Eric's 6th Birthday

Today is Eric's sixth birthday. On Facebook, I posted a link of my blog post six years ago, describing his birthday story. That seems like yesterday.

Patrick brought cupcakes in to school for Eric's class. They have a requirement nowadays to only have store-bought goodies at parties because of all of the child allergies out there, so I didn't bother trying to make anything special. Patrick also brought Eric's favorite lunch--Wendy's Spicy Crispy Chicken Nuggets and a Vanilla Frosty. It was unfortunate that Wendy's messed up his drive-thru order, but Eric and Natalie didn't seem to mind. Patrick wasn't even able to be there when the cupcakes were distributed by Eric's teacher. She picked them up from the office where he had left them and distributed them herself.

Patrick also displayed a new crafty side today. He has been unable to find dinosaur wrapping paper anywhere, so he made his own. He wrapped our presents to Eric and my sister Melissa's presents to Eric in kraft paper and then he used Eric's stamps and ink to stamp the paper. Eric didn't seem that impressed, but I think because he almost expects everything to be dinosaurs anyway. What a lucky boy.

When the big boys came home around 5:15-5:30, Eric opened his gifts. Anthony's best friend and Eric's "other brother" Alejandro was already here. The theme was definitely dinosaurs from books and a Lego Creator from Aunt Melissa and cousin Emily to an excavation set from Grandma. Aunt Cynthia and her family got him a requested Nemo play set. Yes, he still loves Nemo and still sleeps with a Nemo stuffed toy in his bed every night--right next to the T-Rex. They also got him a requested Cars polo-type shirt and Cars-themed swim goggles. I was sending Cynthia pictures of everything he was asking for as Eric and I shopped at the Disney Store a week and a half ago. I'm told that he still has other presents coming. His big brothers even drove by the Toy Zone near us to get him this Brachiosaurus. This toy is $40 and I had discouraged Alex from getting it. I guess Alex knows what his brother likes. What a very lucky boy.

We went to Chili's for dinner. I'm not sure why Eric loves Chili's so much. He only ordered the kids' Mac and Cheese, which is what he gets at pretty much every place we go out to eat nowadays. I think he just has fond memories of Chili's when we used to go almost every Saturday after we went to church. Tonight he ordered the kernel corn as his side, but he was disappointed when it came. It took Alex to be able to decipher why Eric was upset. Apparently, the picture in the kids' menu looked like candy corn, and that's what Eric thought he was ordering. Um no--you're not THAT lucky a boy.

We went to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream after dinner. Yes, this was Eric's choice also. He had his favorite--Rainbow Sherbet. Afterwards, I had to take a picture of Eric with Alejandro. Alejandro is almost a member of our family, although the last year or so has been very busy for him and for Anthony, so we haven't seen him much lately. Still, he made a special trip to be with us for Eric's birthday. Now THAT is a lucky boy.

Senior Design Project

Anthony has to complete a "Senior Design Project" in order to graduate. The model is due this coming Friday. I asked him to explain what that is and I basically typed it all in as he narrated it below:

The goal of the senior design project is to pick a problem and solve it. The problem Anthony picked was the inability to charge a mobile device while on the move, given society's increasing reliance on such devices. He decided that a solar panel would be the easiest and best way to increase the battery life of a mobile device. Originally he had planned to have a special type of cell (CIGS solar cells), which are extremely efficient and flexible, as well as very thin, making them ideal to create a phone case to hold them. The company, however, never responded back to his email or phone messages about the materials. So, the problem now is that the solar panels he was able to get are not the ones he wanted. Of course, he only got them the week before last, which doesn't give him much time to modify them. Adding to his problem of having the wrong solar panels, he did not want to tamper with the actual phone battery because there would be the possibility of an explosion--a bad thing. So now, he has a larger, less efficient solar cell which is directly connected to the charging portion of solar device. This solar device is charging very slowly, which he expected, but there's also an issue with the phone receiving the power, even when it's connected to the solar device. The phone fluctuates between charging and not charging every second, and he can't figure out why. Because the project is due on Friday, he has no choice but attach the device to a case and hope that it works well enough, given enough time to charge.

Despite the problems he is having with the building of his model, he is grateful that his father is helping him. Patrick had been asking Anthony about this project and if he had the necessary materials for weeks now. Luckily, Patrick is able to give Anthony guidance as to how to attach everything and what additional building materials he needs. They both went to Radio Shack yesterday to get some materials, including a soldering iron to attach the wires. Anthony had to go back to Radio Shack late this afternoon because of the problems he was having with the charging fluctuations. Luckily the presentation and the research paper on the project isn't due this Friday. Making the model has been time-consuming and problematic enough.

I was able to get the above photos this morning. Anthony needed some photos for his presentation about his project. Patrick remarked on how Anthony had his personal photographer "on call". I knew he wanted pictures at various stages, so I hung out in the garage with the two of them, playing on my phone until they called me for another picture. I was glad to do my part.

Speaking of doing their part, Eric is starting to do chores. He helped here and there before with cleaning the game room (usually his mess anyway), folding the laundry (I think I may have already shared a photo of his folding a shirt on my blog), and emptying the dishwasher. Today he did almost the whole dishwasher, with some help with drying the things that were still a little wet and reaching the drying rack and such. I joked about how he is blurry in this photo because he is moving so fast. He knows that he will start receiving an allowance when he turns six. That's on Tuesday. I give out their allowance on Sundays, so next Sunday will be his first "payday". Of course I hope he continues to be energetic about doing chores, but I know that won't be the case, just like with his siblings.

I've been dreaming about Warm Chocolate Melting Cake since we had it on the cruise a couple of weeks ago. I found a recipe online and I was dying to try it out. We're going to be very busy on the weekends between now and the end of school, either with kid activities or with Anthony and Patrick gone on college trips. I made a simple fried rice dish for dinner incorporating the brisket leftovers from earlier this week and I made the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert. For me, the center could have been more liquid, and the top could have been more done, but the taste was pretty much the same. Even better, the kids and Patrick all loved it and asked me to make it again. It was funny how excited they were that I was even talking about making it. Natalie couldn't finish her cake, but she asked for everyone else's extra vanilla ice cream. This recipe is definitely going in the recipe file to make again.

Swim Banquet

Natalie has only been in club swimming for a little over six months, so we're still having lots of new experiences. Today was their banquet. We've just finished the "short course season" where the kids swim in a pool with 25 yard lanes. Starting next week, we are starting the "long course season" where they start swimming in Olympic size pools, which are 50 meters long. I think a lot of kids take the long course season off, so they have their banquet now as a sort of end of season/year celebration.

As we walked in, the kids all got medals based on their best times. Natalie's best times meet the "A" standard times, so she got this medal. As she took her medal, she made a sad face and said, "I was so close to TAGS times!" TAGS times are faster than "A" times, and indeed, she was very close to a couple of TAGS times. The kids that had TAGS times, of course had different medals. During the presentation part of the banquet, they called out the different categories of time standards. When they called for the kids with the "A" times to come up onto the stage, Natalie and her friend Aspen, who are on the same team, were the first ones up there. When they had the kids with the TAGS times onstage, they talked about how kids 14 and under who achieve the TAGS standard times tend to eventually be competitive at the National level. I looked at Patrick hopefully. Natalie is close enough that she will most likely be able to get a TAGS standard time well before she turns 14. He whispered to me, "I told you she's good." I still have no concept. The National level still seems very far away, but it was nice to know (since Natalie has stated her goal to make it to the Olympic Trials) that she has a chance.

Besides the awards part of the banquet, they also had some fun stuff. When we got there, Natalie immediately found two of her friends, Aspen and Renzi (L->R). They hung out together for the whole time we were there. They had a Hawaiian theme. Patrick wore his one Hawaiian shirt. I didn't really have anything, and neither did Natalie. They had a Hawaiian dance group perform during the entertainment part of the banquet. First they performed and then they took audience volunteers and showed them how to do a Hawaiian dance. They even gave them hula skirts to dance in. The audience, especially all the kids, got a big kick out of the boys that participated, especially this one particular boy that got front and center and wiggled his hips quite a bit. Natalie's two friends were encouraged to go on stage, as was she, but even though they were reluctant, they went ahead and went onstage. Natalie adamantly refused. I was hoping for a photo op--oh well.

I didn't mention dinner. They had lots of varieties of pizza for dinner. I tried their spinach and alfredo and veggie--both good. The swimmers got to line up first and there were several boys with five or size pieces on their plates. Natalie remarked on how much she loved the cupcakes, which were chocolate filled. By the time Patrick and I got to line up to eat, the cupcakes were gone. There was a big cake left and lots of fruit. Apparently, Aspen's mom made all of the desserts. I was impressed, considering Aspen is a triplet plus she has an older sister AND they're home-schooled, so Aspen's mom is already very busy on a normal day.

The order of festivities was check-in, dinner, entertainment, awards, and then dancing. At first, Natalie was fine with going home after the awards, but then she started having fun with her friends. They started doing a sort of Hawaiian congo line all around the room. This photo is a bit blurry because of the moving subject, but at least Natalie is the least blurry kid in the photo. She was having a blast. She would have wanted to stay longer, but for whatever reason, they started cleaning up the banquet hall. I guess they were going to clean first then allow people to keep dancing? That didn't make sense to me. Anyhow, at that point, pretty much everyone started leaving, so Natalie was fine with also leaving.

So thus ends our first swim banquet. There will probably be many more.

Little Things

I was just explaining to Alex this evening about how sometimes it's just the little things that make me happy. Yesterday, I got the results of the Resident Semi-Annual Evaluation of Faculty. Almost of the comments were complimentary, for the most part. They all seemed to "like me", except for one. That one read as follows:

"In speaking with other residents, it seems that Dr. Lawinger is fairly enjoyable to work with. She becomes frustrated very easily, though, and is quick to blame residents for situations/outcomes that are often out of control of the residents. She writes highly critical evaluations when she perceives something is wrong with a resident, but she writes very little if a day went well. She does not inspire much confidence from the residents because she gets frustrated and argumentative easily. Many residents voice that they do not look forward to working with her."

I was very upset when I read this. I showed it to another faculty member and he said, "That doesn't even sound like you." Today I showed it to several more faculty who assured me that this was incorrect. I pleaded with them to tell me that if there was some truth to this comment that they tell me, because I would be compelled to change something. The person described in this comment was not the person I wanted to be. What did I do that made this person so mad at me? The last line also bothered me, because they supposedly got the same feedback from other residents, although the other comments I received did not support that. Several others that I showed this to today, including former residents that are now also faculty, told me that they didn't think this was true also. I'm slowly feeling better about this, but I was pretty distraught yesterday.

Yesterday evening, I took Alex and Eric to Baskin-Robbins (Eric's request). I told Alex about this evaluation and he said the sweetest thing. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Whatever. That's just one person. You're awesome, Mama." Awww, what a sweetie! I felt so much better after that!

Today, I had to work late. I didn't leave work until after 6pm. I went straight to Heroes Stadium where Alex was running in a track meet. I missed his first two races, the 4x100 relay (they placed 6th), and the 4x200 relay (they placed 3rd). I was able to watch the 4x400 relay, the very last event where they placed fourth. After the race, I was following Alex so I could ask him if he wanted me to pick up something for him to eat before meeting his bus at the school, or if he wanted to eat at home. He said he had to run to the bathroom and he had a pounding headache. Finally he told me he wanted to eat at home, and because I know he doesn't like for us to hang around him too much, I started to turn to walk out of the stadium to my car. He came up behind me and gave me a quick hug. That was enough to totally make my day!

On the way out of the stadium, I got a call from Patrick. Eric was going to bed and wanted me to sing his bedtime songs to him over the phone. I waited until I was in my car to call back so I could sing to him. We did our little routine where I would start singing a line from the requested songs, (ABC Song, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Little Star, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town), and he would either finish the phrase or substitute a different word. He loves inserting "dinosaur" instead of "star" in the song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). He seemed to enjoy it and Patrick told me that I made his night. I loved that too!

I explained to Alex tonight about how he made me so happy when he told me that yesterday and when he gave me a hug this evening. He thanked me for going to his meet and told me again that I was awesome. I told him that I enjoyed little things like that. It's those little sweet things that make me happy.

Easter Traditions

We continued some traditions and started some new ones for Easter this year. Our family couldn't make it to town to visit us this year. We didn't go out of town because we were out of town for all of Spring Break and barely got back a couple of weeks ago. While it's new that we didn't spend time with family, it was also new that we got invited to our friends' house for Easter.

We first got to know Alicia and Al when our daughters started swimming together. They live around the corner from us, and we've enjoyed spending more time with them lately. We walked over there at about 12:30pm. We had lunch--"Mexican Style" then we did our usual Easter egg hunt for Natalie and Eric and their two girls Anna (age 10) and Sofia (age 6). This time the big boys got the eggs ready before we even left the house. I heard Natalie saying to Anthony, "Hey, you're not supposed to be eating (candy)!" I just laughed and I knew she was talking to Anthony. Our friends prepared their own eggs. Here, the boys are counting the eggs so we could know when we had found all of them.

Look at that sheer enjoyment on Natalie's face! Well, actually, that looks a bit sinister. Natalie really loved mashing eggs on top of her brother's head. After they kiddos found the eggs, we moved on to our tradition of breaking cascarones over each others' heads. I am usually immune because I am taking pictures, and I don't want to risk getting confetti all over or inside the camera. Of course Anna and Sofia didn't obey that rule, and really, neither did Alex. Alex at least went for my arms, probably to avoid the camera. Each child had a dozen cascarones, plus one dozen for Patrick.

Poor Eric had a lot of eggs broken over his head because he was such an easy target. Poor Sofia had Eric breaking eggs over her head because hers was the only head he could reach. Everyone had a LOT of fun. The best thing about going to someone else's house was that all the confetti ended up inside and around someone else's house and not inside and around ours, although we did manage to track a little confetti back to our house.

After we went back inside, the kids counted and opened up their eggs. Eric still needed a little help finding eggs, so he got quite a few. Interestingly, two of the eggs had pieces of paper in them that said, "Whoops" and "Better luck next time". The adults immediately turned to the big boys, who started grinning and laughing. Yup, they had sneaked in those little notes. We had to admit that the notes were a funny touch.

Some of the eggs had money. We tried not to overwhelm the kids with chocolate, mostly because we didn't want them eating all of that chocolate. Some of the eggs had little plastic dinosaurs filled by my friend Alicia, because she knew that Eric loved dinosaurs. He loved them so much that he traded them for an egg with money in it. He doesn't really know the value of money yet, because he traded the egg with a dollar and change in it instead of one of the eggs with only change in them.

After all the activity, Sofia and Eric played on their own and the rest of us played Apples to Apples. That game is one of our all-time favorites. We always have a lot of fun conversations when we play that game. After Alicia won, we got our things together and headed home. We enjoyed our usual traditions, but we also enjoyed doing new things and making new memories.

Happy Easter 2013

Happy Easter to all our friends and family!

We went to church this morning at 9am. Even though we got there by around a quarter till 9am, there were no seats left, at least not where we could all sit together. I'm sure the little ones would have rather been able to sit down in a pew instead of on the floor, but for me, I prefer staying together than being comfortable. I told them that we are better able to stand than a lot of other people that came after us, so at least Natalie was satisfied with that.

I took this photo after we got home and before Natalie had a chance to change out of her dress into jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie. Eric and Anthony were fine with what they were wearing. Every time I take one of these photos, I realize that I still need lots of practice. The kids are blurry! Ugh. I'm still happy I got at least one photo of them. I didn't dare ask for more.

I was a lazy mom this year. Usually I buy them little toys and things to put in their Easter baskets, but I was fresh out of ideas. We try to get them more toys than candy, but I also didn't want to buy more junk toys that would be left all over the house. I didn't even buy them any chocolate bunnies. Luckily, our local natural science museum, the Witte Museum, was selling these chocolate eggs filled with little chocolate dinosaurs as part of their current dinosaur exhibit. They were even on sale. Even though Eric is the dinosaur-crazy child, we got one for each of them. Anthony was the first to eat his egg. That's his hand in the picture.

Eric wanted to eat the dinosaur egg, but he said he had to eat lunch first. (Our brainwashing must have been effective.) He did ask to have lunch right away, but we were invited to our friends' house. She has to teach Sunday school until about 12:15, so we're not heading over there until 12:30. They only live around the corner from us, so we'll probably just walk. Meanwhile, Eric was very interested in Anthony's egg and the little dinosaurs inside.

Our dinosaur-crazy boy is turning six soon. Easter is extra special for me because Eric was born the day after Easter six years ago. We are planning a big birthday party for him, although Patrick had to gently explain to him this week why we couldn't have a party on his actual birthday (since it's on a Tuesday). I'm sure I'll post to my blog again before then. Happy Easter everyone!

Eric's First Conference

At our local elementary school, instead of the traditional parent-teacher conferences where the parents sit down with the teacher, they have "student-led" parent-teacher conferences where the student sits with their parents to show a folder of expectations and work done. Eric had his first one this past Thursday. Patrick, the fantastic husband and father that he is, knew that I was on call Thursday, and so scheduled the conference in the morning so I could also attend.

I've been telling friends recently that Eric is the perfect youngest child because he lets me get some cuddle time, even though he is already almost six years old. This was not the case with his older siblings. When he saw Patrick and me approaching his classroom, he ran to me with a big smile, and gave me a hug. Isn't he a sweetie?

We got there a little early, so we waited until the rest of the class could go off to another area of the school. Only four or five kids were left awaiting their parents in the classroom. When his teacher came and got us, she said, "They're all very excited." I could imagine a bunch of five and six year olds bouncing off the walls, excited and nervous about their first conferences. When we walked in the classroom, Eric was sitting at one of the tables. When he saw us, he gave us a huge smile and again ran up to me to give me another hug. Love! He then proceeded to show us his binder full of his work. One of the worksheets showed that one of his goals at the beginning of the school year was to be able to draw dinosaurs better--a surprise, I know. He had colored in almost all the boxes showing that he drew dinosaurs many times. The goals were simple. Another one was to be able to trace his hand better.

This book was at the end of the binder. Of course the pages are illustrated. Eric was practicing his goal of drawing dinosaurs. The title is misspelled, but reads "Tyrannosaurus Rex Dusent Cair" (Tyrannosaurus Rex Doesn't Care). The book only has three double pages in it. On the first page, a Spinosaurus roars and says to a T Rex, "I Wel eet you up" (I will eat you up). On the next page, a Giganotosaurus tells the T Rex "I wel eet you up too" (I will eat you up, too). The T Rex replies, "I Dont Car" (I don't care) in both of those first two pages. On the last page a Tyrannotitan says, "I wel eet you up too" (I will eat you up, too). This time the T Rex replies, "I ran away from a Spinosaurus Gigantosaurus and I will run away from you." I'm not sure how correctly he spelled everything on the last page, because all the letters and words were running together and it was hard to read. That's what he said the page said, but the words don't read that way. He also had to tell me what types of dinosaurs were on the pages because of course, I don't know as much about dinosaurs as he does.

On the table was also a sheet for parents with suggested questions to ask their child about their work/presentation, but after what seemed like only a few pages of his binder, he was done. He didn't feel like answering any more questions. He had probably expended his nervous energy on what he had already presented plus the title page had lots of big words that were difficult for him to read.

I asked Patrick to take a picture of Eric and me before we left and he took the first photo above. I was happy with that, but then Eric said, "I'm going to hug Papa too." My hands must have been a bit steadier than Patrick's, because the first picture was a bit blurry. ;) I took the second picture of Patrick with Eric. What a sweetie!

Blue Lagoon Shore Excursion

It's been almost two weeks since we got back from our cruise and I'm not yet done documenting it on my blog. Today I'm going to talk about our stop in Nassau, The Bahamas. This time we signed up for a formal shore excursion, and it was a good thing. We went to the Blue Lagoon beach, a private beach that was 30-45 minutes away by boat. It was windy again, but at least warm enough for us to wear swimsuits. There were a ton of other people on the two deck boat. We were sitting on the top deck and it got a bit chilly during the boat ride. The kids started huddling under the beach towels we brought. They played music and Eric really got into it at one point, dancing and entertaining the rest of us, even the other passengers.

The water was still a little cold, so Aly, Natalie, and Eric mostly played in the sand. At one point, Nick also joined in. Alex and Anthony mostly just walked around, exploring. There were other activities, like an obstacle course and a dolphin encounter, which cost extra and which we did not participate in. We did pay extra to rent these big water bikes (see below). Aly, Nick, and John took off in one while Emily, Natalie, and Patrick took off in the other one. They were all gone for a while, going to the other side of the lagoon water area and back. When they got back, Emily and Natalie decided to do other things. The big boys arrived from exploring at that point, so they took off on one of the water bikes. John got off the one he was riding and at one point, Nick and Aly got stuck on the rope surrounding the obstacle course area. With some help, they were able to free themselves and ride around some more.

There was a little place to eat there, so some of us ate lunch while we were there. Cynthia and I wanted to wait until we got back on the boat to eat. In all, we were there for around two hours, just long enough to have some fun without getting tired of being there.

Last Week's Recap

With all of this blogging about our cruise, I have neglected what's going on now. Today I'll detail last week's events and later this week I'll do the same for this week's events. Last week seemed very chaotic. I usually prefer not to be away for a full week of vacation, because I have no time to catch up on the house or the usual activities. We got back into town on Sunday, March 17th in time to go out to dinner at El Mirasol and not much else. Patrick usually wants to celebrate his namesake day, St. Patrick's Day plus we didn't really have time to cook or anything. Patrick started doing laundry and we didn't really have a chance to unpack before going back to work and school on Monday, March 18th.

I came down with some sort of cold/allergies as soon as we got back in Texas, so all week, I tried to get some extra rest so I could heal. That put me further behind the usual schedule. On Monday, Natalie started a stroke clinic at a different location than her usual swim practice and I realized that there was more traffic traveling to the other location--not fun. That's pretty much all I did.

On Tuesday, Alex had a track meet. Thank goodness that only the boys were running in the meet, because as it was, he didn't get home until after 9pm. There was a fundraiser at the local Willie's Icehouse, so I took the little ones there before swim practice. I had to bring Eric with me because Anthony wasn't yet home from soccer practice.

On Wednesday, we had the usual schedule. I came home from work. Natalie left for swim practice before 5:30pm, but this time with Patrick. I stayed home with Eric and actually got to spend time reading with him and to him. Anthony picked up Alex and they came home by around 5:30pm. We repeated that schedule more or less on Thursday. I struggled to get blog posts up and get ready for bed at a decent time because I was still battling that cold. Luckily, I was getting better.

On Friday, I had to work late. I got off work after 6pm and went straight to Comalander Stadium where Anthony played in his last Varsity Soccer game. I had not been able to go to any of his games this year. Patrick was the one who had gone to those other games. Since I came straight from work I did not have a chance to get my camera, so I have no pictures at all of Anthony playing soccer this year. :( I also had not had time to eat dinner. Anthony actually played almost the whole game, but unfortunately, they lost 0-6. The other team was bound for the playoffs the next week, so they really had no chance. Anthony and his teammates have been pretty frustrated all season mainly because of their coaches' lack of experience (and maybe understanding) of soccer. That's what happens when you have football coaches coaching soccer. Still, it was a little sad that it was the last game, and Anthony's last high school soccer game ever.

Meanwhile, the other kiddos were at home. Alex had not had track practice after school, so he got to come home on the bus, for once. They were all asleep by the time I got home, however. I felt like I had to keep choosing which child I could spend time with. I spent time watching Anthony play soccer, so I didn't get to see the other three. The rest of the week I spent with either Natalie or Eric, and barely got to see the other three then also.

As for other news, the kids all got their report cards last Friday. Anthony's grade in Calculus BC increased by 10 points by his teacher somewhat arbitrarily so he could get an "A" just because. Actually, she knows that he and his friend John are in the back of the class not paying attention to her and teaching themselves Calculus, so honestly, they deserve the best grades. Alex also happened to get an "89" in Rocketry because of a missing assignment that wasn't really missing. Patrick remarked on how Alex is so smart that he can get a "0" for a missing grade and still manage to get an "89" in the class. So yes, our kids are very smart and we are so blessed.

Also, Anthony found out he was accepted to RPI (Rensalaer Polytechnic Institute) while we were on vacation. He also found out he was not accepted to MIT. Last week he found out he was accepted to Rice University. Just yesterday he found out he was accepted to WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Both RPI and WPI offered him substantial scholarships. We're still waiting on Stanford.

All Ashore At Freeport

Our second stop on our cruise was Freeport, in the Bahamas. This stop was NOT picturesque. There were cargo ships and cranes to load the cargo ships. We were pretty relaxed on this one and took our time getting off. It seemed like other people were hanging out on the boat too, because we didn't have any lines getting off like we did when we got off at Key West. We even checked out the ship a bit. This photo was taken from the "adults only" spa area outside. We didn't spend too much time there since it was still very windy and as a result, a little too chilly for pool time for the kids or adults.

Instead, we went ashore and did a little shopping. Natalie bought this shark made out of wood. There were lots of shops selling mostly the same sort of things--T-shirts, wooden items, dresses, cheap jewelry. Alex bought a couple of necklaces there. Nick bought a big shell. I bought a couple of T-shirts of Anthony and me. Anthony bought a big wooden lizard that they carefully packaged in lots of paper--but that ended up with a small piece missing anyway when we got home. We spent a lot of time just looking at everything, just so we could spend some time off the boat.

There were a couple of photo opportunities. Anthony found this one and he was the first one to pose for a picture. I love that he can be a ham sometimes for photo ops. Eric saw him and practically ran over there to pose too. Patrick had to lift him up in order for Eric to be able to put his head where it was supposed to go. Natalie took a turn after this. The families also took turns posing next to a "Freeport" sign and Eric also posed with a big adult-sized frog statue (see both above in the blog header).

So, Freeport wasn't a very exciting stop, but it was still good to get off the boat and stretch our legs for a bit.

Key West Shore Excursion

Our first stop on our cruise was Key West. We hadn't booked a shore excursion because it looked like we could just walk to where we wanted. It was a long walk, especially for Eric, but we headed for the beach. Along the way, the big boys decided to go back closer to the boat because they hadn't worn swimsuits and really, Alex just wanted to shop. I had not worn a swimsuit either, but I wanted to go along anyway.

The beach was at a public park. We paid $2.50 per person. Eric ended up being free. The girls were the only ones who had worn their swimsuits. Melissa had actually stopped to shop for a swimsuit for Emily before joining us, because Emily had not brought a swimsuit. We all mainly walked along the beach and climbed on some rocks (see Nick in the background). It was very windy, which made it a bit chilly for the kids when they did get wet. Emily decided not to get in her new swimsuit after all, which allowed Natalie to wear Emily's new rash guard when Natalie's shirt got all wet. We had not brought any towels. The adults were content to just enjoy our time off the boat and to enjoy the nice weather, even if it was a bit too windy.


I had been trying to get a picture of the whole ship, and I had to resort to this panoramic shot with my iPhone. The ship was so big that otherwise I would not have been able to back up enough to get a picture of the whole thing. This was very picturesque port. In back of me as I was taking this picture were a line of shops that were all basically right outside of the ship. Alex bought his sister a shark necklace. I also bought Natalie a new rash guard--red, of course. I had to go to the boys' section to get it since my little girl does not like the typical "girl colors".


Cynthia took this picture with her iPhone. It was a pole with a bunch of cool signs pointing in the different directions of different cities. The girls luckily allowed the picture to be taken. I think Natalie was trying to look serious. I was just happy they were all looking at the camera and not trying to hide their faces.

When we got back to the ship, Alex and Anthony were waiting. I had everyone's passport in my purse. Anthony had a picture ID in the form of his driver's license, but Alex did not, so they wouldn't let him back onto the ship. All in all, we had a good time even if we had not planned anything in particular.

Cruise Activities

Although the cruise ship had "rooms" or "clubs" for different age groups (Camp Carnival for ages 6-11, Circle C for ages 12-14, and Club O2 for ages 15-17), the kids mostly enjoyed each other's company, so they didn't really participate in many of the organized kid activities. There was a library on the ship, but there weren't many kids' books there. What they had were lots of games that could be checked out and played with and then returned at the end of the week. One of the games the kids picked up was Uno, and the other was Sorry. I think they pretty much wore these out by the end of the cruise. Eric didn't go in the "club" for 5 and under because he wanted to hang out with his cousins.


Besides the Sky Course that I described yesterday, there was also a miniature golf area. The day I took this picture, it was very windy, as most of the days were. Still, we were able to play six of the nine holes. We didn't know where the other three holes were until another day when we discovered them on the floor above, near the Sky Course. Eric didn't really know how to play miniature golf, so Patrick tried to show him. I thought it was hilarious how Patrick moved Eric's legs and arms into place but in the end, Eric played however he wanted to play.


The girls especially loved the arcade area, called The Warehouse. This is a game where they stomped on the lighted area in time with the music. Their favorite was probably the Air Hockey table. The adults wished that we could have bought an "unlimited pass" for that game, but alas, it wasn't available. Aly and Natalie also enjoyed another game that was basically like a rollercoaster ride. The seats moved as if they were rattling on some tracks and wind blew in their faces as if they were going down the track. I have a video of them being shaken as they sat in the seats, looking at the screen.


My brother-in-law John particularly enjoyed the various trivia contests on the boat. The first day or so he won the Sports Trivia. He got his "ship on a stick" or a "solid 24 karat gold plastic trophy". He joked about how if he could replace his knowledge of useless trivia with more important information, he could have become a doctor or a lawyer. In this picture, the kids are listening to the "Useless Trivia" questions. The girls were especially excited about the Harry Potter Trivia--they even studied for it. Alas, a group of truly nerdy Harry Potter fans won that trophy.

My sister reminded me that the cruise staff had several names for the "ship on the stick" trophy. They would chant (which the girls subsequently recited over and over) something like this:

Ship on a stick
Vessel on a trestle
Thingy on a dinghy

John won four total trophies. He kept one for himself and gave the other three to the three girls. They loved it. He almost won a fifth trophy in another sports trivia contest and he came close to winning another bean bag toss trophy. Let's just say that he provided entertained us with his trivia knowledge and bean bag tossing prowess. :)

Finally, one of our other favorites was the Bean Bag Toss. There was a Family Bean Bag Toss in the morning, and another contest for those ages 18 and over. John won one of those contests. The kids' games were mostly for fun, although one time they gave a medal or a "ship on a rope" to all of the kids that participated. One family contest had about 40 entrants, so these were popular.

The girls and Eric also enjoyed watching some movies on TV in the cabin and they went in the hot tub at least once a day. The pool was too cold for them and they must have used salt water, because Natalie complained that her dry patches from her eczema stung a lot the couple of times she went in the pool.

I'm not even sure exactly what the big boys did. Patrick said they just "hung out". A couple of times they were mischievous. Cynthia and I were looking for the girls and the big boys started following us "like little ducks". Another time, Patrick said they sat in the area near the glass elevators and enjoyed watching the elevators stop on every floor since they had previously pressed all the floor buttons. Alex and Nick disliked the Circle C for their age group. They found other things to do though, because they usually stayed out until after midnight. Anthony really enjoyed Club O2. He made some friends and stayed out very late every night talking to them. We were surprised the first night when he didn't get back to the room until almost 3am, but I was pretty shocked the one night he stayed out until almost 4am! Patrick and I didn't feel compelled to stop him since we were on vacation except for the last night when we had to get up early to leave. If I haven't made it clear with these posts yet, we all had a great time on our cruise!

Random Cruise Photos

I've only done two cruise posts and I'm already losing steam! I've been fighting a cold/allergies that hit me as soon as we got back to Texas and I need more sleep! Because of that, I'm going to share just a few random photos and call it a blog post.

This first photos is of Natalie on the "Sky Course" with her Uncle John behind her. This was a rope course high above the rest of the ship. Shortly after I took this photo, they closed the course because of high winds. Actually, they stopped allowing more people to line up for the course before I took this picture because of high winds. Yes, even with that wind blowing right through her, she still carefully but fearlessly did the entire course. That trait definitely did not come from her mother.

When we docked at Nassau, The Bahamas, we went on a shore excursion to a beach called the Blue Lagoon. Everyone stayed on one side of the beach. This was the other side where people weren't allowed to go in the water because of the winds and waves. It was still gorgeous over there. The big boys discovered it when they were exploring and they wanted to show it to me because they thought I would want to take pictures. My boys know me!

This is a picture of Eric near the Sky Course I mentioned above. All he wanted to do was play on the iPad in the cabin. I wanted to watch Natalie and the others climb on the Sky Course, so I made him come outside with me. He was unhappy at first because he couldn't see the screen because it was so bright outside. Where there's a will there's a way, however.

That's another thing--Eric became obsessed with an app on the iPad called Scribblenauts Remix. Alex used to have that game on the Nintendo DS and now we have it on the iPad. One of the features of the game is that you can type an item in, complete with adjectives, and the game would create that item. So, what did Eric type? He typed items like "flying rainbow T Rex" and "gigantic triceratops". The amazing thing about that was that he learned how to spell all of those words all by himself. Those dinosaurs would have nothing to do with the game, but he liked playing with them once they were inserted into the game. Sometimes they would eat each other and end up as a piece of meat. I thought that was hilarious!

I did use some filters on this photo, but this was also from Nassau, The Bahamas as we were leaving the port. The water was amazingly beautiful. I think that was one of the best things about going on this cruise, seeing cool places we hadn't seen before and doing cool things we hadn't done before. More photos to follow this week!

Towel Animals

This is my very favorite photo from the whole vacation. One of the fun things that the cruise staff did for us was leave a different towel animal on our bed every night during the turn-down service. On this particular night, Eric made a comment about the towel dog and I asked him to pose like the dog. He has the most adorable expression on his face, doesn't he?

Eric and I tended to get up before everyone else, mostly because we went to bed before everyone else. We would go ahead and go to breakfast so we didn't wake anyone else up. One morning, we saw this sight at the pool area. Every lounge chair had a towel animal on it! They even had a towel animal floating in the middle of one of the pools.

Eric loved seeing this towel dinosaur, and of course, he had to pose with it! Yes, the smile is a bit cheesy, but I think he's adorable anyway.

We even went to a class on how to fold a towel animal. We made a dog first and then an elephant. This is a picture of Cynthia and John folding towels side-by-side. Patrick had to help Eric out. Melissa helped Emily. Natalie and Aly were able to fold the towels all by themselves. There were some extra staff on hand to help out once in a while. It was a really fun class. They were even selling a book on folding towel animals, with the proceeds going to charity.

We didn't save all of the towel animals, just the last few. On the last evening, they left a heart with chocolates inside. Eric wanted to get a picture with all of them. The elephant to his right is missing an eye. There is a different type of dog (than the one in the photo above) right in front of him. To his left is a stingray, and then of course, the heart. It's these little touches that made our week that much more fun.

Spring Break 2013

We just got back home today from our Spring Break cruise on the Carnival Magic. I will try to post at least one story a day on this blog. Today I want to talk about our first day, which was last Sunday, March 10th. We left San Antonio last Saturday and stayed at my Mom and Dad's house in Houston. We went to Galveston, Texas on Sunday morning. As you can see from this photo, it was an icky, cloudy, rainy day. We left earlier than we needed to, just in case the weather affected our driving time. We got to Galveston too early to try to get on the ship, so we drove around to the Seawall. Eric was fascinated with seeing the "ocean", but he was worried that he didn't see the ship that we were supposed to go on.

We're still not sure why it happened, but we were on our way back to the cruise terminal where we were supposed to check in for our cruise, when Eric suddenly started complaining about not feeling well. Luckily, I had plastic bags with me, because he started throwing up. A couple of drops fell on the carpet of the new van, but we were able to clean it fairly easily. We were already going to stop by Starbucks for my last fix before the trip, so we stopped there to let Eric's stomach calm down for a bit before proceeding to the cruise terminal. He got sick again in the evening during dinner, but thankfully, he was better after that.

There was a super long line of cars to drop off people and luggage. My sisters left after we did and we were closer, but they got to the cruise terminal before we did. We were all very happy to see each other. We were waiting around for John, Melissa, and Patrick to park the cars and get dropped off by the shuttle buses.

We were all looking forward to spending a lot of time together in the coming week. My sisters and I also applied our scopolamine patches (medication for seasickness). We were especially worried because of the windy, rainy weather. My niece Emily is also prone to motion sickness, so her mother put a half patch on her too. We were glad we had those patches, because even people who had been on a cruise before said that this one was pretty rough. The boat rocked quite a bit for most of the trip, and everyone had to be careful when going up and down the stairs especially, but luckily, none of us got sick.

This is a glimpse of our cabin on the ship. Eric got the top bunk and Anthony got the bottom bunk. Eric is so used to sleeping on the top bunk anyway. Alex slept next door with my sister Cynthia, her husband John, and their son Nick. We got to have the dividing barrier opened on our balcony so we could be free to go from one cabin to the other. All the girls were in my sister Melissa's room which was two cabins away from Cynthia's cabin. It wasn't as easy to go over there because of the cabin in between that belonged to someone else we didn't know. The big boys tended to hang out with each other, at least during the day.

My sister Melissa took this photo of the girls. They had two twin beds plus two bunks whereas Cynthia's and my rooms had a queen bed and two bunk beds. The girls were supposed to rotate beds so they would all have a chance to sleep in the twin bed and the bunk beds. They did have a few disagreements, but for the most part, they really enjoy each other's company. The cruise wouldn't have been as much fun without all our family around us.

The weather was mostly windy and in the low 70s, so it was a little too chilly for pool time. The kids took full advantage of the hot tubs, however, since those were warmer. I'll describe more of the rest of the trip this week.

Alamo Cup

Another three-day swim meet has come and go. I'm sure all of you are getting tired of reading about these as I am of documenting all of the results. I still would like to keep these results for the future, however, so here's a recap:

Friday
50 yard Freestyle personal best was 33.14 seconds--got 34.23 (+1.09)

Saturday
100 IM was 1:28.26--got 1:27.37 (-0.89)
100 yard Freestyle was 1:16.54--got 1:18.25 (+1.71)
100 yard Breaststroke was 1:48.01--got 1:46.01 (-2.24)

Sunday
200 yard Freestyle never swam before--got 2:48.44 (BB standard time)
50 yard Butterfly was 35.91--got disqualified but would have been 36.45 (more on this below)
50 yard Breaststroke was 47.19--got 49.51 (+2.32)

So, lots of ups and down this weekend. She started on a new team this week, Team Athens, with a new coach (Coach A.). Patrick saw him coach this week and remarked on how he was impressed with him. He was really looking at each swimmer individually and giving them individual attention and feedback. That's usually tough to do with a team of over 30 swimmers. Her previous coach, Coach Kris told her that it was like teaching a puppy to be good and then giving it away.

For the 200 yard Freestyle, Coach Kris was the one that signed her up for this event, so it was neat to see two coaches verbally rooting for her during her race. Natalie was very nervous about this because it was so long and she wasn't sure she could do it. Her friend Renzi came up to her before the race. Renzi gave her a shocked look when she said she hadn't yet competed in the 200 yard Freestyle. Renzi said that she first swam the 200 yard Freestyle when she was eight years old. I hope that gave Natalie and example that she could definitely swim this race at the ripe old age of ten.

For the 50 yard Butterfly, one of the officials said that she touched the wall with only one hand, and you're supposed to touch with two hands at the same time. Patrick said that she sometimes touches with two hands and then one hand. Since the officials look at more than one lane at a time, he may have only seen her touch with the one hand. She was crushed because she really thought she had a chance to get a better time in the Butterfly. That's also her favorite stroke and she gets more emotional when she does really well or really badly. Her friend Aspen was swimming in the lane next to her and did well. Natalie was also hoping to do well. Oh well, there's always the next meet.

For the 50 yard Breaststroke, she had improved so much in her time yesterday with the 100 yard Breaststroke, so she was expecting a lot today. Pretty much any time she adds time to her personal best now, she is reduced to tears. With this one today, she told Patrick that she felt like she was going so fast but she still didn't do as well as she did before. She really wants to do well in this stroke, but she feels frustrated when her times don't improve. She is in such a hurry to improve, but everything takes time.

She was asked to be in a relay in the TAGS swim meet to be held in the Woodlands (near Houston) this coming week/weekend even though she doesn't have any times as fast as the TAGS standards. We had to turn it down because we couldn't go to the meet. One of the main coaches that assigns the relays asked Patrick when Natalie turns 11. When Patrick told him Natalie would turn 11 in August, the coach said to put the Summer TAGS meet on our schedule, because he felt that Natalie would qualify by then. He knows that good things will come with time. Hopefully Natalie will remember that.

Dress-Up

Natalie has another swim meet this weekend. I'll recap that tomorrow. Because we were at the swim meet all morning, I didn't get to see much of Eric. When I got home, I found Eric in the game room watching a dinosaur show on the iPad, of course. I asked him if his big brothers had ignored him all morning. He told me that he didn't say anything to them (probably because he was playing on the iPad). Poor thing! He's happy enough on the iPad, but his big brothers are usually doing their own thing and leaving him to fend for himself.

Later in the afternoon, he was wearing one of the foam dinosaur masks that I had bought for him a few months ago. He also showed me another dinosaur mask, a plastic one that used to belong to Alex. He then put the second mask over the first one. Alex walked over to us wearing a bunch of different parts of costumes and other dress-up stuff. Of course I wanted to take a picture and at first Alex didn't want to let me, but then he decided it was okay and I took this wonderful picture of Alex and Eric.

Eric then wanted to put on all of the stuff that Alex had on, especially the Hulk Hand. He took everything off Alex and started putting a few things on. Then, Alex decided to help him put on pretty much all of the stuff that he had been wearing. I love this picture because it shows Alex interacting with his little brother. Dare I say that he was "playing" with his little brother?

This is the final result. I'm not sure what the story is behind the peace sign that Eric keeps doing in these pictures, but it's cute, just like many of the things Eric does.

We went to the mall shortly after these photos were taken. Eric continued to wear the Triceratops mask in the mall while he was walking around. Being a five-year-old can be fun. You get to get dressed up in costumes whenever you want and no one cares. In this case, he got his big brother to play with him instead of leaving him to fend for himself. As their mom, I think that's cool!