Back in Session

*Allow me to start out by saying that this blog has been written for some weeks now.  I am just now getting around to putting pictures with it.  I am too lazy to try and rewrite it, so I will post it as is.  Pretend as though we are living in the moment.*

School's been going strong for a week now.  And there's not too much that I can say about it.  Strange, huh?

Since Troy is one of the assistant principals at the school, he has been taking care of all the "details".  He met the teacher, he has seen the students, he took care of the paper work.  I just pack the lunches and wash the uniforms.  But I shouldn't sell myself too short.  I do make sure the homework is done.  All one page of homework that he brings home daily...

But he's having a good time.  When asked what his favorite part of the day is, he happily replies, "Recess!".   Duh.  And there are cute girls, but we'll have to see what their conduct is like.

I asked him to be honest and tell me who was a better teacher, Mommy or Ms. Serath.  Ms. Serath won, but I'm not surprised.

At the end of the first week there was a picnic at the school.  It was a gathering with the intention of having parents meet parents and parents meet teachers and students meet parents, teachers, and other students.  I will add in here that I was impressed with what I saw.  There is a diverse mix of students and lots of parental involvement.  Also, since the school is K-9 there are children of all ages (up to about 15) there.  It was really heartwarming to see the older kids including the younger kids and watching out for them.  An older boy attempted to teach Orry how to properly throw a basketball.  Poor child, has his mom's sense of coordination.

*Now I'll update you with more recent tidbits.*

Orry tested out of the first grade, but we have decided to keep him in his class.  Instead of moving him up a grade, we will opt to do GT and harder assignments from his teacher.

This past week was a short one since school was out on Friday due to staff development.  We decided to make a day of it and head over to the zoo and take a ride on the train around Hermann Park.

All in all he is growing up to be a fine young boy.  Eager to help out and aware that he doesn't know everything.  He's imaginative and well behaved (when not around his mother).  He's considerate of others and willing to share.  He also eats like a horse!  

Here's to a great year of first grade, Orry!  Go get 'em!

While Away

We are on vacation!  And have been for over a week now.  Where did we go?  To my parents' house.  What are we doing?  Working.

Kitchen ready for an update!

That's not entirely true.  Troy has been working.  He helped to prep their kitchen for granite countertops and then went to work putting in some beautiful glass tile backsplash.  And on top of that, he's been doing work on our rentals, getting them ready for the next steps (whatever that means).  

The kids and I are vacationing.  We've been keeping quite busy while still managing to enjoy some indulgences, like excessive snowballs and TV watching.  Here's a string of photos to get you up to speed:

A trip to the Waterlife Museum (Yes, we are still checking things off the list)

Looking at the bayou

Counting the turtles

It wouldn't be a trip to Mamita Donna's without a trip to Chick-fil-A

Dinosaur arts and crafts

Playing the rain

Eating ice cream sandwiches

We've done a bit more, but I tend to forget to bring the camera along.  Give me a break!  I'm on vacation!!

And finally, if pictures weren't enough.  We've got video.  

Leggo My LEGO

Up until this week Isaac has been very content to watch Orry build LEGO sets.  Sometimes he would peek into the big box of LEGO toys, maybe even attempt to click a few bricks together.   But this week, that all changed.  Isaac was very insistent that he put a set together.  So I humored him.  Little did I know that I would be the one with all the giggles.

 He did very good for his first try.  He put all the pieces together by himself.  I was simply there to help him find the pieces that had gone astray and to help him understand some of the symbols in the instructions.  It probably took him a solid hour, but he completed the set and was ready to work it again.  (It was a Creator set, for those of you who know LEGO.  It is one set of bricks that can be built into three different things.)  I didn't get any pictures that time because I was too busy having my mind blown at just how focused he was on completing this task.  It goes without saying that I could wipe the grin off my face.  My little boy is growing up!

So the next day, I took some photos.  This time he went for the log cabin set.  Here's how it went:

So many pieces...

Building the walls...

Putting in the table and chairs...

The fireplace, complete with bull horns

All that's missing is the roof (and can you find the chicken leg?)

Oh, and don't forget the water and the duck.

It took just about everything in Orry's power not to take over the project.  Orry is a faster builder.  He doesn't ask as many questions as Isaac.  He's had more practice.  But lucky for us we have plenty to sets to keep them both occupied.  It has actually been a strange week.  Isaac's new interest in the LEGO toys has renewed Orry's interest.  I find there is less fighting when they are together if they are both working on a set.  And they do interact with each other.  Orry has been very helpful, giving pointers and telling Isaac where his mistakes are.  It's quite nice, I must admit.  Quiet too.

Now, as for that problem of the tiny pieces that somehow always go missing....

25 down, 35 to Go

Only 35 more fun things to do before Orry turns 6.  Only.  Ha!  There are only 34 days until his birthday.  So I guess that we are more or less on top of it.  I'm not even sure that Orry remembers that we are counting down, but we shall keep moving forward.

And now for a look back:

Making wooden models (a stealth plane)

Making cookies 

Zoobilee and the new exhibit Dinosaurs

Orry won his first game of Settlers of Catan

A trip to the Children's Museum

And now for what was probably the best thing we were blessed enough to be able to do:

Meeting more cousins!!

I have to show this picture because this one came next:

Oh Annie, so predictable...

We've done more things than I have pictures of.  For example, just yesterday Troy and Orry made smoothies.  I didn't get a picture, but let me paint for you a picture.  They made them with strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, and cooked broccoli.  (I know, I know.  But it shouldn't surprise you.  Troy is, after all, the "sardine-hiding-in-a-burrito" chef.)  Makes me want to puke just thinking about it.  I did taste them and next to stinky tofu, it was the only other food that made me want to barf.  Strange thing, Orry and Annie ate them without complaint... !!!  We were stunned.  I still want to barf.

As we keep going down the list (which you can find here), I think I'll take charge of the rest of the food related activities...

The Graphic Novel

Remember when your box of cereal used to come with cool stuff inside?  Well, I do.  And it turns out that it still happens, just not so frequently.  A while back Orry got a few comic books from some boxes of cereal.  They were the Justice League.  He loved them.  He probably read them 2, 3,10 times.  So at our next visit to the library, I asked the librarian where we could find more comic books.  Silly mom.  Now they are called graphic novels she tells me.  Oh, my bad.

So we checked out the small "Graphic Novel" section that they have and we found a few to try.  I am just amazed at how they hold his attention.  Wait, no I'm not.  There are tons of cool pictures and loads of those fun speech bubbles.  Here's how I found him this morning.

Whenever I just need some quiet time, I just suggest to him that he head to his room to read a comic book (what can I say, old habits die hard) for 30 minutes.  And it works.  They're like magic.  

I'm just glad that he loves to read.  He's a read-in-the-car kid.  He's a read-all-the-words-in-the-grocery-store kid.  (Yes, I can see that Lucky Charms are "magically" delicious.)  He's a read-your-emails-over-your-shoulder kid.  And now he's officially a graphic-novel-reading-fool.  I know Orry, you are not really a fool.

Here are some of the ones he's been enjoying.  The series that he enjoys are Billy Blaster and Benny and Penny.  He also liked reading Journey to the Center of the Earth (in graphic novel form), as well as Perseus and Medusa (both boys really like looking at this one and I'm almost positive that it has something to do with the slightly scary pictures).  

Like I said earlier, I'm just thrilled that he loves reading.  And don't worry, it's not all comic books.  He also really loves books from the non-fiction section.  Some of his favorite subjects are dinosaurs (of course), rocks, and insects.  But to the list we've added the graphic novel and that's alright with me.  

Let us know what your kids like to read (Or what you like to read.  I'm always in need of a good recommendation).  And tell us if you have a summer reading list!  I think we'll have to make one of those for Orry.  

60 Fun Things To Do Before Orry Turns 6

Allow me to set the scene.  Orry asks if we can eat at 59 Diner again.  I say no, but to console him I give him the option of choosing where we eat for his birthday.  Now, this seemed like a pretty good deal to me.  But to Orry is was a question of how many days until his birthday.  Not doing the proper math I estimated that it would be a little more than 60 days.  60 days!!  To a 5, almost 6, year old, that's like forever.  He was sure it wasn't going to be any fun waiting for his birthday.  And so an idea was born.  60 fun things to do before he turns 6. (Unfortunately yesterday was the 60th day before his birthday.  Thankfully we've already crossed a couple of things off the list.)

HMNS

Sidewalk chalk-check...  Fun-double check

1. flying kites
2. going to the beach
3. going to the museum (HMNS)
4. going to the movies
5. finding a new park
6. swimming in a pool
7. taking a road trip
8. going fishing
9. going to the zoo
10. making homemade ice cream sundaes
11. riding bikes
12. watching the transit of Venus
13. sculpting with clay
14. going to the arboretum
15. going to the botanical gardens
16. Children's Museum
17. having company for dinner
18. sprinkler fun
19. making paper airplanes
20. waterballoon fun
21. have a dance party
22. make wooden models 
23. go to the library
24. make homemade smoothies
25. make hummus
26. Zoobilee
27. Parish Picnic on May 20th
28. tie dying shirts
29. music day
30. making a wreath
31. going camping
32. star gazing
33. making smores
34. Bat Fest
35. go to the Waterlife Museum (in Houma)
36. go to a wedding
37. drawing a mural (on paper)
38. sidewalk chalk fun
39. visit the new paleontology hall at HMNS
40. scavenger hunt
41. bake cookies (and eat them)
42. finger painting
43. building a fort out of sheets
44. play with cousins
45. celebrate Isaac's birthday
46. eat a meal with no cutlery
47. play frisbee
48. make rubberband airplanes
49. puzzle fun
50. LEGO day/go to the LEGO store
51. Aviation Museum (to see a P-40 Warhawk)
52. wash the van
53. snowcones!
54. blueberry picking
55. urban hiking
56. visit the Williams Tower
57. play board games
58. visit the comic shop
59. play hide and seek
60. go bowling

Whew!  That a lot of stuff once you look at it all written out.  On top of going to the museum and playing with chalk, we have also gone to the library, taken a road trip, and played with cousins (I'm sure some pictures will make it up soon).  Since we are in Houma, we will try to get to the Waterlife Museum.  We will  also probably knock off going to a wedding this weekend as well....

I hope you are all excited about the summertime and spending some extra time with your tots.  Let us know what you are up to lately!  We may need some new ideas if any (or all) of ours fall through.  (And to any Houston moms, if you are interested in tagging along for any of this, please let me know!  The more the merrier!!  And if you are not a mom, well, same applies to you as well.)

Once For All

Funny story.  Orry and Isaac were sitting next to each other in the back of the van.  Orry turns to Isaac and says, "Put your arms out like you're on the cross.  I'm going to hammer you to the cross."  I turn to look and sure enough, Isaac is sitting there with arms wide open and his head hanging down.  Crucified.  Orry had his turn at it.  I'm sure that he could give Jim Caviezel a run for his money.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Here's a bit of what ours looked like:

Sandcastle #2

About to sing in the Easter Eve service

Way too early to dig into baskets in their underwear...

Hunting eggs in rain boots

2 out of 3 ain't bad

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit."

Green and Growing

Winter came and went. Spring is here in full force. The days have been full of sunshine and gentle breezes. I hope that the already 85°  highs is not a sign that Summer is knocking on our door. But since the weather is accommodating, we took the opportunity to go ahead and start our little garden.

Orry and I made a class lesson out of it. We chose some seeds that we would like to plant. Cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, basil, sunflowers, beans, and radishes. We examined all the seeds and drew pictures of them. When Troy came home he happily dug out a little spot for us. He and Orry got right to planting. (At this time I was really starting to feel ill from the flu that I didn't suspect I had.) That was March 23. 

We are following up on their progress as the weeks go by. We have many a sprout in our little garden.  It's funny that the plant that is growing best is one that was basically composted in our garden because it finally started to decompose.  That would be the pumpkin.  Also, our avocado pit finally sprouted!  (We planted it a year ago.)

I hope you are all enjoying your springtime.  And if you are growing something, tell us about it!  I also hope that the weather is treating you kindly and that you have a chance to enjoy these beautiful days!

Sense and Sensibility

I am amazed at how sensible my children are.  Well, how sensible they can be.  For instance, when asked if we should get Mommy a smoothie (I had a wisdom tooth extracted), Orry replied, "We can either go and get one and spend money or we can make one at home for free."  Beaming with pride, Troy turned the van around and headed straight home.  They ended up making a delicious strawberry and blueberry yogurt smoothie for me.  I won't say it was free, but it was already paid for.  Clearly the most sensible thing to do.

Another example.  Annie has been sleeping with the boys.  I wasn't too thrilled about the transition, but it's been working out.  However, on some nights the boys just won't settle down in a timely fashion.  Annie will remove herself from their bed and their room and ask to sleep in our bed.  A girl needs her beauty rest after all.  We don't really mind her sleeping in our bed.  She's pretty easy to move to her crib once she is asleep.

But the example that I'm most proud of has to be this last grocery shopping trip.  Before I explain I should tell you that this weekend was a stranger one.  I was gone for most of it and therefore the weekly shopping wasn't done.  My poor kids and husband had to fend for themselves.  Little pleasure was taken in eating the leftovers and odd canned things in the pantry.  So when I took them shopping I told them that we would buy anything that they wanted.  Anything.  They were so excited about this.  I was sort of regretting that those words came out of my mouth and also a bit bewildered that they did...

The first extravagance was taken in the produce section.  Honey crisp apples, green grapes, strawberries, and clementine oranges.  Not too bad.  If we were going to go buck wild, I was happy that it was happening in such a healthy place.  But alas, we weren't done.  We ended up buying string cheese, hot dogs, pretzel twists, Cheez-its (Junior Scrabble edition), Cocoa Puffs, and "baby" yogurt.  In the end I was pleasantly surprised.  We managed to walk by the Little Debbie section, the cookie section, the ice cream section, and the candy aisle without anyone asking for anything.  This grocery store even has a bulk jelly bean display.  Nothing.  Not a peep.  Needless to say, I was impressed.

My kids haven't been the only ones to impress me lately.  Lately, I've found that Troy has seen the light.  He's had some sense knocked into him.  He...

trimmed his mustache and beard!  I feel like I've got my handsome husband back from a trip in the wilderness.  I'm happy that I don't have to watch him drink coffee with a straw or constantly explain to him that he has crumbs in his beard.  I'm sure that the hot weather will help to keep up the trend and the cooler months will not help my plight, but I'm happy with it for now.  

The Official Ruling

It has been a great weekend.  We managed to make some good headway on the clutter in our home.  It had gotten pretty bad after we came back from vacation with tons of new things.  We also got to watch the boys perform as farm animals in the church's annual Epiphany Pageant.  And we spent some time at a new park.   The weather has been incredible.  Incredibly warm and incredibly humid.  But it's a great reason to get outside and get some wood chips in your shoes.

Now that the weekend has passed, we have our sights set on the week to come.

One exciting thing to look forward to is the BCS Championship game between LSU and Alabama.  I know that many people don't care.  They either don't care about college ball or they don't like the BCS system.   Some people don't like the idea of watching a rematch between the teams.  Me?  I'm excited.  I love college football.  I love LSU football.  And I'm going to watch this game and whoop and holler as if it were the first time in history that these teams played each other.   My kids will probably tell me to quiet down.  My husband will probably hang his head in shame when he sees my victory dance for the millionth time.  And if not for that, he will definitely hang his head in shame when I point and laugh at all the crying Bama fans as the Tigers hand their you-know-whats back to them.  Yeah, I'm excited.  But as excited as I am, it pales in comparison to another event that is officially starting.  Homeschooling.

We've made the switch.  We've taken the plunge.  And there's no going back.  Well, not this school year, anyway.  Long story short, we weren't 100% happy with the school district we are in.  The class was overcrowded.  He spent too much time waiting around.  He came home acting like a zombie who didn't want to talk about school and didn't want to do homework.  So we're changing all that.  And so far, the results have been good.  The first day I asked him to tell me what he would like to learn as far as math and science go.  He's interested in multiplication and learning about space.  After doing a lesson on the Sun, he was so talkative that Troy and I were just shocked that we were looking at the same boy who, for 78 days, wouldn't tell us anything about what he learned at school.  And after a couple of days of multiplication, he wants to move on to division.  A new boy, I tell you.

We are still looking for a curriculum to get and follow to help make things more manageable for me.  It's a lot of work putting all that stuff together!  But it's loads of fun.  And it's great spending so much time with him again.  He's a really helpful boy and a lot of fun to be with.  It's an exciting time in the TX Becker household.  

Geaux Tigers!
Geaux Orry!

Exciting times, that's for sure...

Resolutions

I asked Orry what his resolutions would be this year.  He asked what a resolution was.  Trying to keep it simple, I said that it was a goal that you would like to achieve or something that you would like to change about yourself or something that you think you can do better throughout the year.  Orry's resolution for the year is make everyone happy.  A lofty aspiration, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.  He went on to say that he would like to make kids happy.  Maybe even have a parade that kids would enjoy and throw beads.  Sounds familiar...

I asked Isaac what his resolution was going to be.  I wasn't expecting much, to be honest.  From what I can gather, it has something to do with dinosaurs.  I'm imagining that he would like to visit more dinosaur museums and maybe go on a real dino dig.  Maybe that's just my resolution for him...

I asked Annie what her resolution was.  I got nothing.  Well, that's not true.  I got a goofy grin.

I asked Troy what he resolved to do this year.  He mentioned trying to get his kids' names right every time.  We both have a hard time calling each kid by his or her right name.  Just the other day, Troy called Annie "Telcia".  He would also like to eat less meat and dairy.  And there's more excercise and better communication with his siblings.

I asked myself what my resolutions would be for the year.  Here's what I've got.  I'm going to send out birthday cards and do my best to get them to people on time.  I'm going to make sure that Troy and I celebrate Valentine's Day and our anniversary with something special because we typically tend to not do anything on those days.  The big one for me is that I'm going to try to not buy new clothes this whole year.  Shoes, underwear, and socks are not included, but everything else is fair game.  Thrift stores and consignment, here we come!

I'm sure there will be more as we go through the year trying to be the best we can be.  And that's okay with me.  I'm really excited about having another great year.  Have you made a resolution this year?  Well, go on, let's hear it!