Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day, Carl once again somehow had a conference out of town. Last year he went to New Orleans. This year, Las Vegas. For a week each time. Me? I get, various spots around Texas for a whopping two nights. Bitter, moi?

Mom came to Austin, and we headed to the Hyatt Regency for Brunch. Ryan is still in his "stupid photos only" phase. Swell.

Somehow I ended up without any pictures of the buffet, but it had seven different stations, including a Bloody Mary station. Both boys ended up eating almost exclusively breakfast food.

Ryan did smile, but only when he had his napkin wrapped around his neck like a cowboy. Also Just Swell.

The food was delicious, and some of the best prime rib I've had in a while.

I did get one photo of my desserts, at least. Red velvet cupcakes, a key line part, a fruit tart, and Crepes Suzette, made at the crepe station. Or as Ryan had reported back to me after scoping out the dessert tables, "dessert eggs."

I'm wearing my new earrings and necklace the boys made me. Ryan received a rock polisher for his birthday, and apparently he has been busy polishing rocks ever since. So they made them into jewelry for me.

After eating, we took the elevator up to the top floor to look at the skyline.

Of a dozen pictures, this was the only one of Ryan not making a goofy face. Swell. Swell. Swell.

 My other gift was made by Ryan at school. Its a very sweet little poem with his fingerprints in the heart.

 This might be the longest poem/card handwritten by Ryan I've ever received. He's growing up too fast!

Oh yes... one more picture.

DinoSTARS

The boys participated in their school's first ever 1st-3rd grade choir this year (I say first ever... first time its been offered since we've been there, that is).

Despite Alexander having asked me to sign him up for choir, both boys have hated it since Day 1. They came home from their first practice, and announced they were quitting.

Not so fast, I explained. They needed to give it more of a chance.

Well, by the time I was satisfied they had given it enough of a chance, they had parts.

And despite their very good reasons for wanting to quit choir (not enough boys... in fact, Ryan was the only first grade boy)...

Mean Safety Mommy made them stick it out, since at this point, they were committed.

Every other Monday they had practice, and this became a BIG struggle.

Ryan even started faking being sick to get out of choir practice.

After the third headache in a row fourteen days apart at 2:45 pm, I caught on.

So you can imagine their excitement when they learned they would have to do three performances on performance days: for the parents in the evening, and two during school for all the grades.

Soon Alex was coming up with ways to get out of choir. "I'm going to forget my lines... I'll "forget" my costume... Will you understand if I get sent to the principal's office, just this once? ... (cough) I'm (cough) not (cough) feeling well (cough).."

I didn't know WHAT to expect when we showed up for their show two weeks ago.

Turns out, it was very cute, and they did a great job.

Even if Alex (playing the Simon Cowell type judge) completely ignored the English accent we've spent FIVE MONTHS practicing at home.

They hated their "costumes" I ordered, although they really appreciated I didn't make them wear a full body costume like some other unfortunate children.

And my kids think I was the mean parent!!

Roughing It

I'm currently roughing it at the Westin La Canterra in San Antonio for a conference, and reading about all my friends back in Austin on facebook who are meeting Obama and having lunch with Obama and whose kids are getting their kids casts signed by Obama, and feeling a bit sorry for myself, because, really, what are the odds that the president would be all over Austin on the few days I'm actually not there?

Anyways... like I said, I'm truly suffering with my Heavenly bed and room all to myself with no children and no husband, and a bottle of wine for myself, and some good books on my kindle, and a temperature I can control all by myself. So in that honor, here are some pictures of when I truly was roughing it, camping with Team Danger and not sleeping in a tent with a crappy air mattress and a snoring husband and lack of climate control. And no alcohol, since the Scouts frown on that, and really, WHAT is the point of camping with no alcohol?

So without further ado... photographic evidence that I went camping, in a tent, with a bathroom nowhere near me.

Knives are now allowed for Bears like Alex.

Not for Tigers like Ryan (watching Alex's friend carve with envy).

Ryan and the stick the boys hid one year ago. AND WHICH THEY FOUND.

SERIOUSLY.

Archery Time.

Alex and Travis, aka Hawkeye and Legolas.

Ultimate Frisbee Time.

Alex and den learning how to build a lean-to shelter.

Ryan's den building a lean-to shelter in their free time, because they liked what they learned to do THAT much. I love these boys.

Ryan and Derek.

Hawkeye Ryan (or is it the new Katniss?)

Tiger Skit at the Campfire.

Alex's Den's Skit

Retiring some flags - intriguing, but the cutting and burning of the flags took WAY too long.

And yes, I was up at sunrise and thought it rather beautiful.

This concludes the end of our camping retrospective. Now back to my wine.

The Milkshake Fountain

Alexander got put into a TAG group temporarily while the rest of the kids in his class were getting reading for STARR testing - he can easily handle the work load, and I bet reads better than most of the TAG kids, but he isn't in the school's TAG program.  

He had to design his own fountain, based on a book they were reading. I liked his creativity.

Alex liked his experience with TAG, so we are leaning towards signing him up to be tested for it next year.

New Fence

After months and months "discussing" the shared fence with our neighbors that blew down last year, we finally had it replaced last month.

That's one major house expense done!

Now, on to the kitchen...

U7B Chelsea versus U9B FM

It would be difficult to explain how proud I am of my Town & Country U7B Chelsea soccer team. We've had a fantastic time playing up from U7B to U8B this season, since we knew we could handle it. A 6-2 record (which really in my mind will always be a 6-1-1 record for various reasons) proved we had what it took. A fantastic group of young boys that are wonderful to coach - not every practice mind you, but over-all a lot of fun. I'm of course very pleased with Ryan's play - he gives every drop of 100% effort, and comes up Aces almost every single game. If he's not the score leader, he's got incredible assists, excellent defensive stops, and a very fast running game. In fact Ryan practices with my U10Bs team every week, and can often best a good 1/2 of my older players, his brother on occasion included.

My fellow coach Coach Kyle is an experienced and incredibly energetic coach (normally surpassing my enthusiasm by quite a bit) who brings a sharp eye and excellent strategy to the team - I think we make a good coaching team. Combined with great families, it's been a very great couple of seasons.

So we decided to see if we're ready for U9 next season, another play-up jump for us. So I enlisted the help of U9B F 0 r z a  M i l @ n (guess why I'm not making this Google searchable ;-) to come scrimmage us. FM has a 6-2 record, which is pretty solid, they had a good year - some of the the kids on that team looked like 5th graders they were so big, all and all a good match up.

I carefully explained to Chelsea what we were doing, and why we were doing it. I heard through the parents that all the kids were very excited to be doing this, and that made me very happy. I explained there was an excellent chance of losing this game, in fact I expected it. But we wanted to have fun, and  test ourselves on the field of battle.

FM arrived with their matching red soccer bags, integrated side-line-seats, and a great attitude I must say. I've know the other coach for a while and he's a great guy.

Refereeing (since it was a scrimmage, not a game) was my older son Alexander - dressed in full kit with a yellow jersey and a whistle, he cut quite the imposing referee figure. Side-line ref A1ice (Kyle's daughter) rounded out the field. We had one sub on this 6v6 game and were ready to roll.

We started the game and almost immediately scored, a wonderful shot past the goalie by one of our power shooters on the front line. Immediately the game started looking up.

The boys played fantastic. Sharp passes, excellent defensive stops, power shots on goal, quick rebounds and great shot follow throughs. We quickly had it 2-0, followed by a 3rd goal that our tough ref called "roughing the goalie" that didn't count.

At some point FM brought it back even 2-2, and I figured OK, well this makes sense, they are a skilled team 2 years older than us, it's what I expected - the game could go either way.

They way it DID go however was with Chelsea shutting them down with no further goals, while we scored 2 more. Ryan had 2, one of my power-shot forwards M@thew had 1, and 0llie had a great tap-in from a cross.

So a U7 team beat a U9 team. Now I know that doesn't mean much. And I know, better than most I can tell you, that winning is not what is important. But winning is a trophy the kids give themselves for playing hard (when it's another good team). When we all shook hands, a FM player said to me, "Boy, you guys are good". Not only did that show the maturity and quality of that player, it made me proud. Of my team and my son.

So yesterday was an up day for me.