Amelia's movie

Amelia created a movie on her itouch today. Truthfully, I didn't know that she knew how to do this but I thought the result was pretty creative. The movie stars Leo (her cat) as an attacker of an evil large stuffed dog. Apparently Amelia got Leo to move around her room by winning him over with cat treats. And since she has been making movies for a couple of hours today, I wonder how overstuffed Leo's belly is with treats?

Grilled pizza

Scott has experimented with grilling pizza this year and the results are delicious. I love when Scott gets creative with his grilling and cooks things that are a departure from a large piece of meat cooked over the flames (charcoal grilling only in this household). 

Saturday night Scott grilled two pizzas. One pizza was topped with marinara sauce, spicy Italian sausage, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and shredded mozzarella. The second pizza, the one pictured below, was topped with homemade pesto (made with basil from my overgrown end-of-summer basil plant), sautéed mushrooms, onions, and yellow pepper, sliced Texas tomatoes, chunks of soft goat cheese, and a little shredded mozzarella. I'll bet you can guess which pizza components Scott selected and which ones I suggested!

Making a grilled pizza is a lot like baking one with the exception of using the flames on the outdoor grill instead of an indoor kitchen oven. I made the dough in my bread machine and let it rest on a floured mat for awhile so that it would roll out easily. After rolling the dough into a small circle I placed it on Scott's pizza handle with a ton of cornmeal underneath the crust.

You can see the hot pizza stone on the grate of Scott's grill behind him. He is adding more cornmeal to the stone before sliding the pizza off the pizza handle and onto the stone. The cornmeal is important in preventing the crust from sticking and it helps the dough slide off the handle more easily too.

Scott leaves the pizza on the stone on the grill with the top of the egg closed, which I think is an important step. The photo below was taken just after the lid was raised and just before he used the pizza handle to grab the pizza from the grill.

The finished product! Admittedly this one got a little too black on the crust, but the pizza was delicious all the same.

Perot Museum of Science

Amelia, John, and I enjoyed a fun day at the new Perot Museum of Science on Labor Day. The Perot Museum has actually been open for almost a year, though this was our first chance to visit. The museum was insanely crowded when it first opened late last year and the ticket office still sells timed tickets to keep the number of visitors to a reasonable level. 

The exterior of the museum is remarkable. The building sits next to a highway in the center of downtown (most of the skyscrapers in downtown Dallas are behind the vantage point of the person who took this photo), so you can't help but stare at the building in awe as you drive along the highway. The diagonal block on the side of the building is a glass enclosure for the escalator that takes visitors to the top floor of the building.

Amelia and John are in the photo below, riding the escalator up to the top.

The museum is fabulous. We were there for about four hours and did not get a chance to see everything we would have liked to see. Nearly everything has a hands-on component to keep things interesting, especially for the children. I didn't take my good camera so the photos below are from a vintage iphone, but they'll still help me tell the story.

One of my favorite areas was the bird hall and one of the coolest features was this 3D flying simulator. John thinks it was similar to an XBox 360 with motion simulation, which of course I have no idea what that is, or how he would know what that is. But anyway, the visitor stands in a special spot on the carpet and somehow the camera records the person's movements while they simulate flying like an eagle above the mountains. The participant watches an animated 3D video of a bird flying that is making the same movements that he is making. For example, if John were to lean to the left, his bird would arc to the left. If John bent his back backwards, the bird flew up into the sky.

Amelia's arms were longer than the wingspan of all but the two largest birds.

The museum had a dozen dinosaur skeletons on display in the massive hall on the top floor.

We all enjoyed the Sports Hall, especially John. Check out this video of John racing against a professional athlete. The line to participate in this exhibit was 20 minutes long, yet John wanted to enter the line and run the race over and over again...

Another area of interest for our family in the Sports Hall was the video area. Participants could engage in a variety of activities, from throwing a football (John is doing this below) to kicking a soccer ball (what Amelia did) to performing a cartwheel. The participant was filmed performing the activity and then he/she could compare his/her performance in slow motion against a pro. Below is John's video of him throwing a football as compared to Roger Staubauch, formerly with the Dallas Cowboys.

That was way cool to compare and contrast on video versus a pro.

We loved the exhibits at the Perot Museum and look forward to visiting again in the future!

Amelia's Birthday Celebration

Amelia celebrated her 10th birthday this year in two stages. On the date of Amelia's birthday we were on our family vacation in Boston. Amelia selected our family activities for the day - a visit to the Museum of Science in the morning and a whale watching cruise in the afternoon. What an action-packed day!

The Museum of Science was amazing, and we had to drag the kids out unwillingly after 3 1/2 hours so that we could get to our whale cruise. The cruise was very long because you have to travel over 90 minutes out to sea in order to get to the area of the water where the whales swim. During the first 30 minutes of the boat ride we were able to enjoy fantastic scenery of Boston Harbor and the Maine coastline.

And then the next 60 minutes before we arrived at the whale spotting area of the ocean looked like this.

Finally we were rewarded with several views of whale fins. I did not take the photo below (I downloaded it from the website of the whale cruise operator) but we did see one whale who showed his fin to us like this. I was not able to get any good photos on my camera because it as too crowded on the boat decks to get a clear view with the camera. We also saw several smaller whales as well.

We got back from the whale cruise pretty late so we kept things simple that evening. A quick pizza dinner out with birthday ice cream for dessert for the birthday girl.

Stage two of Amelia's birthday celebration came last weekend when Amelia hosted a birthday sleepover for her closest friends. We waited until the start of the school year to have the party since several of Amelia's friends were out of town for most of the summer. Amelia planned the event and I supervised while Scott and John enjoyed a boys' evening out. First stop was a pottery painting studio where each girls painted a piece of pottery. From left to right - Olivia, Elle, Lydia, Amelia, and Elsa. 

Painting pottery was actually a really fun activity and the girls did a great job with their selections. After our painting experience we returned to the house, where the girls played, ate pizza and cake, and settled down to watch one of the Harry Potter movies. All of these girls love the Harry Potter series and when they talk amongst themselves I sometimes can't understand what they are saying because of all the Harry Potter references and inside jokes.

From all the laughter coming from the guest bedroom where the girls were watching the movie, I would say that the party was a success. Happy 10th birthday sweet Amelia! We love you!

First day of school

Obligatory first day of school photos are here!

Amelia started fifth grade today at McCullough Intermediate School (MIS). MIS is our district's lower middle school for fifth and sixth graders. As predicted, one of the highlights of Amelia's day was learning how to use the lock on her hallway locker.

John started second grade at University Park Elementary School. John is thrilled that he is in a "good class with lots of sporty boys". John also had to wear head-to-toe LBJ gear on the first day today.

We are looking forward to a good year ahead of academic and social growth for these two!

Wilson family devotional

One of the associate pastors at our church approached me recently about writing a family devotional for the daily email our church sends out to members of the congregation that have signed up for the "Daily Devotional". The pastor said that the church wanted to spotlight at least one family per week in order to have a child's perspective involved in the devotional.

I willingly agreed to this task and then convinced Amelia and John to help me brainstorm what we should say about the passage we were assigned to discuss. Amelia and John were OK with reading the passage and talking about it as a family, but they were reluctant to "let the other adults in the church read what they were thinking", as they said it.

Well, I went ahead and discussed the passage with them anyway, without them knowing that a brief synopsis of our discussion would be sent via email to a few hundred members of our church.

I am very proud of the outcome and am thinking that the Wilsons should conduct exercises like this more frequently. I know we don't emphasize the study of God's word enough in this house, so this was a refreshing awakening to something that should take more of a priority in our household.

Read the "Wilson Family devotional" below":

Mark 10:46-52

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ 49 Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’52 Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Faith is a powerful feeling, as illustrated by the importance of Bartimaeus’ demonstration of his faith in Jesus. At the beginning of this passage, the crowd tried to quiet Bartimaeus when he called out to Jesus. But Bartimaeus was determined to speak with him so he cried out again after others told him to be quiet. And then when Jesus called on him, Bartimaeus was confident to request that Jesus make him well, seemingly speaking with the strength of his faith. Demonstrating the strength of his faith to Jesus led to Bartimaeus being healed from blindness.

There are many ways that this story can be applied to our modern and busy lives as our faith is tested everyday. We all face with challenges that range from being inconvenient to feeling insurmountable. But this story teaches us that no matter the challenge, we can always turn to Jesus for assistance in dealing with our troubles. He will be there for us, just as he was for Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus teaches us to shout out to Jesus even when external forces try to quiet our voice. Bartimaeus teaches us to be persistent in spending time in our relationship with Jesus because we love Jesus and want the opportunity to be heard by him. Bartimaeus teaches is that our faith in God will make our troubles better, whether the outcome from the test of our faith is what we personally desire or not. Our faith in him will guide us to acceptance of the answer to our troubles.

My children and I ready this passage together as a family, and afterwards we discussed what this story meant to each of us. Amelia, age 10, concluded that, “Faith can be a powerful emotion that can lead you to be healed from problems and receive God’s blessings”. John, age 7, added the following, “So for example, say you are really sad about a bad outcome, say you lost a big match in the neighborhood track meet. You can pray to God and talk to him about it, and even though he can’t change that you were not the winner of the track meet, having faith in Jesus will help you recover from not finishing first and will make you feel better about the sad outcome.”

Well said. I believe that faith in God can help us with everything from illness to dealing with personal problems to recovering from sad emotions after losing a track meet. But most importantly, having faith in God reminds us of God’s love for us and of his desire that we walk the path he has chosen for us - whether that means placing first in the track meet or not.

Please, Lord, help us to remember that the strength of our faith can help us overcome any obstacle that comes in our way. Help us remember that we can always turn to you for guidance and that you are always there for us. Allow our faith to remain strong so that we can receive your blessings. Amen.

Congratulations to Scott!

I took a screen shot of the photo below, so you may have to click on the image to read the fine print.

Congratulations are in order for Scott! After almost 16 long years paying his dues and remaining dedicated to the public accounting profession, Scott was promoted to the position of Director with Deloitte this week. This promotion is long overdue and one that Scott is ready for. Our close family and friends know the anguish and stress that comes with having a family member work through long busy season cycles per year, so I am glad (and Scott should be glad too) that all of his hard work eventually paid off with some recognition.

As some of you know, Scott worked with PWC for most of his career, but left to work with Deloitte about two years ago. One of the main reasons for his departure was that Deloitte promoted to the Director level, which was not an option with PWC. As a Director (from what I understand), Scott will be (hopefully) less involved in the drudgery chores associated with public accounting and will have more client-service responsibilities and more opportunities for leadership positions within the firm. In fact, Scott has already taken on a leadership role mentoring younger staff members who are from Deloitte's India offices. Scott has some funny stories about the Indian guys - ask him sometime for a laugh!

Scott is a very shy and humble person, especially when it comes to work, so he would likely never mention this promotion in passing. So I am here to announce this honor for him, and to express how proud I am of Scott for reaching his professional goal. 

Congratulations, Scott! You deserve this recognition and I am proud of you!