Pool Acrobatics

Is our dad cooler than your dad? This activity always earns us comments about how our monkeys need to be in a gymnastics class. We also fortunately had a near miss with the metal pool stair railing. Fortunately in that her face didn't actually hit it, and Troy learned a little bit caution. And check out our buddy Chris photo bombing in the last one making it look like he was the one who got all the exercise throwing those kids around. Probably more exercise than I got sitting on the side trying not to get my camera wet.

HAARP?

I merely saw some cool cloud formation in the sky last night and took some photos of it. Along with about half a million other Austinites. The next day clients were asking if I saw it, talking about HAARP, or aliens, or whatever. Well, I'm pretty sure HAARP is in Alaska if you can believe anything on their homemade looking web site, and Texas is literally as far the other way as one can get in the US if that pesky Florida were out of the picture. But who knows, maybe they'll get their hands on a photo like this to study and be cool like me. Or maybe Cumulo-Fracto-Nimbus escaped from Xanth for a visit, even though, as previously stated, we're no where near Florida.

Easter Sunday

 

 

 

 

Our old Idaho college buddy Sammie, (with whom I was friends with first while dating Troy, he then became Troy's best buddy after we became engaged), just happens to have grown up in Houston and moved to Austin with his wife Melissa several years ago (Sammie's real name is Ben, not to be confused with my brother Ben and his wife Melissa who were married around the same time). A few days ago Sammie emailed to invite us to Easter dinner at their house. We only see them once a year or so because they live so very very far away (35 minute drive ;), so Troy replied, "You do remember that we have 5 kids, right?" I told him to ask if they had tornado-proofed their house.
Apparently they had, so we all trotted up there (after skipping church) for prime rib roast. We ate the entire thing if you include their baby surreptitiously feeding his portions to the dog. I brought up our hard-boiled and plastic eggs (because with all the skipping church we certainly had no time to color them before dinner), and the kids had a hunt in their back yard. I wish I could claim the immaculate lawn as our own, but sadly we have no grass this year, only an awesome garden. I bought an extra chocolate bunny for Troy and I to share, and I said, "I will eat the..." and while pondering which body part I would choose, Troy added, "the chocolate part. I'll end up with the box." He has obviously realized he's married to a woman!
This is the day we reflect upon how grateful we are that Christ gave his life to save us from our sins, and since I stubbornly harbor so many sins, doubts, and lack of will to much change that, I am especially grateful to have a Savior who loves me in spite of it all. Happy Easter to you, and may God have mercy on our souls!

Idyllic Garden

 

Don't these photos just make you want to punch me in the face? My idyllic little life with the spring garden and toddlers joyously learning about the miracle of life with scratching chickens hinted at in the background; it's enough to make you think my life really is just this perfect. That's what blogs are supposed to do. Take photos of the best times and make all the readers feel inadequate. Just remember, that while life is certainly almost this awesome, that this entire episode only took about 5 minutes after trying to get the kids out during perfect sunset light for at least 5 days, and that the chickens took twice as long to lure to that spot with poultry treats. All of it fits nicely between whining and too much TV, but since most of you just look at the photos and don't read those of you who made it this far know me the best now.

Easter Egg Hunt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter just wouldn't be the same without picking up tiny plastic colored eggs off a lawn...er, I mean wouldn't be the same without Jesus. Franklin Family Ranch off Middlecreek Rd in Johnson City held its annual Easter Festival sponsored by a local church. I very much appreciated that all my kids said Jesus is what Easter is all about even before we got there to experience a religious bent on a secular celebration. They had a praise band, a sermon, and a scavenger hunt with Bible clues in addition to free food, candy, and giant blow up jumpy things as far as the eye could see! You can see how sad they were when they were deflated at the end of the craziness.
I can't believe we've lived here so many years and never heard of this party, but we'll be making it an annual event! Next year I'm going to do my best to not get sunburned again, nor add stress by rushing out for having too many photo shoots scheduled afterward. I'll just bring a lounge chair, sunscreen, and chill out all afternoon while my kids wear themselves out.

Barton Springs Dog Pool

The kids wanted to go swimming, they've been bugging me for days. I may have mentioned the worst spring ever in my whining, complainy voice in previous posts. The cold winter wind turned into hot summer stagnation literally overnight. But it's Austin, so we're sure to get another cold snap or ice storm soon before the real dog days set in, right? Please? They predict a scorcher, which means even worse than the usual habitat of demons we typically suffer from June-August. After the bugs, the snow photos, and now this, I'm sure no one will ever pay us a visit again.

But I think this is the part I'm supposed to talk about the photos themselves. Barton Springs Pool is a natural spring-fed pool in downtown Austin, free all winter for polar bear swimmers. But they're charging again now, so the disappointed kids opted to wade in the creek at the end of the pool: free and therefore full of dogs despite the No Swimming and Pets on Leash signs posted all over. You'd think Christmas came in April they were so excited! I am a hero for the day!

I apologize no dogs made an appearance in the wide photo; they're never around when actually wanted. And yes, spell checker did catch the word complainy, yet I chose to leave it in there.

Park Day

 

Our longtime friend Brittany is having her third baby girl, and we spent the afternoon celebrating with a baby shower at Johnson City Park. Fun party, good food, great friends and conversation, and the kids got to check out a new place that was worth the 40-minute one-way trip despite all the pinching, poking, and yelling during the trip. Zoey would only play on the purple dinosaur because it matched her outfit. The heat wiped them out, and most of them were asleep on the way home. Someone find out where spring went and how we possibly went from winter straight into summer? Worst springtime ever thanks to La Nina. Texas, gotta love it.

BLT

Sunday morning before going to the Zilker Kite Festival as is our annual family tradition, I got a horrendous email that our young friend Trevor Searle had passed away in a skateboarding accident Saturday afternoon. He was 18, just about to graduate, begin college, and serve a church mission.

http://www.facebook.com/trevor.searle.loves.bass

While skateboarding down a long hill in a local subdivision, he was being towed by a car back up the hill, lost his balance, and hit his head on the pavement while not wearing his helmet.

Troy and I both taught Trevor in Sunday school for several years when he was 11-13, and despite our best efforts remained one of the only kids in the class who seemed to not only remember who we are but always struck up a conversation when he saw us. He was charismatic, fun loving, lived big and loved life, a spiritual and moral young man. As this photo taken by my friend Shawneen Williams clearly shows, he found a way to be a strong upstanding Christian and still have an amazing good time, and was a shining example of this to his friends.

I find the experience for me as a mother has been very telling of some parenting issues and expectations I didn't realize that I had and need to address. I haven't been able to speak with his parents yet, which is wonderful because they are surrounded by incredibly supportive family and close friends, so I have had an opportunity to look through my own lens and work through some emotions. I go between desperately hugging and cherishing my sweet children to anger at the power I have given them to hurt me. Yet with all light there must be darkness in order to know joy from pain, and coupled with our intense and desperate love for our children is the risk of crushing pain or loss.

Trevor honored his parents and his god by being an outstanding young man, and that is the most comforting thought at his loss. He packed more into his short life than many of us are able to do in a lifetime, yet we still grieve for the loss of him in our lives, for missing him, and for all the experiences he'll never enjoy.

This is such a difficult age to lose a child, on the brink of beginning his own life after years of careful preparation, and Trevor made such high quality choices there is no doubt his life would have become even better than most. In a moment of irresponsibility that he would warn us all against if he now could, he finds himself in another place with a new set of experiences and goals to set. We are certain he will fulfill his new obligations with excellence per his usual flavor. BLT, Be Like Trevor, is what all his friends and family are wearing on their crazy skater shoes, and that is the lesson he taught us. As his grandfather concluded at Trevor's funeral today, he would tell us to go and do likewise, my friends.

Daddy Daughter Dance

The annual daddy-daughter dance at church is turning out to actually be an annual event! The last few years hasn't missed a dance. This year's theme was in true Texas fashion, literally, with cowboy attire. As I'm the mother, I don't fit into the daddy category (and even though I am a daughter, my daddy and I are a little too old for the regular company), so I've never actually attended one of these dances. Thanks to whichever anonymous photographer provided these pictures. Instead, Levi and I went out for haircuts and a stuffed-full buffet dinner. I'm pretty sure I got the better end of the deal.

Pinewood Home Depot

The Home Depot ritual: yell while kids doing chores, "Hurry, hurry, or you'll miss Home Depot building!" They look at us like we're idiots, finish chores slowly, and we pretend a free trip to Home Depot is a big prize for finishing chores. Then we get some hammered and glued fingers and haul all the kids home. Or to Costco for a big Saturday free sample fest. But today we got to build orange race cars, and instead of glued fingers got only hammered and Cheeto orange fingers. This store showed some initiative and built a race track for them all to show off their driving down a ramp prowess. If your car doesn't spill off the edge, you win. And no, that extra kid isn't ours, just really excited to race once my 5 were finished falling off the sides.

Face Paint

My girls LOVE getting their faces painted by our friend Michelle from On the Spot Body Art. We spent the afternoon there while Michelle painted a maternity body art session for a gift to an expectant friend that I photographed for our portfolios. Of course the girls could not be left out of any portfolio action! They hassled her until she relented. Wouldn't you? They are so cute!

Preschool

If you think of preschool as homeschooling, I guess we started about 12 years ago when our oldest was in preschool. We have still not decided whether our current preschooler will go to public school for kindergarten or bypass the system altogether, but for now she is having a blast in our little preschool co-op. We swap days meeting at others' homes. Here she is making play dough at her buddies' house!

I am teaching math and general numbers, which at the preschool level is pretty challenging for me, lol! I found an online math curriculum from PK-12 that I adore, mostly, and have been using that for all the kids.

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

The web site is pretty rough, and the curriculum itself has a learning curve, but I promise if you get over that it's fantastic. I love the progression of concepts taught, not your average drill to mastery worksheet approach and high level critical thinking skills are taught right from the start. I love the ability start with PK and see how it progresses into the older grades with my other children.

But in the end, it's really all about having fun and getting messy, in school and in life.

Holiday Party

Troy does a little IT support for a software development firm called Enthought, so I provided the photos for their annual holiday party. They catered the Zilker Clubhouse with a great view of the Austin nighttime skyline.
The  kids had to pose alone because I was holding a camera while dad fiddled with something electrical; he can't control himself. They are a little more difficult to pose than clients' kids because they're my kids. I hope it's because they're used to me and not because they're more bratty than the average child. They are pretty rowdy! But I think it's because I like it like way.

Santa Claus Shops at Malls

 

 

 

We were at the new mall because someone told us Santa shops there. And rides in fire trucks. And in some of the worse photographic conditions ever I managed to capture the elusive Mr. Claus, almost in focus! The kids got to watch a dance school full of little girls wiggle around on stage, cry while talking to the nice man that only sort of looks like friendly grandpa, eluded being trampled by the crowd and still were first in line! The night ended in irritation by dad, but he still lent his headlights to the "Levi Contemplates the True Nature of Christmas" photo at the end. Or "Levi is Mesmerized by Glowing Lights." I'm going with the Jesus theme because asking Santa for a zillion and two gifts certainly brought on such pensive reflections.