Sassy Faces

This blog is mainly pictures (too tired to write tonight!).

Rod and I, 11 years to the day.

We spent some time practicing sassy faces at Nana's house.

In 1.5 Hours I'll Be Married 11 Years

Wow. That's all I can say. Rod and I will be celebrating our 11 year wedding anniversary on Friday, July 27th. Time truly flies. In the same amount of time that Kenneth has been with us already, he'll be leaving us for college. Amazing.


Tonight I read a book to both kids. Usually Kenneth reads by himself but he wanted to listen tonight. Their personalities are so evident in everything we do, even in the simplicity of reading a book. Evelyn is a born attorney. She remembers everything and can find feasible, logical, counter-suggestions to anything. She also knows everything already. Her most common phrase these days is "I know, but...". Kenneth takes everything in stride and gets frustrated with this growing conversational force from Evelyn, but he is still a patient big brother. I selected the books for the evening, one of which was one of probably hundreds of books written in the 70s with the Sesame Street characters. This particular book was narrated by The Count, who you may remember speaks in a Romanian accent. In typical Sesame Street fashion, they deal with current social issues by acting out stories (example: some books from that time period purposely switch traditional gender roles, such as making Betty Lou the tow truck driver, and Herry Monster as a lover of ballet and kittens.) The Count was describing a story about how Big Bird was taken away from Sesame Street because "somebody" determined that he shouldn't be living by himself and would be better off with a family of four dodo birds. Big Bird ran away from the dodo family and was making his way back to Sesame Street. A mission critical search for Big Bird occurred with 10 Sesame Street friends as part of the search party. When I read on behalf of The Count, I used my version of his voice (instead of "one beautiful haystack" I read it as "Von bee-u-tee-ful haystack). Of course Evelyn was greatly displeased with this deviation from the reality of the words on the page. "I don't like it when you change the book Mom. I don't like it when you use that voice Mom. Mom, stop it! I don't like that guy! I don't like The Count!" Kenneth is giggling on the other side of me during her whole exasperated speech. Gotta love it.

Walline Weekend

Kenneth pooled his birthday money and invested in a Gameboy DS, which is a hand-held gaming device. (He knows that we have full say on when that can and cannot be played.) He was able to buy two games for himself and one for Evelyn. Other than that major purchase, our weekend was relaxing. We went through Evelyn's room and generated the equivalent of about 4 trash bags worth of give-away toys. She was finally ready to give up some of the things she's had for so long. In the process of cleaning up, she put on some of her dress-up clothes for a picture. What a cutie! Other news is that Kenneth lost another tooth. He is fully aware that there is no Tooth Fairy, so when Evelyn was out of earshot, he said "So...Tooth Fairy, any funds for the missing tooth?" He had a huge grin on his face and was totally kidding with me. I can see his humor maturing (throwing in the hint of sarcasm).

Robotics Camp

Kenneth successfully completed a 2-week Robotics Camp through the local school district. They met from Monday - Thursday from 8 AM - 12:30 PM to learn about some principles of building structures, electronics, and applications of those subjects. The final project was a secret to the parents until the final day (which was today). We arrived at the school at 11 AM for a show-and-tell. Each group of kids had 3-4 participants and they were tasked to use the robotics skills and tools to create a scene from a movie. Some kids went so far as to bring accompanying music (Star Wars). Kenneth's team built a scene from Shrek: it was the castle where Princess Fiona was kept until Shrek rescued her from the dragon. They programmed a series of events that operated the mechanisms built into the Lego structure so that when a trigger was pressed, a drawbridge closed and the catapult tossed a mini-lego at the perpetrator trying to enter the castle. We were very impressed with his team's work and all of the other projects. Nana drove over for the presentation and afterwards, watched the kids for the rest of the day. Evelyn really, really wanted to participate in this program but you have to be entering 3rd grade before you're eligible. We may end up ordering some of these kits for the kids to experiment at home.


Kenneth styled his hair into a spike the other night. It is getting longer than he traditionally wears it. We've also got a great Daddy/Evelyn photo.
I also included one of the ladies of the group--it is clear that from Kenneth's perspective (he took the picture) I must look like a GIANT.

A Few More Conversations

It's been a busy week and we're all glad it's Friday. Rod picked up the kids after work, and I joined some coworkers for a happy hour, which I don't get to do very often. I met up with the family after swim lessons and we all relaxed on the big bed for about an hour at the end of the day.

I have a handful of K & E sayings from the last couple of days:

Evelyn: "I can't tell which leg is mine!" (in reference to intertwined legs when she and Kenneth were horsing around and getting themselves tangled up with each other; this made us all laugh very hard because she announced it in a very surprised, semi-nervous way)

Evelyn: "You shouldn't have been trying to walk when I was reaching out to tickle your feet." (justifying and finding a logical reason for why Kenneth shouldn't be upset after she accidentally tripped him; this is a prime example of how she finds an answer for everything; we tell her she will be a lawyer)

Evelyn: "Dad, I probably won't be living with you when I'm a teenager." (after Rod asked if she would still have good behavior when she became a teenager)

Evelyn and Kenneth: (discussing their father's belly button, an anomaly to them because they both have 'outies')
E: "You need to clean that out with a toothpick!"
K: "Evelyn, it probably hasn't been cleaned since the 90s."

Don't Reach Into the Pricklebush

Kenneth and a couple of his friends, Mason and Wilson, went to Main Event on Sunday for a small birthday celebration. Main Event is an all-encompassing "family fun" place, that has everything from bowling to indoor rock climbing to a bar and pool tables (of course, that section is empty during the day when kids are there). They all had a good time doing arcade games, simulated boxing, glow-in-the-dark putt putt golf, and the most anticipated..."Lazer Tag!"
For each section of Main Event, you pay independently, so when I got in line to pay for Lazer Tag, Michael Dell was in line with a couple of kids! You have to understand that this is a major celebrity sighting for me, given that I work for the company he founded. Rod and the kids played lazer tag at the same time as them. Rod refrained from shooting him with the lazer, but apparently Evelyn had no such reservations and got him several times. LOL

The kids are always saying funny and sweet things, with totally serious intentions. I have captured a few over the last few days:

Kenneth: "Mom, your underwear is sticking out above the top of your shorts. Normally it doesn't do that. You shouldn't bend over with those on." (Explanation: I so rarely wear "granny panties" that on the occasion I did, to have it pointed out was a little embarrassing.)

Evelyn: "Joseph lost his ball in a pricklebush today. I reached into the prickle bush and it pricked me. I have pricklebush prickles all on my arm. He didn't even care that I tried to get the ball out of the pricklebush for him. I am NOT touching that pricklebush again."

Evelyn: (in reference to a snack before swim lessons around dinner time, instead of a full meal) "This is not full-fledged. It just makes my heart beat."

Evelyn: calls exclamation points "exciting points" (which is actually pretty true)

Evelyn: "When you're you, you're you. I'm glad you are who you are." (sweet pea)

Today is my birthday. I have included a picture of me, taken during the summertime, right before I turned 9, which is right where Kenneth is now. age-wise.

Happy Birthday, Kenneth

We met up with Nana at Central Market for lunch on Friday so that she could wish Kenneth an early happy birthday. (My Mom will be on her way to California for a fun trip with my cousin Jeannie, starting Saturday). We relaxed and ate lunch, and the kids played on the outdoor playground after Kenneth opened a few gifts from Nana and Pops.

Later that evening, we had the pleasure of joining our friends Rex and Stacie, and their children, Alyssa and Austin for a Round Rock Express game. The kids had fun and enjoyed an end-of-game fireworks show.

Aixa and Tracy drove into town late Friday night to spend the birthday weekend with us. They were pretty tired when they got in around 11 PM. We spent Saturday morning (Kenneth's actual birthday) at the house with homemade pancakes for breakfast, and meandered over to my parent's house mid-afternoon. Aixa and Tracy had not been there yet so my Dad showed them around while the kids took a dip in the pool. We wound up the day at County Line BBQ. Because of the rain, there were tons of turtles and fish out on the dock of the restaurant. Thunder and lightening built up towards the end of the evening, so we decided not to even try to go see the already-postponed Georgetown fireworks. Kenneth was so happy all day. We are so proud of our 9-year old!

Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

The 4th of July was somewhat uneventful for us because it's been extremely rainy in Texas, much more than usual and the festivities we wanted to attend in Georgetown were called off. (The Georgetown fireworks will be rescheduled for Saturday, so we'll go then.) We decided to eat BBQ anyhow because that's just what you do on the 4th of July, so we headed to Rudy's BBQ, where you are served directly on butcher paper and forks are not immediately available. The kids were sceptical at first but truly loved the taste. Evelyn made herself a sandwich of bread, turkey, cheese that had been torn into miniature pieces, and pickle slices. She was in heaven. Kenneth ate more turkey than I thought was possible. Later that night we met up with some neighbors for some friendly discussions of mini-fireworks and sparklers, which turned into a not-so-fun evening when the police came around with two squad cars that had been staking out the cul-de-sac from both ends of the street (fireworks are prohibited in Pflugerville). More on that in person if anyone cares for details.


After our brush with the law, the next two days were spent more simply. I was working from home on Thursday and Friday, and the kids kept themselves busy with a few deviations with me involved. At one point, I went downstairs to check on them and they were on the back patio with their "kid" scissors, shaving wood off of some twigs. They were building bows and arrows and came up with one successful solution. We took it out to the local park and they eventually abandoned their archery and took to the creek where they could wade in and attempt to catch little fish.

Meeting Ann Marie

Saturday we started our drive to College Station to visit Elizabeth's family and meet Ann Marie. On the way down, we built in a quick trip to Sweetberry Farm in Lexington. It was the last weekend for blackberry picking, and I have been wanting to do this with the kids for awhile.
We spent about an hour and a half filling two baskets with blackberries and experienced only a few bug incidents. The spider picture is representative of about 5 enormous spiders that we encountered while we were there. The first time, I almost stuck my head into a web. The webs all had jaggedy, thick sections in the middle.
The owners of Sweetberry Farm told us that they call those "banana spiders" (but I have no idea if that is a real name or a name they gave them because they are really big with a yellow triangular section on them). Despite the spiders, we had a good time. You could eat right off the vines (no pesticides) but you had to check for bugs before eating (no pesticides). :)


We arrived in College Station after lunch and met Ann Marie. She was very sweet and we all enjoyed holding her. She definitely has the Kurusz mouth and chin. While we were there, we went to the local pool with Josh, Caleb, and Kyle to give Elizabeth and the baby some downtime. It was a lovely day!