Rhys Blasts Off Into His 4th Year!

Our not so little guy turned 4! Rhys started his day under the stars at the breakfast table eating sprinkled pancakes and chocolate milk.  Every birthday the kids get to pick a favorite food to enjoy.  Sophie usually picks a boxed cereal so I asked Rhys privately so he wouldn't be influenced by his sister's opinions.  Chocolate milk it was!

After school we zoomed on over the "Rocket Park", as the kids aptly call it, to meet up with friends, try out our jet packs, sing "Happy Birthday" to Rhys, and eat star shaped cookies. Opa was able to meet up with us there as well.  Rhys was really wanted to show off for his Opa.

 



Then the family went to the restaurant of Rhys' choice so he could have his desired pizza kid's meal, Jason's Deli, where Oma was able to join the pack.

Back at home, after a quick bath, it was time to open presents.  At four years of age, he was still the most excited over the tissue paper wrapping and gum.  Thanks to Oma and Opa and Aunt Kira and Uncle David for sending well wishes and awesome goodies.

Rhys blew out the candles on his rocket cake and proceeded to stain his fingers red with icing. I think we forgot to sing him "Happy Birthday" then but he didn't seem to notice.

Soon after, but not quite soon enough to avoid the overtired meltdown, he was off to bed under a starry ceiling.  Well, it would have been but we got them at the Dollar Tree and they didn't glow long enough for him to even notice! Oh well, it was worth a shot.

We are so happy to have our sweet Rhys in our family and are so proud of the boy he's become.

Allen Eagle Run Duties Finale

Finally, the last part of my duties as this year's (not next year's, thank goodness) Healthy Lifestyles Chair for the PTA are over.  This morning, I laid down some paper, handed out silly string to the class that had the most Allen Eagle Run participants, and celebrated with them as they decorated thier principal and teacher!

While cleaning up, I also happened upon an opportunity to hear a babershop quartet sing. They were visiting one of the classrooms and performed for the people at the front office, including me and Rhys.  They were pretty good! See the perks of volunteering!

Texas Pride!

So, if you've kept up with our blog over the years, you know, as transplants, we find Texas a bit over the top about itself.  Examples are Texas shaped topiaries, the Texas flag or state outline dripping off everything they can stick it on--like the walls of every under or overpass, declaring a official Texas state lizard...a lizard, people. Not normal stuff like a state flower or bird (bluebonnet and northern mockingbird, by the way), but even a lizard...it goes on.

Well, when I first started working here seven years ago, it was as a speech-language pathologist in an elementary school setting.  I was in my closet of an office when announcements came on and following the Pledge of Allegiance, I felt like I was being pulled into another dimension, as they proceeded to do the Texas Pledge of Allegiance.  I was dumbfounded.  I wandered out into the hall, popped my head into the nearest special education classroom and asked a friendly teacher, "What was that?!" Her reply, "Oh, yeah, in Texas we pledge the Texas flag." Um, okay. Different.

I mean, in California, sure, I'd see the California flag along side the U.S. flag at state buildings and state parks and I took pride in my state.  BUT the Texas flag and the Texas state are everywhere: mailboxes, sides of sheds, stepping stones in garden paths, billboards, state shaped hedge mazes at the local park....It makes me chuckle.  It's sort of fun.  And I know there is an amazing history at the roots of all this in-your-face pride.  This state was made up of amazingly strong and dedicated settlers, one of the many reasons Texas values it's independence so entirely.  Not being born and raised here, it is interesting to observe all of it.

Be that as it may, our sweet children were born Texans.  And as a kindergartner, Sophie has been waiting all year to have her turn to participate in the Pledge (the one we all know) and the Texas Pledge during morning announcements at school.  Well it was her time to shine like a Texas star this week. Way to go, Sophie! Hooray America!  Hooray Texas!  Here is 43 seconds of absolutely riveting footage. Lucky you!

Family Camp Out

Watch out world! Here we come!  We are ecstatic to have our long awaited minivan.  Now we can go camping and on trips without borrowing a bigger vehicle and be more comfortable.  We headed out to Cedar Hill State Park this past weekend to do our first 2 night camp out with the kids. 

One of the great things about Cedar Hill is that it is right in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex so after setting up camp.  We were able to head out to Red Robin for dinner.  That's my type of camping!

We did get a really nice spot with lots of shade which was great because it was muggy.  This year we took forever to shake our winter but when we did--boy howdy! Hot and humid.  We only had one fire ant hill and it was away from our R&R area.  Some other critters we did not expect to see in such numbers were roly pollies (pill bugs, woodlouse).  They were piled on the shady side of our fire ring.  We later found out that they love decaying matter and ash is right up there on their list of good eats.  We were told the park had a huge "crop" of them this year which I believe is park ranger speak for "they were prolific little creatures" this year.

Upon rising and shining the next morning, Rhys found the nearest tree to relieve himself.  As he was finishing his business he discovered he had peed all over another mound of them.  Poor urine soaked crustaceans!  Anyway this was of great interest to he and his sister.

After breakfast, warmed over a fire mind you--see we know how to camp, we just don't feel compelled to.  Anyway, after breakfast we headed to the lake for some instruction on fishing.  We attended brief lessons on tackle, casting, and general safety and fish anatomy.  Our kids earned certificates professing them to be Texas Junior Anglers and more importantly, they got stickers.

Following all that information, you'd think we were ready to go fishing but, alas, we were off to the kayak rentals for just under two hours of kayaking.  This being the first time we did it  with the kids for any length of time.  It was fun but the kids tired of it before we did.  It was a bit windy so we really had to do some work on the way in and our muscles are tight because of it.  It is fun though.

I just noticed that Neal and I wore matching shirts that day.  I think people that do that are on cuteness overload and need surgery or medication at the very least but we did it accidentally, people!  I feel the same way about people that dress up their pets.  Very wrong.  Most the time they don't even know they need help.  It's sad. Really sad.  Okay, now I'll get back to our family camp out and you go ahead and take off your doggy's tutu.  It's okay.  Really.

Following our picnic lunch where Rhys dodged a wasp by less than an inch, we were off to the beach for a swim. 

At this point I have to say that swim lessons have not made my dear children more water safe, but dangerous.  Because now, my darlings think they know how to swim regardless of the amount of water they are sputtering on.  I am pulling them closer to shore and Rhys, in particular, is laughing and trying to go deeper, laughing while nearly drowning himself all the while.  I swear if you told them they could fly, they'd jump off a building.  So we resorted to the obnoxiously bright, orange water wings or floaties again because we could not talk any sense into them. 

By this time in the afternoon we changed into clothes again and headed to a presentation on reptiles.  They did a great job teaching and keeping it interesting but with the elusive sleep of tent camping and a morning full of activities, the kids couldn't hold out.

Although Sophie came to and enjoyed the last few minutes of the presentation and a chance to pet the (not native to Texas) snake, Rhys didn't gain consciousness again for well over an hour, very possibly two.  I did however catch up on a few Zs.  Thank you for my husband for capturing me in one of my favorite pass times.

After dinner, Neal shared a moment of enlightenment when he suggested we go into town to get some ice cream. We drove around for a good long while looking for the most desirable ice cream shop, too, just to enjoy the air conditioned car.  True story.  Then we finally pulled out the GPS and pulled up the nearest Braum's.  I tell you, my husband is a genius!  I love that man.

As if the sugar intake was not already excessive, we celebrated "I Love Reese's Day" right on schedule.  Hershey's, to promote sales, of course, asked it's customers what their favorite candy was and, lo and behold, "I Love Reese's Day" was contrived!  Well, we love our own Rhys so we celebrated with a handful of Reese's Pieces candy and planted a huge family kiss on Rhys.  Sophie was quite jealous about this plan until she understood that everyone could have their own handful of candy, not just her brother.  

 

Somewhere under all those kissy lips is a well-loved Rhys

Yet, a bit of lingering moodiness from her makes me think we will be celebrating "I Love Sophie Day" sometime in the future.  Somehow, we will have to tweak it, though. As Sophie means wisdom and I am pretty sure my nearly six-year-old girl's eyes could not roll back any further than she already does when I impart a handful of wisdom to her.  Maybe we will use Smarties candies...anyway, back to the camp out.

We enjoyed the campfire and another shoddy night of sleep to finish up our camping trip the next day.  We found a little friend on our tent that the kids enjoyed handling.

So infrequently during our stay in the campground, Neal would be driving along and swerve a bit.  I'd ask what it was all about and he would tell me that he didn't want to hit a caterpillar on the road.  Whatever.  Well after two or three times, I'm like, "you are a liar" and he doubles back to show me the still living (thanks to his race car driving maneuvers), large, extraordinarily fuzzy, black caterpillar making haste across the road.  In my defense, I was not wearing my contact lenses this weekend.

We did finally get our fishing in before departing Cedar Hill State Park.  We did not have the correct bait but we still had a lot of fun.  Some neighboring families caught some perch and let Sophie feel it and then tossed them back.

It was a full weekend and we were sweaty and stinky and could not wait to shower off all the sunscreen and bug repellent.  Fortunately, the drive home was short unlike the traffic we experienced on our way to the campground.