Taking tattling to a whole new level

Rhys just came to me and asked for an envelope. He had written a letter to Santa, telling him that Avery refused to play Chess with him today. Apparently I hadn't acted on the issue like I was supposed to, so he was taking it to a higher authority. So, the question is: Is not succumbing to your little brother's every whim enough to earn a spot on the Naughty List? Seems unlikely.

Movin' on up...

We got a letter in the mail today inviting Avery to join the Level 4 girls gymnastics team. She is beside herself with excitement. We're very proud of her and excited too, although we might have to sell off one of her little brothers to pay for it....

My favorite part of homeschooling...

...has very little to do with schooling. My favorite part of homeschooling is the close relationship my kids are able to have. I've noticed a lot recently how different my children's relationship is from the traditional sibling relationship. Sure, they bicker sometimes, but they aren't competitive, they aren't mean to each other, and they truly, genuinely enjoy being together. Not only that, but I've noticed how well older homeschooled children relate to younger ones. They treat them with such respect and try hard to help and include them. That kind of patience and kindness is more important than any academic lesson I could teach them.

Last night Avery had a couple of friends spend the night, and I was reminded of this again. The girls were so sweet to Rhys; they worried when he was bored when they were ice skating and they didn't mind a bit when he huddled with them on their blankets to watch a movie.

Happy birthday Avery Simone!

I can hardly believe that my baby girl is 8! It seems like it was just yesterday that she was the goofy baby in the floppy yellow hat. And now she's grown into such a smart, wonderful girl. Happy birthday, girlie!

The Bug Guy

Today our Nature Club had a presentation given by Jungle Jim, aka The Bug Guy. He brought a seemingly endless supply of spiders, scorpions, snakes, and lizards, as well as several huge display cases full of mounted insects. His collection was quite impressive, and I just might have nightmares about those giant cockroaches. *shudder* It seems that Griffin might have agreed with me, since he very loudly said, "Ewwwwwwwwww!" as he pointed at every creature he saw.

Christmas crafting

I've been on quite the crafting spree lately! Not only have I been frantically sewing some Christmas gifts for the kids, but I've been crafting some new Christmas decorations. I'm not finished yet with all my projects, but here is a peek at a couple of finished projects.

First, our new Christmas stockings. I embroidered the little elves with a free pattern so generously supplied by Wee Wonderfuls, then I constructed the stockings and sewed on some cute vintage reproduction fabrics. Now, I just have to come up with something for Bill's stocking and mine too!



Also, I made stocking advent garland. There are 24 stockings, one for each day in December leading up to Christmas. Every morning, either Bill or I put a note in that day's stocking, notifying the children of a Christmas craft or activity we'll do that day. They've ranged from watching a Christmas movie and drinking hot chocolate to going to a Christmas party to making Christmas ornaments. It's a fun challenge to come up with a new activity every day, and the kids really look forward to each day's special event.

Bookclub holiday party

This week we had a holiday party at Book Club. After doing the normal book discussion, the kids had a feast of cookies, brownies, and fudge, then played several fun holiday games. They also all got to open gifts of (what else?) NEW BOOKS! Yahooo!



Book Club is one of the kids' very favorite activities. Rhys is in the younger group, aptly named "The Crazy Readers". They read picture books or short chapter books, discuss them, and do a craft. The older group, to which Avery belongs, is called "The Fantasy Worms" (think: book "worms"). They read novels and the girls discuss the book and take turns making up a game to go with the book. This week was Avery's turn, and she spent quite a bit of time creating a shell-shaped game board and tons of trivia questions to go along with the book The Tail of Emily Windsnap.

The best part for me is that we do a mini grown up book club! We select a book to read each month (alternating fiction and nonfiction), and we try to grab a few minutes here and there to discuss it. This month we're reading Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. It's so nice to have such a great, smart group of women to help me broaden my horizons!

Tree trimming

Our Christmas tree has been up for about a week, and we've had a few ornament casualties. Griffin was very interested in the tree at first, and enjoyed throwing the "balls" (aka ornaments) on the tile floor. It didn't take long before we realized that we needed to move the ornaments out of reach. So our tree is naked until about halfway up, but at least we should have a few ornaments left for next year!

Austin Toros

Last week, the Show Team performed at the Austin Toros halftime show. The Toros lost, but we had a fun time. Rhys jumped and pretended to shoot baskets the whole game, while Avery goofed around with her gymnastics friends in the stands.

Christmas card picture attempt

In this year's Christmas card photo shoot, I managed to get some really cute pictures of Avery and Rhys. Unfortunately, most pictures had Griffin streaking by in the foreground as he rushed to get out of the posed shot. Or, even better, him throwing a tantrum when we tried to hold him in the picture. I did manage to get this really great one of the bigger two. Maybe I can draw Griffin in?

Chuy's Parade

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Avery performed at the annual Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade. We go every year, but it was very special for Avery to actually be in it. It's such a fun parade; there are huge balloons, marching bands, and much, much more. Griffin was especially impressed with all the firetrucks that were included in the procession.

Soccer season ends

In mid-November, Rhys had his last soccer game. He really started coming around toward the end of the season, and started to really "get it". Of course, he only focused on the game for 20 second intervals, and the rest of the time he spent running and playing with his buddies on the field. He did enjoy the season, but he plans to try T-ball in the spring. Ever since soccer ended, he's been asking me if every other activity he does will eventually come to an end. He was ok with soccer ending, but apparently he plans to do book club and gymnastics "FOREVER!!!!"

Washington-on-the-Brazos

A couple of days after Halloween, we went with friends on a field trip to Washington-on-the-Brazos. We visited a museum and a living history farm. The kids especially enjoyed the living history farm, and Avery insists that she would *love* to do laundry if she could do it the pioneer way!

Too much cuteness

Today Avery and Rhys were playing Hide & Seek, and suddenly Griffin jumped up, went to the middle room, covered his eyes with his little hands, and started counting, "Two, two, two..." Then he uncovered his eyes and went running, looking for the kids in their hiding places. Sooooo cute.

Then we were out looking at Christmas lights, and we saw a house that was really decked out with tons of lights, wreaths, candy canes, etc. Rhys sighed, "Oooooooh. Does Santa live here?"

So beautiful

Rhys was itching to go out to eat, and he noticed a Subway restaurant while driving down the highway with Bill.

"Daddy..." he said, "have you ever been inside a Subway restaurant?"
"Yes, I have," Bill replied.
"It's soooooo beautiful," Rhys said with a sigh.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Griffin, who normally doesn't have a lot to say, has learned a new word. Unfortunately, the word is "MINE!" and it's never spoken -- it's always shreiked. He has only known the word for about 24 hours, and I've heard it at least 4000 times.

Babies

After seeing a cute baby on TV, Rhys turned to me and said, "Maybe when I grow up, I can get a wife, and she can have a baby like that!" I guess he's giving up on good ol' mom to provide him with any more babies! ;-)

Halloween

On Halloween night we held our annual party and trick-or-treating expedition. This year was different because all the adults came dressed up! It was so fun to see everyone in costumes, and it made for a great group escorting the kids trick-or-treating! I think ours were the only three kids that were accompanied by a group of 15+ dressed up adults!

This year, Avery dressed up as Kirsten, the pioneer American Girl, Rhys was a knight, and Griffin was a fuzzy blue monster.

Boerne Meet - Oct. 28

Last Saturday Nonnie accompanied the kids and me to Avery's district meet in Boerne. Avery did very well, and got blue ribbons on all four events! She was the only one from her team to earn all blues, and we are so proud of her for improving at every meet. She has worked so hard!

Unfortunately, the meet wasn't all a bed of roses. Rhys came down with a cold during the meet, and was quite miserable by the end. And Griffin...well, he was just Griffin. He climbed, fell, ran, jumped, ate things, made messes, etc, etc. Thank goodness Nonnie was there to help me, or I wouldn't have lived to tell about it!

Halloween Co-op

After taking a few months break from co-op, we returned just in time for our annual Halloween celebration. It's always such a fun party, and this year was no different. After taking the obligitory group picture, the kids did a parade through the labyrinth, listened to Halloween stories, made Halloween crafts, and had all kinds of Halloween junk food.

Elisha and Nick's Wedding

On October 22nd, we went to my cousin Elisha's wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding -- the perfect mix of sweet and meaningful and just plain fun. The ceremony itself was beautiful, and we all had a ball at the reception. We were all worn out the next day from dancing all night, especially Avery and Rhys!

AMOA and the Capitol

In mid-October, we went down to the AMOA to see an exhibit of the Gee's Bend Quilts and paintings by a local artist, Lu Ann Barrow. It was an awesome exhibit, and the kids really enjoyed it. Afterwards, we walked down to the Capitol to eat lunch on the lawn.

2nd soccer game

Rhys is getting a little more into the whole soccer thing, but he still tends to hang back. I told Bill that it only makes sense -- we've told him his whole life that he should take turns and share with other kids...it stands to reason that he doesn't feel comfortable trying to steal the ball away! :-) He really loves it, though, and it's even better now that Daddy is the coach! Our original coach just stopped showing up, and won't return anyone's calls (who does that?!). Luckily, Bill and two other dads stepped up and are sharing the responsibility of coaching the kids.

Pumpkins at the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm - Oct '06

In early October, we went with a homeschool group to a fall festival at the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm. There were tons of kids there, and it was H-O-T! The kids got to play, paint pumpkins, build scarecrows, play put-put, have duck races, and more. Despite my miserable allergies, we managed to have a good time!

Heart of Texas meet - October 1st

Avery's third meet was held here at our home gym. It was special because she had lots of people come watch her. Papa and Ronnie, Mamar and Doug, Linah, and Avery's friend Maya and her mom all came to cheer her on. Avery had another great meet and earned three blue ribbons and one red. Go Avery!

Soccer at the Y

Rhys started soccer at the YMCA in Sept. He really enjoys it, although I'm not sure we have a future World Cup player on our hands. ;-) He does really well in practice, but he's not very aggressive at the games. Usually, he and his friend Gregory spend the games playing and tickling each other end of the field. But he's having a great time, and that's the goal!

Pookie's "Off Button"

Avery has the magic touch. She figured out just the right way to rub Griffin's ear to soothe the wild beast. In fact, it puts him right to sleep! It's quite remarkable. She calls it his "off button."

San Antonio Meet - September 16-17

We drove to San Antonio for a gymnastics meet in September. We stayed in a fabulous hotel that had a great pool and a huge playscape right outside our room. Avery did great at the meet, and earned two blue ribbons and two red ribbons.

On Sunday, we went downtown before going home. We explored the Alamo and ate on the Riverwalk. It was another fun getaway!

Galveston - September '06

As you can tell, I'm way behind on my posts. We have had a lot going on! But, I don't want to miss out on journaling any of our activities.

In September, we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Galveston for a few days. I was feeling stressed out, and I felt like I would feel better if we could get away for a few days and just focus on enjoying each other. It worked like a charm. We had a great time, and I came back feeling rejuvenated and ready to face our busy fall season!

Avery and Rhys really enjoyed the beach, as always. We got Rhys a life jacket so he could have more freedom in the water, and he loved it! He and Avery would go out to body surf in the waves for hours on end. This was Griffin's first trip to the beach, and he loved it too! He had fun in the water, and also enjoyed digging in the sand and picking up shells.

You haven't lived...

...until you've heard Griffin sing the theme song from Sanford & Son. "Buh-buh-buh-Bun-nuh..."

More "Mermaid Lagoon"

This is a continuation of Avery's story I posted a couple of weeks ago.

i now swam forward,and swam in.i walkd (i
mean swam in)and boghut seaweed sea cream
soda,and sat with my new tail to the side
of my chair,waiting.hello,i said in a very
casuele way.i`m kate,she said."i`m riligh!"
i told her,smiling.after this,"kate said,i
will take you too mergirl park,"oh kate,i
said,"i'm sorry,i have to go home,but hmmm.
...tomarow,8:02?oh,.....well,see you,'bye'"
she answerd.
<>*^+<>*+<>*+<>*+<>*+<>*+<>*+
Honey,mom said,eat that apple salad,""oh...
fine..."i finishd,and ran upstairs,and the
smimming-bag in my hands,jumpd in,and met
kate below the serfice.kate was greatly
pleasd. (great!)she said.lillyyyyy!!!!!!
i shouted,lilly swam closer.To my great big
suprise,lilly had a tail!"lil,please go,i`m
pleading,"i said,unhappilly.lilly did`nt
move.i moved tourd kate,hoping to get away
from lil.kate and i had disipeard in a big
zoom."look,kate,sorry,no time,i have to go,
tomarow,"i said i`ll go to mergirl school,
with you!""i`ll meet you at 'the mermaid
lAGOON',she said,and i disipeard.
<><>//++<><>//++
"sure your ready,?"askd kate."i coudent be
more ready!"i said happily.i swishd my tail
and disipeard.the school turned out too be
A large cave,with stools tied to the ground
with rope. little mergirls'and merboys were
all around the room,all with soft,shiney
scales."oooh," i said,"its a dream," kate,
smiled.she was looking at a plump girl,
nametagd,"sally." "ah,"said the teacher,
"A visoter!"she was delighted.the plump
girl raisd her hand."yes,mrs.delquew?"the
teachcher said."miss,you said we woud learn
merish,mam,"she piped up."indeed i did!"she
said,"here you are."
THE LEARNING BOOK OF MERISH.by jean delq
ALPHABET ORDER:
a,b,bg,cc,d,e,fff, gt, hh,iee,jj,kkk,ll,mo,
nn,oas, pp,qq,rrt,swe,trewq,uuu,vvl,wwwwww,
xxxx,yitrweq,zzioomjrq.
"its' very complicatated,"i whisperd.next:
NAMES:
hhannahh(hannah)moayiitrweqa(maya)sweally-
iterweq (sally)
i tore my eyes from the book,this is so,so,
imposible!poor kate! she lookd even more
bewilderd then i do. finally, school was
over.i past my test.it was time to go."ill'
see you tomarow......" and i swam away.

Garage sale

This week, on a whim, I decided that we should have a garage sale. I needed to get the garage cleaned out so that I could park my car in it again, but I don't think I quite realized the work involved in having a garage sale. I spent all week organizing, pricing, and advertising. It was worth the hard work in the end, because we ended up making almost $300!

The kids really wanted to get involved, so a good friend of mine came up with the great idea to have the kids sell cupcakes and lemonade. So they set up a stand, and charged 25 cents for a cupcake and 10 cents for lemonade. They ended up making $8 to split!

Avery's first meet

Avery had her first meet last Saturday in Georgetown. She was very nervous at first, but after a couple of rotations, she felt great! It's really neat how they run the meets; there's really no pressure on the girls at all. They do score them, but the judges don't flash the scores so the girls never know what they get. They just wave a flag based on their score (blue for scores from 8-9, red for 7-8, white for 6-7, and yellow for below 6). Then everyone gets to take home ribbons and a medal. Avery did great, and her only flaw was that she sped through her routines. In fact, on the floor, she ended up holding her ending pose for about 10 seconds while her music finished up. She handled it like a pro, though, and didn't get upset at all! Yay! She's already looking forward to the next meet, which will be in about two weeks in San Antonio.

Sir Rhys

Rhys's 4th birthday party

We had Rhys's party at the Inflatable Wonderland at the mall. We only had a few families come, and it was very nice. The kids jumped and played, then we headed up to the food court for pizza and Star Wars cupcakes. Rhys was very excited that there was one particular bouncer that was labeled for kids 3 and under. He pointed out to everyone he saw that he couldn't go in that one, because he's FOUR!!!! now.

The curse continues

So after my van was repaired and Dad's car had a new battery, I hoped we were in the clear. Well, apparently the curse moved from vehicles to appliances. This week both the lawnmower AND the dryer broke. The lawnmower...we can live without for a bit. The dryer...boy, that's a vital appliance! I went out and bought a clothes line so I could do a little laundry while I'm waiting for the dryer to be fixed, and wouldn't you know it, the clothes line broke too! UGH! Laundromat, here I come!

NBTS Party

Here's a picture from the Area Homeschooler's Not Back to School Party. It's held every year on the first day of public school. This is our third year going, and it's always a blast!

Gender roles

Rhys said to me today: Hey, maybe when Avery gets short hair and turns into a boy, we'll name her Rhys and she'll like to lightsaber fight and sword fight too!

Poor guy, he might just have to wait for Griffin to grow up. ;-)

Transportation saga

Oy. Car trouble is no fun anytime, but August is *not* the time to be stranded on the side of the road. Especially with miserable, whiny, hot kids.

This week I needed to take my van into the shop to get some work done. We couldn't all fit in Bill's little blue car, so Dad kindly agreed to let us trade cars with him so we could drive his Durango while the van was in the shop. I used his car without incident until Thursday, when I took Avery and Rhys to Milwood Library for a co-op meeting and Harriet the Spy viewing party. On the way to the library, I noticed that we were low on gas, but we were running late, so I decided that I'd just wait and get gas after the library. So we rushed to the library and got there just in time for the movie to start. After it ended, we went out to the car, loaded everyone up, and I attempted to start the car. But the car wouldn't start. At first I was afraid that I'd run out of gas (which I've never done before!), but I quickly realized that the problem was the battery. I didn't have any jumper cables, so I called Boomph and Carolyn to come help me. They came pretty quickly, and it didn't take long to get the car running again. However, I was very worried about the gas situation! I was too afraid to turn off the car to get gas, so I decided to just go home as fast as I could. Carolyn and Boomph followed me for a while, and the car seemed fine so they headed home. I made it as far as our highway exit, and the car stalled. I was able to get safely to the side of the road, but then we were stuck. We were only a few miles from home, but Bill had no car there to come help us! So, once again, I called Carolyn and Boomph. Carolyn was so sweet to drive out to Round Rock to come pick us up. It only took her about 30 minutes, but it felt like an eternity stuck in that hot car in the 100+ degree temperatures! I felt so bad for the kids. :-(

The story goes on, but the gist of it is that we got the car home, but we can't get the battery to hold a charge. We did get our van back, so at least we're not stranded anymore. I just feel terrible that I was driving when Dad's car stopped working! It wasn't my fault, but still...ugh.

Avery's book

I constantly come across the first chapter of different books Avery is writing. I thought I'd share the one that was on the computer screen when I sat down tonight.

MERMAID lAGOON CHAPTER1:
THE lAGOON OF lOVE

one time,on a boat,out at sea,I was writing
a book aboat mermaids,it so happend,when I
lookd up,a slender thin green tail whippd
out of the water,and my frind,maria,had too
lookd up and seen it too!neck & neck we j-
umpd off.kelsie,my aunt,saw it all.she was
wailing loudly,thinking id'died.only when
lilly screechd she saw my head come up did
kelsie calm down enough too say; "is she-,
alive?"in a shakey squeeky voice."yes,-...
im pretty sure,"lilly squeekd.miles deep,i
was swimming deeper and deeper when i lookd
over my shoulder,and a mergirl caught up.
she jesjurd toward a lagoon labled:
"THE LAGOON OF LOVE"and you shoud see the
inside.pearls and dimonds filld the room!
i coud not bilive my eyes.the mergirl must
have sinced this,for she said:"you love the
buity of this place," "yes,"i said softly.
and that was true. (how coudent you?)

4 years ago...

Hard to believe it's been four years. Happy birthday my little Rhyscake!

Bath woes

Every night Rhys has to throw a fit about taking a bath. I don't know why, especially since he loves it once he's in and I have to force him out. So today I told him it was time to take a bath, and as usual, he started his nightly tantrum. I was trying to ignore the fit and stay upbeat, so I told him, "Rhys, you have to take a bath so you can be clean for your birthday party tomorrow!" He suddenly stopped crying and said, "Wait! I'll just eat my cake with a fork! Then I can be really, really dirty!" I guess the dirt doesn't matter if he's not eating with his hands!

Funny moments

The other day I asked Rhys to put away his laundry (which consisted of two pairs of underwear and a pair of pajamas), and he immediately collapsed on the floor, started sobbing, and wailed, "But that takes hard wooooooooooooork!" God forbid!

Rhys is really enjoying his new castle and knight figures that he got as early birthday presents. He was very involved in an elaborate game yesterday, and I noticed the names of his knights: Professor Snake (aka Prof. Snape from Harry Potter), King Arthur, and Hercules. Quite the literary trio!

Last week all three children were in bed, and Bill and I were in the living room. Suddenly, we heard a huge crash, and Avery runs in, sobbing hysterically. She was so loud and panicked that it took us quite a while to understand what had happened. Finally, she calmed down long enough to tell us that Jasper was chewing on an aerosol hairspray can and popped it, spraying hairspray all over her and her room. After a shower, Avery was as good as new, although she was a little embarassed about her panic. For Bill and me, besides that first moment of terror when we didn't know what had happened, the whole event was quite humorous!

Back to school time

It's that time of year...school is officially back in session. Many moms count down the minutes until summer vacation ends, including me. But, instead of dreaming of an empty, quiet house, I'm looking forward to taking back our city! We are very spoiled during the school year, and we hate having to share our parks, pools, libraries, and museums with mobs of children during the summer. We are thrilled to return to "normal", when we get to wander alone through museums, swing for as long as we want at the park, and actually find the books we want at the library.

We have enjoyed our summer; we swam, played in the sprinkler, drew with chalk outside, ate countless popsicles, and went for many walks. Of course, all of these activities have to be done before 11:00am or after 7:00pm when it's not so hot that we melt when we walk outside. We have spent the daytime hours inside when possible, playing board games, doing art, listening to books on tape, and enjoying each other's company. We have also done schoolwork all summer, because for us, learning is year round. We haven't done as much formal work for the past few months because of Avery's rigorous summer gymnastics schedule. But we've kept up for the most part, and in the next few weeks we'll get back to our normal routine.

It's funny...being a homeschooling family is always part of our identity, but I am always more acutely aware of it at this time of year. Anytime we're in public, my children are asked what grade they're in (which, for some reason, is a mind-boggling question for Avery -- her answer is always the same, "uhhhhhhh..." with a sideways glance at me), what school they go to, or whether or not they're excited about going back to school. And of course, once these questions are answered, I get the raised-eyebrow look that homeschoolers know all too well. Some brave (nosy) souls even follow the "look" up with the innocuous question: Why do you homeschool? Of course the short version to this simple question is long enough to be a college thesis, and honestly, I'm just too exhausted and busy trying to keep my toddler alive to answer it effectively. So, when I saw this article linked on a friend's blog, I knew my problem was solved. I just need to make copies of this and carry it in my diaper bag, don't you think?

You're on notice!

The paradox of Rhys

Poor Rhys. It's hard being almost four. One minute you're fraught with injustice and unhappiness, and the next minute, the world is your oyster. We have been experiencing many of these contradictory moments recently. Just today he went from fit throwing to three minutes later, saying to me, "I love you, Mom. You're a good Mama." He even turned to Avery and said, "She's a good Mama, right Avery?" Awwwww. What a sweetheart. (I won't go into the surly pre-tween look that Avery gave him in response.)

Speaking of Rhys, he is really learning to swim! Today we swam at Doug's house, and he swam back and forth from me to the steps (about 5 feet). I am so impressed! Just a few weeks ago, he'd get nervous when water splashed in his face. Now he goes all the way under the water and swims too!

More Rhys brags: Three weeks ago, I started teaching Rhys a letter a week. He's picking them up very quickly, and can recognize, say the sound, and write A, a, B, b, C, and c. He already knew how to write R, H, O, and P. He's deeply into writing and coloring now, and he spends a lot of his time practicing his letters in his notebooks or coloring in his knights and vikings coloring books.

The latest...

Today Avery had another mock meet. Unfortunately Griffin came down with a cold yesterday, so poor Linah was subjected to babysitting cranky, sick Pooky...which is even more difficult than normal cranky, busy Pooky. She survived though, and seemed to manage fine for the three hours I was gone. Avery did well at the meet, and handled the disappointment of falling off the beam well. (In the past, she has cried whenever she makes a mistake with people watching.) I don't think it hurt that just about everyone in her group fell off the beam at least once, but still, I am feeling encouraged. This was their last mock meet, and the first real meet is in two weeks. Eeek!

Other notable events this week: On Monday, we went to The Cheesecake Factory with our family to celebrate my grandmother Carolyn's birthday. Avery, Rhys, and I went; Bill stayed home with the uncivilized toddler. We had a good time -- how could you have a bad time if there's cheesecake involved?! On Tuesday, I had my monthly knitting night with my friends. I really look forward to it every month. It's so nice to get out and talk with other women -- and without our children around to interrupt every 2.5 seconds! On Thursday before Harry and the Potters, we visited Pieces of the Past, which is such a fun place to browse. We bought a really cool metal lizard to hang on our wall in the kitchen.

The project that has taken up most of my time this week is painting. Every part of our house needs a new coat of paint, and I'm determined to finally do it. I started by painting our mantel white...and today I'll be repainting it beige. (It was white when we moved in, and we painted it beige a couple of years ago because it didn't look good white. I'm not sure why I thought it would be different *now*, but yep, it still looks bad white.) I also have been working on the trim and doorways in our living room. It's slow going, but I figure if I do a little each night after the kids go to bed, I'll finish sometime before I die. At least I hope so....

Surf's up!

Griffin's newest skill: surfing. Only there's no water and *I* am the surfboard. For several nights in a row, I have been woken up in the middle of the night when Griffin climbs up on me and STANDS on my stomach. After a few short seconds, he falls, often with a crack as his head slams into mine. Aaaaaaah, this is a fun phase....

Harry and the Potters

Today we went to Wooldridge Park downtown to see the Harry and the Potters concert. The group sings hilarious punk songs about the Harry Potter books. Oh, and Draco and the Malfoys opened for them. Our favorite songs included "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock" and "Save Ginny Weasley (from the Basilisk)".

So I'm sure you're thinking how cute Rhys looks all dressed up for the concert. Actually, he's not dressed for the show, this is just what he wears now every.single.day. He wears the Harry Potter glasses every waking moment, and insists that I draw a scar on his head every morning. (Which is often met with tears because he isn't pleased with my artwork. Sigh.) He has been listening to the Harry Potter books on CD lately, and he's in full-fledged Harry Potter mode 24/7.

Three Amigos

Avery's solution to pushing her brothers in the swing: grabbing onto their swing chains and swinging with them!

Maori warriors

We painted Avery and Rhys's faces like the Maori warriors of New Zealand. Linah came over as we were finishing up, and she was a good enough sport to let Avery and Rhys paint her face too.

What we've been up to...

So much for me updating more often! Here's the past week or two in review:

On Friday, July 28th, Avery had a mock gymnastics meet. We got her all curled and ready, and the girls did all of their routines like it was an actual meet. It was good practice -- especially since it had been so long since they practiced their vault that they didn't even know how to do it! Overall they all did very well, though, and these mock meets are great confidence builders. She has another one scheduled for this Friday.

On Saturday, the 29th, the kids and I went to Round Rock Library's summer reading party. We participated in the reading program again this summer, and Avery ended up reading 25 hours and Rhys read 75 books (with my help). The party at end is very fun; they have Joe McDermott come sing and everyone brings snacks to share at the end.



The rest of the week was very busy, as usual. Avery and Rhys went to their gymnastics classes, the boys got their hair cut, I had a volunteer meeting Monday night and my regular volunteer work on Tuesday, we went on a tour of a recycling center with our Roots & Shoots group and lunch with friends on Wednesday, we played at the park for a few hours with friends on Friday, and we swam at Doug's on Saturday.

Music man

Rhys is currently obsessed with pop music. He watches the Top 20 Video Countdown on VH1 with Bill every weekend, and has definite favorites that he wants to hear in the car. His absolute fave is Move Along by The All American Rejects. He also enjoys hearing the Dixie Chicks' Not Ready to Make Nice, Dani California by the Chili Peppers, The Fray's Over my Head (although Rhys calls it "Over my Hair"), and he loves James Blunt. It's so funny to see how excited he gets when any of these songs come on. Bill calls it "pure joy Rhys" because he looks just that happy. The opposite is true when certain songs come on that he doesn't like. For example, he gets very annoyed when Nick Lachey's song comes on. Apparently boy band cheesy isn't his thing!

Griffin, almost 16 mos

Swimming lessons

As of today, Rhys has successfully completed Level 1 of swimming. For the past two weeks, he's been going to a class every morning. He had such a good time in the class; he had a huge grin plastered on his face the entire time. He doesn't know how to swim yet, but he's gotten much more comfortable in the water. His favorite part was when they'd sing "Motorboat, motorboat" at the end of the class.

This week...

I'm going to try to get better about updating more regularly again. This summer has been very busy and my posts have been few and far between.

Let's see...what did we do this week...well, Rhys finished up his second and final week of swimming lessons. He's very sorry that they're over, but I'm a little relieved. I was getting a little tired of the every day lessons. We also did the usual gymnastics classes this week, and Avery has a mock meet tomorrow. I think the practice will be good, although I'm not so excited about the fact that it's a dress rehersal -- meaning I have to curl her hair again. I swear, I spend more time on her hear than my own!

Oh, and last night the kids had their friends Maya and Benjamin over for a sleepover. The boys went to bed at a reasonable hour, but the girls were up most of the night. We all paid the price today, as Avery was quite a bear. After a nap, she improved slightly, and hopefully after an early bedtime and good night's sleep she'll be back to normal. The kids had a great time, though, so I think it was worth the missed sleep. Avery and Maya stayed up talking, writing, and watching Harry Potter, and the boys played and listened to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe on tape.

Oh! Oh! And the best thing that happened this week was The Night of FIVE Hours! Griffin actually slept from a little before 8pm until 1am!! WOOHOOO!! He hasn't had that long of a stretch since he was a newborn! I wish it was the signal of a new trend, but he hasn't kept it up. But we have hopes that he'll do it again at some point before college....

80s girl!

This weekend Avery had two performances for Showteam. The theme was "the 80s", and they danced to Madonna's Lucky Star. The girls were all dressed up in cut up tshirts and side pony tails. Very cute!