Neal Turns 36!

Neal also has his birthday this week.  At work, coworkers treated him to Torchy's Tacos for lunch and they brought in two cakes for him.  After a hectic work week, his birthday was relaxing and low key, which was perfect for him.

After work we got a babysitter and went to dinner at Gloria's, a Salvadorian restaurant.  Then we walked around the shopping area and peeked into a book store.  Later we stopped at a kitchen store we like and bought a bamboo cutting board, because I warped our old wood one.  We made it over to another shopping area to listen in on two sisters playing fiddles.  We actually got to clap along to Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Neal has a pair of nice Oakley's that have been deemed unusable and have not been worn for some time.  For his birthday, Oakley is making all the necessary repairs to make them operational again. 

We love you, Neal!  You are a wonderful husband, father, protector, and provider.  So glad you're in our lives!

Sophie's Well Check

According to Dr. Shah, our Sophie is a healthy, happy 5-year-old girl.  Sophie weighed 40 pounds placing her in the 52nd percentile.  She was a lanky 44.5 inches tall, placing her in the 85th percentile.  Sophie was kind enough to correct Dr. Shah when she attempted to listen for a heartbeat with the stethoscope placed on Sophie's knee.  And reportedly, there are "no monkeys" in Sophie's ear.  The only suggestion was to have Sophie get in for a dental appointment which we are doing.

Sophie Turns 5!

We had to visit the store the day before to fill some very specific requests from the birthday girl.  She wanted "box cereal" or "crunchy cereal" (since oatmeal is common fare in our home) and jello, strawberry jello.

So the morning of her birthday she enjoyed a nice, big bowl of some random General Mills cereal with a target audience of preschool aged children.  Then we were off to the mall to play in their play area.  She often requests "the mall" as an outing option but unless the weather is unbearable I usually take them outdoors.  It was a win-win, though, as it was her birthday and a high temperature day.

For lunch we had what she requested, strawberry jello and kale chips.  We also added in a light pink, chilled watermelon soup but she was unimpressed.

We had friends to play with in the afternoon as E. and C., the kids I sometimes watch, were over and were sweet to bring her birthday presents. 

Once they were picked up  and Neal was home, we headed over to Jason's Deli, or as Sophie calls it, "Jason's Jelly", for dinner.  This was, again, at her request.

Then we were welcomed at Oma and Opa's home because she wanted to go swimming.  Sophie is really doing so great in the pool lately.  She is quite the comfortable fish.  She is putting her face in the water, jumping without someone to jump to, and just having fun.

After a quick change of clothers we were ready to open presents.  Thanks to all who gave her goodies. She was happy with all her presents and cards. Yet, wouldn't you know it, the thing she has been glued to the most has been a cheesy, plastic, non-functioning computer laptop toy that was part of a kid's meal that was given to her. Not even a birthday gift--more of an afterthought. Gotta love kids!

We gathered in the dining room to sing "Happy Birthday" to our wonderful little girl. Instead of cake, this year she had s'more brownies with girly, pastel marshmallows.  They were incredibly blah.We're glad we opened presents first. With the sticky fingers that resulted, undoing gift wrap may have proven disasterous.

She was out before we even got home.  She woke at 5 a.m. and came out to interrupt me while doing a stretch DVD to ask what?  Where the no-good toy computer was?  Could I get it out of the car?...She was sent back to bed.  Then at 7 a.m., when I returned she went out and got it first thing.

We love Sophie so much.  The reasons we love her are often the same ones that aggrevate us at times--her endless energy, her spontenaety, her non-stop gab.  Sophie is a sweetheart and is a good big sister.  She looks after and includes her brother. She can throw attitude like a pro when she wants to.  She is inquisitive and loves learning as long as it is disquised as fun and play.  Sophie is loud.  She is excited to go and runs full speed, although, we think much of the time, she is not sure where she is going.  Not that important to her.  She has eyes and a smile that just beam with joy.  She has amazing memory and will recall incidents for good or evil, months down the line--sometimes over a year.  Sophie is an amazing kid and we are overjoyed that we get to be her parents.  Now if she would accept our guidance and have us out of her way, she'd be estatic.

Happy Birthday, Sophie!  You have all our love.

Watermelon Seed Spitting Week

Who doesn't love a juicy slice of watermelon in the summertime? With Watermelon Seed Spitting Week upon us, we went to Walmart and bought ourselves a huge seeded watermelon.  It was pretty heavy so we all took guesses as to how much it weighed.  In pounds, I guessed 12, Neal guessed 8, Sophie guessed 700, and Rhys guessed 2.  Our estimations were so wrong.

It weighed 21.6 pounds!--without Sophie's toe tipping the scale.

For fun, we put it in the bath tub with the kids and saw if it would sink or float.  The kids were suprised something so heavy would float.  We gave it a good wipe down before returning it to the kitchen.

For dinner one night, we had "watermelon" waffles.  It did not turn out as well as I would have liked because the browning but who wants a semi-raw waffle?  Not us.  Chocolate chips mimiced seeds.  The kids were not impressed and, actually, neither were we but they sure tasted great.

We finally opened the melon and enjoyed sweet, juicy slices.  It felt like the watermelon Olympics--"Let the seed spitting begin!"  OK, not really.  But we had fun.  Neal and I annihilated the children in spitting distance!  Initially, the kids used an interesting method of spitting both fruit and seed simultaneously.  After a few tries, Sophie got it and Rhys opted to just eat watermelon slices.  He did obstain from eating the rind this year.

When that got old, we brought out the catapults!  I made these ealier this week in anticipation of the event.  How cute are they?!  We played with these for quite a while and Rhys had more fun participating.  Good times! 

We finished up the weekend with a unique meal on Sunday night: Greek Watermelon Pizzas.  Wierd you might say, but when you have 21 lbs. of watermelon to use up, you get creative.

Super Date!

We are pretty good about getting dates in on a fairly regular basis.  It's nice to have undisturbed conversation and fun together.  We are happy to do the usual date stuff like dinner, movies, museums, programs at the library, and shopping but this weekend's date was super fun.  We went on an evening kayak tour at Lake Ray Hubbard.

After a brief lesson we spent about 2 hours out on the water, skimming the shoreline and practicing paddle strokes.  The kayaks were easy to manuver and we had a friendly guide leading our group of twelve.  Then walked our soggy shoes into Jason's Deli for dinner. 

Guess What?!

In the cover story of the June 18, 2012 issue of Computerwold magazine, they spotlighted, "100 Best Places to Work in IT 2012"  and Neal's employer, Jack Henry & Associates Inc. ranked 60th overall and 9th for retention.  Yeah Jack Henry!  Yeah Neal!

Summer's Here

Concerts in the Park.

Impressing the ladies.

Living in your Swimsuit.

Cool Treats.

An Awesome Father

Happy Father's Day to Neal and to our own fathers, as well as those who have provided good father role models to us.  Neal has been a wonderful husband from the start but it has been a joy to watch him as a father.  He not only provides for the material needs and wants of our family but he devotes his energy to our emotional and spiritual needs as well. That is no trivial task, mind you. 

Neal talks thing through with me when I am struggling with something.  He is a good listener and his advice is timely and sensitive.  He comes home for lunch regularly and will talk with and tickle his children.  Neal will walk in from work, exit the house and start mowing the yard.  He presides in our home as a man who is worthy of the priesthood of God.  That says a lot to his family and Heavenly Father.  Neal helps with cooking, bathing kids, sweeping, fixing things and pitches in.  He makes us all laugh.  Neal looks for opportunities to help others.  He chooses to be positive about life.  Neal is a joy to be around.  Neal is a great example and someone his children and wife look up to.  We feel blessed to have him as ours.

For Father's Day Neal slept in and then was treated to breakfast with bacon--an amazingly tasty food seldom seen in our house these days.  We gifted Neal with the book Wookie the Chew by James Hance. We have some artwork of his that we cannot wait to put up in the office some day soon.  We also gave him a U.S. Flag and mount to adorn the front of our house because his patriotism has always been something we admire.  Sophie and Rhys (with their Grandma Sue's assistance) got their daddy a very nice wood pen with case.

We attended church as usual and they presented the men with chocolate.  Sophie and the rest of the Primary children (ages 3-11) sang two songs for the fathers.  In a special program insert was quotes form the children.  When asked "What is your dad's favorite thing to do?", Sophie replied "He likes to turn up-side-down in the pool."

While Keri baked and cooked in the kitchen, Neal tried to take a nap but he couldn't because he is a dad.  The kids found every plush item from their rooms and carried it out the the living room to cover him.

In the evening we had his Dad, Rudy, and Becky over for a viewing of old slides.  Neal was completely tickled seeing old pictures of his dad in his army days, family trips, and classic cars.  We served up glazed lemon bars, a favorite of Neal's.   

We were happy to spend the day reflecting on and showing our appreciation of the strong yet tender men in our lives.  Thank you for all that you are to us.

Summer Science - Entomology

It's in our blood.  My maternal grandfather was an entomologist and actually discovered 2-3 insects.  One, a mosquito, bears a variation of my mother's maiden name.  I even did my first report on mosquitoes when I was in fourth grade.  For my kids, we broadened our fun to any insect.

We introduced the main characteristics of an insect by playing a little game. We named the body part and identified the corresponding part on our own bodies--thorax, abdomen, head, legs, and fingers pointing out like bunny ears for antenna.  I provided a basic illustration of an insect.  We identified the body part on the picture and rolled a color coded die to discover what crayon to use to color that body part.

 We also check out close to a buh-zillion library books about specific insects and have been reading them.  This has been a great way to explain the life cycle of insects as we spot the egg, larva (baby), pupa (child), and imago (adult).  We learned lots of useless, fun facts.  For example, the female firefly flashes approximately every 2 seconds and the male only every 5 seconds or so, an ant is so strong it could carry 30 of its friends, and the grasshopper can spit brown juice to scare of predators.  I think this latter one would be quite effective.  In kindergarten, there was a girl who would cry so hard when her parents dropped her off, she would throw up and we would all stay a safe distance from her.

Another day we made a bug hotel by placing a bit of pineapple, some grated cheese, and leaves into a plastic cup. The kids dug a hole to place it in and then we covered it with debris. The top of the cup was to be flush with the ground but have you tried to dig Texas soil?! If I insisted on having them dig deeper I am sure there would be some sort of child labor law called into question. Besides we were being eaten by mosquitoes all the while so we were eager to get back inside.

The next morning we uncovered the hotel and brought it inside. We poured out the contents into a larger container and looked for critters with the help of Sophie's magnifying glass. We were successful! We counted one ant, one tiny spider, and 7 baby rolly polly bugs. We discussed how that was 1 insect total, as spiders and rolly polly bugs do not meet the insect criteria. They just have too many legs--end of story.

On another day we got up close and personal. We noted that when we look in our backyard we don't really notice any bugs living there. We laid a 6 foot piece of yarn in a circle on the grass in our backyard. We got down and looked through the grass for a few minutes. We saw 4 ants, 3 tiny flying insects, and 2 spiders which we grouped into the arachnid category. 

We then went from garden container to garden container looking for bugs and saw some houseflies in addition to more ants.  We also noted an earthworm (nematode), spiders (yet more arachnids), and a rolly polly (crustacean).  We did see a large swallowtail butterfly visit our yard and even come as close as 1 foot from us.  Neal showed a picture of a leaf bug that we startled or that startled us when Neal and I were out harvesting the garden after the kids had already gone down--a cool find.

We had fun getting to know the insect world.  I'm sure grandpa would be proud of our research efforts.

National Automotive Service Professionals Week

It's what?  It's National Automotive Service Professionals Week!  And seeing that we have a particular automotive service professional that we love dearly, we decided to surprise Opa (Rudy) and his coworkers with a treat.  We wanted to acknowledge the hard work and help that they provide to so many people, including our family.

We baked up a fancy batch of brownies but to our dismay when Keri went to cut them and remove them from the pan she found the brownies were mostly brownie soup--grotesquely under baked.  Not good. 

So while Rhys decorated the card and Sophie drew a car picture, we discussed Plan B.  We would go get more eggs, make a new, less fancy batch of treats in the morning, and deliver them the next day. 

And that's exactly what we did!  We love you, Opa!  Thank you, again, for all you do for our family, including care for our car. 

Keri Turns 38!

I really lay claim to an entire week when my birthday comes around.  If anything fun or good happens coincidentally, I associate it with celebrating my birthday.  I am one lucky girl!  We went out for all-you-can-eat french toast at a local bakery on Saturday and I designate that as my birthday kick-off.  We attend the concert in the park, a family summer ritual, and I recognize they are playing for me and just look how many people showed up!  See, I am totally blessed.

Still, my dear family felt they wanted to do even more for me and my loving husband arranged babysitting and took me out to lunch on Monday (thanks Kari!) On the day of my birthday, he gave me my present--an MP3 player and clip on earphones so I can enjoy music while I jog (or turn the volume way up and rock myself in a dark corner to escape my angel babies--don't judge).  He even had my music on it and programed to go.  Isn't he romantic?!  We also went to my favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner.  I also enjoyed calls and Facebook posts from family and friends.

After my birthday, my husband was going to make me iced whole wheat cinnamon rolls--my only request.  I love cinnamon rolls!  But then I changed my request that he not make them because I abused myself with brownies--truly a bummer for me.  But I acknowledge the wrong and move forward.

Given that I ate my way through my birthday, I gave myself a gift--I found a running partner to run with twice a week.  Her name is Cherri, as in the fruit.  I know her from scrapbook nights at Kari's and she is in my church's stake (a unit of several congregations within a geographical area).  She is under 5 feet tall so I thought I would not have trouble keeping up with her but truly, we are well matched.  Now to burn off all the birthday celebration calories.

Neal Has the Need for Speed

Neal and his dad, Rudy, attended the IndyCar races Saturday night. 

When asked what happened at the races Neal replied, "The cars went in circles."  When asked how he felt about that Neal stated, "Excited."  Because I enjoy conversations that are like pulling teeth, I finally squeezed from him that it was exciting because the guy who was in the lead, Graham Rahel, hit the wall on the last lap and came in second. He also flooded me with an, "I always have a good time with my dad."  I hope all Neal's elaborate commentary doesn't keep your 'wheels spinning' through a sleepless night.

I'm glad he got to go.  It's been a while since he's gone to the races.

Summer Science - Water

It is the first week of summer vacation and we are starting our first summer science theme - water! 

First I taught the kids that water is a liquid.  We poured water into containers of various shapes and sizes.  We noted that a liquid can be sloshed around and takes on the shape of the container it is in. 

See!  Here Rhys is demonstrating that the liquid which was once spread out on the blue plate will now take on the shape of the even flatter counter surface and eventually the equally flat floor surface.  Thank you, Rhys, for being an active contributor during our experiment.

After we understood these two attributes of a liquid we went throughout the entire house looking for liquids to write on our list.  We found milk, syrup, hand soap, shampoo, fabric softener, bubble "juice" or solution, paint, bug spray, and gasoline, among others. 

Sophie chose 5 from our list to practice writing on her own list, so she can keep up her writing skills throughout the summer.

On another day, we did an experiment to change water to a solid.  We filled up 3 cups of water, left one out on the counter, and put the other two in the freezer.  Sophie hypothesized that they would all freeze.  We noted water needed to be really cold to freeze into a solid.  We talked about solids - that they don't slosh around, they are hard, and they don't change shape.

The next day we popped the frozen ice out of their plastic cups and added them to their bath. We talked about how solid water is lighter than liquid water so it floats. We observed that most of the ice was below the water and only a bit stuck out of the water. We noted that the size of the ice got smaller and discussed why this might be. Rhys was troubled when his ice seemed to have disappeared and we talked about how it had become water, that the solid was "all gone."

I didn't take the camera out in the rain but we were lucky enough to have some steady rain and went on a "rain walk." We watched the water in the gutters and followed it to the street drain. We noticed how the water wanted to go down. We had fun splashing in quite a few large puddles! We made it to the green belt in our neighborhood and talked about how full the creek was from all the rain running down into it. We saw the water pour down over the spillway. We threw sticks in and saw how fast and powerful the water moved. On the way back the rain stopped and we tossed pebbles into the stiller areas of water to see the ripples. We did not get into water displacement but simply noted that it made circles. 

We placed a penny on the table and used a medicine dropper to cover the penny with water. We noted that the water was bulging like a dome because water likes to stick to itself (cohesion). I explained that it was as if all the drops were holding hands.  When the water overflowed we discussed that the water became to heavy (that the drops were not able to hold on to each other's hands any longer) and the water fell off the penny. 

We also experimented with capillary action or "wicking" by choosing several household items and seeing which ones "soaked up" water.  We laid out a dozen objects and used the medicine dropper to wet the objects. Sometimes it left a dome shaped drop and other times the water filled up the tiny holes (capillary action) and soaked in. We also talked about how dirt when rained on created mud because it soaked up the water.

It was fun teaching my children about the properties of water and experimenting with them.  It keeps me sane and the kids busy and thinking.  I am looking forward to playing with them while exploring other topics this summer.