John's bugs

A craft this week in John's preschool class was painting peanut shells to look like bugs. Why bugs I have no idea, but that is really not the issue here.

We have really enjoyed John's teacher this year, Miss Andrea, and one of my favorite aspects of her teaching the class is that she regularly has the children tell stories about their artwork which she writes down as attachments to the art. I feel that having John's words attached to the artwork makes it all the more meaningful and I love when these projects come home. I feel as though John takes special pride in his work when there is a story attached, which is sweet to see.

The text accompanying John's peanut bugs is written on the orange card in the photo below. Grandmommy and all of our Miami family should pay special attention, as many of you are mentioned in the story. For those of you not acquainted, Max is one of John's grandmother's dogs, and Nick and Shawn are two of Scott's three younger brothers (John's uncles). Here we go.

" Max, Nick, and Shawn are John's bugs. Max eats oranges and crackers. Nick likes chocolate rocks. John buys them at Central Market. They are delicious! Shawn likes to eat trees. All three of John's bugs like to eat candy Legos."

Once again, John is talking all about the candy and sweet treats that any decent parent (not me) would forbid out of concern for his health. All of the types of candy John mentioned in the description are sold in the bulk bins at my favorite local grocery store, Central Market. If I am shopping with the children and they are behaving well then our routine is that when we get to this section fo the grocery store they are allowed to select a handful of their desired treat. It could be chocolate rocks, candy legos, gummi worms, etc.

Shawn, I have no idea why you got the short end of the stick eating trees. Maybe you should come with us sometime to Central Market to show John that you enjoy more than tree bark.

Backyard fun

As if Amelia didn't have enough excitement and exhaustion from Field Day on Friday, we gave her more by playing in the backyard for awhile that evening.

I don't know how this came about exactly, but I believe Scott was urging John that in order to get big, strong muscles he should do five pull-ups each day on the backyard swing. Amelia held John's feet and he pulled his chin up above the bar.

No, I didn't ask for this pose, but that's my John.

Amelia posing sweetly, as always.

Field day

Amelia's school held their annual Field Day event this past Friday. The children participate as a team with their class to compete against the other classes in their grade. Amelia's class, team Savage, wore red and competed heartily to win four of the six events. Field Day lasts about two hours and it is a great chance to watch the kiddos enjoy themselves with their friends. Most of the parents come out to watch, so it's a good chance for the adult friends to catch up too. The day is capped off with a big family picnic on the front lawn of the school at lunchtime. The whole day really is a lot of fun.

One event was held in the gym, a scooter race. Below is Amelia competing for her team on the scooter.
The sack race was a lot of fun!

Another race was an obstacle course. The children had to run across the field, put their feet through hula hoops, turn a hula hoop several times, touch a cone at the end, and race back to tag the next teammate.

Before the picnic the parents tried our best to get the children together for a class photo. This was challenging to organize given the childrens' excitement about the day, but I managed to get a few cute shots. Below is Miss Savage surrounded by most of the girls in the class.

A group shot of the the entire class. Amelia is sitting just below the class sign.

Last year at Field Day I had my point and shoot camera and was frustrated that all my shots were blurry. After viewing some photos that a friend had taken that day with a more powerful camera, I decided I would ask for a nicer camera for Christmas. I have really enjoyed my camera this year (love the quality and precision of the photos!) and I am so pleased with the action shots I got at Field Day. Thank you, Scott!

Our weekend

Scott was out of town this weekend, so the rest of us enjoyed our weekend time as a group of three. Overall our weekend was quite relaxing - besides the part where John caught a 24-hour stomach bug on Saturday, which was a major hindrance in our plans for fun - and I am grateful to have had this time truly enjoying being with the children. This was my first weekend free of thinking about students and grading and the end of the semester, and I am glad to be in this more peaceful place now. As much as I really enjoy teaching in the classroom, there is something entirely refreshing about the end of a semester and attending the graduation ceremonies.

And as an added bonus I can now wear shorts and sandals to work until August, which I consider to be one of the greatest benefits of working in academia! Yippee!

Anyway, back to the weekend. Saturday was full of John being sick and graduation so Sunday was our big day for fun. Amelia, John and I went to the Katy Trail, a walking/biking/running pathway that runs through the heart of Dallas and is based on the track of a railroad that ran through Dallas dozens of years ago. We loaded up the kids' scooters in the car and went out to enjoy the beautiful day. I was hoping they would scoot along the trail while I jogged/walked behind them. I was trying to fit in some exercise this weekend since Scott wasn't here to trade-off parenting duties so I could go for a longer run.

After we had been on the trail about, oh maybe ten minutes, invariably one of the kids had to go to the bathroom. Luckily there was a Starbucks nearby, so we headed there for a water break and the bathroom.


Amelia egged me on here, saying, "Mom, please take my picture drinking my water!". So I did.
We had fun on the trail, but the children quickly got tired and we went about the rest of our day. After lunch and then quiet rest time, where we all watched The Princess and the Frog together (I highly recommend this movie! It was fun!), it was time for more enjoyment of the outdoors. So we went out back to hit balls and play on the swingset.
After enthusiastically hitting the tee off the stand with a particularly powerful swing, John decided to look down the tube and I caught this photo.


Amelia enjoyed her time lazily on the swings while I attended to batting practice with John.


Our weekend concluded on a happy note in that Scott returned home and we are now all together again. I made a new Italian pasta dish for supper and we are enjoying a relaxing end to the weekend.

Sweet kids

John gave me a sweet present for Mother's Day (with the tremendous help of his teacher!). John's teacher asked the children in her class to make their moms cards for Mother's Day, which they did using paint, marker, and fancy cardstock, with a message to mom inside. Each child spoke the message aloud and the teacher wrote it in the card and then the child signed his name. Here is John's message to me:

"Dear mom, I love you so much and I like it when you give me minty gum. Thank you for giving me soda only when we go on trips. I really like your broccoli and cheese soup, but you don't make it anymore. Love, John"

A few comments. Can you imagine what John's teacher was thinking with the mention of gum and soda at the top of John's favorites list? Yes, we win the award for allowing our children to have sweet treats when they are good. What a great, nutritionally-minded mom that I am! I don't understand John's fascination with mint gum but he sure does love it, as anyone who has spent much time with him can attest. The last sentence boggles my mind too. I have never made broccoli and cheese soup (I think he was referring to broccoli and rice casserole with cheese, which I have made in the past, and which I stopped making because the kids suddenly decided that they didn't like my version), but I did find it funny that John's entire message was about food. Fitting, given my love of cooking. It's just too bad that John never wants to eat much of what I prepare. Maybe I should try broccoli and cheese soup.

Amelia has also been sweet lately. She made a special effort to make Scott a card the other night. Just as she was finishing her work at the kitchen table, she spied him out the back windows as Scott walked from the garage to the backdoor. Amelia shreiked, "Daddy's home, but I am not finished with my card and I don't want him to see it!". This is what it said (words spelled as Amelia wrote them):

On the front: Happy Father's Day!
Inside (with peace signs and a skull and crossbones (!) as decoration): A poem for you...I know it's not Father's Day to early but not late. Making a father's day card for you makes me feel great!"

When Amelia presented her card to Scott and he saw the cover, he suggested that perhaps it would be better if she saved the card for June. But Amelia insisted he take the card now, as she said "I promise you will like it!" Very sweet.

Weekend update

Tonight is Sunday evening and I feel very content, which is what I should feel after having enjoyed a relaxing weekend. There was nothing unusual this weekend besides the normal Saturday morning t-ball for John and ballet for Amelia, except that today was Mother's Day as well. Scott and the kids helped me to enjoy the day in peace. I am grateful for the wonderful rice cooker and recipe books they gave me - I asked for the rice cooker, as I love to experiment with new recipes and I am terrible at cooking rice! - the Indonesian rice tonight was delicious! - and I even got to go for a medicure today. Lovely.

John's second t-ball practice Saturday morning went smoothly. It was much chillier than it looks in the photos below - Amelia and I were shuddering everytime the breeze blew and it felt really chilly! - but I suppose we should be grateful for mid-60's temperatures at 9:00 a.m. in Dallas this time of year. It won't be long before we get to 100 degrees on a daily basis and I will long for cooler tempreatures.

This week John's team started batting practice with pitchers throwing the balls. The first week the kids didn't thouch the bats, but John and his dad have been practicing swinging in the backyard so John is accustomed to this. Below John is at bat.

Nice swing, buddy! John actually hit a few balls and we were proud of him for continuing to try during this difficult task. I know I am a first-time participant when it comes to organized sports, but since the game is called t-ball I couldn't help but wonder why the coaches had the kiddos practicing the more difficult task of hitting a thrown ball versus balls placed on the T?

What surprised me was that John really seemed to enjoy fielding the ball during the downtime when he wasn't at bat. The field was relatively unorganized as little boys were pretty much doing anything they wanted while awaiting their turn at bat, but John approached a few boys standing near him on the field, crouching down and showing them how to put their glove down on the field to catch the ball. John is anything but shy, he will go up to anyone and say whatever is on his mind.

And while I enjoyed a lot of time this weekend playing wtih Amelia, I realized late in the game that I hadn't taken any new pictures of her over the past several days. So tonight I snapped some photos while she and John were watching their pre-bedtime show on the couch, supposedly relaxing before stories and going to bed. I don't know what possessed Amelia to strike a yoga-like pose, but she continually held her arms out and gave me the pleasant, "I am meditating, mommy!", smile. I am so grateful for my kind-at-heart, photogenetic girl!

Glorious spring weekend

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend! The highlight was a visit by grandma and grandpop McLaughlin, who stayed with us for several days on their way out west (more on that later). We certainly enjoyed our time with them.

John finished the six-week soccer term a few weeks ago and started t-ball this week. Below is a shot of John, warming up and throwing the ball to Scott. This was his first t-ball practice and he did great.

After throwing practice the kids got a chance to run the bases. Here is John reaching home plate, as Scott cheers him on in the background. Who knows if John will enjoy t-ball, but I can honestly say that John is a fast runner so that has to be a good start!

This is what the rest of us did while John was playing - relax and cheer him on. Amelia and grandma were wonderful spectators! Amelai even sounded like a cheerleader at some points shouting out "Go, John, Go!", but we are definitely not going to encourage the cheerleading thing! cheering for her brother is fine though.

On Sunday we drove out to the campground where grandma and grandpop had parked their RV when they arrived on Thursday. We were fortunate in that our geographical location favored a visit from them, as they stopped through Dallas on their way out to Jackson Hole for the summer. Grandma and grandpop report for duty as temporary employees of the National Park Service working in Grand Teton National Park this coming weekend. We wish them well in this stage of their retirement and we look forward to seeing them in Wyoming in July.

So we went out to the RV for a picnic lunch (where we ate our sandwiches in the RV, as you can see the campsite was not scenic!), and how many times do you think the adults had to remind Amelia and John that "YOU DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN THE RV!"?? Maybe a thousand? That might be a close estimate. And we were there less than an hour. It was maddening. Even though Amelia and John had been to the RV once in Gainesville, this was their first chance for more lengthy exploration and they basically got in trouble the entire time. So we quickly ate, reprimanded the children constantly, and once they had said they were sorry we went to a local children's amusement park for some fun.

We all enjoyed being outdoors at the amuseement park on a beautiful, sunny Sunday. Amelia and John enjoyed the rides and the adults enjoyed the nonexistent lines for the rides (compare and contrast to the Texas state fair, which can be a nightmare!).

Grandma even got to ride the train for a tour of the park with the kiddos.

Amelia enjoyed the roller coaster, though she declared that it was "too easy" once she got off the ride. I guess we instilled a sense of greater adventure after putting her on more thrilling rides at Sea World last fall.

Amelia was also not afraid of the spinning teacups. Now we know she didn't get that from me as I have one of the queasiest stomachs in our family. Spinning round and round on the kiddy ride might not have been good for me but Amelia had a great time.

Wonderful weekend with family, beautiful weather too! We are crossing our fingers for more good weather to enjoy being outdoors this coming weekend. Goodness knows the 100 degree temperatures will be here soon enough.