Sassy Faces

This blog is mainly pictures (too tired to write tonight!).

Rod and I, 11 years to the day.

We spent some time practicing sassy faces at Nana's house.

In 1.5 Hours I'll Be Married 11 Years

Wow. That's all I can say. Rod and I will be celebrating our 11 year wedding anniversary on Friday, July 27th. Time truly flies. In the same amount of time that Kenneth has been with us already, he'll be leaving us for college. Amazing.


Tonight I read a book to both kids. Usually Kenneth reads by himself but he wanted to listen tonight. Their personalities are so evident in everything we do, even in the simplicity of reading a book. Evelyn is a born attorney. She remembers everything and can find feasible, logical, counter-suggestions to anything. She also knows everything already. Her most common phrase these days is "I know, but...". Kenneth takes everything in stride and gets frustrated with this growing conversational force from Evelyn, but he is still a patient big brother. I selected the books for the evening, one of which was one of probably hundreds of books written in the 70s with the Sesame Street characters. This particular book was narrated by The Count, who you may remember speaks in a Romanian accent. In typical Sesame Street fashion, they deal with current social issues by acting out stories (example: some books from that time period purposely switch traditional gender roles, such as making Betty Lou the tow truck driver, and Herry Monster as a lover of ballet and kittens.) The Count was describing a story about how Big Bird was taken away from Sesame Street because "somebody" determined that he shouldn't be living by himself and would be better off with a family of four dodo birds. Big Bird ran away from the dodo family and was making his way back to Sesame Street. A mission critical search for Big Bird occurred with 10 Sesame Street friends as part of the search party. When I read on behalf of The Count, I used my version of his voice (instead of "one beautiful haystack" I read it as "Von bee-u-tee-ful haystack). Of course Evelyn was greatly displeased with this deviation from the reality of the words on the page. "I don't like it when you change the book Mom. I don't like it when you use that voice Mom. Mom, stop it! I don't like that guy! I don't like The Count!" Kenneth is giggling on the other side of me during her whole exasperated speech. Gotta love it.

Walline Weekend

Kenneth pooled his birthday money and invested in a Gameboy DS, which is a hand-held gaming device. (He knows that we have full say on when that can and cannot be played.) He was able to buy two games for himself and one for Evelyn. Other than that major purchase, our weekend was relaxing. We went through Evelyn's room and generated the equivalent of about 4 trash bags worth of give-away toys. She was finally ready to give up some of the things she's had for so long. In the process of cleaning up, she put on some of her dress-up clothes for a picture. What a cutie! Other news is that Kenneth lost another tooth. He is fully aware that there is no Tooth Fairy, so when Evelyn was out of earshot, he said "So...Tooth Fairy, any funds for the missing tooth?" He had a huge grin on his face and was totally kidding with me. I can see his humor maturing (throwing in the hint of sarcasm).

Robotics Camp

Kenneth successfully completed a 2-week Robotics Camp through the local school district. They met from Monday - Thursday from 8 AM - 12:30 PM to learn about some principles of building structures, electronics, and applications of those subjects. The final project was a secret to the parents until the final day (which was today). We arrived at the school at 11 AM for a show-and-tell. Each group of kids had 3-4 participants and they were tasked to use the robotics skills and tools to create a scene from a movie. Some kids went so far as to bring accompanying music (Star Wars). Kenneth's team built a scene from Shrek: it was the castle where Princess Fiona was kept until Shrek rescued her from the dragon. They programmed a series of events that operated the mechanisms built into the Lego structure so that when a trigger was pressed, a drawbridge closed and the catapult tossed a mini-lego at the perpetrator trying to enter the castle. We were very impressed with his team's work and all of the other projects. Nana drove over for the presentation and afterwards, watched the kids for the rest of the day. Evelyn really, really wanted to participate in this program but you have to be entering 3rd grade before you're eligible. We may end up ordering some of these kits for the kids to experiment at home.


Kenneth styled his hair into a spike the other night. It is getting longer than he traditionally wears it. We've also got a great Daddy/Evelyn photo.
I also included one of the ladies of the group--it is clear that from Kenneth's perspective (he took the picture) I must look like a GIANT.

A Few More Conversations

It's been a busy week and we're all glad it's Friday. Rod picked up the kids after work, and I joined some coworkers for a happy hour, which I don't get to do very often. I met up with the family after swim lessons and we all relaxed on the big bed for about an hour at the end of the day.

I have a handful of K & E sayings from the last couple of days:

Evelyn: "I can't tell which leg is mine!" (in reference to intertwined legs when she and Kenneth were horsing around and getting themselves tangled up with each other; this made us all laugh very hard because she announced it in a very surprised, semi-nervous way)

Evelyn: "You shouldn't have been trying to walk when I was reaching out to tickle your feet." (justifying and finding a logical reason for why Kenneth shouldn't be upset after she accidentally tripped him; this is a prime example of how she finds an answer for everything; we tell her she will be a lawyer)

Evelyn: "Dad, I probably won't be living with you when I'm a teenager." (after Rod asked if she would still have good behavior when she became a teenager)

Evelyn and Kenneth: (discussing their father's belly button, an anomaly to them because they both have 'outies')
E: "You need to clean that out with a toothpick!"
K: "Evelyn, it probably hasn't been cleaned since the 90s."

Don't Reach Into the Pricklebush

Kenneth and a couple of his friends, Mason and Wilson, went to Main Event on Sunday for a small birthday celebration. Main Event is an all-encompassing "family fun" place, that has everything from bowling to indoor rock climbing to a bar and pool tables (of course, that section is empty during the day when kids are there). They all had a good time doing arcade games, simulated boxing, glow-in-the-dark putt putt golf, and the most anticipated..."Lazer Tag!"
For each section of Main Event, you pay independently, so when I got in line to pay for Lazer Tag, Michael Dell was in line with a couple of kids! You have to understand that this is a major celebrity sighting for me, given that I work for the company he founded. Rod and the kids played lazer tag at the same time as them. Rod refrained from shooting him with the lazer, but apparently Evelyn had no such reservations and got him several times. LOL

The kids are always saying funny and sweet things, with totally serious intentions. I have captured a few over the last few days:

Kenneth: "Mom, your underwear is sticking out above the top of your shorts. Normally it doesn't do that. You shouldn't bend over with those on." (Explanation: I so rarely wear "granny panties" that on the occasion I did, to have it pointed out was a little embarrassing.)

Evelyn: "Joseph lost his ball in a pricklebush today. I reached into the prickle bush and it pricked me. I have pricklebush prickles all on my arm. He didn't even care that I tried to get the ball out of the pricklebush for him. I am NOT touching that pricklebush again."

Evelyn: (in reference to a snack before swim lessons around dinner time, instead of a full meal) "This is not full-fledged. It just makes my heart beat."

Evelyn: calls exclamation points "exciting points" (which is actually pretty true)

Evelyn: "When you're you, you're you. I'm glad you are who you are." (sweet pea)

Today is my birthday. I have included a picture of me, taken during the summertime, right before I turned 9, which is right where Kenneth is now. age-wise.

Happy Birthday, Kenneth

We met up with Nana at Central Market for lunch on Friday so that she could wish Kenneth an early happy birthday. (My Mom will be on her way to California for a fun trip with my cousin Jeannie, starting Saturday). We relaxed and ate lunch, and the kids played on the outdoor playground after Kenneth opened a few gifts from Nana and Pops.

Later that evening, we had the pleasure of joining our friends Rex and Stacie, and their children, Alyssa and Austin for a Round Rock Express game. The kids had fun and enjoyed an end-of-game fireworks show.

Aixa and Tracy drove into town late Friday night to spend the birthday weekend with us. They were pretty tired when they got in around 11 PM. We spent Saturday morning (Kenneth's actual birthday) at the house with homemade pancakes for breakfast, and meandered over to my parent's house mid-afternoon. Aixa and Tracy had not been there yet so my Dad showed them around while the kids took a dip in the pool. We wound up the day at County Line BBQ. Because of the rain, there were tons of turtles and fish out on the dock of the restaurant. Thunder and lightening built up towards the end of the evening, so we decided not to even try to go see the already-postponed Georgetown fireworks. Kenneth was so happy all day. We are so proud of our 9-year old!

Arrows of Outrageous Fortune

The 4th of July was somewhat uneventful for us because it's been extremely rainy in Texas, much more than usual and the festivities we wanted to attend in Georgetown were called off. (The Georgetown fireworks will be rescheduled for Saturday, so we'll go then.) We decided to eat BBQ anyhow because that's just what you do on the 4th of July, so we headed to Rudy's BBQ, where you are served directly on butcher paper and forks are not immediately available. The kids were sceptical at first but truly loved the taste. Evelyn made herself a sandwich of bread, turkey, cheese that had been torn into miniature pieces, and pickle slices. She was in heaven. Kenneth ate more turkey than I thought was possible. Later that night we met up with some neighbors for some friendly discussions of mini-fireworks and sparklers, which turned into a not-so-fun evening when the police came around with two squad cars that had been staking out the cul-de-sac from both ends of the street (fireworks are prohibited in Pflugerville). More on that in person if anyone cares for details.


After our brush with the law, the next two days were spent more simply. I was working from home on Thursday and Friday, and the kids kept themselves busy with a few deviations with me involved. At one point, I went downstairs to check on them and they were on the back patio with their "kid" scissors, shaving wood off of some twigs. They were building bows and arrows and came up with one successful solution. We took it out to the local park and they eventually abandoned their archery and took to the creek where they could wade in and attempt to catch little fish.

Meeting Ann Marie

Saturday we started our drive to College Station to visit Elizabeth's family and meet Ann Marie. On the way down, we built in a quick trip to Sweetberry Farm in Lexington. It was the last weekend for blackberry picking, and I have been wanting to do this with the kids for awhile.
We spent about an hour and a half filling two baskets with blackberries and experienced only a few bug incidents. The spider picture is representative of about 5 enormous spiders that we encountered while we were there. The first time, I almost stuck my head into a web. The webs all had jaggedy, thick sections in the middle.
The owners of Sweetberry Farm told us that they call those "banana spiders" (but I have no idea if that is a real name or a name they gave them because they are really big with a yellow triangular section on them). Despite the spiders, we had a good time. You could eat right off the vines (no pesticides) but you had to check for bugs before eating (no pesticides). :)


We arrived in College Station after lunch and met Ann Marie. She was very sweet and we all enjoyed holding her. She definitely has the Kurusz mouth and chin. While we were there, we went to the local pool with Josh, Caleb, and Kyle to give Elizabeth and the baby some downtime. It was a lovely day!

Family Vacation Part I

I took off from work this Wednesday through the Fourth of July for a week of family vacation. Despite rainy forecasts, we took off for Schlitterbahn on Wednesday morning and it turned out to be a perfect day to go. It was not too hot (the sun was actually shining most of the day) and the crowds were minimal for a summer waterpark. We stayed till the park closed and went back to our hotel to clean up before going out for dinner. By that time, it was 9 PM and everyone was starving. We ate at New Braunfels Smokehouse, which was excellent. On Thursday, we drove into San Antonio, which was when the rain finally hit. It was OK because we spent some time in the Riverwalk Mall, saw a 3D IMAX on dinosaurs, and then met April, Cesar, and Noah for dinner on our way back to Austin. It was a great start to the vacation.

Kenneth is Famous

Awhile back, through a neighbor who worked at an ad agency, Kenneth and Evelyn participated in an ad for Seton hospital's annual report (along with some other kids). They each got $50 to spend over Spring Break and that was that. We never saw that one in print. Soon after, I received a call from the same agency asking if Kenneth would like to be in another ad campaign for the new Dell Children's Hospital. He was paid $150 (which he is saving). He took some pictures holding a sign with an arrow on it (to signify that the Children's Hospital is moving from its current location downtown to its new location north on I-35). Well, that campaign has come to fruition and Kenneth is featured on the side of the parking garage on the current hospital location with his arrow pointing north up I-35. We took a picture of the side of the parking garage while driving slowly up an entrance ramp to the highway. You can see it better if you click on the image. Now, every time we drive past it, we all say "There's Kenneth!" and he smiles proudly.

Mom, God Can See You

We have a very important announcement: Elizabeth had her third baby! The baby's name is Ann Marie, and she arrived on Friday. Caleb and Kyle are both trying to be helpful, Elizabeth says. All of them look great! (I stole the picture from their website, so if you want to see more, check out The Simmons Family link and scroll down to Ann Marie's Hospital Pictures.) We will be visiting them to meet Ann Marie this Saturday. Elizabeth sounds great and is actually celebrating her birthday today as well. Happy birthday Elizabeth!

Sunday was spent doing several things. We had lunch at Central Market, and let the kids play awhile before going on the Cool House Tour. (Oddly enough, we ran into Elizabeth's in-laws, Joey and Paula, and Matthew and Jennifer's family, who had driven in from College Station for the home tour. Jennifer is Elizabeth's sister-in-law and Joey and Paula are her father and mother-in-law.) This tour is made up of several Austin-area "green" homes that have been modified in some or many ways to be environmentally friendly. We only saw 4 of the 8 homes on the tour, but the houses were spread all over town, and it would have been difficult to get to them all. These homes were being lived in and the owners graciously opened them up to any Austinite willing to pay $10 a ticket (kids were free). Needless to say, there were several volunteers manning almost every room in the houses to answer any questions, but probably to prevent theft. Shoes had to be removed in each house. Anyone who knows me well knows I am not fond of feet so I wish I had worn socks instead of flip-flops. I had to traipse around bare foot (like the majority of the visitors) all over these houses. If I were one of those homeowners, the hundreds of barefeet would have bothered me more than some dirt.

At the summer camp, the kids have a dedicated time each day for board games. Both of them have picked up on chess, which has impressed me to no end. I am learning by watching them play with Rod. I am not joking when I say that both of them can hold their own very well. They already know all of the tricky rules. Sponges, that's what they are.

On our way to camp and work this morning, a car pulled out in front of us and we nearly hit them. I had to slam my brakes hard. When we passed the lady who did it, she looked dazed and had a crazy smile on her face, and was going about 5 miles an hour. I looked at her and kind of waved my hands in a "what was that???" gesture. About a minute later, Evelyn informed me "Mom, God can see you." I told her that I was quite aware of that, but that I was behaving respectably towards the person that very nearly caused an accident considering that she could have hit Kenneth's side of the car if we had been 5 seconds ahead, but thanks for keeping me in line.

A Relaxing Saturday

We started the day by heading to The Omlettetry, which is one of our favorite breakfast places. After that we looked at some furniture in a store where the starting price for a dining room table is ~17K. Not exactly our price range, but Rod convinced me that I wouldn't feel out of place in my shorts and t-shirt because it is Austin, citing that it would be in Dallas or Houston that I would feel out of place. Yeah right. He had worked with the furniture store through the Austin Home magazine (with which he's working) and wanted to show me some things. As soon as we pulled up, two ladies in their "Casual Wear" were outside the store discussing the qualities of a chair in the sunlight. Needless to say, the furniture was ornate but ridiculously out of budget so we left fairly quickly.


We visited a local pond/park, to which I had taken the kids over Spring Break. We saw some adolescent ducks (is that term applicable??) which may have been the baby ducks we saw in March. I don't know how fast ducks grow, but Evelyn was convinced it was them. It was the first time Rod had been to the pond and he thinks it will be a good place to bring the kayak with the kids. It is so conveniently located near our house.

At home later that day, we had some yard work to do and Kenneth (who is almost 9 now) mowed the entire back yard by himself. I couldn't believe it--he turns the mower and everything. He has no idea the level of work he's gotten himself into. Evelyn picked some weeds and helped me clean up inside while Rod was edging the grass. Highly productive!

Visit to Kerrville & Mom's Visit to Taiwan

I left Sunday (6/10) afternoon for the long trip to Taiwan, so Rod took the kids to visit Grandma Linda and Grandpa in Kerrville. They're working on their land and have set up a campsite that they've been living on for awhile now. According to Kenneth, they found neat rocks, saw cool scenery and hiked. According to Evelyn, they roasted marshmallows and used a potty that was open in the woods. Rod kept them busy while I was working overseas.

It was pretty busy, without too much downtime, but I did manage to finally see Snake Alley on my last night there, which is probably the most infamous of the several night markets in Taipei. Last time I was in Taiwan, I was with a colleague who speaks the language, so we went to a night market, but it was nothing like this one. (This time, another colleague and I went--neither one of us speaks the language, but we figured with some cash and directions back to the hotel, we'd be able to catch a taxi pretty easily.) Think crowded, flea-market-like environment, but with "attractions" such as snake handlers, the ability to purchase snake venom and blood (to drink for virility and fertility, not kidding), and the observation of snakes being skinned alive and hung up. So awful. That's mixed in with clothing, shoes, food carts with steamed squid, and other delicacies, and the regular moped sighting with a toddler standing on the platform, holding the handlebars, without a helmet.






The last picture is of headless turtles. I swear it's amazing how culturally different it is from Central Texas.

Off to Taiwan

Although I knew I'd be travelling to Taiwan this summer, the travel dates had been changed again and again, and it was finally somewhat settled that my travel would be in mid-July. Well, at the end of the day today I found out that I had to be in Taiwan on Monday! So...no more blog posts till after I get back on 6/16.

I picked the kids up early today so they could do some early Father's Day preparation at the ceramics place. If I'm not falling asleep on Sunday (6/17) in a post-trip stupor, I'll take pics of Rod opening all of his goodies.

First Week of Summer Camp

Summer camp has started again and the kids have settled in just fine. Many of the same friends from previous summers are there so they fell back into the routine immediately. One of Evelyn's good friends from when she was in pre-school there is also in her group this summer. Each week has a theme and starting next week, they'll be going on a field trip per week. The trips will range from the highly educational (Blanton Museum of Art) to the just plain fun (Interstate Bowling). The summer will go by quickly, I know.

Merle and Linda visited mid-week and we went out for a celebratory dinner for their one-year anniversary. They've been out at their land, getting things ready for the house-building to break ground.

The picture of Rod and Kenneth is from Chez Zee--we had a Memorial Day brunch at the restaurant. We followed up brunch by walking around The Domain (an outdoor Mall).

End of the School Year

Kenneth and Evelyn have finished out the school year successfully--no surprise there. Hard to believe Evelyn finished her first year of Kindergarten. The pictures are from their end-of-year award ceremonies.
Mom came to the house on the last day of school so the kids could ride the bus home. She stayed overnight so Rod and I could go to a Bob Schneider concert at Stubbs. It rained, but there was a lot of cover in the outdoor area. Of course a few people were dancing in the rain, but we tried to stay dry.

Today we took the kids to see Shrek III and wrapped up the day at the Walburg Restaurant's Biergarten--it is an authentic German restaurant with an outdoor area where they serve beer (of course), German food, and have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. The music is typically old-style band, polka, etc. We'll probably try to go there with some other families this summer since it's so kid friendly. It also has an old-style arcade within viewing distance of the outdoor tables.


The kids wrapped up the day with a bubble bath in my tub.

Deutschenfest

This past weekend, Pflugerville had their annual Deutschenfest, which we've apparently been erroneously calling "Pfluger-fest" for the last few years. It is your typical crafts fair, with carnival rides and kettle corn and smoked turkey legs, but with a twist--the addition of German heritage and associated beer. We're actually not really beer drinkers, but we go to check out the festival every year. Rod recently bought a ultra-wide-angle camera lens, and these photos were taken with that lens. I don't think I like it as much as a standard lens, but it is kind of a trendy look. Maybe I don't like it because close facial shots make your face very elongated and unnatural-looking (but we're not including those pics here!).

Sunday we went to Zilker park because it was so beautiful outside, and topped the day off with Mangia's pizza. That is a favorite Summer restaurant of ours--they make whole-wheat stuffed personal pizzas. The location we like to go to is next to Deep Eddy, which is spring-fed and "Texas's Oldest Pool" -- that's another topic entirely, but here's a link if you're interested in reading more about it: http://austin.about.com/cs/photogallery/l/blvttldeepeddy.htm

We recently figured out that one of the people that Rod is working with on a recurring project is a former neighbor of mine from Galveston when we were little kids. I think Dana's family moved away when I was about 7 or 8. Anyhow, she brought in an old photo from a birthday party and Becky and I are in it. Yes, that's me with the enormous belly hanging out of the midriff t-shirt. I would have been 3 years old in that picture.

Grandma Aixa and Evelyn's Kindergarten Musical

Rod sent me a picture from the visit to Houston last week, where Kenneth and Rod met Aixa for dinner.


Evelyn had her end-of-year Kindergarten musical, called "Animals!". Each class wore a hat with a specific animal on it and they sang about 7 songs. In-between each song, there were speaking parts. Evelyn performed a last-minute speaking part because one of the kids who was supposed to speak didn't show up. She had the best diction out of all of the speakers, despite winging it.
She sang with a lot of expression and during one song must have gotten temporarily miffed at Blaze, one of her classmates (as is evidenced in the picture).

The last picture is just me and Ken in the audience. My baby is almost 9.

A Sweet Mother's Day

We had a fun weekend. Friday, Rod went out to see some kind of Ultimate Fighting Championship with some friends. He said there was a lot of blood but it was pretty fun to watch. While he was doing that, we met my Mom at Central Market to have dinner and let the kids play on the outdoor playground. There was a great cover band playing--called The Eggmen--and they did primarily Beatles music. They sounded as close to the original Beatles songs as possible. We really enjoyed that.

The last soccer games of the season happened on Saturday afternoon. Evelyn was very sad because she will not be able to return to The Titans again. The next season splits into all-boy and all-girl teams, and her team up to this point was a mixed gender team. We will definitely be staying in touch with her friend Ethan, though. Kenneth has one final soccer party to wrap up the season.


Saturday, Mom came over and Rod and I went to see the Texas RollerGirls play-offs. I don't know if we'll go back, but it was fun to see at least once. It is an all-female roller derby, complete with pushing, shoving, and a few staged "fights." Afterwards we went to Rio, a Mexican restaurant housed in what used to be the living quarters of the cast of The Real World: Austin.

On Mother's Day, I woke up to an array of presents (very thoughtfully picked out presents, I might add) from my sweet husband and kids. Then we went to The Omlettetry, which is my favorite place to get whole-what pancakes. Yum. Fabulous weekend.