Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Weekend


We had a nice Easter weekend. Nana bought Evelyn a couple of beautiful dresses, so she was set for Saturday and Sunday. It was pleasant outside so we let the kids run through the sprinkler during our attempt to make the front lawn green. Rod, Kenneth, and Evelyn all got haircuts, but Evelyn's was the boldest. She wanted it "between my chin and my shoulders" and that's exactly what she got: it looks great! She looks so much older.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Laura Ingalls Comes Back to Haunt

I was reading Elizabeth's blog and she had an entry that described her demotion from "Mommy" to "Mom" (Kyle's new term). Interestingly enough, Evelyn asked me if she could call me "Ma" instead of "Mom" after watching a 4-episode series of Little House on the Prairie.

I highly recommend Netflixing the Season 1 episodes. Not only will they leave you completely entranced to the point of fixation, but you'll have a deeper appreciation for not having to (1) wear the same sweaty clothes everyday and (2) pull a plow because the greedy storekeeper took your only ox.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

L-E-S-S


The Spring Break week went fast. I think Kenneth is ready to go back to school, but Evelyn is not. She could probably use a couple of more days. Good thing it's a short week (no school on Friday). One of the days this break was pretty windy, so we took the kites out to a huge park and flew them. Evelyn's kite is simpler than Kenneth's, so it was up in the air much longer. Nonetheless, both were dying laughing as we tried to hoist the kites and having them subsequently land on our heads.




My main goal for the week was to find time to get a haircut, which I did on Wednesday. After that, we spent some time with Nana at a bookstore and had a nice lunch at a deli to which we'll definitely return. Thursday morning we left for College Station to spend time with Elizabeth's family; of course, Rod had several work things to do so we dropped him off and met up with them. We went to Bee Creek park, which has much improved since I lived in College Station--very nice playground equipment and swings. Kyle posed for a picture for Kenneth. He is so hard to capture because he's always moving. I hung out with Ann Marie while Elizabeth spent more time chasing the boys.

When we got back to Austin on Friday, we zipped over to Central Market to listen to some live music and hang out while the kids ran around the playground. When we were leaving, I was waiting by the restrooms for the rest of the family and a granola lady came up to me (way into my personal space) and said something like "too many bands of children...these people need to stop reproducing...our resources cannot take it much longer...L-E-S-S is more..." I just affected a high voice and kept moving my eye contact from her while simultaneously saying "Uhhh--Huhhh". She actually spelled the word L-E-S-S to me. What I wanted to say was F-R-E-A-K. I did nothing to generate this approach. This type of thing happens all the time. I must have a sign on my face that says "Say crazy things to me."

Monday, March 10, 2008

Bad Luck Barbie

This week is Spring Break. I'm taking the whole week off (with the exception of this afternoon, where I had to close out a few things on email). We don't have any major plans--just a few around-town hang out activities. Hopefully we'll be able to zip down to College Station for one day this week to hang out with Elizabeth's family. The kids have already gotten into the mode of playing with some toys they don't usually play with. Kenneth found a toy American Airlines model plane and Evelyn found a Barbie cabana and pool. After about an hour of conspiring in Evelyn's room, they announced that they had made a play called Bad Luck Barbie. Poor Barbie, sitting naked in her cabana by the pool, sipping a solid, blue, plastic cocktail, gets knocked out of the cabana by a wayward American Airline jet. It's pretty funny, despite the mild morbidity.