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.