Taking advantage of the cold weather and doing math by the fire.

Luminations

Posing with Frosty at the Wildflower Center's Luminations.

Mad scientist

Rhys, wearing his safety goggles on the day our chemistry co-op made root beer.

Picture day

Today I was getting the kids ready for their Christmas portraits, and Rhys was pretty grouchy about the whole thing. After he got dressed and I helped him brush his hair, I exclaimed, "Oh, Rhys! You look so handsome!" To which he flatly replied, "No, I don't. I look like a pig in a wig."

Ummmmm...how do you respond to that?!

Loving her new iPod!

Happy 9th birthday, Avery!

I can hardly believe it, but my baby girl turned 9 today! As you can see, she loved her birthday present -- a new iPod. We had a pretty low key today, and celebrated this evening with pizza and brownie sundaes.

Elf Yourself

Have you seen this website yet? It's hilarious! My cousin put in the kids' pictures and sent us the link.

Sleepover!

(Or, in Griffin-speak, "seep-OBER!") The kids had a slumber party last night. They watched an episode of Planet Earth (which is their new obsession and totally amazing), played a board game, then settled in Rhys's room in sleeping bags for the night. It's so nice that Griffin is old enough to be included as part of the pack. I know he's thrilled when he gets to do what the big kids do. And now that he sleeps at night and doesn't destroy games, he is welcomed in the group!

Native Days at the Zoo

The Friday before Thanksgiving, the kids and I went to the zoo in Waco for their Native American Day. The kids got to do some Native American crafts, have their faces painted, taste some fry bread, and see all sorts of Native American artifacts. They also got to pet a hedgehog, which was really neat.

The best part, however, was a crazy Gibbon that we saw -- and heard -- when we first entered the zoo. He was hanging from a tree, bellowing to anyone that walked by. I've never heard such a noise, and the kids and I were enthralled. We even called Bill so he could listen via cell phone because it was so incredible. It was hard to tear ourselves away from him. We watched him for a good 20 minutes before we explored any more of the zoo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Bill had to work in the afternoon, but we managed to have a little holiday gathering in the morning. We had my dad, sister, and grandparents over for a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes and to watch the Macy's parade. In the afternoon, we went to my mom and Doug's house to have a more traditional meal.

Then yesterday, I experienced my first ever Black Friday shopping. I have come to the conclusion that people are crazy. And unfortunately I'm one of them. I found myself lined up at Target with a couple of hundred other people in 40 degree weather at 5:45 in the morning. If that's not insanity, I don't know what is. We have been on a quest for a particular hard to find gift for the kids, and I thought that by going before the crack of dawn, I could secure said item. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with this plan.

Later, after some time decompressing and a good nap, we had a Thanksgiving re-do. I made all of our favorite traditional foods and we managed to have a good meal that included Bill (who was working from home). The highlight of the meal was the pecan pie that Avery made. Mmmmmm!

"What's that mean?"

This is Griffin's favorite question. I think this is the precursor to the "why" stage. He uses "What's that mean?" in lieu of "What's that?" so he asks it about 9 million times a day. He is truly interested, though, so it's quite endearing.

Brotherly love

Today I walked into the living room to discover Rhys holding Griffin in a bear hug on the floor. "Aww, that's nice!" I commented as I passed by. But, being an experienced mom of little boys, it didn't take long for me to consider that maybe the "hug" wasn't as innocent as it appeared. I began to wonder if Griffin could actually breathe. So, I turned around and said, "Wait...it is sweet, right?" Rhys responded with, "Of course, Mama! We're just play fighting. We're not actually trying to kill each other."

Chicago

We just got back from a week in the Windy City. And, yes, it lived up to its name! Actually, the weather was beautiful the first few days, but it got quite cold and windy during the last half of our trip. Despite the cold weather, we had a fabulous time! Bill had to go for work, so the kids and I were left to amuse ourselves. Luckily, there is no shortage of things to do or see! Every morning after breakfast, we'd hop on a different bus and head to new and exciting locations. Here's a little recap:

Thursday 11/1: We left for the airport at 4:30 in the morning. Our flight left at 6:40, which was a little too early the morning after Halloween! But the kids were so excited about our trip that they didn't seem to mind. The flight there was pretty uneventful. Avery read, Rhys listened to a book on CD, and Griffin sat in his carseat some, climbed over me and Bill some, played with Bill's computer, read a bunch of books, played with his cars, snacked, and tried to run up and down the aisles a little. I always forget how interesting it is to fly with toddlers!

Once we got to Chicago, we checked into our hotel, grabbed a quick bite to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, and headed to the Field Museum. Since this was Bill's only day with us, he got to choose the destination, and he was most excited to see the bones of the famous Sue, the world's largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton. Besides the dinosaur, there were exhibits with animals from all over North America, Native American artifacts, an underground exhibit that "shrinks" you down to .5 inch tall and takes you underground to explore the dirt, and a great family play area. Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and went back to our hotel to get some much needed sleep. (A quick side note -- our hotel room was full and since Bill had made the reservations when he was planning to go alone, our room had only one king sized bed. How, you ask, did five people fit in one bed? We all slept across the bed, and we all fit! Ingenuity at it's best!)

Friday -- We woke up bright and early -- 5 am to be exact (thanks, Griffin!), so we were all able to shower and dress in order to walk with Bill to get breakfast before his meetings started. After breakfast, we hopped on a bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. This museum was the highlight of our trip. It was amazing! We toured a U-boat from WWII, played with farm equipment, explored the circus exhibits, tried to figure out the riddles in the Eye Spy displays, toured a coal mine, learned about energy, oohed and aahed over Colleen Moore's fairy castle, and spent over an hour experimenting in the Idea Factory play area. After five hours, we were worn out! Despite having only seen about half the museum, we headed back to the bus. Griffin napped a bit while we rode back and waited for Bill to finish for the day. Griffin woke up feeling refreshed, so we went to eat dinner and stopped by the American Girl Store.

Saturday -- After a quick breakfast, we went back to our hotel to rest a bit before we went out for the day. After a quick nap, we took the bus down to Lincoln Park and went to the zoo. The weather was beautiful, and we even ended up shedding our coats as the afternoon wore on. After the zoo, we wandered around the park for a while, then boarded the bus to go meet Bill again for dinner.

Sunday -- After breakfast and quick regrouping at the hotel, we headed out to the Art Institute. This museum was the one I was most excited about, as it houses art by just about every famous artist from every time period. Unfortunately, my sons were less enthralled by the museum. Rhys liked finding pieces that he recognized, but mostly, he liked whining and hanging from my arm. Inexplicably, as we were leaving the museum, Rhys told me that the art museum was his "favorite place and Chicago!" and asked me if we could go back another day!

After the art museum, we went to Millenium Park. Wow, that was one amazing park! The front of the park has several different modern art sculptures, including the famous Bean (actually titled Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor). We all were completely taken with this piece. It's so interactive, and we spent a long time playing with our reflections and photographing from many different angles. Towards the back of the park, there was an outdoor audio installation called Arctic: Soundstage. It was an audio track of sounds you'd hear in the Arctic, like cracking glaciers, bird calls, whale sounds, and more. After listening for a while, we took the footbridge across to a playscape. The kids spent a good hour running and playing with other kids until it started to get dark and we needed to go meet Bill.

Monday -- When we went to breakfast, we realized that the weather had taken a turn. It was cold! We suddenly understood how Chicago got nicknamed "The Windy City". Unfortunately, we had planned this day to go to Navy Pier. We spent some time in the morning at the Children's Museum (actually, a very small part of the morning, as it seemed that every local preschool and kindergarten had dropped off busloads of children there, and it was way too chaotic for us). After a lunch of famous Chicago (veggie) hot dogs, we went out to explore the pier. I attemped to get some pictures of the kids on the pier, but it was much too cold and windy for Griffin, who refused to get out of his stroller. That is, until he saw the ferris wheel! He was definitely game for that. The views from the ferris wheel where spectacular, but a little scary (for me). After Navy Pier, we decided to do a little shopping to thaw out. We went back to the American Girl store (Avery had been mulling for a few days about what she wanted to buy) and we went to the Lego Store, which was a huge hit too. We actually took Bill back there a few days later because the kids said he just HAD to see it.

Tuesday -- We woke up to another cold day, and we chose to spend it at the Shedd Aquarium. The Shedd is positioned right on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the views through the glass walls were spectacular! We saw a dolphin show, lots of fish, and a lizard exhibit. It was a neat aquarium, but as I'm no fan of fish, it wasn't a highlight for me.

Wednesday -- We decided to take a vote on our favorite outing and revisit it during our last day. It was unanimous, everyone wanted to go back to the Museum of Science and Industry. We got to see all the exhibits we'd missed the first time around, like the trains, the human anatomy section, Main Street, etc, as well as spend another hour or so in the museum's play area, and revisit our favorite parts of the museum.

Thursday -- We packed up and headed back home on Thursday morning. We really had a fabulous trip, and the kids had a great time. Griffin was pretty worn out by the last couple of days, and while he was fine in the museums, he got more and more difficult on the bus and in restaurants. Bill nicknamed us the MBCU (Mobile Birth Control Unit) because he claims that anyone that got within a 100 yard radius of us would voluntarily sterilize themselves on the spot. Ha! It really wasn't that bad, except on the plane. The ride home was NOT fun, but we made it!

You can see the whole set of Chicago pictures HERE.

Halloween park day

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

The Friday before Halloween, our homeschooling group had their annual Halloween party park day. The kids dressed up (except Griffin, who chose not to) and played and snacked for hours. Griffin's favorite activity was the donut game, which entails catching a swinging donut without using hands.

Halloween!

A (reluctant) firefighter, Artemis, and Anakin Skywalker had a great time trick-or-treating. We missed having everyone over for our usual Halloween festivities, but since we left for the airport at 4:30 the morning after Halloween, we knew we couldn't be up partying until the wee hours.

After refusing to wear several different costumes we'd selected for him, Griffin finally agreed to don the firefighter jacket, but of course, wouldn't wear the hat. Besides the costuming, Griffin really enjoyed Halloween. He was thrilled to go from house to house, always saying "Trick-or-treat" and thanking everyone that gave him candy.

Potter paint

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Avery painted everyone's faces a couple of days ago. She and Rhys had Harry Potter glasses and scars painted on, while Griffin sported Karkaroff's pointy little beard and moustache.

Maker Faire

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Maker Faire. It was amazing! There was so much to see and try, and we left totally inspired and excited to make our own things.

You can see more pictures here.

Pumpkin patch

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Griffin, age 2.5

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Griffin is so much fun right now! We've finally gotten through a lot of toddler difficulty and he is just such a joy. He can reason and understand so much, and he's becoming quite verbal. His favorite activity is playing lightsabers or swords (much to my chagrin), and he loves to try to keep up with older boys, like Rhys and his friends. He is finally sleeping through the night with some regularity, although he balances it out by waking up for the day at 5am! Also, as of last month, he stopped nursing with some gentle nudging on my part.

My baby is growing up. It's always such a mixed blessing. While I'm glad for a little more independence, I miss that little baby he used to be. I'm trying to focus on all the good stuff that comes along with kids getting older -- easier travel, more spontaneous lifestyle, not having a toddler stand on the table while older children are trying to focus on their work (I'm still waiting for that to end). I think Avery and Rhys are enjoying having Griffin be more a part of their tribe now, although it does come with one more opinion, and therefore, more arguments. I can see in the future that Rhys and Griffin will be close buddies. They enjoy the same things -- they just need to get to the point where they can happily share!

The latest and the greatest

Big news!! Mom and Doug tied the knot! I have a new stepfather, and I couldn't be happier. He's such a great addition to our family, and the kids are thrilled to have a new grandparent (whom they will now call "Doc"). Congrats to Mamar and Doc!!

No other big news to report. We've been enjoying resuming our normal schedule after the summer break. Co-ops and parkdays are back into full swing, and the kids are glad to see their friends more regularly again. In fact, Avery is glued at the hip with her best friend, Maya. After having them call each other about 50 times a day, Maya's mom and I finally had to put some parameters on their phone useage. We had the girls write a persuasive essay, which expressed their "need" to be on the phone 24/7. After our rebuttal, we managed to arrive at a compromise: no phone between the hours of 8am and 1pm and a maximum of 2 calls from each girl a day (to offset the occasions when the phone rings ten times in a one hour period). The girls aren't thrilled that there are any phone rules at all, but they are tolerating them well. I can only imagine what it will be like when they're teenagers!

Speaking of enjoying friends, I've managed to get out a lot lately with mine! Just this week I went on a Mom's Night Out boat cruise on the lake. It was such a great time -- friends, water, wine, bats...what more could you ask for?

Under the category of Big Changes, Bill has started working days for the first time in five years! We're all loving it -- it's great that he can be home every night. Ultimately the plan will be for him to work a normal 8-5 weekday schedule, but I'll be sad to leave his current 3.5 day work week schedule behind!

Other than that, the kids are getting very excited about Halloween coming. Avery has been constant in her plan to be Artemis, but Rhys changes his mind every time I ask him. I need to start working on costumes soon, so I'll have to pin him down. Griffin has decided he hates the dragon costume we bought for him, so back to the store it goes, and I think now he'll just have to pick from our dress up bin on Halloween. I'm sure he can come up with something he'll want to be.

Rhys, the wordsmith

Rhys has reached the age when he says funny and/or insightful things on a daily basis. I need to carry a pen and paper with me at all times, so I can jot them down as he says them. Here are some of the gems that I can remember from the past couple of weeks:

When I came home from an all day work training and was exhausted and grouchy, he said while stroking my arm gently, "Mom, I think you need to go in your room and take a rest. You seem very angry. I think you need a nap."

When I asked him how much of his book club audio cd he'd listened to while I was gone, he replied with, "Oh, a lot." When I pressed him on exactly how much he'd heard, he said, "I think about two gallons."

Also, his vocabulary is also developing quickly lately. He often begins sentences with words like "perhaps" and says things like, "The door is ajar." I think all the audio books he's been listening to are making a big impression on him.

Speaking of audio books, he got the first of the Harry Potter books on CD for his birthday, and he's listened to portions of it every day since then. His favorite chapter of the book is the Quidditch chapter (Griffin even replies with "Quidditch" when anyone begins with "Chapter Eleven..."). Rhys has listened to that particular CD so many times that he can recite the first page or two of the chapter! It's hilarious to hear him with his version of a British accent. But his extensive knowledge about the book can be a little irriating when we read aloud. Anytime I misread anything, he knows right off the bat. "Mom, it's supposed to say __________!" But it's ok, I'm just glad he's so enthusiastic!

Bottoms up!

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Rhys is 5!!

Last month, we had a Harry Potter birthday party for Rhys. I will admit that we got a little carried away. Avery and I had a great time planning, so it took on a life of it's own. We had everyone come in costume or we had extra robes for kids that didn't have magical garb. We also supplied everyone with wands. The kids had to complete four courses: Potions (with all sorts of juices and carbonated drinks, colored Kool Aid packets, Pop Rocks and gummy worms), History of Magic (Harry Potter trivia), Defense Against the Dart Arts (dragon pinata), and Divination (guessing the birthday gifts as Rhys opened them). Then, after a feast of pb&js and cake, everyone got a chocolate frog to take home.

You can see more pictures from the party here.

Hello out there!

Wow, it's been almost two months since my last blog entry! How on earth did that happen?! I guess I need to try to sum up the last couple of months. That should be really easy, especially considering I can't even remember what happened yesterday!

Let's see...under the category of Big Events: My darling little Rhyscake turned FIVE! I can hardly believe it. We had a super fun but way over-the-top Harry Potter themed birthday party for him. (Avery and I got a little carried away in the planning.) The day after Rhys's fifth birthday was another big milestone -- Bill and my 10 year anniversary! We took a family anniversary trip to Dallas and Fort Worth for a couple of nights. We had fun visiting various museums and hanging out at the hotel pool.

Another noteworthy event was my first night ever away from the kids! I was only gone for 24 hours, but I felt quite refreshed when I returned. I went with four other friends to Dallas (the week after our family trip there) to the Rethinking Education conference to hear John Taylor Gatto give the keynote speech. It was such a neat experience. I've been a fan of his ever since I began researching homeschooling, and it was great to see him in person. (We even stormed the stage and got a picture with him!) We had a hard time tearing ourselves away from the conference -- there were so many interesting seminars and great people. I wish we could have stayed! But, alas, lots of children were awaiting our return -- and lots of hubbies that needed to get to work. So we crammed as much conference experience as we could in our short stay.

On the activities front, Rhys just started t-ball again. His team appears to be the worst in the league, and the final scores of the first two games were 18-6 and 18-1. Fortunately, Rhys is totally oblivious to the score keeping, and I'm doing all I can to keep it that way. He is also taking swimming once a week while Avery does her swim team practice (she goes 3-4 times a week). Avery has several friends on the swim team with her, so she is really loving it.

I'm still working on finding the balance between home and work (I think the absence of blog posts can be considered proof). I'm still only working about 8-10 hours a week, but I'm finding that the things that I let go are the extras -- posting, cooking, cleaning. You know, the nonessentials. Ah, well, maybe one day I'll get the balance right....

Family time

Yesterday we took the kids to the Blanton Art Museum specifically to look at their collection of Greek and Roman art. They have a great collection of casts, as well as Greek painted vases, and "MONEY!" (Griffin's excited exclamation when he saw the gold coins). As we were walking up to the museum, I was asking the kids what sort of symbols they expected to see see in the art (like a lightning bolt for Zeus, owl for Athena, etc). Rhys loves this kind of quizzing game, so I expanded on it and started asking them to tell me everything they knew about the different Gods. Rhys really enjoys mythology, but I was surprised at just how much he knew. Avery has been reading a lot on the subject recently and has turned into our resident expert. When I got around to asking Avery about Ares, she summed him up nicely, stating bluntly, "Ares is a total punk." Ha!

After the art museum, we decided to walk across the street to the Bob Bullock Museum to see what was playing at the IMAX. We bought tickets for the African Adventure 3D film, then called Nonnie (who works across the street) to invite her to meet us for lunch in the cafe. As if two museums, a lunch out, and an IMAX movie weren't enough, when we got home Caroline came to babysit so Bill and I could go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It's rare that Bill and I are both home and off from work on the same day lately, so we took full advantage of this opportunity. What a fun day!

Harry Potter Week

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Anyone that knows us knows that we are all huge Harry Potter fans. I credit the first Harry Potter book as being what really set Avery on the road to being the avid reader that she is. When she first was learning to read, it was a bit of a chore, and she didn't enjoy practicing. Her whole attitude about books changed when she set her sights on reading Harry Potter. She read book 1 in December of her Kindergarten year and hasn't turned back since. I can't even begin to count how many times she has read and reread the whole series.

Besides my appreciation of the Harry Potter books for inginiting the spark in Avery (and millions of other kids around the world), the books have really captured all of our imaginations. We have spent hours as a family talking, debating, and speculating about Harry's future. It amuses me to hear of people fearing the books and declaring them evil -- these same books that have brought families together, fostered a love of books in kids and grownups alike, oh, and that pesky little fact that the main theme running through all the books is love triumphing over bad. But, I digress....

So, with great excitement, we have been counting down to the release of the final installment. In the past week, we saw the movie for book 5, went to Avery's Harry Potter discussion/writing group, and made our final predictions. On Friday, we went to the midnight book release party with friends and managed to get our book home by a little before 1 am.

We spent all day Saturday taking turns with the book, and I ended up staying up until 2 am to finish it. Avery was not thrilled that I finished first, but was appeased when she realized that she wouldn't have to share the book with me anymore. She finished it this morning. Next up is Bill, who is dying with anticipation (and fear that we'll give something away before he finishes it!).

Retired, at age 8

It's been almost two weeks since Avery's last day of gymnastics. Her decision to quit was not an easy or lighthearted one, in fact, it was the hardest life decision she's had to make to date. She agonized for weeks, and we're really proud of her for coming to the decision she feels is best.

Since the beginning of the year, gymnastics has seemed to have lost its luster for Avery. Whereas she used to gladly miss other activities to go to practice, in the past several months, she's been feeling like she's missing out on too many other things. She was up to 13.5 hours a week in the gym, and the hours only increase with each level. She really loves the sport, so we looked into other gyms to see if we could find one that offers less hours. Unfortunately, at all the other gyms we looked into, Avery would be a level higher than what she was at her current gym. So the hours would increase to even more than what she was doing. When it became clear that another gym wasn't an option, Avery had to decide whether she'd finish out the year and compete Level 4, or just call it quits now.

Avery worried and talked and thought about her options for weeks, until I finally suggested that she try making a pro and con list. She did, and her list was overwhelmingly in favor of quitting. The only drawbacks were that she would miss her friends and that she would be sorry to not get to compete, which she really loves. But, as she pointed out, "Those five meets really don't seem worth all those months spent at the gym."

I told her that she didn't have to go back for a last day if she thought it would make her too sad, but she really wanted to say goodbye to all of her teammates. She seemed to have a really good practice and really enjoyed herself. She was a bit teary in the car on the way home, but she wasn't regretting her decision. Now that it's been almost two weeks, she can definitely say that she's glad she's not going anymore. She misses the actual gymnastics part though, and really hopes to join a regular class in the fall. She's determined to keep both her skills and her fitness level, and she has been practicing and conditioning daily!

We're all excited to see what the future will bring for Avery. I'm personally relieved that she won't be spending her childhood in the gym. I'm excited for her to try some new things when she's ready. For now, though, she's really enjoying her time off. She hasn't had this much free time in years!

The sun! The sun!

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

After weeks of rain, the sun finally came out today! The kids were beyond thrilled and spent several hours outside on the playscape today. Avery has been lamenting the waste of these "few, precious hot days" (apparently she doesn't remember how long Texas summers are). It probably won't take but a few days of sun and 95+ degree temps for her to remember!

It's all Greek to me

Today Avery set down the book she was reading, turned to me, and said with a sigh, "Boy, I need to catch up on my Greek!"

I'm thinking this may need to be an outsourced subject. Greek isn't a subject in this homeschooling mama's repitoire!

*Avery was reading The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. She finished it today and loved it...perfect timing for tomorrow's book signing with the author at a local Barnes & Noble.

Neck! Neeeeeck!

Wow. When did my baby get old enough to manipulate me? Somehow he went from barely saying anything to knowing just the right thing to say in no time at all.

Griffin has learned that just one little word yelled at the perfect volume elicits quite a response from people. Now, anytime I'm trying to stop him from doing something he wants to do (say, for instance, writhing on the floor of HEB), he simply needs to yell the word "NEEEECK!!!" at a blood curdling volume. It is especially powerful when paired with rubbing one's neck and making gagging sounds. It makes mom immediately stop whatever manhandling she's attempting to do, and it makes all adults in a 20 yard radius whirl around to witness what sounds like child abuse in action.

Similarly, he has also decided that anytime something bad happens, he should blame it on his brother. For example, yesterday he tripped and fell against the coffee table. Poor Rhys wasn't even in the room, and Griffin still shrieked, "RHYS!" at the top of his lungs. Thankfully, good-natured Rhys just laughs about it.

The Kitten Formerly Known as Aria

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

After much deliberation and much anguish, we have finally settled (resettled?) on a name for the kitty. For some reason, Aria never stuck, even though we all liked it. We waded through baby name book after baby name book, and finally came up with *the* name.

Drumroll please.....
...introducing...
Kyra Skye!

Of course, as typical in our family, her given name is rarely used. She already has a million nicknames, including KiKi, Kyra-boo, and most frequently: Kitty Face. It's a wonder that we even bother to put so much thought into names!

Kyra Kitty has just the best little personality. She's just so mellow and cheerful. (Yes, a cat can be cheerful!) Our biggest challenge has been keeping Griffin from driving her crazy. He loves to carry her around (and thankfully has finally learned to pick her up properly; before we would discover him holding her by the neck. Eeek.), and loves to put her in strange places. He often takes her on the "bus", which, in his mind is the bathroom cabinets. Kyra is amazingly good natured about all of this and really doesn't seem to mind!

We don't know Kyra's history, but we suspect that she might have been weaned a little prematurely. She has adopted a black and tan stuffed dog as her own Mama, and when she sees it, she goes running for it. She immediately collapses on top of it, kneads her paws, and begins to "nurse" on the stuffed dog. Oh, and she purrs so loud that you can hear it across the room. The first time that Griffin saw Kyra "nursing" her stuffed Mama dog, he came running for me. "Mama! Mama!" he yelled excitedly. "Kitty nursing...happy," he said with a sigh. Fine, fine. I had been working towards weaning him. Who taught Griffin the art of the guilt trip?

Cartwheel-a-thon

Cartwheel-a-thon
Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Last weekened, Avery did Capital's annual Cartwheel-a-thon. She collected pledges to raise money for this year's meets. They hold the Cartwheel-a-thon at the mall, and it's always fun for the girls to have a crowd watching as they cartwheel into oblivion. Avery managed to do 189 cartwheels in five minutes. Not too shabby!

Water fun

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

On Wednesday, we had our monthy Nature Club outing. This time, we drove to San Marcos to go tubing down the dams at Rio Vista Park. It was fun. Scary, but fun. The water was surprisingly swift, so the moms there made a chain at the bottom to catch the kids before they went whooshing on down the river to God-knows-where. After a few hours of this, we were ready to go and find a less stressful activity. So, we hopped in the car with our friends, and drove off in search of new adventure.

Now, when our friends invited us to carpool with them, it was with the plans to play at the river, then go eat lunch at a little restaurant on the square in San Marcos. When I was invited, I joked that when she was thinking of who would be up for this last-minute restaurant trip, she must have considered which of her friends spends money with reckless abandon. And, immediately, I popped in her head. Well, I didn't let her down. Instead of eating out and heading home, we found ourselves pulling into none other than...Schlitterbahn!

After quick calls to our hubbys from the parking lot with instructions not to hold dinner, we began water adventure #2. We only had about 4 1/2 hours at the park before they closed, so we dashed from ride to ride in attempt to do as many as possible. The kids had the "best time EVER" and can't wait to go back. And, to tell you the truth, Mom can't wait either!

Art at Friday Group

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

This semester, our Friday co-op has been focusing on art. We have been reading art books, looking at art, playing art games, and, of course, making art. Last co-op's project was constructing this Mona Lisa. Each child got their own square to decorate however they wanted. When all together, it made for a really neat project!

Then last week we met some of our co-op friends at the Russell Collection art gallery on 6th street. They have a Salvador Dali exhibition going on right now. The kids, for the most part, were impressed with the pieces they saw, and there was only quiet giggling at the nudes. The children were also impressed by the price tags on the pieces. "Oooh, that one's $9,000!" "Well, look at this one! It's $14,000!" Griffin was less impressed with the art and indifferent to the prices. This fact was made especially clear when he slammed into a pillar holding a $12,000 glass sculpture as he threw a temper tantrum by the front door.

However thrilling the art gallery was, according to the kids, the two highlights of the day were: the snow cone stand that we went to after the gallery and, not to be forgotten anytime soon, the man riding his bike down 6th Street wearing a thong (and only a thong).

I got a job!

For the first time in almost 9 years, I'm a working girl! The nonprofit that I've been volunteering with for the past year hired me on! I'm only going to work 1 to 2 half days a week, and Bill will be home to stay with the kiddies. It's just perfect for me; it's nice to have something to do by myself, and it will be very nice to have a little extra spending money.

Meet Aria Iris

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

Avery finally got her new kitty. We adopted her from the animal shelter, and she is just so sweet. Avery is loving her role as "mama" and took great care in selecting the perfect name for her new kitten. We're all having a great time with a kitten in our house -- it's been ten years since our cats were babies! Rhys is anxious to turn 8 now, since that's when he plans to get his very own kitten.

STOMP!

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

A couple of weeks ago, Bill took Rhys downtown to see Stomp give a sneak peek performance in front of the Paramount. They were both in awe of the talent and energy of the performers. We all wished we could have seen one of the full performances, but it would have required the sale of a vital organ or two. So the (free) sneak peek was a good compromise!

After the show, Rhys got to meet the performers. He was also photographed for the newspaper and was visible in the crowd shot that appeared on the front of the Metro & State section of the paper. He was quite proud of his five minutes of fame!

Griffin's ER adventure

Griffin had his inaugural ER trip on Friday night. I'm sure it will be the first of many with our little daredevil! He and Rhys were in the bathtub and he leaned over the side and flipped over, landing on his chin on the tile. I was out picking up Avery from gymnastics, and when I came home (about an hour after it happened), it was still bleeding a bit. I was on the fence about whether or not he'd need stitches, but I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry, since it's on his face.

The ER visit was pretty uneventful, and they ended up just using Dermabond to close it since it wasn't very deep. He certainly wasn't happy about it. They swaddled him in a sheet so his arms were trapped and I held his body and the nurse held his head still. As soon as they wrapped him up, he started yelling, "Help! Heeeelp! Heeeeeeeeeeelp!" It was so sad...and maybe a little funny. ;-) They numbed it with lidocane ahead of time, so I don't think it hurt -- he just didn't want to be trapped! This really nice sherriff that I had been chatting with earlier came in when he started yelling, and was trying to rub his feet and calm him down. The whole thing lasted about two minutes. I hope all of his injuries are that easy!

Meanwhile, poor Rhys was at home feeling really guilty because apparently they had been playing some game where they leaned over the tub as far as they could. So he felt like it was his fault. But, after talking to him a bit, and after him seeing that Griffin is just fine, I think he's let himself off the hook. He has been busy telling everyone about Griffin's "ER adventure".

Never a dull moment!

Florida vacation

**For more pictures, click for my Florida Flickr album.**

Originally uploaded by Lexy L.

We just returned today from a week-long vacation in Destin, Florida. It was our first long road trip (12 hours), and it went better than we ever hoped.

We left last Monday night, and arrived in Destin at about 10 in the morning on Tuesday. We couldn't check into our condo until 3, so we killed time at Baytowne Wharf at the Sandestin Resort. We wandered around, ate, and window shopped. Later, we were able to check into our condo and visit the beach.

Most of the rest of our vacation was spent either at the beach or at one of the resort's swimming pools. The beaches in Destin are just beautiful. The water is a crystal clear blue-green color, and the sand really does look like sugar! Avery and Rhys were content to spend every minute of every day there at the beach. The had a great time "surfing" with their boogie-boards, swimming, and playing in the sand. Griffin, on the other hand, was less than thrilled with the beach. Although he loves the sandbox at home, he was quickly bored with the sand at the beach. And he wanted absolutely nothing to do with the surf. He was terrified of the waves coming onto the shore. His fear made the beach trip a little more complicated. We had no idea he'd be afraid! When we were in Galveston last September, he loved it. Oh, well...hopefully he'll be back to enjoying the beach next year. He did love the swimming pools, so it wasn't all a miss for Griffin.

We did take a break one morning for an outing to Seaside. Seaside is the most picturesque little town. It is small and designed to be pedestrian and bike friendly, and cars are only allowed on certain streets. The houses are all painted in cheerful beach colors, and the lush foliage-filled yards are bordered with quaint picket fences. There is a really neat art district and great little shops. We were really taken with the character of this little town. We hope to go back for a future vacation.

We left Destin on Sunday morning, and drove to Pensacola Beach, where we met some friends that happened to be vacationing in Florida at the same time that we were! It was quite a treat to be able to visit with friends on vacation! We visited with them for a while, watched some fishing on the Gulf's longest fishing pier, and ate lunch on the beach. After lunch, we left our friends and drove to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. Rhys had fallen asleep in the car and was quite grouchy at first to be woken up. But he changed his tune quickly when he saw all the planes! It was really impressive, and all three kids had a great time there.

After the museum, we hit the road. We drove 5 hours from Pensacola to Lafayette, Louisiana, with one short stop for dinner in Alabama. We arrived at our hotel at close to midnight, but the kids easily moved from sleeping in their carseats to sleeping in the hotel room. Unfortunately, it was a short night, as Griffin woke everyone up at 5, when he decided it was morning. So, after a quick breakfast, we were back on the road and we made it home in early afternoon. We are sorry that our vacation is over, but we were glad to pick up Jasper (our doggie). We all missed him and the cats tons!

Easter

Ok, so I'm a little late on my Easter post. This year, Easter didn't feel very Eastery. Instead of wearing shorts and sundresses, the kids had bundle up in winter coats and scarves! The high was in the 30s and it was drizzly and just plain icky outside. Apparently the bunny comes regardless of the weather, so the kids were outside hunting for eggs in the wee hours of the chilly morning. It feels a little bizarre to be collecting Easter eggs and finding new sand toys and jumpropes when the temperatures are barely above freezing!

Waco Zoo

A couple of weeks ago we went back to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. We just love that zoo. It's just the perfect size.

Griffin spent the whole time yelling and the animals to "Come 'ere!" Shockingly, none of them followed his instructions!

Pookie the puppy

So Griffin's latest thing is pretending that he's a dog. Not only does he crawl on all fours at all times (including in disgusting places like grocery stores and restaurants), he pants and barks at us. And the most thrilling development of his dog impersonation is that he now dumps his food on the floor and eats it directly off the floor with his mouth. Mmmmm...clean.

Update

We've had a lot going on recently, both good and bad. My great uncle lost his battle to pancreatic cancer last week, so we spent last weekend in Houston for his funeral. We are really going to miss him, but we are glad that his suffering has ended. He was a great man and was much loved.

On a much lighter note, Rhys started swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago and is really enjoying them. He is taking a semi-private class with a friend. He's not quite swimming yet, but I have high hopes that he will be soon. I'll be relieved when I have two swimmers. Having two non-swimmers to one adult is a recipe for disaster.

I have been busy with sewing in my free (and not so free) time. Benign neglect of children is ok sometimes, right? I've made Avery two shirts and two dresses, and I made myself two skirts (one successful and one not). I'm really enjoying this new hobby! If only it didn't require me to stay up until 1 am!

Oh, and regarding Griffin's sleep...wait, what sleep? He did sleep through the night for two magical nights in a row, but has since returned to his old waking patterns. Oh, well. At least I know he has it in him! Hopefully we'll manage another night or two of solid sleep before college. ;-)

My last little tidbit of exciting news is that we will have a new addition to our family soon! For everyone out there that just fell out of their chairs, no, I'm not referring to a baby. We are going to be getting a kitten soon! A friend's cat had three kittens a couple of weeks ago, and they are going to let us take one when they're ready to leave mama cat. We're all excited, but Avery is particularly thrilled. We've felt a void since we lost our Wolfie, and we're happy to have a new four-legged baby to love.

Weiner Dog Races

This morning we drove down to Buda to attend the 10th Annual Weiner Dog Races and Fair. It was hilarious! I've been obsessed with Dachshunds ever since I met a friend's little weiner dog puppy. So, to feed the obsession, I just had to go see it. Some of the dogs understood what to do, but our favorites were the ones that had no clue that they were supposed to run. They would just wander slowly out of the starting gates, and sniff and bark at the bystanders. In the crowd were more Dachshunds than I've ever seen in one place, and many of them were dressed in little outfits. You haven't lived until you've seen a little Dachshund in a bowler hat and tie!

So, how long do we think my self restraint will hold out? Should we start the countdown to the end of my willpower and the addition of a Dachschund puppy to our household?

Josephina Day

This month, we met with friends to study the American Girl Josephina. It was a special day, because we were invited to spend the day at our friends' house and land in Coupland. It was a beautiful, cool day, and we spent the afternoon exploring and enjoying nature. The host mom led the kids on a nature hike, pointing out and gathering plants to make natural dyes. Afterwards, we gathered for a Mexican food lunch and the kids dyed washcloths.