"Pfestival" Pfun

Today we met up with some neighborhood friends at a Pflugerville Easter "Pfestival". Businesses and activities in Pflugerville never resist the opportunity to use "Pf" when possible. We've got Pfamily Pfhysicians, etc. Various activities such as a jumping castle, small petting zoo, train rides and the option to sit with the Easter Bunny were set up for the kids. Kenneth is kind of old for most of it (except the jumping castle) but he was patient while Evelyn waited in line for the other activities. The Easter egg hunt consisted of sectioned off areas by age group so that older kids weren't competing with toddlers. Makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the use of the word "hunt". No hunting was involved. The Easter bunny simply dumped an enormous amount of eggs in each age group's section and said "Go!", after which the kids raced to load as many eggs as possible into their baskets. I think we'll do a more traditional egg hunt next weekend. Despite the obviousness of the egg hunt, both kids had a great time and Evelyn drew a picture and wrote a message for the Easter bunny (see picture).

To the Shreds of My Heart

We stayed home from school and work today because Kenneth had a bad night with his asthma. Fortunately, that does not happen very often at all. Most of the time we all forget he even has asthma. He'll take it easy at school tomorrow. I was able to work on email periodically and talk with some colleagues in-between tea party sessions and episodes of Scooby Doo Meets Batman and Robin. Evelyn set up a fancy tea party for 5 guests: (1) Mom, (2) Kenneth, (3) "Pointy the Unicorn", (4) "Hairy", and (5) "Baby Diaperhead". You can see the 3 inanimate guests in the picture. Evelyn lost another tooth yesterday, which you can see in a couple of the pictures. At one point, Kenneth sat on Pointy the Unicorn and pretended to ride it to antagonize his little sister.


Predictably, Evelyn freaked out: "Get off Pointy! He's company! You don't do that to company!" I had them rolling with laughter when I force fed "Hairy" pretend pepper from the pepper shaker.

At the end of the day Evelyn told me that I was the best Mom ever and that she loved me "from the shreds of my heart." My sweetpeas.

Visit from Grandpa Merle and Grandma Linda

Merle and Linda arrived today for a visit as they finalize some financing and other house-building related stuff. Of course, Linda brought 3 containers of cookies and I have had a count of 4 since dinner time, so I very seriously need to be careful while the cookies sit, omnipresent on my kitchen counter. Fortunately, both Rod and Merle will quickly go through the batches. Kenneth and Evelyn like them as well, but they are still at the age where they ask me if they can have one before they just take it!

Over the weekend, I took the kids to see Bridge to Terabithia (the movie) and I had forgotten from when I read the book as a kid that one of the main characters dies. Evelyn was a little teary, but she handled it well compared to the adults behind us, who were sobbing. Goodness. The man who plays the father in the movie looks a lot like Merle and during the movie, both kids looked at me at the same time and said "He looks like Grandpa!". Check out the picture of Merle and Evelyn (from July 2005) and the picture of the guy from the movie website. (Sorry, I didn't feel like learning how to properly crop the picture for posting, so there is a lot of white space.)

Because of the rain and probably because I was being a bit lazy, I didn't go to the grocery store this weekend...so tonight after the kids went to bed, I made it to HEB. $210 later, I feel almost fully stocked. I spent about an hour after I unloaded groceries making the lunch box bags of crackers, pretzels, and carrot/cauliflower/broccoli combos. I can tell you (for any mothers out there that don't already do this on a regular basis) that such preparation is so helpful in the mornings before school and also just to have around for when you're heading out to soccer practice or wherever.

With Life Alert You'll Never Be Alone

This week has flown by and we are all happy the weekend is here. Even though the weekend is busy, it is all fun stuff. Kenneth and Evelyn have the usual soccer games, but they also have soccer pictures. Granted, the act of taking the pictures tends to be on the frantic side, but the end result is irreplaceable. After Evelyn's game, Rod will take her to San Antonio to see one of the NCAA basketball games. She is excited to be doing something with her Dad. I will probably be going to see some live music downtown in the early evening with some work friends. And that's just Saturday...

Evelyn said something so funny this evening. I was taking off my jewelery in my bathroom and I asked her to go get ready for her bath. She said something about not wanting to be alone and I told her that she's not alone, that we're together. Then she says:

"You can live alone without being alone. With Life Alert you'll never be alone. All senior citizens should have Life Alert." I started laughing and she told me that an old lady on TV said that. Well, perhaps television can teach us something.

My Baby Puts Cut Up Pickles On Her Eyes

Although it's been overcast and occasionally rainy, we've still managed to do quite a bit over the last couple of days. Yesterday we started the day at an elementary school playground, where an ad agency was photographing kids for the Seton Hospital annual report. We had been asked to participate via a friend who works at the agency. The kids did great. There were about 5 other children and they placed the kids in various playground poses along with a "grandmother." LOL

After that, we visited The Omlettetry for a brunch and followed up with a trip to Austin's newest outdoor shopping center, The Domain. It is full of high-end stores with a few regular stores mixed in. I bought a John Lennon CD at Borders, which has made me happy since then. :) Kenneth has mentioned that he's interested in comic books as a reading diversion so we visited the comic book store that's been voted "Austin's Best" for several years. I asked the staff to help identify an appropriate series for a 3rd grader, because I know there are some freaky comic book series out there and I didn't want to accidentally buy something completely inappropriate. We found something to his liking and will probably continue with that series.

Today we visited a really awesome park/pond area that is in the nearby municipal district. Evelyn spotted some newborn baby ducks that were truly cute. We found a large patch of clover and the kids started looking for the elusive 4-leaf clover. Evelyn was so excited because she (thought) she found one: "MOM! I found a 4-leaf clover but it's missing a leaf!!!" On our way back from the park, Evelyn said "My baby puts cut up pickles on her eyes. Sometimes she used bread, but most of time it's pickles." It took Kenneth and I a minute before we figured out she meant cucumbers in a spa-like situation (she must have seen a photo somewhere and thought it was pickles, not cucumbers). Too much!

Spring Break Off With A Bang

This week is Spring Break for the kids and I have taken off the whole week so we can hang out and do some of the fun, local stuff that we don't always have a chance to do very often. Saturday, we drove up to Lake Georgetown, which we had heard of, but never visited. It is really pretty and the weather was pleasant enough that it was not too hot. Two treasures that the kids found included a volleyball floating in the water & a heart-shaped stone formation (it really looked like a heart!). We saw a police boat chase down someone who was going too fast, and we also found out that the Lake Georgetown park has ZERO trash cans, even in the restroom facilities. If we go out again, I'll be sure to pack a plastic bag. (For my part, I ended up carrying around empty Capri Sun juice boxes, banana peels, and cracker bags in my purse. Hmmm.)

I've been working hard on the house over the weekend, trying to clean out the loads of junk we have managed to accumulate. Last night, Rod went out with some friends, so I took it upon myself to overhaul our bedroom, moving furniture all over the place and vacuuming under things. I almost ended up moving our king-size bed to the 'small' section of the bedroom, but the bed got caught between the walls in a diagonal position. I had to pull the top mattress off and remove the box springs to undo it without scratching up the wall. Lesson learned. :) At any rate, it is refreshing to walk in to a clean bedroom!

Today, Rod took the kids kayaking, and because it rained off and on, the sun was covered and it was not too hot for them. I went off on my own a bit and we met back up at the house when they were done. Evelyn claims half-ownership of the rowing for the day and I believe her because she crashed on the couch at 7:30, which just yesterday (pre-Daylight Savings) was 6:30. She is still sound asleep.

Popsicle Stick Puppets

Evelyn created miniature versions of various family members on popsicle sticks. Presenting...(from left to right): Kenneth, Evelyn, Dad, Pops, and Nana!

Dad (Rod) went through an unfortunate beard stage for a little while a couple of months ago and I guess she was bothered enough by it to express it in the drawing.

On other family news, we know Elizabeth is having a baby girl! She sounded pretty excited on the phone.

Zilker Kite Festival

Today was such a beautiful day. The weather was perfect for the Zilker Park Kite Festival, which is an annual Spring event in Austin. Nana had just bought the kids kites so we swung by her house to pick her up and drove over to Zilker park.

We spent most of the time watching other people fly kites because the sky was so crowded, but both kids got their kites up for awhile. We were right next to a big sand pit/volleyball court, so they ended up playing there too.

Butt Should Not Be a Sight Word

Today was the first game day of the kids' soccer season. They both had games at 1:30, but unfortunately, the rest of the season game times don't match up quite so nicely (example: next week we've got an 8:30 AM and a 1:00 PM). So until mid-May, we will be spending most of every Saturday preparing for soccer and playing soccer. The kids love it though. I enjoy watching them improve with every game. They've got an enormous amount of team pride. Nana surprised us today by showing up to watch the games. She brought kites for the kids because the weather has been so windy. We'll try to find a field tomorrow to try them out.

After the games we headed down to San Antonio to see the Ontiveros family. Cesar turned 30 so they had a celebration at a Pappasito's. It is always good to see friends who you have known more than 10 years.

We've been working on 'sight words' with Evelyn. She can pretty much sound out most words and is reading very well. Her sight word list for this week had the word "but" on it. She was concentrating on her list and going through her words in a very orderly fashion when all of a sudden she gasped and came over to me. She whispered "Mom...my teacher should not have put the word 'but' on this list." It took me a second until I realized she thought it was the rear end version of butt. I told her how to spell that kind of butt and she seemed relieved that her teacher hadn't committed a breach of modesty.