12 years!

Rod and I celebrated our 12th anniversary yesterday. It is very hard to believe so much time has passed. We dropped the kids off with Nana and Pops and booked it to Mandola's, which is one of our favorite Italian restaurants:

http://www.mandolasmarket.com/

This place has homemade everything--from the pasta to the gelato. On the plus side, it is casual dress. If you live in the Austin area, you have to drop in.

I was feeling motivated (or perhaps a combination of nostalgia and insomnia) and took a picture of a couple of our wedding photos. At the time of the wedding, I recall thinking to myself that my hair would look quite outdated in a few years because of the enormous bangs. Periodically I'd check out our album and think 'not yet--it's not bad yet.' I think it's officially reached the 'Looks-Like-The-Mid-90's' style now. The dance/pose song "Macarena" was at the height of its popularity and, of course, the DJ felt the need to play it. We all felt obligated to participate, so I can't blame the DJ entirely.

I can only imagine what the next 12 years will bring.

Mom's Jeans

Another picture of the kids from when we went to Fredricksburg....It made me laugh when I looked at it again because Kenneth is starting to get to the age of being embarrassed when I ask him to pose for a photo (especially if it involves flowers). :)

The kids are in a camp this week called Camp Invention, hosted through the school district. They love it so far and had a stream of stories to tell me about their first day. Nana is helping out for drop off and pick up this Monday and Tuesday. When I got home today, they were teaching Nana how to play the Wii!

Apparently there was a discussion between Mom and the kids about passing on genes from parents. Evelyn summed up the conversation and said "Don't worry, Nana. I'm sure Mom will pass on her jeans to me."

Lake Conroe

We took a trip down to Conroe this weekend to hang out at the weekend lake house of one of Rod's colleagues. It was a pretty large get-together--lots of kids for Kenneth and Evelyn to play with. They got to go out on a boat and ride jet skis (with Rod driving the jet ski, of course).

Back to work next week after a nice, long vacation...

Happy Birthday Kenneth

Kenneth had his 10th birthday a few days ago. We took the kids and a couple of Kenneth's friends to see Wall-E and to Chick Fila afterwards. It was a very cute movie, even for adults. I can't believe my sweetie is in the double-digits now!

Last weekend we drove down to Kerrville to see Merle and Linda. They have finally moved in to the house they've been working on, with only a few things left to do to be a fully functional house. It is so serene out there. We will be sure to visit often. On our way back, we stopped in Fredricksburg for a few hours to walk around. Rod and I would love to go back on our own sometime because the kids tend to get tired more quickly than we do.

Rod decided to join a local Rotary Club and had his induction ceremony at a lunch on Thursday. We all went with him--he's definitely on the younger side compared to the rest of the club. I think they need new folks to make sure the club continues. Apparently this particular Rotary has been around for 50 some years. After the lunch, the kids and I stopped at a park that has roaming peacocks. Kenneth took several pictures while they 'barked' at him.

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.

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."

Yoga, Yoga

I finally tried my first yoga class. We have a family membership to the local YMCA, which has age-specific kid zones so that Moms and Dads can exercise without having to pay extra for childcare. Evelyn's best friend, Shaley, happened to be there at the same time as she was, so that was great for her. Kenneth played with a Wii the whole time, so he was good to go too. I have to admit, the poses required (even in a beginner class) were sometimes difficult to maintain, primarily because of balance. I have the strength though, so it has potential. I don't think I'll ever get to the point that I want to put my elbows propped up and my knees on top of my elbows, but I have the satisfaction of knowing that I can do it. Yes, it is as complicated as it sounds. I found a picture of the pose for your viewing pleasure.

Tomorrow, we head to College Station for a couple of reasons. Elizabeth's family is moving, so we will create diversions for the kids all day. Also, my former choral conductor is having a surprise 20th-year-of-conducting gathering and I expect to see several former Women's Chorus members.

Rod's Twin

My friend Tiffani found a picture on someone else's blog that looks EXACTLY like Rod. I showed him and he agreed it was a match.

I wonder if we all have a "twin" in the world.

In Lieu Of...

In lieu of stories, here's a couple of photos of my sweet peas. Ken likes to do his funny face. Evelyn is sitting with some soccer friends.

Step It Up!

I officially really like the new Bravo reality show, "Step It Up!". Rod and I already have our favorite dancers...

Visit to Kerrville

A couple of weekends ago we visited Merle and Linda in Kerrville. They are still working on their house (along with a selective crew of workers) but they have a small cabin that they've been living in for quite a while now. It is fully functional and makes you question why we have become so dependent on large floor plans! Linda made a fabulous dinner, complete with homemade lemon pecan bread, which was a recipe I wrote down immediately. I'm definitely going to be baking some soon.

The other pic with my Mom is from when she visited us to see Kenneth in the school's talent show last weekend. We will be heading to College Station this Friday to see the Women's Chorus concert. I haven't seen a WC concert since '01. The kids will join us and they are looking forward to seeing me join the choir for the last song of the concert ("I Believe," sung in conjunction with Ave Maria), which is something that is done at every concert.

Mom, What If It Is a Turd?

I got a mean sunburn today. It was the one day of the soccer season that requires a lot more time than usual: the 2 normal games, but team and individual soccer pictures as well. To top it off, I volunteered for a 2-hour time slot to assist with the photo coordination. You may have no sympathy for me because of the volunteer aspect, but I keep most requests against our time at bay. Anyhow, it's a good thing I'm a calm person because so many are not. The forms that needed to be filled out for photos were complicated. I very much wish I'd saved a copy of the form so I could post an image of it and ask for comments on whether it was interpretable within 1 minute. I was berated a few times because parents couldn't figure the form out and talked to me as if I were with the photo company.

Kenneth spent the later part of the day mowing the yard and found what is probably a large acorn, but possibly a pecan. He brought it inside and washed it off then let Evelyn take a look. Evelyn was talking about how she was going to paint white lines on it to make it look like a football when Rod took notice and told her it was an owl turd. She dropped it on the spot but I could tell she still wanted to paint it. She came to me later and asked, "Mom, what if it is a turd? It would not be hard like this, right?" We've successfully gotten past the ruse.

Friday night, the school put on a talent show. Kenneth was in a skit with a few other boys called 'Sittin' on a Red Bench'. The premise is that a series of characters come out one at a time and sit next to each other on a red bench and lastly, a painter comes out with a red paint can; all the kids on the bench realize that they've sat on the wet paint. It was so funny and got a lot of laughs!

Easter Weekend

We had a nice Easter weekend. Nana bought Evelyn a couple of beautiful dresses, so she was set for Saturday and Sunday. It was pleasant outside so we let the kids run through the sprinkler during our attempt to make the front lawn green. Rod, Kenneth, and Evelyn all got haircuts, but Evelyn's was the boldest. She wanted it "between my chin and my shoulders" and that's exactly what she got: it looks great! She looks so much older.