Special Award

Rhys received a special award given to only two persons per class in a school year--the High 5 Award!--given for positive attitude and being a respectful, good friend. Way to go, Rhys!

Rhys is 9!

We started the weekend with a viewing of Solo given our interest in Star Wars. First time we saw a Star Wars movie not previously screened by us as parents. It went well. We told them what their options were if they felt uncomfortable before the movie started so they would have some control.

On Monday, after opening a few gifts, we headed over to Oma's and Opa's for swimming and grilled burgers which is what Rhys wanted. They made him feel extra special.  We do parties, every other year with the option for us to buy them out for no party. This is the first time someone has taken us up on it. His Lego fund grew quite a bit with the buy out and cash from family members.

 Rhys chose pie for dessert so we came home to shower and indulge. Neighbor hood friends showed up and Rhys decided to share his birthday experience with them so we had an impromptu party.

Happy birthday, Rhys!

Last Week of School

The kids had field day on Friday in which they have a blast, get wet, picnic, and the like. The next 3 days after Memorial Day are useless unless you like fun-games, movies, more games, more movies, extra recess...you get the idea.

Helicopter Seeds

For several springs in a row, I have seen helicopter seeds on walks and runs and every year I say, "I want to collect a box full of those and drop them off a building and just watch them." This year we did!

This is from a maple tree

Here we are on top of a parking structure 4 stories up. We took video but it didn't last long because the breeze sucked them into each level of the parking structure leaving very few on the ground below. It was so fun, though! As we drove down we looked at each level at the approximate place we dumped them and there were progressively less as we went down.

Voicing my Opinion

Yet more worthless STAAR testing this week! Time spent that my kids could be actually learning something new and interesting, but no.

Posted these to Facebook with such sentiments as...

 Because there is so much emphasis placed on standardized test results, teachers spend more time "teaching to the test" and lose the incentive to cover material that is otherwise favorable to the development of a student's understanding of the world.

Because "standardized tests occur in an artificial learning environment: they're timed, you can't talk to a fellow student, you can't ask questions, you can't use references or learning devices, you can't get up and move around. How often does the real world look like this? Prisons come to mind." (Thomas Armstrong) And we all say that education must prepare students for the real world. Standardized tests miss the mark.

Mother's Day!

Spent the day with my family, enjoying them--shouldn't that be every day? Anyway, dinner was my favorite lemon poppy seed pancakes! Yum! I gave my kids large Hershey bars in wrappers that said "you are amazing" and "you are awesome" to thank them for making me a mom!

Good Job!--and Now an Impaling!

Sophie worked hard to complete all of her Faith in God program for primary children, except the 11-year-old section, as she is not 11 yet. The program only requires they finish 2 activities per 4 sections but we made a deal with her that she could get her ears pierced if she did ALL of them (not just the 2 per section) and she did (with encouragement)!

So while the boys camped for priesthood commemoration, I took Sophie to a tattoo/body piercing studio to get her ears pierced. I wanted it done right and I checked them out beforehand to be sure that the place was clean and professional and the setting could still be appropriate for a child. I did warn her that the man who did the piercings had a lot of holes in his face but was very nice and professional.

She said it hurt but she was a trooper. When she got in the car she was between laughing and crying saying that it hurt and I said, she did great and that the evening called for ice cream so that is what we did!

Unicorns Forever!

Sophie and I got some time together at the Mother-Daughter activity at church. We talked about that our differences make us intersting and UNIque (thus they chose a unicorn theme) and that there is no need to compare ourselves to others.

We played how well do you know your mother/daughter in which we got some right but Sophie thought I was a couch potato (hello, was she not with me these last two races?!) and Sophie thought I would like to keep her a baby but was actually looking forward to her teenage years (Check back with me later on that one). We finished with pictures and pin the horn on the unicorn and general weirdness that comes with tweens.

She gave me my mother's day gift early, a jar of nice notes from her. One said she appreciated my humor. Another said that she appreciated that I tried to stay in a good mood when she's angry.

I sure do love my Sophie!

First 25K and a Trail Race at That!

The whole family and the Hancock family went down to Bastrop State Park for Keri and Anjuli's first 25K. Because it was on trail it was more than 15.5 miles. It was 16.8 miles. It was a great drive down and we enjoyed wildflowers along the way. I say it was great because we prayed before leaving home for a safe trip and in Dallas a car on the other side hit another car or divider and for a split second we saw it flipping in the air before hitting the wall in front of us and to our left. It landed in the middle, between the two dividing walls where there was nothing but empty space. Neal and I ducked as I hit the gas. Our car was splattered with some sort of fluid and something hard hit the windshield front and center on the driver's side causing a scratch on the glass. But just as fast as it happened, it was over and we and our car were in good shape. We were not in a place where we could stop so we continued on asking God's blessing over the other involved drivers.

Friday, it rained all day. We hung out at the local public library, at lunch at a covered pavilion in the city park, and shopped nearly every aisle of Walmart and ate dinner at a restaurant to stay out of it. It lighted up and ended for the most part that evening and we slept pretty well.

Sophie tending to Hancock #4 at the library

Storm lifting for the evening

Anjuli and I got up before dawn to making it to the starting line. The 50K runners had already been out an hour. My first loop I did great, I walked more the 2nd loop, and the last shorter loop, I ran occasionally. It was super hot after that first loop and there wasn't a whole lot of shade, as we expected as much of the course had been burned in a fire. The race was called the Wildflower and it did not disappoint. It was gorgeous! There were such a variety of flowers and the runners and staff were all very courteous, which is especially important to a snail like me. I had no idea when I'd finish so I told Neal 6-8 hours, given that I knew I'd we walking a lot and was not totally familiar with the terrain. I finished in 5 hr, 28 min, 58 sec which puts me at a just under 20 minutes per mile. I was very happy with that because, I pushed where I could given my endurance and the heat and still enjoyed myself looking at flowers, properly caring for blisters, and stopping thrice to eat a wild blackberry.

before

During

 

After

Anjuli finished way before me but I got to the showers first! We rested a bit and then took off to Lockhart for Kreuz' BBQ (besides yummy, smokey meat, I learned their German potato salad is awesome!) that was delicious and we followed them up with s'mores at the campfire. The flowers to and from Lockhart were gorgeous and there were blankets of firewheel along the roadside.

The next day we went for a short hike for the kids so I could help Brendan pass off a required activity for Scouts. It was fun and we had a safe drive home.