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.

La Duni and The Perot

This morning we had brunch at La Duni in Dallas. The food was wonderful, and it's always fun to try a place we've never been! After filling our tummies, we headed over to The Perot Museum, because Clay had some important business to conduct (and because we really love science museums). One of Clay's scouting requirements was to write down two questions about space to ask an expert, and then track down an expert at a museum or planetarium and ask the questions. Clay wanted to know, "Why does the moon appear smooth when you look at it, but if you go to it, it appears rough?" and "Why do the planets appear to be brighter than the stars?" He found his expert in the Expanding Universe Hall and did a great job of asking his questions and gathering the information! Once the business was taken care of, we were free to explore and enjoy the rest of the museum, and we had a great time.

La Duni Latin Cafe

Musical brothers

Fun in the Leap Frog Forest

Making silly Math jokes at the museum enterance

Asking an expert about space

T-Rex

Soaring with eagles

Learning about tornadoes

Total concentration

Revenge of the Robots

Catching Up

The last several days have been a whirlwind of fun and excitement! On Friday, Jeff took Ruth to Tyler to attend the College Preparatory Invitational (CPI) college fair and horse show. They were able to visit with several college recruiters and learn a little more about riding options post high school. On Saturday, Ruth rode in the show and won first place in both of her classes, high point for her division, and high point for the entire show. In addition to two blue ribbons to add to her collection, she also received a gift card to her favorite riding gear store, a beautiful bridle, and a $500 college scholarship. We are so proud of her! On Sunday, Jeff dropped her off with her veterinarian aunt in Houston, so she can spend the week working in the clinic and getting some hands-on experience.

High Point Rider, 1st Place Winner, and all-around amazing young lady

Meanwhile, I stayed behind with the boys so they could attend their weekend practices. I got a wild hair on Friday afternoon and ripped out our grape arbor, took down all the window screens, and pulled up all the dead shrubs around the house, all of which made me happy in so many ways. But it wasn't a weekend of all work. We also managed to squeeze in quite a lot of fun, with pizza and a viewing of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on Friday evening, a trip to our favorite movie theater on Saturday to see The Batman Lego Movie, and a full day of fun on Sunday, which started with brunch at The Snooty Pig, followed by some quality time at Barnes and Noble, and ended with the library's monthly game day.  

No more arbor means more light inside my house!
(It also means I don't constantly have to worry about that rickety thing falling down on my kiddos!)

Movie date with my boys

Brunch at The Snooty Pig

A variety of reading positions at Barnes and Noble

Game Day at the library

On Monday, Clay realized how close he was to finishing the first book (of two) for first grade math, and he started working math problems like a crazy man. He ended up doing 14 lessons in that one day, knowing there would be a celebration held in his honor when he finished. He worked so hard, and we are so proud of him! He chose the revolving sushi restaurant for his reward, and we had a blast selecting items off the conveyor belt and trying them out. 

So proud of this hard worker for accomplishing his goal and finishing the first half of his first grade math curriculum!
(I don't know many 5-year-olds who would chose sushi for a celebration, but this kid loves it!)

As you math nerds were no doubt aware, yesterday was Pi Day, which happens to be one of our family's favorite "holidays." On the recommendation of several people, we decided to try out Mama's Daughters' Diner in Lewisville. The pies were not in the same league with my Granny's or Jeff's mom's, but the party was fun nonetheless!

Pi Day 

Finally, I'm having a big giveaway of all of my books this week, in an effort to beef up my reviews on Amazon. I still have some of the Geography books to give away, and I'd like to give them to you guys! All you have to do is leave a comment here or on Facebook stating the country--China, Hong Kong, Thailand, or Mongolia--you are interested in. Your comment is your promise to leave a review on Amazon. It's just that simple. Feel free to tell your geography loving friends. 

Eleven

Dear Weston,

It seems so odd to say that you are 11, but 11 you are. You have changed so much in the last year--in your physical appearance as well as your overall maturity--and I can truly tell you are starting to leave some of the trappings of childhood behind as you stretch towards manhood. You have grown taller and thinner in the last year, and you've decided to start wearing your hair longer, because you determined a buzz was a haircut for younger kids. On a recent grocery shopping trip, I spied a man out of the corner of my eye coming up the aisle beside me. I tried to ease out of his way, but when he kept coming toward me, I took a closer look and realized it was you all along. It was a shock to register my mistake because I still sometimes think of you as my little boy, as mothers are wont to do I suppose.

You loved our RTW trip and often talk about things you enjoyed or observed while we were traveling. You definitely have the travel bug and are willing to go just about anywhere...when it isn't football season! You even came up with the term "awaysick" to describe your wanderlust. We'll be doing some traveling in the U. S. next summer, and you are really looking forward to it and are already helping us plan some of our stops.

Speaking of football, that is still your overriding passion. You were fortunate to get onto a great team this fall, where you were encouraged to push yourself harder than you have before. But you were rewarded with the opportunity to play both defense and offense in every game, and you helped your team out with everything from sacking quarterbacks to scoring touchdowns. Not only was your team undefeated in the regular season, but it was also never even scored upon until the championship game, where you suffered a heartbreaking one-touchdown loss in overtime. You and your team worked so hard this season, and your progress as an athlete was observable even to my untrained eye. You are so excited that we now live in a place that has a spring football season as well as a fall season, and you are gearing up to play again in a couple of months.

You are kind of obsessed with logic, having entered an early stage of dialectic learning, and you are enjoying doing logic puzzles and studying logical fallacies in school this year. You also love to point these fallacies out in discussions with those around you, and I'm pretty sure you would be willing to argue with a fence post. I'll admit, sometimes this is maddening for your parents and siblings, but it's also super cool to watch you learning how to use some great tools that will help you better process information and learn to make more of your own decisions. As far as other school subjects go, you still love and excel at math. You are even planning to participate in two different PSIA math contests in the spring. Probably the most surprising class you are enjoying is writing, as this has been your nemesis in the past. You are loving the structure of the IEW program we are using in our CC Essentials class and are especially enthralled with the awesome application of alliterations. (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

Despite the proclivity to argue about just about anything, you are still a very sweet guy. You are always quick to give hugs, generous with compliments, and careful to show appreciation for gifts and kindnesses. You are thoughtful and sensitive and an all around nice guy. You also love to tell jokes and to make others laugh, which, combined with your sweet, fun-loving nature, makes you loads of fun to be around.

We happened to be at the ranch on your birthday, and you were beyond thrilled that you got to shoot both a turkey and a buck on your special day. Throughout the course of the weekend you also shot a couple of dove, a quail, and a skunk, though this last was not exactly a hunter's delight. You love being outdoors and certainly don't mind getting your hands (or shirt or anything else) dirty to stock the freezer. Clearly, Dad and I chose wisely when we decided to get you a grill for your birthday.

Weston, I am so very proud of you and the young man you are becoming. You are smart, sweet, funny, handsome, hardworking, and curious about the world around you. It is a joy to have you in our lives, and we are so thankful for you! May this next year be filled with millions of happy moments for you, and may you continue to grow into your awesomeness! I love you so much!

Love,
Mom

Double Digits

Dear Weston,

It's your 10th birthday, which is so very hard for me to believe! It doesn't seem that long ago that you were just a little boy. Now, you are a young man. This year, your birthday falls on Thanksgiving, and we are certainly thankful for you. You are smart and funny and talented in so many ways. You fill our days with joy and make us so proud. You are rough-and-tumble, but also sensitive and thoughtful. You are a hard worker, but you also love to relax and have a good time. You are the best of everything!

We are currently traveling around the world, and you have eagerly and enthusiastically embraced all of the new situations and experiences we have encountered. You always look forward to trying the local cuisine, no matter how ridiculous or unusual it seems, and you always try to learn a phrase or two of the local language. You have been most looking forward to our visit to China and have taken it upon yourself to try to learn as much Mandarin as you can before we get there. I have been particularly impressed with the care and attention to detail you show when you practice writing the seemingly complicated characters.

You have also, not surprisingly, been very interested in local sports--both as an observer and player. For your birthday, we gave you tickets to a Rugby World Cup match in Wales, which you thoroughly enjoyed. We also got to see a shinty match in Scotland, which was very interesting and exciting (not to mention, rough). You may have enjoyed that even more than rugby. You have played every sport that has presented itself, with anyone willing to play, on playgrounds and campgrounds throughout Europe, proving not only your athleticism but also your ability to quickly and easily make friends. One group of boys you played football (soccer) with in Wales even came up to Dad and me to tell us what a good "mate" they thought you were. Your true sport love still remains American football, though, and you look forward to watching games (even Aggie games!) when we can get them. And, we were able to get a pro game today, in honor of your birthday, which you were very excited about. You are continuing your tight end training (with a few tweaks to particular localities), as it's possible to do so, while we're on the road. When you are training, you are singularly focused and unquestionably dedicated.

Your love of sports doesn't keep you from also exercising your brain. You are tremendously smart, and it is such a joy to get to participate in your school days and watch your amazing brain in action. You were a CC Memory Master again in the spring, which is such an impressive accomplishment. You also got to go to State in PSIA Storytelling, which was something you had been aspiring to do for a couple of years. You won 6th place and brought home a coveted State medal. You absolutely LOVE Math and look forward to that class above all others. You just recently started the Pre-Algebra book and are thrilled with the new challenges it presents. You also play with numbers and number puzzles all the time and can often be found calculating on some obscure problem, just for fun. You are considering participating in Math Counts when we get back to the States. And, though Math is your true academic love, we have also seen you blossom in many other subjects this year, as well. For instance, you have developed a genuine love of reading and have read all the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books in the last six months, and you are currently working your way through the Chronicles of Prydain. Honestly, there was a time a few years ago when I didn't know if you would ever read a book purely for your own enjoyment. I'm so glad you have discovered this love and that you have become a such a voracious reader.

You are starting to play around with ideas for your future, and though you don't have any specific plans, you've talked about maybe wanting to work on cancer research or bringing back wooly mammoths, when you're not playing football. You definitely seem to gravitate toward math and science disciplines, at least at this point in your life. I can't wait to watch your passions develop in the next few years. I know that whatever you become, you'll be a great one!

You are a very hard worker and are committed to taking care of business before indulging in pleasure. You make it your goal each day to be the first one up, so that you can knock out a couple of school subjects before the official start of the school day. You also very often get busy working on the dishes after a meal, without being asked. And, sometimes you even volunteer to give Clay a bath. You are very good at looking for ways to help, and we all appreciate that quality in you.

It's hard to put into words how much I love you and how proud I am of you. You are a delight and a treasure, and I'm so thankful to get to do life with you. You make every day more fun and interesting, and you give really great hugs. I hope you have the very best birthday! Double digits looks good on you!

Love,
Mom

Two whole handfuls

A new watch wrapped in coffee filters.
Because that's how we roll in our minimalistic world.

Happenings

There hasn't really been any one day since my last post that seemed worthy of its own post, but added together, the last few days have been pretty noteworthy. (Our Internet became pretty sketchy later in the week, and it just wasn't worth messing with, even if there had been a day deserving of its own post.) In case you're curious, there follows a list of things that have happened since my last post. Fair warning, I will be bragging on my amazing kids here, so if you aren't into that, feel free to skip the first half.

• Weston finished his 5th grade Math book, answered all the test questions out of the next book, and will be starting Pre-Algebra tomorrow. 
• Max finished his 2nd grade Grammar book, and we have started reading through Grammar-Land, which he (and all the kids) love and is a great way to reinforce some of the skills he learned in this last book, before we move on to the 3rd grade book.
• Weston finished reading the last of the Harry Potter books.
• Max finished reading the 5th book in the Narnia series and started the 6th (out of 7).
• The boys and I finished The Story of the Word: Volume 1, completed our studies of the countries we will visit on our RTW trip, and started The Story of the World: Volume 2.
• Ruth has been working her tail off studying for the SAT (the real-deal SAT, not the grade-level test she takes at the end of every school year), which she will take on Dec. 5, in France, to see if she qualifies for a special program Johns Hopkins offers for Jr. High students. We have been very impressed with her dedication and with her performance on the practice tests. 
• Clay learned the vowels and a few new word sounds and spent some time reading some new-to-him words.
• We had our landlords over for a visit. Like many of the owners of rentals we've stayed in on this trip, they are well-traveled and had some fascinating stories to tell of their adventures.
• My sister's house was hit by a tornado and destroyed, but, thankfully, she and her two kids, who were inside at the time, made it out safely! 
• I had an initial consultation appointment with the dentist in Dublin who will install the permanent crown for my missing front tooth. I don't believe I've ever been so excited about a dental procedure!
• We watched the ridiculous first half of the Aggie game, and then our Internet gave out. It was good to see some positive things happening on offense, for a change. If we could just get the offense and defense to both show up in the same games, it would be fantastic. We were relieved to learn that the Ags managed to pull out the victory in the end! 
• My hubby had (actually, is having) his birthday. We took him out to lunch at a fun little tavern called The Strand and then went for a walk on the beach.
• We made up limericks as we drove away from Limerick. It was pretty awesome! Not to mention VERY silly!
• We relocated. We are now in the south of Ireland, in a tiny beach town called Duncannon. Our lovely townhouse is perched just above the beach, and the view is amazing! We will be here for 27 days, making this the longest stop of our entire trip. 

Our Duncannon home

The view from the front of the house

The kids were enamored with this rainbow sculpture near the beach.

Birthday lunch at The Strand

The birthday boy chose the berry crumble for dessert.

But, I opted for a latte and the sticky toffee pudding

Clay insisted on a picture with the ice cream "statue."

This will be the boys' playground for the month. They (and I) couldn't be happier!