4th Grade Field Trip

Kenneth's 4th grade class went to a Rock Quarry last week for a field trip and it was captured by the local newspaper:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/education/index.html

Kenneth was 'featured' in a couple of spots on the video.

Raise Your Hand If You Want to Quit the Conversation

Kenneth's Honor Choir celebrated the end of the school year with a performance of all the songs they've worked on throughout the year. Nana drove over to see the performance too. Kenneth looked like he wanted to break out and start dancing at any moment. He would add in little gestures like making a telephone sign with his hand at his ear when the word "communicate" was in the song. Granted, the purpose of the choir is uniformity, but I see more stage-acting or debate in his future.

Evelyn was telling us a story about a conversation between several girls in her class that was heading in a direction she didn't like. She ended her participation in the conversation by saying "Raise your hand if you want to quit the conversation." I think I'll adopt her phrase and use it at work when I have to deal with some "special" personalities.

Deutschenfest '08

We went to Deutschenfest today, which is a festival that Pflugerville puts on every year around this time. It is a fairly typical crafts booth, fair food booth, traveling carnival ride kind of event with a twist that German beer is available. I don't care about the beer--it's the kettle corn that gets me every time. Yum. We spent about 4 hours there, most of which was spent sitting next to a creek that runs through the park that hosts the event. Evelyn and Kenneth waded through the water and Kenneth caught minnows to add to his fish tank. He continues to perfect his bow and arrow making skills and has developed truly admirable designs. Add that to the ability to catch minnows with his bare hands and I think his great-grandfather's Native American roots are showing through.

I have to give a shout out to my cousin Kristin, who delivered a healthy baby girl last week: Jennifer Elizabeth. Pretty soon here, Linda's daughter Lisa should be delivering her daughter as well.

Round Rock Express

Our friends, Rex and Stacie, gave us some tickets to see the Round Rock Express, which is a minor league baseball team in the area. It was a pleasant day--not too hot or cold--which made my tolerance for sitting in a stadium much higher. Stacie gets tickets through her work--she is a VP of a bank and they use events such as baseball games to give out to clients. Kenneth is doing some sort of extra reading program at school where the prize is Express tickets too. So, we'll be spending some more time there. I think it will be a good opportunity to take some of Kenneth's friends.

I'm also delinquent on mentioning that Evelyn had a school musical program a couple of weeks ago called "Every Day is Earth Day." She had a speaking part and did great. The picture is of Evelyn and her best friend, Shaley. As you can see, Evelyn is following in her mother's tradition of being a full head taller than her female cohorts.

This weekend will be completely full of soccer games, particularly because Kenneth's games are tournament games and they are in the uneventful (I'm being nice with my words) town of Manor in a brown farm field. The games are spaced out just enough that we don't have time to go home (or gas $) yet there is no shade and nothing to do in Manor. After the mid-day game we can head to Elgin, another special (again, I'm being nice) town that is known for only two things that I am aware of: (1) sausage and (2) being the town Dr. Phil "adopted" and wanted to "save" from unhealthy habits and Springer-like behavior. He abandoned the town soon after the adoption. Ratings, I guess. Anyhow, if Kenneth's team wins enough games on Saturday then we have the joy of getting up early enough on Mother's Day to be there at 8 AM and start all over again. The kids are so good and they enjoy the competition so much that it's hard to complain seriously.

Mr. Wade's 20th

Last weekend we went to College Station to help out Elizabeth's family with their move to their new home. It is a beautiful home with an amazing backyard--they are going to love it. We also went to my former Women's Chorus director's surprise 20th yr party. Jess Wade is the conductor of both the (Fightin' Texas Aggie) Women's Chorus and the mixed choral group, The Century Singers. The party was held at the TAMU Vice President's home and was really lovely.

A few funny, recent moments with Evelyn:

[During a conversation where Evelyn was exclaiming how cute little babies are and in particular, their pinkie fingernails]

Erin: "Babies are cute, but children are cute, regardless."

Evelyn: "Yes, children are cute and artists."

[Because Evelyn's hair used to be very curly and is now only wavy, we have transitioned from using conditioner post-shower (to leave some conditioning heft to handle the frizz) to using conditioner in the shower after shampoo.]

Evelyn: "Man, Mom, this whole conditioner AND shampoo thing IN the shower is really starting to bother me."

[After listening to the song "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, where the word "Gloria" is repeated excessively in the song.]

Evelyn: "Man, that lady's crazy about Gloria."