Kyle's Birthday

We visited College Station today to celebrate Kyle's birthday. They're going to have a party next weekend, but we thought it would be nicer to have some cousin-only time this weekend instead. We spent most of the time at the community pool off of Rock Prairie, which brought back lots of memories. That was the pool where I used to take the kids all the time when we lived there. After the swim, we drove over to Freebirds and we ran into Dr. Moore in the parking lot. Steve Moore was my mentor/chair of my dissertation committee. He was with his son Cassidy, who is now a senior in high school. When the Moore family moved to College Station, Cassidy was the age that Kenneth is now. Time moves very quickly.

If They Were Rubber...

Tonight was Spring Fling at the school. Let me boil it down for those unfamiliar with such festivities: parents spend $15 - $20 on tickets that kids can use to buy drinks, food, bouncer time, cake walk turns, etc. It is massive entertainment for the kids and we get to hang out with other parents. Last time the school had something similar, I worked a booth the whole time, but this time I 'just said No.' :)

Evelyn has several loose teeth--she seems to be losing them at a very fast rate. She was telling us that teeth must be bones because "they're definitely not rubber."

Evelyn's class has been learning about conservation (given the recent Earth Day). She brought home some cut-out messages and taped them up in the bathroom all by herself.

Project Night

The kids have been working on their GT projects for a couple of months. This particular project allows children to work on the development of it at school over a period of time, with no parent or teacher assistance (other than providing the supplies). Kenneth chose to do a project on aerodynamics, with details about why certain aspects of a plane design provide better aerodynamics. He also made a game where players are supposed to draw cards to advance along a board, encountering various jet-related issues such as "Lost a Wing: Go Back 2 Spaces" and "You Got a Faster Jet: Move Forward 5 Spaces". He also made each player piece out of tinfoil to represent specific plane designs (ala Freebirds style). Evelyn drew the lifecycle of a flower, complete with labels and a butterfly "just because I wanted a butterfly". She wrote about the lifecycle and sounded out all the words that she wrote on her own (click on the picture to read her lifecycle story in detail). She is learning faster than I could have ever expected. We are so proud of both kids!

So Old

Kenneth was explaining to Evelyn that his blanket that he had when he was a baby was "SO OLD, older than you, 8 YEARS OLD." Fast forward to this morning on our way to a soccer game when he told me that he couldn't believe that I'd lived as long as I had.

Directly after soccer, Evelyn changed into one of her fancy dresses, strapped on her bike helmet and clogs and rode around the circle. Nana spent the night last night so that Rod and I could go to a hospital network gala down in Seguin. Today, Pops came over to help Rod remove a tree stump that we've had in our yard since last summer. (The tree had actually been killed by bees, which had created a hive in such a large portion of the inside that the entire top half of the tree had no nutrients. Bizarre and since bizarre things regularly happen to Rod, it doesn't surprise me all that much.) Evelyn joined in to help with the tree stump removal in her party dress.

Turn A Sharp Corner!

It's been pretty busy lately. Last weekend, Kenneth had a soccer tournament where he scored 7 goals--a record for him. The boys in the picture with him are his closer friends on the team. The longer hairstyle is coming back for little boys, but I can't bring myself to introduce him to it. He can make that choice when he gets older.

Evelyn came up with a phrase and simultaneous strategy for handling the passing of gas. She announces "Turn a sharp corner!" and you know that something might be coming our way.

Austin Fine Arts Festival

Today we visited the Austin Fine Arts Festival with the kids and my Dad (Mom was in College Station helping out Elizabeth). We had a friend who was exhibiting her artwork from her travels to Singapore and at least a dozen other countries. This art festival was very nice--higher end art than what you typically find in street fair environments. I think Kenneth was inspired, because later in the evening he created a very intricate abstract design. Tomorrow he'll color it. I told him we'd buy him a frame for it when he finishes.

Please, No Gorilla Bar

Evelyn and I were coloring this evening and conversation turned to the snack that I put in her backpack that she gets to eat during her class snack time. Believe me, I try my best to provide variety but (silly me) for two days in a row I gave her a granola bar. She asked very politely, "Please, no gorilla bar tomorrow Mom. Can I have some crackers instead?" I told her no problem, but for future reference it's called granola bar, not gorilla bar--she took it in stride and you can bet she won't make that mistake again!

We've also been going over how to write "big" numbers (in the ten-thousands). She calls out a number and we talk through how to write it. One of the numbers she came up with verbally was "fifty-five thousand, fifty-five hundred and five" which is not a number. After I showed her how we couldn't find place values for all of of those numbers, she sang a song about it in a very melodic way, "...and it's NOOOOOOT a real number, it's a FAAAAAAAKE number, and that's OOOOOOKAAAAYY because I'm making it up in my MIIIIINNND."

Rod mowed the lawn (which was in dire straits because of the recent rains) and discovered a pair of butterflies in the grass. He stopped the mower and placed one on Kenneth and one on Evelyn. They thought it was great.

Easter Weekend

Texas was dealt record low temperatures over the Easter weekend, dipping to freezing in the evenings and 40s during the day. Of course, it is only on the two weekend days and weather.com says it'll be back up to the high 80s on Tuesday. I had just packed away the electric blankets too.

We went to see "Meet the Robinsons" with the kids on Saturday. It seems like Disney has taken the attention span issue a step further--there was not one moment in that movie where you could focus and think about it--it was either speedy words, or speedy images, or simply speedy concepts. I have read about the impact of Sesame Street-like format on kids from my generation; educators claimed that as children began watching Sesame Street, their ability to focus for an extended period of time on a task was significantly worse than the previous generation due to the format of the quick mini-episodes within each show. I don't know if I agree, but "Meet the Robinsons" was definitely on another level.

Later that evening the kids dyed eggs, which we used as a temporary centerpiece at Easter dinner the next day. Nana and Pops came over for dinner and we had a great time. I do have a bit of a headache from the 2 glasses of red wine, though.

Opera vs. Oprah

On the way to soccer practice tonight, I had my Phantom of the Opera soundtrack playing, and Kenneth was holding his ears the whole time, making jokes about how bad it was. I agree showtunes are an acquired taste. Part of the soundtrack has a purposely awful-sounding soprano, and it was during one of those moments that Kenneth said "I hate Oprah!" (He meant opera. LOL)

Last weekend we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to take pictures with the Bryan family, who we have known since Rex and I were in grad school together. It was a really beautiful day, and we went to the Salt Lick afterwards to top it off. Before we left the wildflower park, poor Rod got accosted by a park visitor who was upset that he had reached into a pond and touched the back of a turtle to show the kids. The guy actually got kind of belligerent and Rod had to tell the guy to back off. You never quite know who you'll run into in Austin. :)