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