The Heat

No, really. That's what Rhys's All-Stars team is called. I've never heard of a more appropriately named team. We're wrapping up our second weekend of All-Stars, and all I can do is wonder why on earth summer baseball in Texas ever sounded like a good idea.

Despite the triple-digit degree temperatures, Rhys seems to be having a great time. He is learning a lot and has some really nice kids on his team. Last weekend's tournament was a great success, and after playing five games during the weekend, the Heat earned a 2nd place trophy. This weekend, his team is playing three games to get seeded for the final tournament. This afternoon they played a double header (did I mention the 100 degree temps?), and they won both.

Travel plans

My mom and Doug had planned a trip to Scotland this summer to celebrate Doug's 60th birthday. He was so proud of his heritage and so excited to go. It's not a trip that Mom wants to take without him, but she could still definitely use to get away, so she has changed the tickets a bit and invited Avery and me to go with her. Avery and I are very sorry about the circumstances but very excited about the generous opportunity Mamar has offered us.

The trip is coming up very soon, so we've been in a flurry of plans and arrangements. My passport is long expired and Avery has never had one, and getting them in a hurry is quite an undertaking. It's been nice to have a distraction in this sad time, but a little overwhelming while our thoughts are so focused on missing Doug. Avery and I have been immersing ourselves in guidebooks for France and Italy, and Avery has been following me around with her French phrasebook, quizzing me.

I'll admit that I'm more than a little apprehensive about leaving the boys for two weeks. Bill plans to take several days off work to do "guy things" with them, and they'll also spend a couple of days with Nonnie and friends while Bill works. I've never been away from them for any length of time, but I know they'll be fine. I keep reminding myself that Bill is a wonderful, hands-on Dad, and they'll all survive just fine without me. Actually, I imagine they'll be sorry when I come back and rain on their Guy Party!

Chaos and caterpillars

With all the chaos and sadness after Doc's death, I let the ball drop in many areas of our lives. I missed doctor's appointments, failed to return calls, got incredibly behind on work, and much more. We're so lucky to have wonderful friends that have worked hard to help us back on our feet. We've had childcare whenever we need it, and our friends have brought regular meals for us for several weeks. I can't express how grateful we are. At least I know the kids have been fed and cared for!

But one little detail that I felt particularly guilty about forgetting was the shipment of caterpillars that we were due to receive a day or two after Doc's death. Obviously my thoughts were elsewhere, and almost a week passed before I remembered that we were expecting them. As soon as I realized it (well, the next morning, since it came to me at about 2am one night), I frantically drove home to rescue what I was sure would be a jar of caterpillar carcasses from the hot mailbox. I was elated to discover three live (albeit warm) caterpillars! Two didn't make it, but the fact that three did really eased my guilty conscience.

We brought them with us to Mamar's, and we were able to watch them form their chrysalids and eventually emerge! One of the three had a bit of a wing defect, but the other two emerged as beautiful and healthy Painted Ladies.

Griffinism

After finishing his dinner tonight, Griffin said, "I'm going to go play. No, I'm going to go frolic."

Closing ceremonies

Regular season spring baseball is over...bring on the All Star season! At the closing ceremonies on Friday, Rhys was named to the 5U/6U All Star team. Practices started yesterday, and we're realizing that they take this All Star thing pretty seriously. Rhys will have practice four times a week this month and tournaments every weekend in June. Thankfully it's only for one month...we sure couldn't keep this pace up for long!

Doc

On Thursday, May 7th, my stepfather passed away suddenly. It's been a whirlwind since then. We've all been staying with my mom to help, and the kids have done a great job adapting to lots of sudden changes. Griffin doesn't understand, but Avery and Rhys are both very sad at the loss of their wonderful "Doc". He was such an involved and loving grandfather and we all miss him terribly.

Reconnecting with nature

Today I woke up with grand plans to catch up on all the things that I've been ignoring during these last couple of busy weeks: housework, laundry, and work. But after breakfast, we decided that what we all really needed for today was to spend some good quality free time outside. The kids and I dressed and meandered down to the creek near our house. We brought containers to catch and release minnows (or "nimmows" as Griffin calls them). We followed butterflies, examined rocks and insects, and caught crawfish. We ended up finding tons of tadpoles, and we brought five home. Aaaaah, what a blissful morning.

The Last Olympian

Tuesday was the world release of the final book of the Percy Jackson series, "The Last Olympian," and we celebrated at Bookpeople with hundreds of other fans. Since we'd been before, the kids were less interested in the activities and more interested in getting down to business and reading. Avery managed to read the book by by bedtime that night, and Rhys and I are reading as fast as we can!

Haikus by Rhys

A month or so ago we studied medieval Japan with our history co-op. I was getting organized today and came across the haikus Rhys wrote.

Ollie
Cotton head Ollie
Used to be really fuzzy
He is so cute now

Kitten
She's always frisky
Sharpening nails on my bed
Lovely stripey cat

Spring AYO Performances

The only upside to the state PSIA meet being canceled was that Avery was able to make both of her AYO performances. On Saturday, the Concertante Orchestra performed outside of the Long Center before an Austin Symphony Orchestra performance. Bill took Avery, then was able to stay for the concert. They were treated to 2nd row tickets to see Sarah Chang perform with the ASO. Pretty amazing. On Sunday, AYO held their final performance at the Performing Arts Center at Austin High. I was very impressed to see how well the group came together. They were great!

Here are some pictures from the performance at the Long Center:

Fort Worth Zoo

Our final stop before heading home was the Fort Worth Zoo. We hadn't been in several years, but it's one of our very favorite zoos. It's such a nice, shady zoo, and the animals seem so well cared for.

Our favorite animals are always the primates and the elephants.







But this roaring lion was pretty cool too!



We also love the bird feeding area. Rhys and Griffin found it particularly funny.







We also rode to zoo train, which was a highlight for Griffin!



All in all, it was a great trip!

Go Rangers!

Our next stop was to take in a Texas Rangers game. We've gone to lots of Round Rock Express games, but the kids had never been to a Major League game before. Rhys, especially, was enthralled. The Rangers lost to the A's, but we still loved the experience!

Great Wolf Lodge

Our first stop was the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine.



Wow, what a fun place! Since we went in the middle of the week, we practically had the place to ourselves. (Although we were surprised to run into another family from History Co-op!) We had so much fun at the water park. It was great for everyone -- even Griffin had tons to do! There were no lines anywhere, so we were only limited by the number of times we could keep walking up all those stairs to the slides!

The hotel itself was really neat too. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to a Cabin room, so the kids got to sleep in bunk beds in a cabin in our room!

Fun in DFW

On Wednesday morning we left for a mini-vacation in Dallas/Fort Worth. We were ultimately going for the state PSIA meet, which is always held on the TCU campus, but we decided to go a few days before Saturday's meet to have a little family fun. We did have a great time, but we were all very disappointed to learn that the PSIA meet was canceled due to the Swine Flu. Or rather, canceled due to panic about the possibility of the Swine Flu. Avery was quite crushed as she's been working so hard to prepare for the meet. What a bummer!

Round Rock Express

Mela

On Saturday, Avery went with a friend to an Indian fest at Barsana Dham. She came home overflowing with stories of all the neat things they saw and experienced. The friend's mom was sweet enough to send some pictures. It looks like something we'll all be going to next year!