Revived? I might have l lied... ish...

OK, so after talking some, we thought that this blog, specifically, the "Sheens of Round Rock", didn't really make sense for the "Sheens of the World." So we will be blogging this adventure, just not here. SevenTravelingTexans.com is where you'll find details of the Sheens adventures through Europe.

Starting Anew

Hey folks, we're going on an adventure soon. It's been asked that we keep a blog. We want to. Really... We just don't. The last post on this blog was almost 5 years ago.

But, five years ago we didn't have tech savvy children. And we didn't have children that were home-schooled, who needed assignments to keep them from mentally deteriorating. That's coming soon. So until then, PEACE!

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.  :)