Ken's B'day..from a couple of months ago

Here are a few photos from Kenneth's 11th birthday from a couple of months ago. We took a few kids out to the putt-putt, go-cart, batting-cage, laser-tag place. :) His present was a cell phone (calling and texting only to a select group of people!!), which is actually a present to us as well because we can get in touch with him when needed after school, etc.

Finally...

OK I have a lot of catching up to do. I can blame my broken camera on a lot of it--I have had to get all of the recent photos from Rod, which is more difficult than you might think. This picture is from Kenneth's 5th Grade Awards Assembly in June.

I also included a photo of Ken with 2 of the puppies from back in April. They were all (all 9 of them) given away soon after that photo was taken and after a clear indication that the mother dog was in heat, Rod finally took her to get spayed. No more puppy batches.

Patent Awards

I had the honor of participating in the annual Patent Awards Dinner for intellectual property contributions over the last fiscal year. It was exciting to be included as part of the "Milestone" group, which comprised those who had 5 or more patent disclosures authorized for the US Patent Office process.

Can't Keep Up!

All right, I know it's been a while since a blog post and I do have excuses but I will try to do better. There is a whole set of photos that Rod has on his camera that I need to get--Kenneth's end-of-school 5th grade graduation and his birthday party at Putt N Fun. In the meantime, I have a few photos from Evelyn's 2nd grade awards assembly and one of their summer camps (Camp Invention). They are veterans to the Camp Invention program now because they did it last year as well. The idea behind it is so that kids get exposure to problem solving an inventing using everyday materials and their own logic (plus team work).

She's a Trooper

Evelyn had her umbilical hernia repair surgery yesterday and did great. It was just a 45 min outpatient surgery, and it is fairly routine so we did not expect any complications. She was curled up yesterday watching a movie, so the belly button area must not have been bothering her too much. She's mainly been resting, reading, and eating chicken noodle soup. What a trooper. My sweet pea.

Math Pentathlon

Kenneth completed his Math Pentathlon tournament on Saturday (Evelyn had hers about a month ago). About 450 students from a regional area of TX participated. Some came from areas up to 3.5 hrs away. The idea is that each student pairs up with a student they do not know from a different school and competes in 5 different games, lasting 45 minutes each. (Somehow, even though there were 5 games at 45 minutes each, the day went from 7:30 AM -- 4 PM.) I was a judge again for one of the games, which is always interesting because with some of the kids, you can see the nuances of their personalities come through. Most have good sportsmanship, but others will probably be misogynistic pains in the rears when they grow up. I had the pleasure of getting one of those in the last game I judged and unfortunately, the person he was playing against was a rule-follower to the extreme (and there are many rules).

Here's a conversation thread (based on memory of course):

Student 1: [On turn #1] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: "You always have to have the flag, card don't you?"

Student 1: [On turn #2] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: [dirty look]

Student 1: [On turn #3] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: "You constantly have to ask for the flag card. Somebody is just in love with the flag card."

[Various iterations of this continue for 45 minutes.]

Student 1: [After raising the Opinion Card] "I challenge your move. You cannot move the queen backwards to avoid the trap that you foresee I'm setting for you."

Student 2: "I disagree. I will do what I want because that's not how my coach taught us."

Erin: "Student 1 made a correct challenge. Move your queen back to where it was. You lose this turn."

Student 2: [Out of nowhere] "Girls are crybabies."

Erin: "You'd better watch your comments. One more comment out of you and you're disqualified." [Authoritative stare]

On a positive note, Student 2 lost that game. Justice was served.

I Need A Vacation

Kenneth is in his elementary school's Honor Choir and they had their end-of-year show this evening. It was truly enjoyable. Kenneth had a solo part and he was the perfect ham. The premise of the show was a series of songs about kids needing a vacation from school. Kenneth's song was about a bunch of camps that his parents keep sending him to and all he wants to do is come home. Check out the video...

GT Project Night

The other night, Evelyn did my hair for me and we took silly pictures.

Kenneth and Evelyn both participated in the GT program at school and have been working hard on their individual projects. Both kids prepared a Power Point presentation and created a video to embed within the presentation. They did a great job! Their GT teacher, Ms. DeBord, is a favorite of theirs. She is so enthusiastic and, lucky for us, she will be leading one of their Summer invention camps too.

April Photos

Here are some photos from April activities. Kenneth's choir performed at a Relay for Life event a few days ago. Rod and I took a gazillion photos while in Chicago too. We visited the Art Institute of Chicago, saw Poi Dog Pondering, visited Zanie's Comedy Club, shopped Michigan Avenue, walked a LOT, ate a lot of pizza, and had a blast all around.

Catching Up

I have not posted photos in awhile, and I've collected several lately. It feels like March and April have rushed by. The once-a-month glass of red wine has turned into twice a week. Sigh. I'm going to have to be careful so I can happily (and honestly) answer "rarely" for the "How often do you drink alcohol?" question at the doctor's office.

Evelyn has turned into a ham and likes to wear her baseball hat more often than she used to. This photo is her wearing Rod's hat.

I'll Show You My Sacred Tree

We are gearing up for a 4-day weekend. Rod and I are heading to Chicago on Friday morning and will stay through Sunday. The kids will stay with Linda and Merle in Kerrville while we are gone. We fly out of San Antonio, which is a closer airport to Kerrville than Austin. They have been talking about the visit all week, particularly Kenneth, since his archery set is there. Evelyn pretty much focuses on the baby chicks.

The 5th grade participates in a program called D.A.R.E. which is a program to teach kids about the dangers of drugs. Each student has to design a posterboard for the hallway. Kenneth started working on his today and it cracks me up. One dinosaur to another:

Dino 1: "If you try the marahuana first I'll show you my sacred tree."

Dino 2: "I don't think so."

LOL.

Kenneth and Wilson

This pic is from Sally, Wilson's Mom. Kenneth and Wilson, along with a few other elementary school choir colleagues, participated in a combined choir with the area middle schools. Sally snapped this picture afterwards. Next year, they will be going to different middle schools so we'll have to make sure to keep in touch.

Spring Break Update

We have had a very relaxing Spring Break and we are all wishing it would last at least 3 or 4 more days. At the beginning of the week, we hung out in town. Kenneth and Evelyn each hung out with some friends and I busied myself with removing some clutter from the house. As a plus, I found a gem of a service...we've been wanting to reupholster some couches that were passed down from my grandfather. They are of high quality, but the fabric was really outdated: pink Southwestern theme. I found a guy who's been doing upholstery services for 30 years and he has really reasonable prices. I should be able to get my "new" loveseats this week. He also does custom valences and headboards, which I'm keeping in the back of my mind for a later date. On a different note, Rod brought home a stray, pregnant dog which I am still rather unhappy about (to put it mildly...). At any rate, if it never comes in the house (a hard requirement) and doesn't bark, bite, or lick (a only slightly softer requirement) then I suppose it's the best dog that could have come our way. Sigh.

Later in the week we visited Kerrville to see Linda and Merle. Lisa (Linda's daughter) and Haley (Lisa's daughter) were also visiting and it was great to see them too. Haley is almost walking and has an infectious grin. What a sweetie. Rod and I skipped down to Fredericksburg for about a day and a half for a mini vacation within a vacation while the kids stayed in Kerrville with Linda and Merle. Merle bought Kenneth an authentic bow and arrow set, which is staying in Kerrville for now. It will be something he can look forward to doing when he visits. Linda and Lisa took Evelyn down to a Market Days event while we were in Frederickburg. They also got to see a chicken coop that Merle built and promptly filled with live chicks. Kenneth caught a couple of catfish and a tadpole, which suvived the ride back to Austin in a cooler in the trunk and are now a happy addition to his fish tank. I was VERY lax and did not take any pictures during the break but I feel like I might be getting my picture mojo back. Rod took this one photo of me, my Mom, and Evelyn striking a pose. He called it "3 Irish chicks with attitude."

Talent Show

Borrowing some awesome shots from my friend Lisa's site:

Kenneth and friends joined up again for the school talent show and did a skit about camping. It was "schitcky" and the audience loved it. I may need to be the Mom who organizes a skit for Evelyn and her friends next year. Lisa has always taken the lead on this (and a million other things too). I'm just a helper bee.

Choir Performance

Kenneth was part of a smaller set of his Elementary School Choir that was asked to sing with the local middle schools. I sent Evelyn up to the front to take a picture during the pre-show rehearsal. It is a bit dark, but she must have also turned the camera around on herself and taken a shot! Overall, it was a good experience and gave the kids from the elementary schools an opportunity to see what middle school choir might entail.

We are looking forward to taking all of next week off for Spring Break!

Grocery List

Rod sent a picture of a grocery list the kids made together for him, in my absence. I don't see any fruit or vegetables on this list. Evelyn's pickles don't count!

BTW, the notepad is on old one I found from when my Mom was doing clinical drug trials and I have no idea what Mucosa is, so don't assume anything... Smile.

Math Pentathalon Practice

Both kids are participating in an after-school program called Math Pentathalon, which is training in math strategy skills. They will eventually compete in teams against other Austin-area "Math Pentathletes" in tournaments. I volunteered to judge at the tournaments, which don't occur till April and May so I have some time before I've figured out what I've gotten myself into!

I am heading to Japan and Taiwan on Tuesday morning through February 27th. It is the longest I've ever been away but I'm sure Rod will do great (and Nana is around to smooth things over!).

Dear the Simmons Family

Evelyn celebrated her 8th birthday last Sunday. The party went very smoothly and all the kids did a great job with the decorated shirts. I am happy to feel that I've contributed to bringing back a puffy paint trend that was last popular in 1988. All the grandparents made it for the birthday, which is a first. Evelyn was so glad to see them. We have been doing a couple of thank-you notes each day and for the most part, Evelyn has been enthusiastic about what she chose to write in each note. However, (sorry for spoiling the surprise, Elizabeth) she must have been getting tired when she got to Elizabeth's note (the picture is above):

"Dear the Simmons family, Thank you for the gift card. I cannot thenk what I am going to get with it. Evelyn"

LOL.

Culdesac Visitor

The kids spotted a hawk on our rooftop the other day. It has hung around the culdesac for several days now. Kenneth captured a few photos of our visitor. I hope he stays around so he can eat any stray mice that might want to wander into my garage. It does finally explain the enormous piles of bird poop on our driveway, though. One of the picture shows the hawk cocking its head at Kenneth as he took the picture.

Last weekend we went to one of our favorite parks. Kenneth and Evelyn wanted to try to fish, even though the pond has a catch-and-release policy. No luck on the fishing, but they did find a duck egg that looked like it had been abandoned, although they were careful not to touch it in case the mother duck was out for a swim.

We are looking forward to the weekend because we will see all of the grandparents in one place for Evelyn's birthday party! She will be having her 8th birthday at the house with a few friends. I bought some plain t-shirts at Hobby Lobby and some fabric 'puffy' paint so that it can be both an activity for the kids to decorate their shirts AND the thank-you-for-coming birthday treat.