Two quick pics (also on facebook)

We got to go trick or treating with Brian, Amanda and Lexi tonight! The kids had a blast!

After trick or treating, Amy told the kids they had 10 minutes to eat all they wanted, and then we were going communal. This face of Collin's I think sums up how he felt after 10 minutes of pure sugar. Amy and I couldn't stop laughing!

A Few Videos and a Note

Here's my note.  Basically, we don't really blog any more.  It's not that we don't love you, all you 5 or so who read this.  Really, we do love you.  But the reality is, there's so many other ways to quickly share information about us and what is going on - Facebook, Google+, Twitter, photo sharing sites...  In general when I sit down to try to type up a blog, I end up spending way too much time - sometimes up to a couple hours on a single post.  I think it's the fact that blogs allow you to type as much as you like that makes it difficult for it to be a super efficient tool for me.  Anyhow, if you'd like to know what's going on more than the every 6 month or so picture or video or diatribe that I post here, let me know.  I can point you to any of these other tools that we're more frequently using. 

And one more to grow on!

Shout out to Teachers!

No pictures for this one, but if you can, imagine two awesome teachers at Cactus Ranch Elementary School, Mrs. Vernon and Mrs. Nevin, Collin's and Abby's teachers, respectively.  We went to their end of school year parent/teacher conferences, and could not be more pleased with our kids' growth.

Nine months ago we could barely get Collin to sit still when we read books at night, and he didn't really have an interest in reading himself.  Now we can barely get him to stop reading!  He loves it!  Mrs. Vernon did a great job of making reading fun and exciting for him, and he's in a great position to start first grade.

His end of year book looks like it might be just a little plagiarized, but I hope Dr. Suess would be proud of his efforts.  He typed this out and it was illustrated by his classmates:

Green Pancakes and Syrup (by Collin S., Nate S. Kaitlyn W, Faiz A.)

Do you like green pancakes and syrup?

I do not like them!

Would you like them with ketchup and syrup?

I do not like them with ketchup and syrup.

Would you in a box?

Would you with a fox?

Do you want them in a chair?

Do you want them with a bear?

I do not like them with a fox!

I do not like them in a box!

Would you like them with a cake from cake baker Nate?

Yes, I say I want it!

I will eat them anywhere!

Abby's reading level jumped 21 reading levels in one year.  She completely surpassed what she needed to get, and we owe this in large part to Abby's hard work and Mrs. Nevin.  Abby's writing skills also jumped significantly over the last year.  For posterity's sake, here's her writing samples from the first day of school and the last grading period:

First Day Jitters (given title of assignment)

Abby's writing:

I git The Jibrss Win. To The An Pont tat.The Ar Plan wubCb[??] (I couldn't make out the last to letters, and neither can Abby.)

End of Year Writing sample (prepare yourself - get ready to see how awesomely funny Abby is)
Abby's writing:

The Magic key

Onece apan a time, thair lived a King. He lived in a pretty kingdoom.  His wife past on sevrl years befor.  She had her self bairied in a graveyard.  Do you want me to tell you how she past on?  Is it scary? No! it is not. So the King's past on by a war.  Will y please stop saeing past on.  Ok! I wil stop.  Ok! Back to the story.  A big storm cam and put fire on a tree with a wich under the tree.  I do not know what happend to her. But do know thing was she was vary old.  And so slow too!  One day the king found a "magic" key and so shining and so gold it was so pretty too.  He tuc it to his wife. His wife wasn't ded she was stil alive and they lived haply ever after.

Yeah there's a couple of spelling errors, but that's from a very creative first grader.

Train-tastic!

We have more pictures that we could post, but this is the best one from my iPod of Evan's birthday party this past Saturday.  Evan and everyone else I think enjoyed themselves, just like you should at a train party.  :)

Evan's 3rd Birthday

Evan's third birthday was this past Thursday, and was pretty low key, at least for us.  We've scheduled his birthday party for next weekend, and will have a good ol' time at the Cedar Rock Railroad with several of his friends from nursery.  He opened presents (which he loved!), had pizza ordered for dinner, had "Happy Birthday" sung to him a number of times, and got to blow out a "3" candle at least 2 times.  Happy 3rd, little guy!

Now, before I posted these pictures, I noticed in most of them, Evan looks pretty mellow/somber.  We can't blame him.  The day before he had 103 fever, and at an 8:45am Dr's appointment on his birthday, he was diagnosed with an surprise "treat": strep throat.  A bit of a bummer, but he was able to keep his spirits up playing with his new Geotrax Cars sets, his other gifts, and a Redbox rental.

One funny thing about his birthday - Evan wasn't the only one sick, Amy and Livy were, too, so I was in charge of meals for the day.  When dinner came around, I needed something that I could do.  I brought up pictures on the computer of a pizza and spaghetti, and asked which he wanted.  He was pretty clear what he wanted: pizza.  Well I started to talk with him about making pizzas, maybe even individual pizzas for the kids, and his response was even more clear: "No.  Drive, Dad.  Drive."  I won't complain - I love Gatti's pizza and I love ordering out, but now I know what he thinks about my cooking.  :)

Garage Organization Attempt

So I'm not sure how long this will last but I thought when I had parking spaces for the kids bikes, the garage stayed so clean for so long. This doesn't look as pretty as nicely arranged parking spaces and whatnot, but I feel like it's a solidly clear message, at least to the ones that read. :)

Sunday Wanderings

Livy really picked up walking quick...and stairs...and the slide... Anyhow, with her newfound skill, she has become QUITE the busy-body, which makes 3hrs of church interesting. Amy and I have started a switch off routine to make sure we get something out of each week, and this week I decided to let her roam around the building. It was so much fun to see her go, go, go, go....

T-Ball

We've taken our time getting Collin signed up for any sports, and now he's finally getting a chance to play a sport: T-ballHe plays for the Bisons and is #6.  We're very excited for him!

Bluebonnets - attempt #1

We love taking pictures in the bluebonnets each year ...well maybe not the kids ...or Logan, but I do!  I love having them in matching Easter outfits amongst Texas' most popular and beautiful flowers.  This year we have had very little rain so the bluebonnets out here are a little smaller and harder to find.  But we found this little patch.  Since we had our family pictures done this fall by a professional (Kristen Duke Photography)  I think I have gotten more critical of shadows and things.  So I may try to get a few more in the evening hours next week sometime, we'll see.

Climb, baby, climb...literally

Overdue Photos - Part 7 (Finally)

Happy Saint Patty's
This year St. Patrick's Day happened in the middle of spring break, and while we unfortunately had a couple of kids under the weather, we still got to have some of our favorite traditions - new outfits, rainbow cupcakes, and corned beef. Good times!

see if you can guess who wasn't feeling well.  poor thing...

Overdue Photos - Part 6

Trip to the SA Zoo with the Phillippi's
Amy, the kids, Amanda & Lexi, and G-parents Phillippi all got to go to the zoo in San Antonio a couple days after Livy's birthday.  I think that makes it 4 different zoos in Texas the kids have visited, if you don't include petting zoo's at the Berry Farm, etc.

 
Spring Break Trip to UT

We've been down to the University of Texas once before with the kids, but this was the first time to go to the Natural History Museum and the "Turtle Pond". I'll admit I was impressed by what we saw, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Overdue Photos - Part 5

Livy's 1st

Here's a few photos of Livy's first birthday. We had a lot of fun celebrating with her and family and friends.

Overdue Photos - Part 4

Snow Day 2011

Overdue Photos - Part 3

Collin's 100 Day Shirt
For the 100th day of school, Collin had a project to pull together 100 of something, and he asked for 100 pictures of himself.  We used picasa to find a bunch of pictures of him, and then worked with him to resize the pictures.  While I'll admit I arranged them like this, he did most of the work in picasa.  We printed it out, and Amy went to town sewing it on for him.  Pretty impressive work from all three of us, right?

Overdue Photos - Part 2

Photos from Abby's Weather Cast
This happened a while ago, along with a video I posted, but here's some images behind the scenes.  Pretty cool...

Overdue Photos - Part 1

I titled this "overdue", but what does that really mean when you're talking about your own blog.  It's not like I'm really under the gun trying to meet a deadline...

Anyhow, since learning to post low quality pics from my iPod, I've neglected to take time to get some better images off our camera and post them here.  Most of the following happened sometime in Q1 2011 - I hope you enjoy the pics!

Sleepover

Well it looks like one.  When we had Brian and Amanda stay with us for a while, I moved a TV into the loft, and the older kids fell asleep to a movie one night on the weekend.  I just thought it was cute to see them all asleep with their sleeping bags...

How to Watch a Movie

Is there any better way to watch a Toy Story when you're staying home sick? Not for this two year old.