. Of course, after all of the discussion about quitting, today he expressed doubts. He wondered if staying in club soccer would help him do better in high school soccer. We'll have to do some further discussion on this.

This picture shows one of the boys on the other team leaning into Alex while Alex is trying to move the ball down the field. Alex had told me about this earlier today, before I'd realized that I had taken this picture and an additional three pictures of this exchange. Alex stepped back a little so that the boy leaning into him lost his balance and fell forward. I found it interesting that in the pictures, I can see Alex with a big smile on his face as the boy falls forward. I want to see him enjoying soccer again.

30 Days of Gratitude

I wanted to do this last year, but I didn't get on the ball. Every day for this month, I'm going to state my gratitude for at least one thing, probably with accompanying pictures. I have an app for that! ;) I may not post here every day, but I'll try to record the previous days' gratitudes when I do. It'll be easy to find things to be thankful for. The hard part will be to narrow them down and to take pictures.

Yesterday, I was thankful for a loving husband who went to Target the day after Halloween to get bags of Halloween Kit Kats for 30% off. They're like regular Kit Kats except with white chocolate (colored orange) on the outside inside of milk chocolate, and they only sell them for Halloween. Natalie tried them recently and has professed her love for them as well, so unfortunately, I'll have to split them with her. That's okay, Patrick was able to get seven bags yesterday, which was all they had left. He went to a different Target today to get a gift card for a birthday party that Natalie is going to tomorrow, and he found seven more. He's definitely a keeper!

Today, I'm grateful for Eric's exuberance. He always makes me smile! This was at the hair salon while his brothers were getting their hair cut. He took a regular bench and made it into a jungle gym of sorts. He was having such a great time that it was fun to watch him.

As I posted on Wednesday, he wore a Nemo costume for Halloween. I've mentioned previously that we sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" every night when he's in bed. That has turned into "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Dinosaur" for the past few months. Tonight, as with one or two nights previously, that turned into "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Nemo". While we were singing, we would take the stuffed Nemo he sleeps with every night and hold it up in the air like Nemo was swimming, to go with the words to the song--"Up above the world so high. Like a Nemo in the sky." He had the biggest smile on his face as he was giggling while singing. Such a sweet boy.

I don't want anyone to think my life is perfect, though. Alex's plans to go to a movie with some friends fell through, so Patrick and I were both available to take Natalie to her swim practice. We usually stay the whole hour and a half practice, but tonight we decided to grab a quick dinner at a nearby Pei Wei. When we got back, about 45 minutes later, we were surprised to see that she was still running around in her regular clothes, and not swimming in the pool. She had forgotten to wear her swimsuit!! We were so embarrassed. The one time we leave and she doesn't have a swimsuit and can't swim. Ugh! Patrick has previously told her to keep an extra swimsuit in her swim bag, but of course she didn't do that. What a waste. She only got to swim twice this week between my working late, Halloween, and her forgetting her swimsuit, and she has another swim meet next weekend.

Enough of the complaining, though, I should be thankful that she got to swim two days this week, right? I should be thankful that Patrick didn't kill her for wasting a Friday night? I'm definitely thankful that she can swim every day next week!

Halloween 2012

Today is the big day! Alex invited several of his friends over for a little party tonight. Patrick ordered eight pizzas, thinking that with so many teenagers, that would be about enough. Natalie and Eric didn't finish eating until almost 6pm, but as soon as they finished, they got into their costumes and we went outside.

Every Halloween since 2002, our cul-de-sac has had a little party. We gather around a few tables set up in the street at the entrance of our cul-de-sac. At least one table for potluck food for us, and one table for all of our candy bowls. That way we could socialize with our neighbors instead of waiting for trick-or-treaters in our separate houses.

Unfortunately, the main organizer for the annual Halloween party moved away a couple of years ago. The one who took over for her moved away this year. Luckily, one other person took it upon themselves to at least set up a table for the candy. That left me able to go trick-or-treating with Natalie and Eric, and left Patrick able to stay in the house to watch over the ten 13-year-olds. That same person/family also set up a simple "haunted house" that you can see in the background. They've been doing that for the last couple of years or so. The kids usually love walking through it.

Natalie's friend Margot was dropped off by her mom so she could trick-or-treat with us. Her costume was "Little Dead Riding Hood". Apparently her mom was altering her costume at the last minute and brought her over when she was done with it. I loved her matching basket. Apparently it was the basket that usually held their dogs' toys, but it was the perfect "Little Red Riding Hood" basket.

In previous years, we have trick-or-treated with packs of other kids, so it was a little weird this year to only have Natalie, Margot, and Eric. Most of the kids in our cul-de-sac have either moved away or grown up too much to want to trick-or-treat or at least to trick-or-treat with the little kids. Of course we probably started out earlier than a lot of other kids, and that's why there weren't that many that were out yet.

Anthony had tried to get a couple of friends to come by, but it all fell through. Patrick thinks he's still a little down from his breakup over the weekend. He seemed in good spirits as he led his little brother around from house to house. Eric was thrilled to be with Anthony.

We have long blocks in our neighborhood. It took us about an hour to cover two or three blocks. I brought a pillowcase bag that Eric and Natalie emptied their bags into once before we headed back to the house. I was surprised (but happy) that Natalie and Margot wanted to stop and go home at the same time as Eric. They all wanted more time to eat the candy rather than just collecting it. Once we got home, they separated their loot on the floor and traded a few pieces. The teenagers were out and about at that time.

We took Margot home a little after 8pm, then one of Natalie's other friends, Maya, came by with a group after we got home. She went out trick-or-treating with them for another half hour or so.

Luckily, the teenagers let me snap at least this one picture of them. Later Alex was wearing one of the girls' wings, but he wouldn't let me take a picture, of course. The girls actually came in costume, one of them was supposedly not allowed to come (per her mother) unless she came in costume. They had just come back from roaming around the neighborhood and they were having snacks. Some of them had eaten before coming over, so we had lots of leftover pizza. Patrick took two of them to the cul-de-sac party outside.

By the way, that lantern that Eric is carrying in the first photo above is supposed to be a glow lantern, but I guess I've had it for a while and it didn't glow very much when I activated them. For some reason he still insisted on bringing it along. He has a glow necklace on also. It was just starting to get dark when we got home, so we didn't really need flashlights or other glowing objects after all.

As I see the big boys getting bigger, I get a little sad that they don't participate in these events like they used to. Because of that I have learned to savor every moment with the little ones. Eric has a wonder about him. For example, we've never had trick-or-treaters come to our house since we used to just sit outside at the party. Since the table broke up early out there, we got a few trick-or-treaters at our house. Eric got a kick out of that, and he was saying that we've "never had trick-or-treaters at our house before." Although that's true, he's only been alive for five of the ten Halloweens we've lived here. He was also laughing at the thought of being the one to give out candy at the door because people would "expect a big person" and instead be greeted by him. By that time though, it was time to put him in bed, so he didn't actually get to give out candy to trick-or-treaters. Maybe next year.

Weekend "Lasts"

I didn't get a chance to post this weekend. On Saturday, I went to Anthony's last cross country meet ever. It was the District Cross Country Meet. It was windy and in the 40s, so I bundled up. Anthony wore shorts when I dropped him off at school for the meet, but he was wearing a shirt under his uniform when he ran--he must have actually felt cold, for once.

I was hoping that he would get his best time. Just last week he had his best time ever, 19 minutes for a 5K. I know he was hoping he would get his best time too. This photo is when he was just crossing the finish line. He finished next to last. His watch showed 21:14. :( He didn't want to talk afterwards, but I hung out close to him. Poor thing started dry heaving in the trash can after talking with his coach. :(( I couldn't do too much except for handing him some more water when he finished the water that he had, and giving him tissues to wipe his face after he finished hanging over the trash can. I'm sure it didn't help that his girlfriend broke up with him right before the meet. He said it didn't matter, but who knows. No matter what, Patrick and I are still proud of him, for sure.

His cross country team had an end of season party after the meet. After school soccer practices will start after Thanksgiving.

Anthony ran at about 9am. Eric's game was at 10am across town, and they had already started by the time I got there. It was really cute that Eric waved at me and said "Hi Mama" when he saw me, even though the ball was in play and coming toward him at that time.

He actually scored a goal during that game. I was caught off guard when he kicked the ball pretty hard and it sort of glanced a player on the other team and ended up in the goal, so I didn't get a picture. He was more aggressive during this game. This photo is the result. He was moving the ball toward the goal, but a player from the other team kicked it back at him and the ball ended up bouncing up and hit Eric on the face. I wasn't allowed to rush onto the field even though I really wanted to. By this time, Patrick had left to take Alex to his game that was scheduled for 11:30am across town. Eric started crying and ran off to one of the other coaches. The other coach hugged him and talked to him, and Eric came back into the game wiping away his tears. They won the game anyway with a score of 5-1. Alex's team lost 2-5.

Eric had his last game of his first season on Sunday--they lost 3-5. After the game, we had a cookout with hotdogs and other picnic fair. One of the parents played music from their car stereo, and it was hilarious when "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO came on and all of the five-year-olds started dancing.

Patrick is going to sign Eric up for basketball next. Hopefully we'll get a little break before they start practicing.

Next weekend, Alex will play his last soccer games of the Fall season. He plans on quitting club soccer after that, but he plans on joining soccer in high school next year. We'll see what the next few months brings--probably lots more sports for all of the kids.

Halloween Preview

We have a good friend that loves Halloween. She decorates for Halloween like some people decorate for Christmas. This year she did a Mayan theme, as in the end of the world in December 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends. Everyone in her family dresses up in the same theme--her and her husband, her two children (one of which is Natalie's good friend Maya), and her parents.

Patrick and I were never ones to dress up for Halloween, at least not since we've been adults. We feel like we need to put some effort into dressing up for this party since everyone else dresses up. There were some really great homemade costumes there tonight and in the past. We are boring and we usually buy our costumes. I'll have to share a picture of Patrick and me at a later date.

We got the kids' costumes last Friday. Natalie has been begging to go and finally we went last Friday since she wasn't going to swim practice anyway. We took Eric and Natalie to one of the nearby Party City stores. I bought Eric a Lightning McQueen costume from the Disney Store last year when they were having a big sale. Of course, he didn't want that this year. He wanted to be a dinosaur. The only problem is that they don't have dinosaur costumes for boys his age, only toddler costumes. I had also looked online. They had one or two "dinosaur" costumes, but they looked more like dragons or alligators--not authentic enough for my OCD little boy.

When we got to Party City, he almost immediately settled on the Nemo costume. I had him try it on at the store and he loved it. Natalie was another matter. It took her a good half hour or more to decide on even which costumes to try on, then we had to line up at the fitting room several times (there were a ton of people there last Friday night) to try all of them on. Finally she decided on this "Sparkling Spiderella" costume, which is basically a black velvet gown with a spider web-like stand-up collar. She had actually wanted the costume that I ended up getting for me ("Gothic Temptress"), but it's an adult costume and therefore way too big for her. She didn't want to wear the collar because she thought it would make her neck itch. She was definitely limited with any costume that had netting. The velvet was at least soft for her skin. It doesn't photograph well (see picture), but I think she looks gorgeous with her hair down and parted on the side. She wanted to accessorize with a wooden knife (my "dainty" little girl). Originally she wanted to paint the knife red, but Patrick didn't want anything that would chip off.

I had a full day at work today, and then I had to wait for Anthony to get out of his after school meeting before heading home after 5pm. We rushed getting ready and got to the party at 6:30pm. I realized as we were going out the door that Natalie, Patrick, and I were all wearing black. Eric was our "bright spot" with his orange costume.

At the party, they had a craft table with masks the kids could color and mount on popsicle sticks. Eric didn't actually color his; he put a bunch of dinosaur stickers on the mask just because he could. They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids and lots of Halloween-themed food, drinks, and decor.

The kids ate real food before digging into the goodies. I indulged Eric and let him have two cupcakes. Look at that cute little Nemo. Can you blame me for not being able to say "no"? :)

First Swim Meet

Natalie has been in swim meets before, at neighborhood pools and at big natatoriums, but this is her first swim meet swimming for the big swim club in town, nicknamed "Quad A", or Alamo Area Aquatics Association. One of these days, this will be "old hat". We didn't know what to expect at this one. I had to do the driving instead of Patrick (because he had to go to Alex's and Eric's soccer games), so we left super early, 6:30am. Warmup wasn't until 7:30, but we got there by 7am. I wanted to be sure and get there in plenty of time.

On Saturday, Natalie's previous coach, Coach Kris, was there already. That worked out great. Natalie got to sit next to her during the Saturday session, so when Coach Kris was giving her team members constructive comments, Natalie was right there listening and learning. Her present coach, Coach Tanya, got there at around 9am, when the meet started. She gave Natalie her own constructive comments. We were there until about 11am on Saturday and Natalie only had one race that day, the 50 yard Freestyle. She got about the same time as she did last time.

The picture above is of Eric on Sunday, the second session. He and Patrick met us at the swim meet at around 9am. Patrick wanted to be there for Natalie today, and no one else was home to watch Eric so he came too. Alex was at a birthday party/sleepover, and Anthony was in Austin for a Model U.N. Meeting. They stopped at Starbucks to have breakfast then joined us. As you can see, Eric was very excited when they got there. I'm not sure why--probably the sugar. ;)

Natalie of course loved that her Papa was there today and he was happy to be there. There wasn't any space left to set up folding chairs by the time they got there, so he "shared" Natalie's chair. The folding chairs are much more comfortable than the bleachers.

She had two races today, the 50 yard Butterfly followed closely by the 100 Yard Freestyle. She decided not to warm up with everyone else at 7:30 today, but she still wanted to be there early to eat (she still got to warm up in the water at around 9am on both days also). I had made one of her favorites, red velvet waffles, on Friday, just so we would have them to take along this weekend. I also brought lots of strawberries for my strawberry-loving girl. Her races were also later today--almost 11am, so she had plenty of time to eat. We actually let her have a glazed donut, a luxury for her on race day.

After the races today, Patrick went home and then picked up Alex from his sleepover. I took the little ones to Panera Bread, one of Natalie's current favorite places, and her choice for lunch. We were also going to take the whole family out to El Mirasol for dinner, since we were finally all together, but by then Natalie's allergies were causing her so much trouble that she didn't want to go out. Poor baby. She said that she does better with allergies when she swims because she breathes through her mouth when she swims.

This is a picture I took today of Natalie's 50 yard Butterfly race. She came from behind to finish first in her heat. She had the fourth best time (out of twelve 9-10 year old girls). We're proud of her anyway, but especially since she did so much better than her previous times in the 50 yard Butterfly and 100 yard Freestyle plus she swam those within a half hour of each other (or maybe even less). She knocked off over four seconds and three seconds, respectively!

Natalie's results for the two-day meet are as follows with her previous times in parentheses:

Girls 9-10 50 Yard Freestyle (35.22)--35.66
Girls 9-10 50 yard Butterfly (42.24)--37.96
Girls 9-10 100 Yard Freestyle (1:21.91)--1:18.22

Her next meet is in November, for events for which she has no "official" time yet.

As for the boys' soccer games, Eric's team won on Saturday, 2-1 against a team from the private school the kids used to go to. Alex's team tied on Saturday, 0-0, and won on Sunday, 1-0. They've lost all of the other games, so it was really nice to finally tie one and of course win one.

Mighty Maverick Stampede

Patrick and I volunteered at Natalie and Eric's school today. They were having their big fundraiser for the year, called the "Mighty Maverick Stampede". All the kids ran laps for 30 minutes and they could get pledges for each lap or most commonly, people gave a set amount of money. The PTA also sold advertising to put on the backs of T-shirts that every child received for free.

Patrick volunteered from 9am for the rest of the day and he was stationed in the "Fun Zone" where the kids got to play in a bouncy house and in a huge inflatable slide. I volunteered to help set-up at 7:30am and through the morning. I was assigned to the "finish line". We gave out popsicle sticks to the kids as they ran past so they could keep track of how many laps they had run. After they finished running, the kids received bracelets or necklaces (their choice) with a bead for each lap they ran. That part was the most work-intensive part of this station, because we had to put different amount of beads on a string and then tie the string around their necks or wrists.

Eric and the Kindergarten class went out there at about 10:30am. He was wearing a red bandana around his neck, which we presumed meant that he was one of the class leaders for the day. His friend Vivian, who is also on his soccer team as well as in his class, was also wearing a red bandana. I liked the bandana because I could more easily identify him in a sea of kids who were all wearing the same shirt. As you can see in the picture, he ran five laps, and therefore received five beads on his necklace. (By the way, five laps around their track is apparently equal to one mile). Interestingly, when we got off the bus he told me that everyone in his class was wearing the same shirt and the same bracelets/necklaces. He was excited about that.

I only volunteered in the morning because it was much cooler in the morning plus I could get some things ready for Natalie's swim meet tomorrow--more on that tomorrow. I even took the kiddos to Starbucks for breakfast in the morning then I drove them to school since I was going there to set-up anyway. We met one of the teachers at Starbucks and she told me how much she enjoyed Natalie. That is always nice to hear.

Since the Fifth Grade was running in the afternoon, I wasn't able to be there when Natalie was there. She was able to greet me during recess, however, when she came to give me a hug. She ran seven laps, but Patrick timed the run and said that they didn't give the Fifth Grade the full 30 minutes. It was closer to 20 minutes.

When their bus arrived at our bus stop, the kids were all singing "We Will Rock You". They all had a very exciting day. Natalie and Eric were all chatty and wanting to tell me all about their day. They usually don't want me to take pictures, but they were very willing today.

Dinosaur Obsession

I was making a sandwich for Eric last week. For some reason, he said that it "would be nice" if we could make the sandwich into a dinosaur shape. I had already seen a sandwich cutter on Amazon that cuts sandwiches into two dinosaurs. When I mentioned that I had seen something like he was talking about, his face lit up. Of course, I had to get it. It arrived late last week, but Eric didn't have any sandwiches until yesterday, when I was away at work. Patrick cut his peanut butter sandwich into two dinosaurs. Doesn't Eric look excited and happy?

I also got Eric some dinosaur masks in the same shipment. What I didn't mention was that the masks weren't that realistic. A couple of them didn't look like any identifiable animal, let alone a dinosaur. What can I say? They were cheap.

Eric is just a little bit particular, in fact, we often say that he's a little "OCD" (obsessive-compulsive disorder). I got the feeling that the dinosaur masks weren't a complete hit with him because he couldn't identify some of them as dinosaurs. The triceratops one is by far his favorite because he can actually identify it as looking like a triceratops. I could throw the other ones away and he wouldn't notice. He would notice the missing triceratops mask. Now when he is going to let out some dinosaur roars, he puts on the mask.

Alex bought a couple of extra Jenga block sets recently, so they could use them to build things instead of playing the game Jenga. Eric put them together this morning into a "dinosaur" and wanted everyone to see his creation. It was difficult to photograph with my phone because I couldn't get the whole creation into the frame without getting on something to stand on, so I asked Anthony to take the picture for me.

The head of the dinosaur is up where Eric's head is situated. In case you can't recognize this dinosaur, it's because it's a "made up dinosaur". He likes to make up dinosaurs with fantastic features, like the "Bigasaurus" which is apparently "the biggest dinosaur" ever at "100 feet tall". What an imagination! What a builder! I remember when Alex used to build things like that.

Today for lunch, all of the kids decided they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches. Eric had requested one, cut into dinosaurs, of course, and the other kids decided they wanted grilled cheese sandwiches too, as long as I was already making one for Eric. Interestingly, when the big boys saw me cutting Natalie's sandwich with the dinosaur sandwich cutter, they wanted their grilled cheese sandwiches cut into dinosaurs too. I had actually cut Alex's sandwich into triangles already, and he was fine with that, but he sounded a little disappointed. Anthony ended up with four dinosaurs since he had two grilled cheese sandwiches. I guess Eric isn't the only one who likes dinosaur sandwiches. :)

Too Cute

I bought one of these gadgets that has a fake goldfish in a bowl filled with water. A battery-operated motor moves the goldfish around, making it look almost real and lifelike. There are lights that illuminate the scenery. Well, I put it together yesterday, and Eric really enjoyed turning it on to make the goldfish move and to make the lights change colors.

I had also bought these dinosaur masks. That one was met with mixed reviews. He seems to really like the triceratops one and he was using it along with his usual dinosaur roar as he played around the house. You put the two together and you have a five-year-old roaring like a dinosaur at a goldfish in a bowl. Isn't that just too cute?

Midget Soccer

Anthony was the one who coined the phrase "midget soccer" in regards to Eric's soccer practices and games. On one hand, it sounds mean, but on the other hand, Anthony IS quite a bit taller than the kids on Eric's soccer team. Anthony started out helping Patrick coach during the practices, but recently, he has been working on his college applications and his homework. Hopefully he'll be able to send in some applications by next week.

I took this first photo this past weekend. Eric was goofing around as usual. I was surprised, however, that he seemed more animated as a whole. He wasn't just picking up trash or weeds from the soccer field. He was actually running after the ball. I could actually cheer "Go, Eric" as he was running after the ball. He has more aggressive members on his team, and his main goal seemed to be to kick the ball out of bounds. This worked fine when he was on defense, but not so well when his team was trying to score and he kicked that ball out of bounds. During Saturday's game, he even scored...for the other team. Patrick said that was the strongest, hardest kick he had given, but unfortunately it was for the other team. Oh well.

The wonderful thing about "midget soccer" is that no matter who is ahead, all the kids, at least on Eric's team, seem to be happy. They seem to all enjoy just being out there, running around, and kicking the ball. It was really cold on Sunday, when I took this picture, so Eric was wearing long sleeves under his uniform. The long sleeves gave him something to play with. The other kids were all running out there almost oblivious to the cold wind blowing on them, except when they were sitting on the bench. They won both games this weekend.

I have to share one funny story from this past weekend about what happened during Alex's soccer game. Alex had a soccer game at 9am on Sunday. Eric had his game at 1pm. Since Anthony was out of town on the field trip, we couldn't leave Eric home with Natalie, although we let Natalie stay home by herself. All I could get him to wear over his clothes was a windbreaker, with the temperatures in the 40s with a strong, cold wind. I told him that I was going to bring a big blanket with us to Alex's game "just in case" Eric needed something warmer. He replied, "It's okay. I'm wearing a jacket and it's zipped up." He thought he would be protected from the cold because his flimsy jacket was zipped up?!!

When we got to the soccer field, I tried to convince Eric to stay in the car and watch the game from the car. He didn't want to. He wanted to sit under the trees on the park benches like we usually do. Well, the park benches were all sectioned off because of the pumpkin patch they are planning to put in this week, so I brought out two folding chairs, my camera bag, the big blanket, and my purse. After lugging that out there and setting up the chairs, Eric starts looking at me unfolding the blanket so I could wrap it around myself, and he says, "Mama, can I share the blanket with you?" I reply, "Of course, Eric!" After a little while under the blanket and still being cold, he said, "Okay, we can sit in the car." Great, then I got to lug everything back to the car where we watched the rest of the game. At least we were warm the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Alex's team lost pretty badly and they were scoreless.

I love this picture of Patrick getting down to the kids' level. They all seem to be paying attention, too. Coaching five and six-year olds has been a challenge, but I know Patrick is up to it and enjoys it. I think they enjoy him, too.

Homecoming 2012

Patrick and I asked Anthony several times a couple of weeks ago if he needed to get Ali, his date for Homecoming, a corsage. He had a clueless look on his face each time we asked, and he said, "I don't know." Sigh. Fast forward to this past Thursday, when I picked up Anthony from school to go get his hair cut, he asked me if he could get flowers for his date, Ali, for Homecoming. That was TWO days before today--two days before he needed the flowers. Bigger sigh. That meant we had to get flowers that night.

We tried one florist near where he got his hair cut, but she only did weddings and special events. She even offered up, although I'm still not sure why, that her good friend who does Homecoming corsages, was just hospitalized with a stroke and she had just returned from visiting her at the hospital. She even called her friend at the hospital. Luckily, we were able to order flowers from our local grocery store, HEB.

He still needs his Mama after all, because he wanted me to go ask about a corsage. The lady behind the florist counter at HEB asked him what color his date was wearing--cream. She asked him what color accents or jewelry she was wearing--blank look. He said that Ali had barely wanted to let him look at a picture of the dress. (How cute.) The lady knew what she was doing and talked about using cream-colored roses and an "iridescent" ribbon that would match whatever Ali was wearing. Anthony and Patrick picked them up on their way home after his SAT Subject Tests this morning.

I actually forgot to take a picture of it this afternoon, but it was beautiful, with small cream-colored roses to match her dress. I thought it was cute that when he presented the corsage, she looked a little alarmed and said, "Was I supposed to get you something too?" How cute was that?

Anthony indulges me more than his siblings. He lets me take whatever pictures I want, for the most part. He expected that I would want pictures of him with his date all dressed up. I took the picture of him first, while we were waiting. Since he doesn't drive yet, but his date does, she was picking him up. The only problem was that, first of all, she was running late, as we ladies know sometimes happens when we get ready for a big event. In fact, she called him while I was taking pictures of him to tell him she was running late. That was at 6:35pm. Second, she got lost. She called again around 7-7:15pm to tell him where she was so he could tell her how to get to his house.

So, it was getting dark already by the time she drove up. I did the best that I could with the dim lighting, but I was hoping for better light. Patrick warned her immediately about me and my camera. She replied, "My mom is the same way." I liked her right away. :) She also indulged me with posing while I adjusted my camera settings. Anthony had already called Maggiano's, where they were going for dinner (I was proud of him that he actually made reservations on his own!), to tell them that they were running late. Patrick and I gave him lots of cash, so hopefully he won't come up short.

Tomorrow they're both going on a field trip to visit Texas Tech University. The bus leaves at 7:30am, so they won't want to stay up too late tonight. At least they can sleep on the bus. That also means that we won't be able to do anything special for him on his birthday, which is on Monday, because the bus doesn't get back until about 10pm on Monday night. I'm having a little trouble getting used to the fact that I won't be able to spend his birthday with him next year and ESPECIALLY NEXT YEAR. Biggest sigh of all. At least for tonight I know that he is having fun and that his birthday will be extra fun since he will be spending time with Ali. Don't they look cute?

Enjoying Alex and Eric

This was a photo I took today of Alex and Eric walking back home from the school bus. Natalie is running on ahead of them. Alex had come home early with Patrick. He was inside his room when Patrick and I left the house to go to the bus stop on the corner. I yelled for him to come greet Eric at the bus stop because I knew Eric would get a kick out of seeing him there. Patrick told me that Alex had been outside all day and that he wouldn't want to come out. I told him that Alex would come out for Eric. I was right. When Eric saw him, he said, "How did you get here so fast?" Eric hadn't expected Alex to get out of school early and be home already. I love how well they get along.

For most of today, Alex's class was at a rocket launch. They had built rockets and today was the day that they launched them to see how high they went and for how long. They'll make adjustments to their rockets based on the results they obtained today. His teacher had requested volunteers--that's why Patrick was there. The other classes had their launches the same day, so that's all they had planned. When Alex's class was done, Patrick went ahead and took him straight home, after picking up a late lunch at Subway, that is.

Alex also had a haircut today. It's already been 7 weeks since he got his haircut and even HE admitted that it was getting long. It's been a combination of his and the family's activities that kept him from getting his hair cut sooner. He made me promise to not get it cut as short as the time before when he went with Patrick instead of me. Patrick had told the girl "two inches" and I guess she took him literally. Alex was not pleased. What made it worse was that when they got home, Natalie said (without thinking, of course), "You got your hair cut short." That did not help. I made him promise to get at least one inch cut off. He agreed. I also made the next two appointments for him--four weeks from now and another one four weeks after that. If he doesn't want it cut much each time, I'll have to make sure he gets it cut more often.

Everything is a negotiation with Alex. I'm glad he's smart kid, but sometimes I want to say, "Because I told you too" and not give any other reason. Once I give him a good reason, however, he tends to back down. I could go into more detail, but that would be a long topic.

For now I'm just enjoying that Eric and Alex are enjoying each other.