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.

V.I.P.

During 1st grade at our school, every child gets a week to be a Very Important Person.

When Alex was in 1st grade, his teacher did it by birthday order, which meant Alex was the very first V.I.P. We didn't quite know what to expect, and to make matters worse, I was out of town the whole time we had to do it (five days between receiving the schedule on a Tuesday, and I flew out the next day and wouldn't return until after it was due). So I don't exactly have the best memories of VIP week for Alex.

Ryan's teacher does things differently - she does it in alphabetical order, by last name. Which meant Ryan was 21st and last in his class.

He's spent the whole year waiting and waiting and asking when it would be his turn, and waiting some more, and waiting even MORE. Ryan could not WAIT for his VIP week to come.

Finally, the end of April rolled around, and it was his turn.

Since he's spent the whole year watching every one else's VIP weeks, the boy had a very set idea in his mind as to what he wanted. His background poster-board must be blue. His letters must be bubble letters. In green. And he knew the pictures he wanted. He did not want text on his page,other than his name. He did not want his last name. And he wanted about one dozen baby/toddler pictures.

I decided to let him win every battle but the last one, and strongly suggested we include some pictures of hid family and friends.

Thankfully, he listened to me.

Ryan's teacher also lets the VIP for the week bring in a show and tell every day. It should come as no surprise that Ryan had very definitive ideas on his show and tell items, as well. He was a bit bummed that his teacher quashed the hamster coming in, as well as his new fish (more on that later). But with some careful negotiating  he ended up with the following VIP show and tell schedule:

• Monday - his Pinewood Derby LEGO racer car, and his trophy for Most Colorful
• Tuesday - a model of an SR-71 stealth plane he built over Christmas
• Wednesday - his Ninjago lego minifigures, including his valued green and gold ninjas
• Thursday - his Star Wars Fighter Pod collection
• Friday - his coin collection. 

Friday's visit was made extra special because the coin collecting Ryan does with his grandfather, and Al came in and had lunch with him and helped him show off the coins. Apparently the class was very interested in his collection, so the show and tell went on for thirty minutes.

I had grand intentions on Monday of photographing every day's show and tell, but somehow that didn't quite happen.

Ryan loved being a Very Important Person, and we loved watching him enjoy his week in the limelight.

The Duke, the Duchess, and Prince Harry (Potter)

This.

This. Makes. Me. Happy.

William, Kate, and Harry went and toured the Harry Potter Studios outside of London on Friday.

You might recall, I was there last May. I walked through this very door.

Wish I'd thought to have a wand fight, though. Dang it. Photo op lost.

And doesn't Harry make the PEFECT Weasley addition?!?!

 My worlds have collided, and all is still well.

Better than well, actually.

Last Catch Up: Houston Family Time

Embarrassingly enough, this post was from October. Not sure why it never got posted, but Carl brought it to my attention it was still in draft form.

Still, it seems appropriate to post it now that I am finally just about done catching up on the past six months.

So here we all are, back in October when Beau and family came to Houston to see Bebe.

We've since been treated to a subsequent solo Beau visit, so it seems all kinds of wrong that I'm just now posting these.

We had a great time visiting, and it was wonderful for BeBe to get to see them.

Since I knew there was a good chance of four younger kids going a bit stir-crazy at BeBe's house, I loaded up my vans with all our wheels - bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller skates and roller blades.

And yet they STILL managed to fight a bit over who got to use which wheeled accoutrement.

Carl and the boys had a Scout camp-out planned for the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi that Saturday night, so we decided to take the kids out of school to get the most cousin time bang for our buck as possible.

I'd feel a bit worse doing this, but neither boy has missed a day of school this year otherwise so I think we'll survive.

They left Houston for Corpus around noon on Saturday, and I got to have some time alone with my nieces (notice the new clothes I bought them? I just wish Laurel's shirt came in Auntie sizes.)

I especially loved when Laurel went out shopping, and Audrey and I cuddled on BeBe's bed and we (and Beau) watched Pride and Prejudice together, which just happened to come on television.

I explained to Audrey that Elizabeth was about to meet her Prince Charming, and that they would get married and she would become a princess, but she didn't like the prince at first, sort of like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, but that Mr. Darcy would soon change his bad ways like the Beast so that she could love him. And that both Belle and Elizabeth were very content with their books. :)

Meanwhile, Alex, Ryan and Carl all had a great time on the Lexington.

This was Ryan's first official camping experience as a Scout, and he was VERY excited about going. Alex's group had already had their camp-out, so he just got to be the sibling on this trip.

We all had a great weekend, and most importantly, I know that it meant a lot to BeBe to have Beau and the girls in Houston.