Visit from NJ Cousins

My cousins, Chrissy and Keith, flew down from NJ a couple of weeks ago for a marathon in Austin. Keith's girlfriend Megan and his Mom, my Aunt Loretta, also flew down. Only Chris, Keith, and Megan actually ran in the marathon. It was Chrissy's first marathon--they all did great! Heck, just finishing is great. I would like to run a marathon someday, although it is much more likely that I'll do a half marathon. Elizabeth's family also visited and we got an amazing shot of Ann Marie.

I have promised prints for Elizabeth and my Mom. Kyle was almost impossible to get a picture of because he was on a mission to wander far and fast. Josh had to basically follow him around the whole time. Evelyn pushed Ann Marie in a swing, and she was content just to hang out, pretty much wherever we had her. It was one of those days where we just got a ton of good pictures all around.

On Saturday, Evelyn participated in the Austin Regional Science Fair. It was very odd though; out of the 1000 projects that were there (estimate, but at least 400), EVERY SINGLE project won a first, second, or third place ribbon. This completely defeats the purpose of such a competition. A mother near me when I was exclaiming "Oh you won 2nd place, congratulations Evelyn, uhhh, hold on, everyone won something?!?!?" said "It's criteria-based, not competition-based." Ummm, WHATEVER. Kids need to learn that you don't win at everything you do. Well, you can't control everything. I was proud of Evelyn when the judge was speaking with her. She not only was able to accurately answer questions about her project, but she was able to deduce on-target answers to 'what if' questions as well.

This coming Saturday is the first soccer game weekend of the Spring season. Evelyn starts bright and early at 8:00 AM.

The Orator

Kenneth was selected to participate in an oratorical contest in school last Tuesday. The contestants had been narrowed down from classroom-level competitions to the big night.

The theme was related to Black History Month, so the passages that the kids memorized were from various black authors or activists. Kenneth chose a selection from the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King. About 80-100 kids total ended up in the final evening competition. I was so proud of Kenneth. Evelyn and I sat down on the floor of the cafeteria with a bunch of kids because I couldn't get a good view in the chairs. Kenneth called me the next day from school to tell me he won first place out of the whole 4th grade! You can click on the image of the video to see Kenneth's winning speech. We're so proud of him! He's pretty proud of himself, too.

Happy Birthday, Evelyn!

A few days ago, my sweet Evelyn had her 7th birthday.

She was so proud. We went to the same place she had her party last year (a local pottery place) but this time with a targeted effort: picture frames. We picked up the finished products last weekend and they all look great. The plan is to put a picture of each child in the frame that they created themselves, to send home along with Evelyn's thank-you notes. In the picture to the left, she is wearing a new dress that her Grandma Aixa got her, and a new pink sweater than her Nana got her. Kenneth decided that a picture frame wasn't quite his style and opted to paint a ceramic egg, instead. Most of the time, he spent taking pictures for us. Nana and Pops drove over for the party, too.

At the end of day, the kids went to play at our neighbor's house, while we shared a sitter and went out to eat at a fabulous Mexican restaurant off of Manor Rd. near downtown Austin. I'll have to look up the name again because there's quite a few down there. This one, however, had ambience and was packed with a late 20-something/early 30-something crowd. A definite repeat.

Spring soccer practice has started up again for Kenneth (they call it "conditioning" already). Evelyn will have her first practice this week. They are on the same teams as last season. I just hope Evelyn's shoes still fit her. Growing like a weed, I tell you.

The Trials of Hugo

Kenneth and Rod have spent several weekend days catching crawdads in the creek that is in our currently favored park (to put in his fish tank). Prior to their discovery, I thought crawdads were saltwater creatures. (Truthfully, I hadn't devoted much brain time to it.) Over the course of time, they've collected 6-8 crawdads, most of which are shorter than a pinkie finger, but one that was much bigger. ("Much bigger" is still relative--none of these guys were too big.) The biggest crawdad was Hugo. He owned the fish tank and made sure all the fish, snails, and other crawdads knew it. This weekend, Kenneth collected a couple of more crawdads, one of which was close in size to Hugo. Kenneth named him Reedy. Reedy challenged Hugo once and Hugo became very territorial in return. Hugo didn't really mess with the other, smaller crawdads; although, we noticed that periodically a leg would go missing. Reedy ended up spending most of his time at the top of a fake water bush. Unfortunately for Hugo, when crawdads molt, they lose their protective hard outer layer. Reedy took advantage of Hugo's vulnerable state. One recent evening, Kenneth was shocked to find Hugo's severed head floating at the top of the tank. Well, if you have to experience a beheading, I guess nature's soap opera is the way to go. The new master of the fish tank is pictured above.

Happy Birthday Rod!

OK, this is a bit belated for a blog post, but Rod had a birthday last Thursday. We celebrated on the actual day with Nana, who surprised us by making dinner and a cake. Later in the weekend, I made a birthday dinner too, so he was double-treated. Unfortunately, Merle and Linda were not able to come up this weekend, but we will see them as soon as we can. We did find out that Linda's daughter, Lisa, is having a baby girl in May!

Evelyn is so excited that she will have another girl cousin. We don't know names yet, though.

Poor Kenneth has been sick this week and has missed school on Monday and Tuesday. I'm not sure what got him, but there have been lots of kids out of school lately.

I'm going to go read "George and Martha" to Evelyn, even though she's quite capable of reading it to me!