Daddy Time

Things finally slowed down for Abe at work and we got to have some fun with him. The month of May was long as he had to work 6 days a week and didn't get a single Saturday or Sunday off. So we have taken advantage of having him back for some fun.

We took the kids to see Cars 2 at an outdoor movie screen.  We had learned about the event at least a month ago and Ethan has been so excited ever since.  We got there early and brought the football for Ethan and some bubbles for Taylor.  They loved making friends with the other kids that ran over to play with our toys.  It was pretty funny to watch 10 5 and 6 year old boys trying to play football.  Ethan is a little wild when he gets going.

 Here we are waiting for the sun to go down so the movie could start.

 Poor Taylor was tired and climb up on her daddy's lap and fell asleep.  We didn't think about the fact that she had drank a full bottle of water before falling asleep and we didn't take her to the bathroom.  So towards the end of the movies she peed all over Abe.  He was soaked!  He was pretty happy that it was dark as we walked back to the car, wet pants and all.  He is such a good sport.

 We decided to head to the river again and enjoy a relaxing tubing trip.  The kids absolutely love it!  I'm always amazed by how crystal clear the water is.  Hopefully the summer will hold more fun activities with Dad.  We are actually in Virginia now with my mom and the kids so the next few posts will be our adventures here.  In a few weeks Abe will join us for a fun trip to Orlando and we can't wait!

Family Visits

We had a fun visit from some of our family in Dallas in June.  We got to show them around the Riverwalk and the Alamo and then had fun going to the park and pool on base.  And the adults even got to sneak out for a great Tex-Mex meal without the kids.  We had such a great time and we are always sorry when these short visits come to an end.  They are always such easy houseguests and so much fun to have around.  We are going to miss them when they move soon.
 Ethan is never that thrilled to have his picture taken but Maren sure is having fun.

 The kids all wanted to pose on every single cannon at the Alamo.  I love when they want their picture taken.

 They were all good sports even though it was hot.

 Our kids refused to let them have a family picture alone.

Preschool Graduation

I have to spend some time getting caught up on the activities of the last several weeks.  Ethan was so excited to be graduating from preschool back in May.  He has such an amazing year and an amazing teacher.  It was fun to watch him walk across the stage and get his diploma.  With all the other classes in the school the teachers had asked the kids questions about what they were like as babies and it was pretty funny to hear the kids responses.  I couldn't wait until they got to Ethan's class but then they changed the question and just asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  I thought it was strange until I remember Ethan coming home from school one day recounting how he was telling his teacher about how he used to pee on us when we would try to change his diaper and how he told his classmates to cover their ears when he told the teacher.  I guess with responses like that they decided to go with safer questions.

 Singing a song.

 Taylor was quite upset that she didn't get to participate.  She was in a Mother's Day Out program rather than preschool so she was not part of the program.  So we had to let her stand on the stage and have her picture taken as a compromise.

 I can't believe he is ready for kindergarten next year.  Where has the time gone?

Little Dancing Machines

Lately Ethan has decided that he doesn't mind dancing with his sister and it is Taylor's dream come true.  They let me video tape them while they were putting on a "concert" for me.  They have actually made some progress over the last week or so and Taylor rarely gets slung to the ground.  I love watching them play nicely together. Fun times!

Some Amazing Kids

I can't believe the school year is coming to an end for Ethan and Taylor.  They have both done amazingly well this year and we feel really blessed that we stumbled upon this preschool last spring.  So in honor of the end of the school year I have to brag about them a little bit.  Ethan's teacher uses a system of green, yellow and red depending on how good the kids are acting.  And they get a ticket if they are on green for the day.  Ethan definitely responded to wanting to stay on green (although we may have had a slip or two at the beginning of the year).  For the second half the year the teacher starting adding purple as the highest level since so may kids were staying on green.  Ethan loved the idea of getting purple (probably because you get two tickets and can earn prizes faster).  To get purple you have to go above the teachers expectations by being kind to your classmates or helping the teacher.  Ethan was always so excited when he did it.  The other week he did amazing and got 5 days of purple he was so excited.  The excitement had built all week (which I'm sure he shared with his teacher that might have helped the process along).

By the end of this month Ethan was so excited to pull off another week of all purples with some other great days in there too.  I love hearing from his teacher when he helped some of the other kids how were struggling with assignments or when he went to ask a classmate to play that was sitting by himself.  I sure am proud of you Ethan!  I will have to say that Ethan did like to pull my chain a little bit from time to time when it came to the behavior chart.  A few weeks ago I could tell he had had a rough day so I asked him what was up.  He always bounces to the car and doesn't stop the whole ride home so it is easy to notice when something isn't right.  I ask what happened and he told me about how he had been playing superheroes on the playground and had to save a princess but in doing so he forgot the class rule about not touching people.  So that meant he got in trouble with the teacher.  He was pretty sad about it since he sort of couldn't understand why it was so bad since he didn't hit her or something.  So we talked about it and I said it wasn't a big deal since the teacher always gives you a second chance.  That is when he bursted into tears that said that it was his second chance because he had also "accidentally" touched someone in class earlier.  So that was strike two and he was on yellow.  I felt terrible as we drove home and he was so upset.  When we got home he got out his chart for me to sign, like he does every day.  When I look at it I see that he is on purple for the day and he laughed so hard.  He thought he was pretty funny.  If I hadn't been annoyed I would have been pretty impressed with his performance.  The waterworks were a nice touch.  I think he had gotten in trouble on the playground but the rest was made up.  That kid is a character!

Miss Taylor has also done amazing in preschool this year.  Although if you ask her she will say she hasn't learned anything in school and she doesn't know her letters.  But the other day she was writing a note to send to her teacher and she wrote her name.  Although she can tell you the letters of her name in order she doesn't like to be confined to writing them in that order but you can see she wrote "Y O A R L T".  Then she wanted to write "from" so I just told her the letters and she wrote it.  Maybe she does know her letters.  Taylor has always had good fine motor skills but I was impressed.  Taylor wants to be a great reader just like her brother so she will often memorize books and "read" them to us.  Her memory is great and I just love how she will pause at each syllable like she is sounding the words out, just like her brother.  I sure do love that girl!

Canyon Lake

We have heard people talk about Canyon Lake and the military recreation area they have there since we moved here last year.  Even strangers in stores when I showed my military ID would look at it longingly and say "I wish I had one of those so I could be at Canyon Lake right now." (true story).  We really wanted to go up there with some good friends and rent a boat for a little while but in talking to the marina they mentioned that you have to watch a safety video and take a test before you can rent one there.  The guy told me that we could do it at any base in the area if we wanted to do it ahead of time.  So we worked it out so Abe could go down to the rental place at the base where he works on the Thursday before we were going to take the test on a morning he had off. 

Abe went into the place and as he started the video the guy administring the test mentioned to Abe that it was only good for the boats that they rent at that location.  Abe thought that I must have gotten the information messed up and left without taking the test.  So when he told me this I got annoyed and started calling the marina back to figure out what the miscommunication was.  Of course, on that day no one was answering the phones at the marina for 4 hours while I was trying to call.  Finally in the afternoon I got a hold of the same guy I talked to before and he said that the person Abe talked to was misinformed because it is a state test that is good anywhere.  We figured out that Abe could take the test at the Airforce base closest to our house so about 2:10 he got over there only to find out that they will not begin the test after 2pm since it is a 2 hour test and they leave promptly at 4.  They did kindly mention that there was an online version of the test that you take but you had to pay a nominal amount of money.  So Abe was a trooper and came home and found the test online.  Oh they didn't mention that it was a 12-hour course and they wouldn't let you just click through the slides and take the test.  Poor Abe doesn't often have an hour of downtime much less 12 hours of it to play with that thing so needless to say we did not rent a boat on our trip.  I like to think that this was Heavenly Father saving us from some unfortunate accident and not simply really bad luck.

We did have a great time enjoying the cool water and playing in the sand.  And Ethan found exactly what he needed... followers.  We have some problems with having too many Chiefs and not enough Indians when Ethan and Taylor and some of their friends play.  They are all such bright, strong willed children that they all know exactly how they want the game to go and they want someone else to do it with them.  Ethan found two boys (with no supervision) playing with a picnic table that was sunk in the lake.  After a few minutes they were calling him Captain and following all his commands of when to run to shore and when to head for the boat.  Ethan loved it!  Of course they eventually went their way and he had to go back to being just one of many leaders again.

It was such a great day.  I really want to go back and camp up there one of these days. And maybe by then we will be allowed to rent a boat.

The Bike Parade

The end of April is Fiesta Week in San Antonio (see last years post about Fiesta Week and how we still don't know what we are celebrating) but in honor of fiesta week the preschool had a bike parade.  The kids were so excited about decorating their bikes and riding them around at the school.  Taylor was especially excited because it wasn't on her typical school days and she got to go anyway.  Ethan had been thinking for weeks about how he was going to decorate his bike and throwing around elaborate plans to go along with the cobra that is already on the bike.  Abe had a day off when I was working so I sent him with the kids to go and find supplies.  I hope they know how lucky they are that dad took them instead of mom.  I have no creativity and I know I would have bought a pack of streamers and called it good.  But not Abe!  They decided to go with an American theme and they must have bought out the dollar store of all things red, white and blue.  We are talking flags, streamers, flower necklaces, star shaped sun glasses and the list goes on.  Oh how excited they were.  Ethan is definitely my child and started stressing about what his friends might think of the bike the night before.  I love that boy!

It was fun to be able to spend time watching them with their classes and classmates.  Ethan's class had a wide range of bike riding skills so it was pretty a huge accident waiting to happen as kids went in all directions and looked at their parents rather than where they were going.  Luckily Ethan is really good at jumping off his bike at the first sign of trouble.  Some of the other kids weren't so lucky.

Her little "friend" for the day

Taylor wasn't with her typical class since they only go on Tuesdays and Thursdays so she got to hang out with the kids from the M,W, F class that she had only met back at Rodeo day several months ago. When she walked in one of the boys ran up to her and said "Oh hi Taylor". We were all pretty impressed that he remembered her name and his mom said that he does often talk about Taylor at home. They were pretty cute holding hands as they walked down the hall to head outside. This little boy did seem like the sweetest, calmest 3-year old boy I have seen in a while (unlike the boys in Taylor's class that are either super wired or have no verbal/social skills).

We have felt so blessed to have found this preschool while we were visiting San Antonio last year.  The kids have absolutely loved it and we (I) am sad that last week will be the end of the year.