Exciting News

This is a horrid picture of my latest set of wine charms. It symbolizes the Twilight series book Eclipse. There's the words, Bella, Edward and Jacob, and also a dream catcher, motorbike and Italy.



But that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is that a friend of Charisse's makes and sells wine glasses with fun sayings and artwork on them. She wanted to buy my charms wholesale - meaning she would like to try and sell them in her booths and at shows and markets alongside her glasses and other products. She took eight sets to Canton this weekend to see how they would do. We'll probably try again at Dallas market this summer too. It could mean many, many new orders for my charms and a lot of work!

But we'll cross that bridge if we get to it. Meanwhile, I'm just excited about the opportunity.

No Mystery Here

Guess we know where Ethan gets his eye color...

Not so little girl...

Sarah had her dance recital pictures taken on Sunday. We had to get the whole costume on with hair and make-up and run to the dance studio for a five minute photo session. She looked adorable in her jazzy outfit. They'll be dancing to "Shake Your Tail Feather" in June.




While we waited our turn, we ran into Finley - a girl from her class. Finley had just gotten her ears pierced and was telling everyone who would listen. Sarah was definitely interested, as she's been asking for about a year now. So on a whim, we went to Claire's ... still in costume. Sarah's kindergarten teacher just happened to be in the store shopping with her granddaughter! So Mrs. Pompa gave her a big hug and got the heck out of there just in case it did not go well.

Waiting for mom to fill out the paperwork.



She could be Lady Gaga except she doesn't sing in front of people, remember?



Success! And a giant crocodile tear! But she did it and Mrs. Pompa came back to give her another big hug. They are tiny daisies with pink stones for petals. She was very excited to show them off at school today.

Fiesta - El Rey Feo

The Royal Fiesta Court came to visit Sarah and Jacob's school last week. El Rey Feo is the "People's King". There are also a myriad of others on the court and multiple queens. I don't even understand them all. But since their motorcade had blocked in my car in the parking lot, I had no choice but to stay and listen to the presentation. His message to the kids was "Education is Golden."



The wind was chilly but the atmosphere was fired up as the King mentioned that Hardy Oak was the #1 elementary school in San Antonio!



They told a sweet story about looking for a golden coin that showed education is power and had them chanting "college! college! college!"





The whole visit took about 30 minutes but it was fun for the kids to see and they each got a golden coin that said "education is golden" on it. Fiesta is a big deal here in the Alamo City. The kids were out of school Friday for the Battle of Flowers parade holiday.

Young Masters Art Show

Sarah had a piece of art selected for the Young Masters Art Show (representing elementary school art from around the district). We had to go to a big auditorium to see her art and many others. She got to see Mrs. Newman, the principal, and get extra kudos from her.





Afterwards, we went to dinner at one of our favorite family restaurants, the Wetmore Store. Good BBQ, brisket, cold beer and an indoor play area with a doll house, train table and pretend kitchen.



They have live music a lot but we are usually gone by the time it starts. This night, we did get to hear three people sing karaoke. The man running the show asked Jacob if he wanted to sing but he said no. We tried to convince Sarah but she said "I don't sing in front of people!" so I guess it's good she has her artistic ability to fall back on because it sure will be hard to become a rock star if she doesn't sing in front of people!

Fiesta & Fun

Thursday at the preschool we had a very fun and festive Fiesta celebration. It was raining like crazy (and still is Saturday morning) so the entire thing was held indoors. Two or three games in every classroom and some in the halls, a giant bouncy obstacle course from one end of the sanctuary to the other, hot dogs and slushies in the welcome center. Bonus - no bees! The kids got new KDO shirts and so did mom. But I forgot my camera at the bead shop so, c'est la vie. No photos.

Friday night at the elementary school, we attended Movies with Mom. We saw Race to Witch Mountain in the cafeteria and got free hot dogs, chips, lemonade and popcorn. It was a little on the scary side in parts and Jacob tried to be tough but ended up sitting on my lap for about 10 minutes. Sarah too. I was ticked off at several kids who were playing in the bathrooms. There was a group of girls that were talking about locking all the stall doors and crawling out from under them so all the doors would be locked. They were chanting "Bloody Mary Bloody Mary" (because apparently there is a ghost story going around the school), and talking about trying to scare people. I told them to get out of the bathroom and they said "we were just standing in there." I told them that standing in there was fine but all the other stuff they talked about (insert shocked looks here: "she heard us?!?!") like locking doors and scaring kids was not. Now get out.

Later in the movie, Sarah had to go to the restroom so I followed her to make sure those girls weren't still in there and thankfully, they were not. But Jacob comes flying out of the boys bathroom and says that while he was going, a boy stuck his head under the stall divider and saw him going pee. So I yell in there for those boys to get out of the bathroom. Nobody came out. So I waited outside intending to see who it was. Then one of their mothers came looking for them and out they went. I didn't say anything but at least I know who it was.

I know these kind of childish things go on all day long at school but if I'm seeing it, I'm going to put a stop to it. And if my kids ever act like that (especially at a school function) there will be some major consequences.

So this morning, I'm off to Dallas to celebrate Dawn's 40th birthday (Dawn is Matthew's mom. Matthew is Ethan's birthday buddy). Be back tomorrow and I will try to remember the camera!

My kids' school is #1!

From an article in the San Antonio Express News:

Stellar schools in San Antonio are not relegated to one part of town. And while the neighborhood, size, wealth and ethnic make-up of successful schools in the San Antonio area may vary, there are several things they have in common: Strong leadership, almost fanatically dedicated faculty and staff, a focus on small learning groups, high expectations and a lot of hard work.

Children at Risk, a Houston-based advocacy group, is releasing its second round of annual school rankings for the San Antonio metro area Monday and gave the Express-News a sneak peek. Researchers used a wide array of indicators, including test scores, participation in advanced courses, graduation rates and class sizes to rank 374 of the area's elementary, middle and high schools from best to worst. The system, based on 2008-09 data, gives a boost to schools with a lot of low-income kids and leaves out some schools with insufficient data. Suburban North East Independent School District took bragging rights with five of the Top 10 elementary schools, including the No. 1-ranked Hardy Oak Elementary.

Hardy Oak
The No. 1-ranked Hardy Oak Elementary is located in the heart of the affluent enclave of Stone Oak. From the school parking lot the view is hilltop after hilltop dotted with rooftops of newly constructed homes. Across the street sits Lopez Middle School, the No. 2 rank in its category. Principal Sharon Newman said she knew when she opened the school 10 years ago that she probably wouldn't have to worry about getting enough kids to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, so she set her sites beyond it.

“They come with a lot of skills in place so we made a commitment to take them as far as we can take them,” Newman said. “We expect our kids to be able to pass the TAKS. That's a given. We want them to meet the commended level.”

The percentage of students meeting the TAKS commended level is a variable in the rankings and the one that likely pushed Hardy Oak into the No. 1 spot. In fifth grade math, 90 percent of students had commended performance last year.

So that's exciting news! Everyone is very proud, and once again, I'm thankful that we kind of stumbled on this school when we selected our home when Jacob was just two years old!

Vive les Frenchies!

Lucas and I travelled to Omaha this weekend to visit Connie and her kids who were visiting from France. Alex and 'Luca' as they call him became fast friends, even though Alex had strep. This was in the hotel Saturday morning. Lots of motorcycles to watch out the window.



Alex's shirt says "Vive les Betises" which translated directly means "long live the stupid things" but means something more like "hooray for pranksters" so I dressed Lucas in his naughty-boy skater shirt to coordinate.





Sweet little boys' toes behind the curtain.



We spent time in the hotel pool and visited Connie's parents, sister and her four kids before heading to Lincoln Saturday night.

Mehdi Arrives!

Sunday night, Connie's other sister and brother-in-law cooked duck, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans for dinner. It was delicious and rich. The kids went crazy playing outside in the big backyard. Here's sweet baby Layla in the arms of her favorite person, mama. But don't let that sweet face fool you. She screamed her head off any time anyone else tried to hold her. Connie stopped trying to get pictures of her smiling while she was in someone else's arms and just started taking shots of her screaming with smiling relatives and friends!



Cousin Abigail seems to have the most luck holding Layla for any length of time.



And later that night, Mehdi arrived...at about 3 AM his time after going through immigration in Minneapolis. Luckily Layla seemed alright with papa holding her too. Phew! And she had cousin Maddie's hair to play with.


We flew back to SA the next day. Lucas was so good on the plane - really all weekend! I was very impressed with my little traveling companion. Home sweet home! Then I saw the van. Mark had been rear-ended with Jacob in the car on Saturday between birthday parties. Everyone is OK - even the van - but there is a big dent in the rear door. He was stopped at a red light and the lady who hit him had the gall to ask Mark why he backed into her!! Police were called, report filed ... more to come but hopefully, not too much drama.

Sarah had stayed home from school that day complaining of a tummy ache. She really was sick last week so Mark wasn't sure. He thought she had miraculously recovered by about 8:15 am. Then this morning, Ethan woke up with diarrhea! On the bright side, it was nice to be "forced" to spend the day at home after being gone all weekend. He too, got better through the day and hopefully everyone will be off and running tomorrow!

Off to Huskerland

Lucas and I are heading to Omaha/Lincoln for a long weekend to see Connie, Alex, Layla and eventually, Mehdi! Couldn't be more excited! Leaving Mark with the older three kids but a jam-packed Saturday. A Kids In The Kitchen event (hopefully Sarah will benefit greatly from this) and two overlapping birthday parties. I think there's a Spurs game tonight too. But I know he can handle it. Besides, he's already mowed the lawn.

PTA Election

Phew, it's over. I ran unopposed for 1st Vice President and won, thanks to Charisse and her very loud cheers! Lol! We have big plans for next year and I'm excited to get started on planning. So I guess it's really not over...it's just getting started! Shout out to Monica who is designing a special PTA logo for us to use to eliminate some of the confusion when it comes to who is sponsoring an event - the school or the PTA. We're going to start a Healthy Lifestyles committee and already have someone interested in chairing it! Hooray! We're going to implement some travel guidelines and renew our focus on parental education. But first, we'll have to finish this year. Decorate the showcase a couple more times, update procedure manuals, get thru the choir concert and last meeting. I'm thankful we bought this house so many years ago, not realizing we would get to become a part of such a great school.

Easter Egg-stravaganza Part II

Here's the helicopter dropping thousands of eggs. It made three passes over the field and then went somewhere to re-load. Then it came back and did three more passes before the kids could collect the eggs.






It was a long wait for a collection that took about 4.5 seconds but overall there were 20,000 eggs so there were plenty to go around.

Easter Egg-stravanganza!

On Saturday a local church sponsored an easter egg hunt and carnival for kids 2-11. There were long lines and lots of eggs and the coolest part was the helicopter egg drop! We spent all morning there and got our first sunburns of the year.

Never send a man...

Lucas can climb out of his crib so it's time to get him a bigger bed. Ethan still sleeps in a toddler bed and it's time to get him a bigger bed too. Jacob has a queen-size bed that was Mark's from ages ago with a broken footboard and since Jacob and Ethan share a room, we want their beds to be similar. So basically all the boys need new beds. And since Mark used to sell furniture, he knows what he likes.

So Mark and Sarah go out to look for beds and come home with this.



Which I have to say, was also much needed. Sarah's little bike had the seat raised so high she looked like she was riding a unicycle. Now she looks like a big girl on a big bike. : (

Just like my little boys will probably look much bigger when they get big boy beds. Some other day.

More of Ethan's birthday

These were from Thursday night at home ... after a rousing dinner at Applebee's for ... you guessed it ... macaroni. Of all the places, my kids think Applebee's is the bomb. Ethan wanted white cupcakes with chocolate frosting so that's what we got for his "cake."



And that's what Lucas used to make his chocolate mustache. CHOCO-WHAT?

Ethan is 5 today!

No foolin'. He really is. Seems impossible, considering he wasn't even born when we moved here and that means we've been here more than five years! Actually 6+!

Ethan is a sweet boy. His latest thing is to come up to us and tell us he forgot to give us something and then give us huge hugs. He always gives compliments and wants to help. He idolizes big brother and dotes on little brother. He plays well and fights most with Sarah - but maybe because they are the closest in age.

Here's some pics of our birthday boy through the years. (So many more ... curse you, temperamental scanner!)