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.

Crazy Hat

My friend Lisa took some class photos that will be used in the school yearbook and kindly passed them on to me to share.

Evelyn and Kenneth participated in a Gatti's commercial this afternoon. Rod picked them up from school a few minutes early and took them downtown to the Gatti's location where they were filming. I don't know how the final commercial will turn out, but apparently Rod might be in there too as "the family guy." Anyhow, it ran kind of late because they couldn't start till after school. To top off being tired, Evelyn was cold (we had a cold front blow in today, taking it down to 32 deg.), so she modified a Gatti-land prize to turn it into a hat! Such a problem-solver. It was one of those balls, about the size of your fist with rubbery 'tentacles'. Rod carried her in from the car and you can see she was barely awake. It made me laugh. "My ears were cold," she explained simply.

Can You See the Light?

Evelyn is so cute. She told me that she needed to do an experiment with me after her shower. She brought in a flashlight and very seriously turned it on, put it up to her ear, turned her head, and asked me "Now, can you see the light through my other ear?" After I told her that her skull and brain would block the light she recovered and said "I knew the brain would block it but I thought maybe it would go through a little bit!"

I've included several photos we took in December that I forgot I had on my camera. Kenneth played indoor soccer on the weekends for about a 5-week time period. His team played 14 yr old boys, so they learned a lot (including a bit of humility!). Kenneth also played after-school basketball in the Fall. At the end of the semester, the teams met at one of the high schools in the area for an awards ceremony at half time during a high school basketball game. Kenneth is in the bottom left (2nd from left) of the group photo, wearing a royal blue jersey. The picture of the juice box was from tonight. I found it in my shower. The kids know that I generally reserve the juice boxes for lunches. If they have juice at home, we ask them to pour from the large containers into a cup. I think this was Kenneth's way of sneaking a juice box--he just forgot to throw away the evidence when he finished his shower!

Trip to Zilker

Rod took the kids to Zilker park on one of the days I was gone last week. The pigeons are overly friendly there.

I am happy to be back home. It is not really my kind of city. I probably walked 12 miles a day between the conference halls and walking on Las Vegas boulevard.

Heading to CES

I am flying out to Las Vegas Wednesday morning for the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) convention. I have never been to this show (or to Vegas, for that matter) but I've heard it is absolutely incredible in size and scope. I've got several vendors to visit and will be scoping out new technologies. Should be a learning opportunity and fun too...

The kids start back at school on Tuesday and they are looking forward to it. Nana watched the kids today since I had to go back to work. Getting up early after sleeping in till 9, 10, ...11 every day was hard.

Christmas Traveling

Rod and I just got back from quite a bit of traveling around Texas. Nana and Pops came to our house on Christmas Eve for a fabulous dinner and celebration. We had smoked turkey from Pok-E-Jos, and I made the side dishes: Mushrooms Florentine, Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, Salad, and a really yummy new recipe that involved sauteing garlic, thyme, olive oil, and shallots, then mixing that with sliced-in-half cherry tomatoes. We spent Christmas morning at our house then took off for Kerrville to see Linda and Merle, as well as Gwen's Family. Linda prepared a fabulous breakfast and dinner every day. I don't know what she'll do with all the leftovers...but I bet Merle will make sure they're put to good use. Tatum is currently obsessed with anything Wall-E, and promptly curled up with his Wall-E pillow and blanket that we gave him as soon as he opened it. After a couple of days there, we drove to Houston to see Rod's Mom. We visited with Aixa, Tracy, and Vida and played our new Price Is Right Wii game, which was really (surprisingly) fun. Both Rod and I visited with some old friends from high school while we were in the Houston area, as well. We also visited the Downtown Houston Aquarium. On the way back home we drove through College Station since Rod had to check on something for his work. We stopped off at Elizabeth's house and the kids didn't want to leave, so they stayed while we came home! It feels odd to be separated from them, but they will be back on Wednesday. Rod has to go back to College Station on Tuesday for work, and he will bring them back Wednesday morning. We are going to go to Chez Zee for dinner tonight, then out to a movie afterwards. Normally I would have a workout class tonight but they have closed for the whole week. I made it up (sort of) by helping rake the massive amount of leaves that abdicated their home on our tree in the front yard. Several pictures from the last few days are posted for your enjoyment. I will take some of the Kurusz side of the family on New Years, when Elizabeth and fam come up to Austin. (Check out Great-Grandma Vida's dog Jacky--this is a very docile dog but the picture makes it look like he's really mad. Maybe he was just licking his lips. Made me laugh...)

Christmas Festivities

A couple of weekends ago, I was invited to attend an Ornament Exchange party with some neighbors. The trading of the ornaments got very enthusiastic--the wine and guacamole (gotta love Texas) was the best part!

Rod's sister's family stopped in last night on their way to Kerrville. We will see them again when we visit Merle and Linda in a couple of days. Gwen and Jeff's son, Tatum, is smart as a whip and very patient.

Pitch White

On the way to school this morning, Evelyn was amazed at the thick fog that didn't allow us to see very far at all. "It's pitch white, Mom," she said.

Last Sunday, the kids went to an indoor skateboard park and rode their scooters for about 2.5 hours without tiring out. I love that Evelyn 'hung' with the big kids (and all boys) in her pink dress, white tights, and Hello Kitty scooter. I made a couple of photo compilations. Ken is in the air in one of the shots. There was one point where Evelyn got stuck in a concave skating section and you can only see her head peeping out. She's industrious though, and made her way out eventually.

Evelyn's 2nd Grade Holiday Concert

Evelyn participated in her Second Grade Holiday concert this evening. She had a small speaking role and did a great job with it. She was easy to understand and had feeling behind her words. The school celebrates multiple holidays, so we had Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and at least one other whose name escapes me, but it has to do with the Hispanic culture. Here are a few pictures from the event:

No Hands

We've had a busy weekend. Friday night was my work party downtown at restaurant/club called Copa. This is the same place where Rod and I have taken salsa lessons a couple of times. The kids stayed with our neighbors while we were out. I'll babysit for them sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Saturday, we watched the movie "Willow," a (favorite) Lucas/Howard film from the 80s. It took some convincing to get the kids to agree that it would be worth their time to watch it. At the end, they loved it despite a few 'scary' scenes. During the movie, there was one scene with a bunch of fighting going on (among trolls, elwins, and daikimis--character types in the film) and Val Kilmer's character had accidentally gotten some love potion dust sprinkled on him. He stopped amidst the fighting to kiss the daughter of the evil queen Bavmorda. Evelyn is watching this and practically declares, "There's no time for kissing when there's fighting to be done!"

Kenneth has mastered the art of riding his bike with no hands (for short distances), much to my chagrin. I am in the background of that picture, anxiously looking on.

80s Party

Rod and I went to an 80s party on Saturday night. We both tried our best to get decked out in high fashion style from that time period. I picked out my dress from a vintage store called "Cream Vintage." It was fun looking through everything they had in the store. Sadly, Rod actually had all of those clothing items in his closet already *except* the purple t-shirt.

The other picture is with our friend Hope, who included a scrunchie in her hair and fan earrings. She is due with her first baby any day now, so she couldn't do too much with the clothing.

Picking Out the Christmas Tree

The local Pflugerville Optimist's Club set up a Christmas tree lot for the season, so we stopped by on Saturday afternoon to pick one out. Before Rod and I had even gotten out of the car, Kenneth and Evelyn had picked out the one they wanted. As you can see, it was quite the pleasant day--no jackets required.

We are about 90% done decorating it and I will post pictures of that soon.

Rod and I purchased a new mattress and headboard last week and we've been enjoying the nice, soft, FLAT mattress instead of the old mattress with ridiculously large people-divots that occurred after years of use. The next step is to go to IKEA and get coordinating nightstands and a bench for the foot of the bed. I've always wanted one of those. Maybe in January...

Dress Up

Somehow everyone forgot to take photos at Thanksgiving when we were all together. I am sorry we forgot because I put together photo books at the end of the year, and now there will be no record of Thanksgiving! Oh well. We did get a funny photo of Kyle and Caleb in Evelyn's dress up clothes.

I've Turned Into ...

One of those people who sing along to the music in the grocery store. To be fair, it was later in the evening and there were not many people around but I got through a Grease song and a Journey song before I saw 2 other people singing and realized what I had become.

They say the first step to recovery is acknowledging the problem.
:)

Long Weekend

We had a long weekend because the kids were out of school on Monday due to a teacher inservice day. Besides relaxing around the house, we took a walk down the Pfluger park trail, something which we had not done before. We have been to Pfluger Park many times, but have never taken the trail beyond the park perimeters. The trail extends throughout a small portion of town, running alongside a creek that changes in width as you progress along it. The kids rode their scooters and I walked. We stopped numerous times; at just about every trail opening that led down close to the creek. Each opening had surprisingly different terrain, ranging from a (miniature) waterfall, a (miniature) cliff, and banks that you can tell had once been underwater, and perhaps would soon be again if the water levels rose. At each spot, Kenneth and Evelyn looked for fish and found fish of all sizes, from fish tank size to catfish about the size of my extended hand. We collected and brought home some clams that Evelyn captured for the fish tank, though Kenneth's thigh-deep attempt to catch a catfish was in vain.