Tristan and Oliver doing Yoga

Last night we did Yoga as a family (minus Lizzy, who was in bed, and minus Rachel, who said she just wanted to watch and bring people water when they were thirsty).

It was the first time either Tristan or Oliver had done the floor poses, and I was surprised at how well they did. During the Locust pose, I sneaked a peek over at Tristan to give him some more instruction, and I was shocked that he was doing it better than I was. I rushed to get the camera and then took pictures of Tristan and Oliver in their Locust poses. There is also a picture of Tristan doing the Camel.

This morning Daniel and I were in bed trying to decide if we should get up or not, and Tristan came in and said, "It's 6:30 - can I get up and do Yoga with you guys?" I told him that we were going to go back to sleep and just do it tonight, and he could do it with us then. He said, "No, that's okay - I'll just do it right now by myself." He was pretty persistent, so I finally went out and got him set up with the DVD for the standing poses. I went back to bed for about 30 seconds, but I just kept thinking about him out there doing it all by himself so I finally got up and did it with him. Six-year olds doing Yoga can be very motivating.

The Lizard

Here's Tristan and Oliver holding a lizard that I caught. I found it outside on our front porch and spent about 20 minutes trying to catch it, with Tristan helpfully cheering me on the whole time ("It's right there, Mom! Get it! Oh, wait, now it's over here. Come on, you can do it!") .

We put it in a little jar and it kept changing colors from green to brown, which was very exciting. We even caught some little bugs and put them in the jar for it to eat, but it refused to touch them, and at the end of the day we set it free.

Craft Day

I've started saving different cartons and containers and odds and ends so the kids can make fun crafts. I don't usually do fun things like this, so they're loving it.

At the Park

Bubbles

Here are some pictures of the kids doing bubbles on the back porch. They always ask to do bubbles, and I always say, "not now, not now", until finally I realized that it wasn't that big of a deal to just let them. They stayed out there a long time - it was definitely worth it.

Lizzy's Broken Tooth

Yesterday Lizzy banged her mouth on the bathtub and broke off a big chunk of one of her front teeth. It was (and is) awful. I'm taking her to the dentist tomorrow. I called and they said they will either shave it down or try to seal it somehow or put a crown on it. It has not stopped her from being reckless - she tries to walk around all day, but never does more than 3-4 steps before falling or lunging down onto something.

In real life, it actually looks worse than in the picture - more jaggedy and pointy, but it was hard to get the right angle. At least you can get the general idea.

Happy Father's Day!

These kids love their dad!

Tristan, Oliver, and Rachel enjoying the slip 'n slide at our neighborhood Father's Day BBQ.

Elizabeth's First Birthday

Lizzy turned one on Friday, June 15th. She had a great time at the little party we had for her. She loved that we sang Happy Birthday (she danced the whole time) and looked around grinning at everyone.

Easy Yoga

(Background info: I started doing Bikram Yoga in May. I just do it at home, using a Bikram book and CDs and an old Raquel Welch video. Sometimes Daniel and the kids like to do it, too.)

Rachel's funny about Yoga. She used to try to do it with me, but then stopped because she said it was a little too "tricky". She still likes to pretend that it's not hard at all, though, so this is what she started doing: she'll walk by when I'm doing Yoga, and then wait until I'm in one of the resting poses, like lying down flat on the floor doing nothing except breathing, and then she'll run over and do it and say, "This is EASY!

Or she'll just stand there and watch, wait until I lay down, and then she'll roll her eyes and just say "EASY!" really dramatically, and then lie down and do it, like "I could SO do this whole Yoga thing if I wanted to."

Summer Schedule

Today I started my new "summer schedule". It was great. We went to the park this morning, then the kids played outside while I put Lizzy down for a nap and cleaned up inside, then I called them in for "work time" and while I cleaned the kitchen (Monday is kitchen day for me) I gave each of them a job in the kitchen - Tristan wiped down our benches and chairs, Oliver wiped down the whole underneath side of the table and the legs, and Rachel dusted the bottom two feet of the blinds (that's all she could reach) and washed the baseboards. It was so nice to have helpers, and they had a fun time and got to check off their charts and get a penny.

Then we had study time and worked on math (Monday is math day). Tristan and Oliver did math worksheets and Rachel and I did a counting game on the computer. By the time we finished, Lizzy was awake and it was time for lunch. It was a good morning.

Tomorrow the plan is to go swimming instead of the park, and then we'll be cleaning in the family room/hall/front porch area and doing geography study time. We'll see how long we can keep this up.

Temptations and Confessions

Oliver has been saying something funny lately. When we were at Schlitterbahn he was standing in a long line with Daniel and Tristan to go on a waterslide. I think he was getting hot and tired, and he looked up at Daniel and said, "Dad, my feet are attempted to go in the water." I'm pretty sure he meant "tempted".

A little while later (they were still in line up on a balcony-type thing, and looking down at all of the swimmers going around in the lazy river) he said, "Now my feet are attempted to fly and go in the water." I'm not sure what he meant by that - maybe he wanted to fly down to the lazy river and dip his feet in? Who knows?

Then yesterday he confessed to me that sometimes when he is in a time-out in his room he is "attempted" to play with a remote-control car that is in his treasure box.

It's so cute when he says it that I haven't explained to him that "attempted" and "tempted" mean different things. I hate to correct my kids when they're saying something super cute.

Speaking of confessing things, today Tristan confessed to me that one day when he was only five he was in the study and he was supposed to be taking a nap and he looked at books instead, before I told him he could (sometimes we do part resting/part reading naps, and I guess he skipped the resting and went straight to the reading that time). I'm glad he got that off his conscience.

No One Likes a Frowny Face. . .

Tonight Rachel was having several tantrums for various reasons, so I decided to take pictures of her during her tantrum and then take a picture of her making a happy face so I could show her right on the camera how much better she looks when she's happy. She agreed.

I think she was a little shocked at how "un-princess-like" she looked during her tantrum. If I get out my camera now when she's being grumpy, she is very quick to "put on a happy face."

I can't believe I'm posting such unattractive pictures of my child. When she's older she's probably not going to be very happy with me.

Wrestling with Dad

The kids love tackling Daniel and wrestling with him.
Lizzy thinks she's one of the big kids and always wants to join in.

Schlitterbahn Water Park - New Braunfels, Texas

Yesterday we went with Nick to Schlitterbahn, a world-famous waterpark in New Braunfels, Texas (about an hour away). It was so much fun! I was worried how it would go with all the kids, but they all loved it and were great. There were so many great kid spots there, and Tristan and Oliver actually went on several big slides, too, and they weren't even scared.

Daniel and Nick went on the Skycoaster with JT (one of Nick's friends who lives in the area - he had a season pass and got us all in to Schlitterbahn for half-price, which was nice). The Skycoaster is the thing where they strap you in and then lift you way, way up to the top of a tower and then you pull a cord and go flying down into the sky and then swing back and forth in the air. Sounds fun, right? I would never in a million. . .The terror is not worth the tiny chance that there might be one second worth of fun.

Here are some pictures of Daniel, Nick, and JT enjoying the Skycoaster:

And here are some pictures of the kids having lots of fun at Schlitterbahn:

My sister told me she thought it was neat that we do so many cool things with our kids, but I told her that I can't take any of the credit for being a fun Mom and taking our kids to do fun things - that's just Daniel's adventurous side. In fact, usually when he comes up big these big fun plans, a little part in my mind is thinking "uh-oh, how is that going to go with all the kids? Are they going to get sunburned? I guess that means no naps. . hmmm. . should I bring the double stroller? Will all the kids like it? Probably not Rachel and Lizzy. . .I hope I remember to bring their bibs in the diaper bag. . And I need to check in the garage to see if we have hiking boots for Rachel. . Should I have Oliver wear his floaty suit or just his normal suit and then a life-jacket? What kind of snacks do I need to fix before so we're all ready? Are the camera batteries charged?"

And Daniel's just thinking, "let's go!"

And then it ends up being really fun. But some of the fun is probably because I end up being pretty prepared after all my worry. I guess that's one of the reasons Daniel and I are a good pair.

Pedernales Falls with Nick

While Nick was staying with us we went hiking at Pedernales Falls, which is about an hour and a half away from our house. It was fun, but hot. The kids were good little hikers.

Visit from Uncle Nick

Daniel's brother Nick came to stay with us for a few weeks. The kids were so excited to see him and we did a lot of fun things while he was here.

Daniel, Nick, and the kids at Maudie's in downtown Austin.

I'm not sure what Lizzy is doing with her face.

We went swimming at our Falcon Pointe pool a lot while Nick was here: