M

We were having a pretty rough afternoon (I'll spare you the details), but then I sat down to play through two options of the song I'm teaching next month in primary. (I was looking at a possible key change.) I asked M to come over and sing with me so I could see how the versions worked for him. He sang the first verse in both keys, then asked if he could sing all the verses, just for fun. So he did. Love my sweet boy.

Easter

My camera battery was almost dead this morning as I tried to get one good picture of the kids before we headed to church. Of course, this is what I mostly got. It may not be the most beautiful, but I find it so amusing -- what's with M's pious hands, and V's squished face? Not to mention E. I don't think she even knows how to wink.
Today was pretty low-key. We did church and later had chef salad and deviled eggs, also leftover lemon meringue pie from Auntie's birthday celebration yesterday.
We combined Aunt N's birthday with an Easter egg hunt. M was especially great at leaving the easy eggs for his littlest sister! This is a picture of her first egg. After that I couldn't get a good shot, because she was busy. Finding eggs is fun!
Uncle Zach was also over for the fun. He and Nathan really got into the sneaky egg hiding places. Here V has retrieved an egg from the pool, courtesy Nathan. Uncle Zach loved that our backyard is full of camouflaged locations for bright eggs. Pool toys, kid chairs, frisbees, even the blue tape on a wire served to hide some eggs. The kids got Easter baskets yesterday morning and were lucky enough to have Kinder surprise eggs. Kinder has a new trick -- long plastic strips that they roll up in the egg. E now has a 6-inch giraffe toy that came out of a chocolate egg! Sadly, the kids did not buy into the Easter bunny aspect at all. They kept saying, "Thank you, Mommy!" when they looked through their baskets.

april

I included this picture because it's pretty much the only good one I've ever gotten of the kids on swings -- I'm always tempted to take pictures because they're stuck in one place. But not still, unfortunately. See the cute shadows? E says good-bye to hers every time we walk into a store.
Last week I got this great package in the mail. By some series of clicks, I ended up on Micalah's blog, Scarlet, and saw that she had tried to give away this adorable dress, but didn't get any takers. Apparently she doesn't live in longhorn land. So I got it! Which just goes to show that random time on the internet does pay off, once in a blue moon anyway. She made it as a sample of the toddler dresses she makes from adult T-shirts. And the color is absolutely perfect for my orange-haired girl. Thanks, Micalah!
She was saying "hook 'em horns" right before I took this. Note the bare feet? Such a luxury -- I'm loving Texas right now, hail and mugginess and all. Little bit helped me check the mail, and she always needs some mail of her own when we do that. Lucky me that we have a constant supply of junk mail to supply her needs. I thought we could escape this for a while, but no. Buying a house gets you on ALL the lists. In fact, some people get on the new house lists on purpose in order to get the Lowe's and Home Depot gift cards and other goodies.
Here's my own take on using an adult T for a toddler dress. This shirt got too short for Nathan after a few washes, but it had a cute picture and was made of nice fabric with a bigger lycra percentage than usual.
So I added a bit of PINK to appease the little one. The fabric I added at the neckline and the bottom is rib knit that I dyed. The fabric was in a flat container, and I added turquoise dye on one end and fuchsia on the other, so there are some purple sections where the two mixed. I never buy white clothes for my kids, but this one is holding up so far. Thank you, Dreft fabric spray.

Texas

Little things I love about living here:

the plastic wrap has a cutting edge

my kids play with children they meet at parks

parking lots

big washing machine

big dishwasher

big oven

blue sky

enchiladas

singing hymns in English

so little smoking

Kashi frozen waffles

Amazon prime

science and children's museums

milk sold in gallons

cotton fabric

oak trees

peanut butter cups

screens on the windows

WRR 101.1 (fab classical music station)

public library -- not a little thing, actually, but I couldn't leave it out

free school

lovely, kind people bag my groceries for me

2-wheel drive grocery carts (they go where you point them!)

great service -- again, not a small thing, but people smile at me (!)

did I mention the sunshine?

sunshine

Little things I miss about Prague

fresh bread

walking to a destination, rather than going for a walk

architecture

Riverside School

small shops

speaking another language every day

"strong" chili-lime chips

the river

bridges

boats

wafer cookies (american ones are gross)

tile roofs

pedestrians

public transport

food that actually goes bad after a couple of days

eggs that have evidence of the farm on them

Krtek (little mole)

street musicians

hazelnut flavored sweets

Easter markets

practically free opera, ballet

my phone (new one is not as good)

cell phone coverage

double hinge windows

old stuff

St. Patrick's Day

We just got back from a great family vacation to San Antonio. We all spent the weekend together, and then Nathan worked a couple of days and I played with the kids. Yesterday V found her version of a 4-leaf clover while we were visiting the bridge in Waco. You know, the old bridge. Waco is also the home of Dr. Pepper, so we went to that museum, too. No cool I'm a Pepper shirts, unfortunately. They had them, but only in white which is not what I wanted.
Here's E at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. It has a cool science tree house, plus a real tree house outside. M's favorite part was a huge floor area with lights. Select your game via computer, and the lights play with you. He played a dodge ball game many times. A light ball moved randomly around the board and he had to get away. If he dodged it long enough, 2 balls started going. Fun!
We met up with some family members and went to a state park. On our hike, we discovered the large remains of a dead tree. E is a super-great hiker. Her big sister, not so much.
Here we are on a river boat tour! The kids had a great time, and the weather was absolutely perfect.
Remember the Alamo! They have employees that memorize something like 30 minutes worth of information about the battle of the Alamo, and they recite it in the beautiful grounds outside. Pretty sweet job. Oh, and we're expecting a baby in September.

beautiful dress giveaway

Do you know the site Shabby Apple? They have fabulous modest dresses. And for kids, and swimsuits. Great, vintage-inspired stuff. The Train to Crazy is giving away one of their dresses! Head on over and sign up :)

new business!

It closed! Only the fourth time a closing was scheduled, and it finally closed -- we have a new company! It's called Alcor PetroLab, located in Fort Worth and San Antonio. It's a testing lab for fuel and lubricants.

My feelings on all this are perhaps too personal to blast on a blog, but suffice it to say that I'm very proud of my fabulous husband. He's been planning for this day as long as I've known him. Congratulations! Parabens! Blahoprani!