All Around Austin

Wow, the kids have already received their first round of report cards. It's hard to believe they've been in school for over 6 weeks. This is the first year Emma received number grades that can be converted to A, B, C grades rather than checks, plus, etc. Her grades looked great and so did Alex's. Emma's teacher had some nice things to say during conferences as well. She said Emma is a very fluid, flexible thinker who approaches problems from different perspectives to come up with a good answer. She also has a good vocabulary which is gratifying to hear considering all the book reading we have done over the years.

Last weekend, we were busy beavers. Saturday was Marathon Kids kick-off. The kids really wanted to run, so off we went. I think they actually just wanted the free water bottle at the end. Lance Armstrong ran with his daughters during the flag lap at the beginning, so that was kind of neat. When we first got on the track, I was holding Benjamin and tried running with him. That wasn't working so well especially in light of my fairly recent surgery. I set him down and those little legs just started pumping. I think he ran close to a whole lap. He wanted nothing to do with the high fives from the UT athletes, though. Now the kids only have 25+ miles to go on their personal marathons!Sunday, we went to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Expo. The best part was the weather. It was really nice, so much better than last year when it was really hot and muggy. We were there almost all day, keeping busy with lots of activities. All 3 of the kids shot a bow and arrow. One of the volunteers insisted on helping Benjamin shoot the arrows, so off he went. The man only had to help Benjamin set his hands once before he knew what he was doing. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Man, I was bummed about that. The kids also fished for catfish and trout, saw animals from Sea World, viewed a huge snapping turtle and tortoise, petted horses, did some rock climbing and visited with sporting dogs. Alex tried kayaking in a shallow pool. I can't tell if he enjoyed that or not since he had a very fierce look of concentration on his face. Emma made a little clay pot and ground corn for corn meal while Alex and I made rope. We were quite pleased with how they came out. At the end, Emma picked up some trash and then she received a participation badge for her Brownie vest. Yeah, another badge for me to sew on! Next year, I swear I will bring the camera, so all of you can see how neat the Expo is.

Tomorrow we're off to another soccer game. Emma tried out defender last weekend and did pretty well despite protesting that she didn't like being the defender. I think she prefers running after the ball. We'll see what happens...