ACMC Summer Workshop

Avery is wrapping up a 2 1/2 week stint at the Austin Chamber Music Summer Workshop. It has been such a wonderful experience! She's learned from fantastic teachers, rubbed elbows with amazing musicians, and made lots 0f new friends. The camp runs concurrently with the Austin Chamber Music Festival, so the campers benefit from all the musicians in town to perform. They have special concerts and classes with the performers every afternoon, and they also went to two special evening performances.

Avery's quartet, "The High Strung Quartet," was a part of a Masterclass yesterday in which the Escher String Quartet listened and critiqued them. It's not every day famous musicians come to listen to you!

Today her other ensemble group, a trio, performed at a retirement home. They ended up playing both pieces they've been working on, and they performed beautifully. They have three more performances planned for this weekend, including playing backup at the finale concert for Kelly Willis!


Tomorrow is Avery's last day of camp, and I know she's sad for it to end. I'm sorry that this fabulous experience is coming to a close, but the boys and I have missed her and will be thrilled for her to be back home with us!

Basketball Camp

Rhys spent four long days this week at Brandy Perryman's Shooting Camp. It was held on the same campus as Avery's camp, which sure made my life easier! He seemed to have a great time, even though 8:30-5 is a long day for him. He never complained, though, and is sorry it's over. His team, "Granger," won their age division in the camp tournament.


This was the first time that both big kids were gone for any long stretch of time, and Griffin and I weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves! But, we ended up having a good week, and I, for one, learned a lot. For instance:

I had my doubts, but we can all get up and dressed and get out of the house by 8 in the morning...
...but thank goodness it's just temporary. I'm tired!

It's amazing how quiet the house is with only one child...
...and it's also amazing how loud and wild it gets within seconds of the older kids getting in the car at the end of the day.

I can get a lot done when I only have one child at home...
...assuming I put on a movie to babysit said child.

Which brings me to my last and most important lesson:
Griffin has absolutely no idea how to entertain himself...
...but he's a whole lot of fun to spend time with!

Boys' Choice

Last week, Avery started camp at the Austin Chamber Music Center's summer workshop. Her camp lasts 12 days, and we miss her tons! But last Friday we decided to make the best of not having Big Sister around and made it a Boys' Choice day.

First stop: Zilker park. We got there bright and early and the boys had fun playing before it got too hot.


Next up: We wandered over to stick our toes in the cool water at Barton Springs.


And of course, no trip to Zilker is complete without riding the train!

We left the park before it got too hot and went to lunch at Dog Almighty, followed by a quick trip to the mall for our inaugural visit to the new Lego Store. And what would the guys choose to wrap up a Boys' Choice day? Wii, of course!

It's tough with Sister gone so much. The boys really look to her to lead the way. But I think it's good for them to spend some quality time together. At least there are a few moments like this:

between the wrestling matches!

The Case of the Missing Baseball Glove

Last week, Rhys's most prized possession, his beloved baseball glove, disappeared.

We went through the stages of loss and grief. First, we looked for it. Then we searched for it. Then we absolutely tore the house apart. Next, we retraced our steps and revisited every store, parking lot, or house that we had visited the previous days. Then we searched our house again. And again. And, finally, we tearfully decided that it was gone forever.

We began the search for a replacement glove. Unfortunately, Nike redesigned last year's model, and the remake isn't as nice as the old version. So we had to widen the search to include different models. Over the weekend, we visited every sporting goods store in the greater Austin area, and not one glove could compare to the old, beat up glove that Rhys loved so much. But, in the end, he decided he could live with a Nakona glove that we found at Academy. It was pricier than we intended to spend, but we were so relieved that he found one that he liked at all, we decided to go for it.



The Nakona glove is absolutely beautiful, and I know Rhys felt better once we brought it home and he and Bill began the breaking-in process.

Then, today, I decided I'd use the time while Rhys is in basketball camp to deep clean his room. As I was sorting toys, I tripped over an old tin table top football game.


When I picked it up to put it away, I discovered this:


The glove was actually wedged under the game board! It fit so perfectly that even though we'd looked there a million times (it was right next to his bat bag), none of us saw it. You can imagine Rhys's elation! I think he feels like he has a missing limb back.


And what with the new, gorgeous (and expensive) Nakona glove? Rhys says, "At least now I have a back up!"

3 Swimmers!

I've been waiting for five years to be able to proclaim that I have three swimmers! The two week session of swimming lessons in June seems to have given Griffin the confidence to take off in the water. I'm so proud of him!

Family Reunion

This weekend we went up to Lampasas for Bill's annual family reunion. We had a very nice time visiting with everyone, and the kids were thrilled to see their cousin, Kenzie. Aunt Mary was kind enough to rent a giant blow up slip 'n slide for the kids.


The big "kids" got in on it too....


That night, Bill, the boys, and I went back home, but Avery stayed in Lampasas with her cousin Kenzie. One night wasn't enough fun, so the next morning, they called to beg for more time. So we met them halfway and brought Kenzie back home with us. The cousins all had fun together, and Kenzie was a joy to have around. The girls stayed up late for a second night, but managed to sleep in pretty late.


After an afternoon of swimming at Mamar's, it was time for Kenzie to have to go home. We miss her already and can't wait for her to come back!

Friday Night Game

Last Friday, we spent a fun-filled evening with friends at an Express game. We'd never been on a Friday night before, so seeing the fireworks after the game was a special treat for us. They were amazing!

Pflugerville Baseball Camp

Rhys spent a week at the end of June at a baseball camp in Pflugerville. It was a great week, despite the heat! Rhys's good friend JT went too, and they had a lot of fun learning new drills, practicing hitting, and, of course, scrimmaging. Rhys was tired by the end of the week, but not too tired to ask if he could go back for another week!

San Antonio

After seeing Dinosaur George at a summer library program, the kids were desperate to go to the dinosaur exhibit at the Witte in San Antonio. I wasted no time in planning it, and since Bill had to work anyway, I decided that the kids and I would go ahead and stay over night and make it a two day getaway in San Antonio.

After the quick drive to San Antonio, we arrived at the Witte and saw this awaiting us:

This was definitely the biggest animatronic dinosaur in the exhibit, but the ones inside were pretty cool too.

Eeek, scary!


After seeing everything in the dinosaur exhibit, we explored the rest of the Witte.




After getting our fill of the Witte, we headed to our hotel. We don't get much occasion to stay at the Hill Country Inn and Suites since San Antonio is so close to home, so I jumped at the chance to stay at our favorite hotel. It's such a great place for families. Each little cabin has its own kitchenette, and in the middle of the property, there's a great pool and playscape. As soon as we checked in, we went straight out to the pool.

And first thing in the morning, the kids took full advantage of the playground right outside our door.

We intended to go to the Riverwalk, but after experiencing the heat in the morning as we played outside, we realized the Riverwalk in the afternoon wasn't the best plan. So, instead, we opted to go to Natural Bridge Caverns.


We stopped to mine for gems, fossils, and arrowheads before the cave tour.

Then we did the tour. The caves were breathtaking! (And not just because we had to walk miles and miles.)

Final History Party

We wrapped up our year of studying the Middle Ages with a big party at History Co-op. The kids all came dressed as a historical figure from the medieval period. Avery, of course, came dressed as Joan of Arc (and recycled her Halloween costume), and Rhys was dressed as a Crusader.

The kids worked hard to put together presentations on different aspects of medieval history, and they all did such a great job! Rhys presented on the feudal system. He made a poster illustrating how the system worked and stood in front of the group to explain it.

Avery's presentation was on religion in the medieval period. She chose to focus on the big three: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

After all the kids finished their presentations, we had a medieval feast! We brought Russian gingerbread. We also feasted on mince-meat pie, Alfred cakes, and "ale".


One of the other families brought German Springerle cookies. They were so beautiful...it was almost sad to eat them! (But they were very yummy!)


And we celebrated the end of the preschoolers' study of the alphabet with letter cupcakes.

After the feast (and after shedding hot costumes), we did a timeline activity. This was the activity I was in charge of, and I spent a lot of time at home fretting about how to do it. We didn't focus at all on learning dates, so I didn't want the timeline activity to be too difficult and frustrating. In the end, I decided that we'd just give it a whirl, and if it was too hard, I would help them. Well, it turns out that I didn't need to worry! I was so impressed with the kids. They worked together and used the few dates they did know to figure it out. They were able to make connections between events and cultures that I didn't imagine they'd understand. I can honestly say that the kids learned more this year than I could have hoped for.


Next up: trebuchet!

The last act was a little tournament dueling. The preschoolers dueled a la "Between the Lions" by putting words like "moat" and "queen" together.