Visit to College Station

Today we took a spontaneous trip to College Station to visit Elizabeth's family. Rod had a brief meeting with a client and we thought we could tag along to visit while he was busy. We went out to Research Park and then to Hensel Park, where we were pleasantly surprised to see our friend Mary (and family) pull up at the same time. After the park we went to dinner at a new (to College Station) gourmet pizza place. Elizabeth will find out the gender of Baby#3 on Thursday morning. Evelyn really wants it to be a girl and finds reasons to tell lots of people about her dilemma as the "only girl cousin."

Look Out for the Dry Spaghetti

Today was a typical Tuesday. Both kids have overlapping soccer practices, so Rod and I shuffle who goes where and who makes the sandwiches for dinner and who gathers the water bottles, etc. etc. Anyhow, although it is not cold like it was last week, there is a certain chill in the air when you spend 2.5 hours sitting outside in the early evening. I bring an outdoor blanket for such occasions. I was sitting on the grass watching Evelyn's practice when the younger son of the coach (3 yr-old little brother of the kiddo on the team) came over to me with a huge grin. He asked (and I am not re-phrasing) "Would you mind sharing your blanket with me?" Of course I did not mind, and he snuggled next to me under the blanket off and on during the practice. At the end of the practice he said "Next time, I am definitely sitting next to you!" I thought that was very polite and rather verbose for a 3 yr-old.

Later in the evening, Evelyn found a full stick of dry spaghetti on the counter that had rolled under the toaster. She scampered off with it and I didn't think anything of it until I was unceremoniously cleaning the downstairs bathroom. In the only remaining toilet paper roll in the basket, I saw 3 small sticks of spaghetti stuck out of the edges of the roll. That is certainly something to be aware of when mindlessly grabbing toilet paper.

The Chicken and the Road

Evelyn and Kenneth were exchanging jokes back and forth for about 20 minutes in the car today. All of the jokes were variations on the chicken crossing the road. I was about to go crazy. A couple of highlights:

Kenneth: "Why did the owl beat the chicken across the road? Because the owl was an owl and the chicken was chicken."

Evelyn: "Why did the chicken cross the road? Because all of the other animals were dead."

Gotta love it.

Valentine's Day Events

I had a parent/teacher conference with Evelyn's teacher today as a mid-year check in. Of course, Evelyn is doing great. She is the only one in her class who got a 100 on the kindergarten math assessment for mid-year and is well-ahead on her reading skills as well. At home, she is sounding out words like 'marshmallow.' She is also a child that can be trusted by the teacher and is very responsible (paraphrasing her teacher's wording here). Evelyn is the only kid in the class who has been assigned the responsibility of going down the hall to pick up the attendance print out and bring it back to her clasroom without horsing around. No surprise there, as she is a big rule-follower.

Because it was Valentine's Day today, the kids exchanged little valentine cards with each other. Evelyn's teacher told me that she had received a special card from a kid named Sean, who "practically worhsips the ground she walks on." That is so cute. Evelyn had always talked about Sean as being someone who bugged her and once attempted to cut off some of her hair. When I asked her about the card, she said, "Yeah. He's my best friend." Best friends change daily, I guess. Now she has a Sponge Bob Valentine card to show for it.

One other quick note: It is interesting because both kids seem to have turned a corner on the next level of who they will become (personality) as they grow up. Kenneth is quickly picking up the hilarious art of sarcasm and is using "bigger" words than he used to--must be from all the reading.

Because it is Wednesday and a pretty awful day to attempt to go out to eat, we chose to make a spaghetti dinner for the family and eat at the house. Rod visited the Upper Crust Bakery today and picked up cinnamon buns, scones, heart-shaped cookies, and chocolate-covered strawberries. Kid in a candy store all grown up (but the desserts were truly fabulous). I went to my standard Wednesday night workout at 7:30 and there were about 10 people there (usually 25-30). If I wasn't attached, I might have gotten mildly depressed when the instructor yelled "I didn't think any women would show up tonight!" ha ha I am in the lame group. On a positive note, the owners left single roses for all the women who did come to classes on V-Day. One of the guys told me that pink roses represent fertility--I'm not quite sure how to respond to such a random comment. I just smiled and said something insipid like "that's cool."

Have a happy Valentine's Day!!

Evelyn's 6th Birthday Party

Evelyn celebrated her 6th birthday with some friends at a local ceramics shop, where the kids were allowed to pick something to paint. The options included things like little cats, purses, dragons, planes, ice cream cones, etc. Every child was well-behaved and they all did a great job painting their chosen ceramic. They will get to pick their masterpiece up later this week, after it has been fired and glazed. Some of the things Evelyn told us: "I feel bigger today." "I'm SOOOOOO excited!!!" She is such a sweet pea.

Carnaval

Rod and I celebrated his 35th birthday by going out to dinner with a couple of friends and then heading over to Carnaval. Carnaval is supposedly the biggest Brazilian celebration outside of Rio, and it was celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. We had a lot of fun dancing and people-watching. Some of the costumes are an excuse to get a little exhibitionist--but that's all I'll say, given that we've got a family blog happening here. One picture is with us at the house before heading out to dinner (Evelyn wanted to jump into the photo) and the other is at Carnaval. Nana watched the kids for us, so we stayed out late.

Celebrate Your Valentine's Breakfast With Us

Evelyn and Kenneth were having a conversation in the car today based on a song Evelyn was singing that had the phrase "Get that quarter back" in it. I have no idea if this is something she made up or if she heard it somewhere. Kenneth's personality is such that if he feels someone isn't 'getting it' he'll pipe in with clarifications. So we get something like this:

Kenneth: "Evelyn, do you even know what a quarterback is?"

Evelyn: "Yes. It's when you throw a quarter over your back."

Kenneth: "No that's not what that means. A quarterback is a guy in football who has a good hand at throwing."

Evelyn: "Well my song is about throwing a quarter over your back. You know when Mom says Chill Pill? You need to be a chill pill."

On a different note, I went to HEB after the kids went to bed. I am now debating doing all of my grocery shopping at night because it was uber-fast, despite all of the re-stocking boxes everywhere. At the end of one aisle was a display of all of the varieties of Quaker Oatmeal with a big sign that said "Celebrate Your Valentine's Breakfast with Us." Who on earth starts Valentine's Day with oatmeal? And even if they did, who would call it a celebration? Maybe I need a chill pill.

Can You Roll Your Tongue?

This picture is just terribly fuzzy, but it was the best I could do in about 10 attempts. Kenneth has the rare ability to triple roll his tongue! Most people can roll their tongue into a double roll (like a taco shell), but he can do one of those clover-like indentations where two sections indent creating 3 bumps. I am impressed. He is too. It is a trick that has apparently won much favor in the 3rd grade.

c/o 1993

Last Friday night a few of us from the class of 1993 met for a Happy Hour at El Gringo in Austin. Heather recommended it and it was a great spot. I do think we all pretty much look the same. Perhaps it is the blinded lens of my mind despite the undeniable fact that most of us in the picture are twice as old as a high school junior. Anyhow, it was fun, and Amy will try to round us up again in the summer. Go Tors!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

So I was singing loudly along with Arethra Franklin when the song R-E-S-P-E-C-T came on the radio. I looked back at Kenneth and Evelyn, and Kenneth had a look on his face that clearly indicated that he did not appreciate me singing with such abandon. Evelyn was smiling and trying to sing with me. The age of embarrassment starts somewhere in the 8-9 yr range, I guess!

100 Sunflower Seeds

I don't mean to harp on the quick turn-around assignments, but today, Evelyn came home with a note that said Thursday is the 100th day of school, so each Kindergarten student must create a posterboard that has 100 items glued to it. No, I am not kidding. The idea is that you can do something educational with it as well, such as grouping 100 M&Ms by color, or spelling their name with 100 paperclips, etc. We will glue 100 sunflower seeds in patterns that create circles, squares, and other shapes. Sunflower seeds were the item of choice because I found some in my cabinet in large supply.

They've known for 98 days that Thursday will be the 100th day, and they waited till now to inform us of the project.

The Alphabet Parade

Maybe it's just me, but is it a little odd that teachers would continue with their weekly activity plan when there is only one night (because of ice storm days off) to inform parents that their child needed to create a letter "J" posterboard and accompanying starts-with-the-letter-J-items for the Friday morning Kindergarten Alphabet Parade? I would have postponed the parade to the following week. Oh well--Evelyn will bring a jack-in-the-box and wear her poster and we'll all call it successful.

5-Day Vacation?

We are on our 3rd day of being stuck in the house because of the Central Texas ice and snow storm that has hovered around us. No school tomorrow either. The kids are having a good time because we've played a lot of board games: Sorry, Boggle, Labyrinth, Go Fish. Their Nana has been with us this whole time, which has been tremendously helpful for Rod and I as we've navigated conference calls, etc. mixed in with the daily duties of being home.

This afternoon the ice changed to snow and the kids played outside a lot. I included an old picture of Evelyn and I in College Station from January 2002. My cuties.

Just a Figure of Speech

Evelyn has been surprising us more and more lately, as she is developing more grown-up ways of expressing herself. This is true for facial expressions, hand gestures, and verbal expressions. I see myself in her in so many ways. Tonight, Rod and I were talking and he said, in reference to one of my co-workers, "She knows you, but she doesn't know you." About two minutes later, Evelyn pipes in "Anyhow, Mom, it's just a figure of speech. She does know you, but she doesn't know you well."

Maybe it's just me, but that is pretty smart for a 5 year old to (1) know generically what a figure of speech means, then refer to it, and (2) explain what that particular figure of speech means.

Visit from the Ontiveros Family

This weekend flew by. We had a quick visit from Aixa and Tracy on Friday night (they brought something up from Houston for Rod). Then, on Saturday, April, Cesar and Noah visited for about a day and a half. Noah liked being around Kenneth and Evelyn and April says that ours was the first non-home bathtub in which he hadn't freaked out. He must like us! Noah spent an inordinate amount of his play time "slicing" wooden vegetables that were velcroed together. The other major toy adventure was cracking up at the jack-in-the-box and trying to slice the jack's head off with the wooden vegetable knife. LOL. We ended our visit at Hula Hut, where Rod felt discriminated against because of his beard growth. He promptly shaved it later that day.

The rest of Sunday was spent pulling together Kenneth's Science Fair project, which was a take on "will it float?". The hypothesis was that there were age and gender differences in being able to predict whether 3 different things would float. The objects were a bag of frozen peas, a pushpin, and a rubber ball. He did the majority of the thought processes himself, including percentage calculations in his head (e.g. 1 of 4 = 25%, 2 of 6=33%, etc.). We used Excel for the more diffcult ones, like 7 of 9. Anyhow, his project looks great and he'll be turning it in tomorrow. 'm pretty impressed with him.

Serious Face Grown Up

The kids got their own photo albums for Christmas and we've been going through our enormous collection of digital photos so that they can pick some to begin their books. In this process, I ran across a couple of Kenneth that made me smile. When he was 2, we used to ask him to do his "serious face." It always made us laugh and we got a picture of it at that time. Sometime this past summer, we caught another photo of him with a serious face, so I thought I'd post them together.

Happy New Year!

We've had a fun couple of days visting with Rod's Dad and Linda. They have travelled to TX to visit us and Gwen, who is in Dallas visiting Jeff's parents. Then they will go to Kerrville and check on their land--they are building a house out there and are finalizing architectural drawings. They were able to watch the kids last night so Rod and I could go out downtown for New Year's Eve. We first stopped at a place called Cru, where you can get a 'flight' of wine (2 oz. samples in trios) and just people-watched and chatted. We had a fun time. The picture was taken by Rod--I think he did a pretty good job considering he was holding it out in front of us.

They've Messed with the Wrong Girl

Christmas morning was spent at home, just with our immediate family. We leisurely spent the morning opening a few presents and of course, the best ones were things that the kids had picked out for us or had wrapped themselves. Example: Evelyn created her own wrapping paper by coloring a piece of white paper with a design and used it to wrap and tape a candy cane to death for me. She even created her own miniature tag with "TO MOM LOVE EVELYN" on it. Kenneth had chosen a chocolate-scented candle at Target with his Nana because he knew I would love it. I could not be more blessed. Later that day we headed over to my Mom and Dad's house and met up with them and Elizabeth's family for a dinner. The cousins always enjoy each other.

Today, I took the kids to the Texas Memorial Museum, which, despite its name, is somewhat of a natural history museum. The best thing about it is that it's free! The museum had several exhibits specific to Texas natural history, which made it more interesting for the kids. For example, we saw a huge underwater dinosaur skeleton that was found in the Austin area. Just neat. I should have brought my camera and am seriously regretting that I didn't.

On a different note, I noticed water leaking out of our water softener and when Rod got home tonight he confirmed that it was indeed broken--just a rubber piece on the inside so hopefully it's easy to find a replacement piece. All of the household water has to run through the softener (at least how ours is set up) so we had to turn off the main water source to the house to avoid continued leakage. I'll have to take the kids out first thing in the morning until it's fixed. We have people coming over for dinner on Friday so we need a solution ASAP!

Evelyn was outside with me briefly this evening when we went to get the mail and we saw our neighbor with several of her age-11 friends waiting for a pizza guy to deliver pizzas for a birthday party. One of the girls in the group must have said something like 'that girl is staring at us -- that's weird' because Evelyn heard it (she does not miss anything). I'm sure they were just being 11-year olds in herd form, but Evelyn has not experienced that yet. When we got inside she told me what she had heard and added "Mom. When I heard that girl say that, I just thought in my mind 'they've messed with the wrong girl.'"

Getting Ready for Christmas

Last night we got back from a nice trip to Houston to visit Rod's family. We saw his Mom and Tracy, Rod's grandmother, Scott and Lucy, and Gwen's family was visiting as an added bonus. Tatum is the most independent child I have ever met. Jeff had been on deployment for 7 months, so he just got back to his family and you can tell he's enjoying it.

We spent tonight back in P-ville getting ready for Christmas. The kids and I baked roll-out cookies and they decorated them. In contrast to the usual angels, crosses, Christmas trees, etc., Evelyn made a cookie snake for Santa "because Santa would appreciate that." She was actually very creative with the snake design.

We've been listening to old Christmas records that I listened to with my family when I was growing up. They really are much better than most of the currently available music fare, such as Mariah Carey's blah blah annoying songs.

Have a fabulous Christmas with your family and friends!

Purse Returned!

In a wonderful turn of events, someone found my purse on the street in Rod's Mom's neighborhood and tracked us down! Yea!