Would You Rather

Rod took some beautiful pictures of the kids at a park that has a very old tree bent horizontally over a small creek. Evelyn wanted to have one of her baby dolls in the photo too. My Sweet Peas.

A couple of funny comments from the kids today:

Evelyn: "Would you rather fall on a dead bird or have everyone make fun of your middle name if your middle name was Punk?"

Evelyn: "Would you rather wear a tutu or be naked in front of everybody?"

Kenneth: (In response to my recommendation that if a lady is present, he offer her the item of interest first--in this case, we were dealing with 2 Sonic Sprites being handed into the backseat.)

"I tried to give it to the lady, but the lady was pinching my arm."

I will be heading out to Taiwan on Saturday evening for a brief trip, so new posts will be delayed till next weekend.

GT Projects

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!
Another set of photos I forgot to post in a timely manner...Kenneth and Evelyn both participate in the GT program at school. In the Spring, the kids choose a topic on which they work independently, only at school. As parents, we pretty much just provide the materials and show up to project night. Evelyn chose the topic of volcanoes. She researched the types of animals that live near volcanoes, and incorporated that into her model and Power Point presentation. Kenneth chose Thomas Edison because he was interested in how he invented the phonograph. He found a website that showed him how to make his own phonograph using a pencil, a record, a piece of paper rolled into a cone, some tape, and a needle--it really worked; that is, the phonograph generated variants of noise, but to make the record sound, the user would have to apply a consistent spin speed.

It's Time for the Instrument Party

I have been negligent in posting photos lately. On the weekend prior to Memorial Day, we took a day trip down to New Braunfels to see Natural Bridge Caverns and the adjacent Safari. I had been to Natural Bridge Caverns when I was about 7 or 8 and (being a cave, after all) it hasn't changed much. I remembered a lot of the high points of the tours. Kenneth and Evelyn liked the "fried eggs" (cave rock formation that looks like fried eggs) and the gift shop. :) For some reason I don't have any pictures of the safari--it is one of those places where you drive your car slowly through the safari park and throw pre-purchased food pellets towards animals like zebras, deer, and my personal favorite (sarcasm intended), the emus. Emus are crazy-aggressive when it comes to the food pellets and they have no issues with putting their dinosaur-like head into your car to grab at the bag of food.

The end-of-school-year awards assembly was on June 2nd. In addition to the regular academic awards, Evelyn received the "Most Responsible" award and Kenneth received the "Most Athletic" award for their respective classes. Kenneth's soccer team had their end-of-season party and since Ken is a kick-butt defensive player, his coach gave him the award "Thou Shalt Not Score!" (against Kenneth's defense).

Evelyn and Kenneth participated in an art camp this week through the Austin Museum of Art. All of the teachers were college-degreed working artists and the AMOA site was on beautiful grounds, some of which were buildings from 1913. The grounds were meant to replicate a place in Italy, which I guess was the home country of the original owner. At any rate, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves this week. Evelyn's class was called "Sea World" ("Paint, draw, and sculpt with inspiration from our watery friends of the deep. Use vivid colors, wild shapes, and amazing textures to recreate the world under the sea. Develop skills in basic art elements, such as line, shape, texture, and color. "). Kenneth took a class called Beyond Basic Drawing ("Take your drawing to the next level! Venture into real and imaginary worlds with the stroke of a marker, a piece of charcoal, and pastels while learning more advanced design and drawing skills. Expand your use of different artistic styles as you draw self-portraits, nature, and still life environments. "). Nana helped out a lot by dropping them off & picking them up every day, except for today when I got them. This picture says it all for Friday: a sweet (and increasingly rare) moment with two exhausted kids sleeping in the car.

Elizabeth, Josh, and the kids visited this Thursday-Friday and as I was getting ready for work this morning, I heard Caleb tell Elizabeth "It's time for the instrument party, Mommy! Where's your instrument?!?" I'm going to have to save these simple statements from the kids because they're so applicable to other situations. Next time I'm at work and some yahoo is causing churn, I'm going to bust out Caleb's phrase.

Out of school...

The kids are out of school and the summer has kicked in...promise to post pictures soon. I'm heading to Houston this Fri-Sat to meet up with former colleagues and some friends. My Mom plans to take the kids down to College Station on Thursday and Friday. She's watching Elizabeth's kids so that Elizabeth and Josh can get away for their anniversary. We'll all circle back together on Sunday to celebrate Father's Day.