May Memories

Rangers' Game

Max acted as a math tutor and
also came up with a creative way to
do his own math scratch work.

We celebrated Clay's 8th birthday!

Jeff and I got to have a series of dates
in McKinney while the kids were
doing end-of-year teasting.

Jeff was officially invited to join the
199th training class of U.S. diplomats!

Clay and I got take a little trip to
my sister's to visit with family.

Mother's Day

We had some fun playing around
with our new ice cream maker.

Clay loved getting to launch rockets
with the Cub Scouts.

Ruth had a fun swim party with her
 friends to celebrate her birthday.

The last Scout meeting of the year
was a big one. Weston received a
couple of merit badges and was elected
SPL (leader of whole troop), even though he
  wasn't even running for the position.
Max received his Scout status and
was elected as Patrol Leader for his patrol.

Clay's last Scout meeting was also
fun, and he got to go through the face
painting ceremony recognizing that
he completed all the Wolf requirements
and is ready to start down the Bear path.

Our little baker was busy all month
making cookies, monkey bread,
and a birthday cake for his cousin.

We were thankful to have family
in town to kick off the Memorial Day weekend.

We had so much fun hiking and
hanging out on the Katy Trail.

A fun evening at Pokey O's

We were delighted to discover Earl's.

We had a blast celebrating Weston's
half-birthday at Main Event.

Ruth turned 17, and we celebrated in style.

We got to spend some quality
time in the closet waiting out a tornado.

After a busy month, we were
glad to begin our vacation in Florida.

More Fun in Santiago

We went back over to the Parque Metropolitano today because we wanted to see the Japanese Garden and the Mapulemu Garden of native plants. The first turned out to be closed for renovations, but we got a nice hike out of it. And when we had seen the second, we popped over to the Gabriela Mistral playground, which we loved so much yesterday. It was even more fun today because we had it almost entirely to ourselves. On our way back to the apartment, we walked by the impressive U.S. Embassy to get an idea of possible future work environs. We were amazed at how large it was and at all the security. Once we were back at the apartment, we watched England pull out a miraculous World Cup victory over Columbia. And this evening, we caught an Uber over to Barrio Italia, which has some fun and interesting shops and restaurants. We wandered through several of the shops, bought some painted chocolates at a little chocolate kiosk, had a wonderful dinner at Bar Italia, and grabbed some ice cream at Nahia before heading back to our apartment. It was a lovely day!

Jardín Mapulemu

Gabriela Mistral Playground

U.S. Embassy

Barrio Italia

April

I can't get over how quickly the months are rolling by! I feel like it was just January, and now here we are at the end of April! (Part of the confusion there may be that we've had some January-like weather this month, which is just ridiculous, if you ask me!) Here are the highlights of another full and fun month:

• We got to spend time with my grandmother and parents in Haskell on Easter (and I managed not to take a single picture).
• Clay and I got to go on a real date.

Date night at Chick-fil-A

• Weston attended the Camporee with the Scouts, where his troop engaged in friendly competitions against some other local troops. And, he got to do that in freezing temperatures! But his troop got second place overall, so he didn't mind too much.
• Ruth marched with the CAP Color Guard in the Medal of Honor parade in Gainesville, also in freezing temperatures.

Nighthawk Color Guard
(Ruth is carrying the blue CAP flag)

Enduring freezing temps is worth it
if you know you're going to load up on candy!

• Clay earned his yellow belt in his "croty" class.

Proud of his yellow belt

• Clay attended the Cub Scout campout, where he finished up the last few requirements to earn the Tiger rank he has been working on since he started in the Fall. 

Our sweet Tiger Scout

• Weston got to go on a tour of Love Field with his Boy Scout troop. He was most impressed with how quickly the safety slides could be inflated. (3 seconds, if you're curious)
• Ruth's CAP flight assisted with an equestrian special olympics event, and she marched with the Color Guard for the opening flag ceremony. (Again, I managed not to get any pictures!)
• Ruth went to Six Flags with one of her best friends as an early birthday celebration.
• Ruth and I got to have a special mother-daughter breakfast at Mango's.

Fun times!

• Max and Clay participated in a Ninja Warrior contest at the gym where they take their lessons.

Taking the leap into the outdoor course

Tire hopping with a little guidance from Coach Josh

• Weston and Max presented their Faces of History research papers at CC. The FOH project involved doing research on a person important in U.S. history, writing a paper with at least five paragraphs, coming up with a costume, preparing a snack representative of the person they were writing about, and presenting their papers in front of a fairly large audience. They worked many weeks on this and did a fantastic job!

Abraham Lincoln

Thomas Jefferson

• Nana stepped in and helped with 3rd grade Math one day, which impressed us all. 

Special math teacher

• Jeff and I booked a trip to Costa Rica for a week in August. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary and wanted to give each other a new country. 😊
• We visited Mimi and Grandpa and got to play in the lake. 

Clay was more interested in collecting
bluebonnets than playing in the chilly water

Max and Weston had the best time
cruising around in the tubes

• Max, Weston, and Mimi ran in a Foam Fest fun run.

Before...

...After

• We attended the Llano Crawfish Open, and I ate crawfish from their shells for the first time.

A "flat" of crawfish

• We attended Nana's birthday party and had fun celebrating this wonderful woman and spending time with family.

Clay did an oil pastel drawing for Nana's birthday

• Ruth received a promotion to the rank of Cadet Airman First Class with CAP.

Cadet Airman First Class Watts

• Jeff travelled to Washington D.C. for the third round of Foreign Service Officer testing and the in-person interview. He got a very high score and has now moved into the security clearance stage. 

So proud of this handsome FSO candidate!

• Ruth had her wisdom teeth out, which wasn't any fun.
• Max participated in a Mud Run with his Ninja Warrior team.

Running plus getting dirty? Yes, please!

• Ruth enrolled at the local community college for the fall semester.
• Weston received the Boy Scout rank of Star, which he has been working hard to complete before we leave on our summer trip. Very few 12-year-olds achieve this rank, and we are so proud of him!

Star Scout

• We wrapped up all our school work for the year and can put 4th, 6th, and 10th grades behind us for now. 1st Grade is behind us for good! 

Max taught Clay how to play Multiplication
Squares on the last day of class