Aprilcadabra

I'm not really sure how April just disappeared, but it was here and then it was gone, just like that! Once again, we filled the month full. I'm thankful for these highlight reel posts because sometimes I get so caught up in the day-to-day living of this crazy life that I forget to appreciate all the wonderful moments along the way. These posts are such great reminders of all we have to be grateful for.

Clay and I did some drawing to kill time while waiting for the other boys at a Scout event.

Girls' Weekend in Big Bend

Clay was a big helper in picking out and moving tile into the house
for our big bathroom remodeling project.

We basically scrapped the bathroom we had and started over.
We are so happy with the finished product!

Clay took some refresher swim lessons to get ready for our beach trip this summer.

Jeff and I had a couple of dates to Local Pint.

Max led the morning exercises.

I had the opportunity to be part of Central Elementary's Career Day,
and I absolutely loved every moment of it!

Ruth got to attend a fancy Sweet Sixteen party for one of her friends.

These two turned up matching my Central Elementary mug,
and we thought it was photo worthy.

Clay found a "sushi" recipe in his cookbook to make for us.

There is not much better than chunking rocks in a body of water!

Weston was selected to be a member of the Order of the Arrow,
which is a special service oriented group of Scouts.

The boys had a field trip to LLELA to learn about small pond creatures.

These three rolled themselves up in a giant sibling burrito.

Supporting their baseball playing brother

We were thankful to get to spend Easter with family.
We were also thankful for all the amazing wildflowers on the way,
including a solid red field of poppies.

Clay bought himself a multi-tool, which he is very proud of!

Ruth got a job at City Vet, working in their kennel.

The flowers at our house were very happy!

Last day of Arrow for the year:
Weston wore every name tag he had neglected to wear for the last ten weeks.
Clay dressed up like Leif Erikson.
Max dressed up as and gave a presentation on Robin Hood. 

Arrow's Spring Handmade Market:
Clay sold slingshots; Max sold chocolates; and Weston sold loaded popcorn.
They all sold out of their products and felt very rich by the end of the evening. 

At Arrow's End-of-Year Celebration, each of the boys got to
demo something from one of their classes.
Clay performed with his dance class.
Max sang with his history class about the plague.
And Weston participated in a mini debate and gave an impromptu speech.

The kids were gifted a couple of drones, which the boys took to immediately.

Max got to spend some time on the mound in a couple of games.

We had fun hanging out with Mimi at Bumbershoot BBQ/Gnome Cones.

We took Mimi to brunch at Cafe Komali and hiking on the Katy trail.

We played pub trivia a couple of times at Vetted Well and had so much fun.

We kind of went crazy at the library's book sale. This is only half of what we bought.
We bought somewhere in the neighborhood of 172 books, 11 movies, and 1 puzzle.
The deal of buy one bag at $4, get a bag for free was just too much for us to resist.

Clay couldn't believe the whole store was celebrating Cinco de Mayo
when we went to pick out some things for his birthday party.
I think he thinks that day is just for him!

August Highlights

Just because I haven't been present in this space this month doesn't mean that stuff hasn't been happening. In fact, we've had a very busy month (which, come to think of it, could be one reason I haven't been present in this space)! Here are the highlights (not including all the football practices and horse riding lessons):

We took the big kids out to see Jeff's hometown, Wink, in west Texas.
Since we were so close, we decided to stop by the Monahans Sand Hills as well.

We spent some quality time with family and friends in the Davis Mountains.
The weather was gloriously cool, and we even had a monster hailstorm,
which was a first in my experience of attending Campmeeting.

Jeff launched his new business, Coconut Math,
and we participated in and hosted a number of
back-to-school events in the community.

I celebrated my last birthday that begins with a 3.

We bought some new furniture, which, in addition to making
our house more homey, also made eating meals
and doing school so much easier!

We started school. This year Watts Homeschool is proud to welcome its
first-ever high school student and its last-ever Kindergartner.
We also have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader studying with us this year.
 

We've been tootling around town on our bikes a lot.
Clay amazed us all by doing a seven-mile bike ride.
That may very well be a record for a bike with training wheels!

We have made some serious changes to our diet and have been experimenting
with new recipes. One of them called for buckwheat groats, which everyone
thought sounded pretty funny. Clay misunderstood and insisted on helping me look for
"BUCKWHEAT GROSS," at the top of his voice, in the fancy grocery store near our house.
We did not find the unique item there, and Jeff has been giving me a hard time for
being too "crunchy" even for the "crunchy" grocery store.

Jeff and I celebrated our 18th anniversary of (mostly) marital bliss.

We started CC on our new campus.
I only managed to snap a picture of Clay,
but the other two boys are also participating.
Ruth is not participating this year but is taking an
AP Biology class at a different homeschool academy.

Max has been really interested in cooking lately.
He checked out a cool kid's cookbook from the library
and made some delicious gluten-free, sugar-free
blueberry muffins for us.

Where in the world are the Watts?

I told Jeff the other day that it would probably be enough for me to homeschool the kids. Or to be a CC director. Or to try to sell the house. Or to plan an around-the-world trip. But sometimes trying to do all of those things simultaneously is a bit much, and I feel the crazy threatening to take over. I just keep reminding myself that all are rewarding and totally worth it and that I won't always have all these things on my plate.

The good news is, some of the work is already paying off, and I am excited to report that our travel plans are really coming together! We now know, and have confirmed, where we will be staying all the nights from the time we leave Marble Falls on May 4 until we leave Africa on July 24. In case you're curious about where in the world the Watts will be during those months, here's a schedule so you can follow along:

When	Where
May 4	Dallas, TX
May 5	Airplane (from Dallas to Frankfurt, Germany)
May 6	Windeck, Germany
May 7-13	Rijinsburg, Netherlands
May 14	Hamburg, Germany
May 15-16	Berlin, Germany
May 17-19	Prague, Czech Republic
May 19-25	Vienna, Austria
May 26-27	Mako, Hungary
May 28-29	Deva, Romania
May 30-31	Bran, Romania
June 1-2	Bucharest, Romania
June 3-4	Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
June 5-6	Sofia, Bulgaria
June 7-8	Estias, Greece
June 9-12	Athens, Greece
June 13	Ferry Boat (from Greece to Italy)
June 14-27	Naples, Italy
June 28-July 2	Rome, Italy
July 3	Airplane (from Rome, Italy to Livingstone, Zambia)
July 4	Livingstone, Zambia
July 5-6	Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
July 7-14	Cape Town, South Africa
July 15	Train (from Cape Town to Johannesburg)
July16	Nelspruit, South Africa
July 17-18	Draasloot, South Africa
July 19-22	Kruger National Park, South Africa
July 23	Johannesburg, South Africa
July 24	Airplane (from Johannesburg, SA to Rome, Italy via Cairo, Egypt)

We will also be updating the world map and local time clock, both located on the right hand side of the blog, as we travel, so that will give you another way to keep up with us. We are really looking forward to watching that percentage of countries visited number go up and up and up!

Hangin' with the Bigs

Our two little boys went to Mimi and Grandpa's on Tuesday, so they could head out to the ranch with them on Wednesday. Jeff had a business meeting in Dallas yesterday afternoon, so all the rest of us tagged along. When the work was done, the fun began. Jeff and Ruth had already made plans to go see The Hobbit, so Weston and I decided to see Big Hero 6. Both movies were a hit with their respective viewers. (Here's a funny aside about that movie going experience: We decided we better buy the movie tickets before Jeff's business meeting, since it was opening night for The Hobbit and we wanted to be sure they didn't sell out. We picked the theater closest to our hotel, which turned out to be in a mostly abandoned, very run-down mall, that sort of gave me the creeps when I went in to get the tickets. But, on the up side, the tickets were dirt cheap. On the way back from the meeting, after a fairly lengthy stop at REI for some necessary travel gear, we got caught up in some crazy rush hour traffic and realized we weren't going to make it to the theater on time. So, since we had already promised the kids we would see the movies, we rerouted to the nearest theater, which was in all ways the opposite of the previous venue. We've never been so thankful for rush hour traffic!)

Today there was more one-on-one fun to be had. The boys headed over to AT&T Stadium to watch four of the high school football state championship games, and Ruth and I did some serious shopping, had an opportunity to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, and then took in another movie (Mockingjay).

It was so special to have some alone time with each of the big kids over the past couple of days. (I'm sharing our selfies, even though the ones from my phone are horrible, since I recently dropped it and produced a lovely crack in the screen that goes right through the camera lens. Still, they are the best we have, and I want to remember these wonderful days.)

My handsome date and I after Big Hero 6

Waiting on our table at The Cheesecake Factory

Two happy football lovers

And just like that, summer's over…mostly

We arrived home on Sunday afternoon, thinking we were the masters of a perfect endless summer, only to be met EARLY yesterday morning with a heaping dose of reality, as summer came to a screeching halt. Even though it was my birthday, it was also the first day of school for us, the first day of football practice for the boys, and the last meeting of Ruth's summer youth Bible study. For good measure, we also threw in a doctor's appointment, a trip to the mechanic shop to pick up our now-cooler (only in the temperature sense) van, a business meeting for Jeff in Austin, an attempt at healthier eating, and a little exercise. (But I'm not complaining, because the day also brought happy phone calls, abundant social media birthday wishes, gooey brownies, gorgeous flowers, tasty sangria, sweet birthday cards, spendable gift cards, and many heartfelt hugs! Not to mention a party with my favorite people on Sunday.) So, unless you count Jeff and I camping out in the air conditioned upstairs storage closet on the air mattress, due to our main air conditioner being out downstairs (yes, it seems to be epidemic amongst our possessions), as some kind of wild and crazy summer sleepover, I'd say summer is really and truly over. Except downstairs. There, it certainly seems to be the summer that never ends.

Florida Fun

Ospreys guarding their nest

One of our "pet" manatees

pure joy

pool football

Stick 'em up

warming up in the hot tub

One of our lovely pool areas

Cannonball!

Bombs away!

One of the sentinels of the marina

poolside pizza party

Noodle jumper

So much fun

floaties galore

Using their noodles

grillin' and chillin'

not a bad office view

headed across Tampa Bay into St. Petersburg

Tropicana Stadium

Taking in a Rays game

a Clay-sized corn dog

Popcorn in a cool helmet bowl

Am I blue? Yes, I'm blue.

Cotton Candy

A baseball game staple

sticky awesomeness

sleeping off the baseball game