From the Mouthes of Babes: Circus Edition

Ringling Brothers came to Reed Arena this weekend, so we thought it was high time that Eli experience his first circus.  We bought tickets with some of our friends, and had a great time.  The circus was, as always, exciting (and at times so stressful--I thought I was going to have a heart attack FOR the guy on the high wire), but my favorite part was definitely watching and listening to the kids' take on things.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the night:

En route to the show J and I overheard this exchange in the back of the car:

E: Can you ride on a baby tiger?

N: No, you can't ride on a baby tiger, unless it's at least 30 years old.

Norah: (at first the sight of the tightrope walkers): Mommy, why are those boys wearing sparkles?


Eli: (upon seeing the oriental knive diver produce a black, blindfold/face-sock from at his waistband and hold it up for the crowd to see) "Momma!? Is that his underwear!?" (This, of course was exclaimed at a volume level of about 110)

At the close of the show, the ringmaster put a beautiful blonde woman into a cage, then covered it with a sheet.  After briefly pausing to achieve optimum dramatic effect, he pulled the sheet away to reveal a massive Great Dane.  Eli was utterly astonished, and shouted in accusatory disbelief, "He turned her into a DOG!?!" (as if to say, "Did anyone else just see that!?  Are they just going to let him get away with it!?")

And finally, after the confetti popping, show-stopper of-a-finale, when the performers took their last bow, Eli shouted at the top of his lungs with total sincerity (and no prompting), "THANK YOU!!!"  Funny, sweet, little boy.

This was definitely my favorite trip to the circus thus-far.  Both kids are at an age where they were old enough to sit (relatively) still and watch the show.  (We bought 2 rows of 6 seats, so the adults sat in the back row, and the kids all sat in front of us below, which was super fun to watch.  Of course, they also spent a lot of time in and out of our laps, but it was nice to sprawl out--I would definitely buy tickets that way again)

N absolutely loved watching all of the animals perform-- the puppies and kitty cats, and the quick-change artist, in particular.  Eli's favorite, of course was the motorcycle cage.  He sat perfectly still for that part, and watched in awe, just saying "How do they do that?" over and over again.  Good times!

Spring Training

Spring has sprung in Robinson County, which means that we have been doing a little bit of this...

And a little bit of this...

And a WHOLE,

Lot

Of this!

I never realized how much patience my parents must have expended in teaching me to ride a bike with no training wheels (and I hope the same holds true for our kids some day when they look back on this time of learning)...but I have grown to appreciate it now, as an adult!  (Someone, please tell me teaching her to drive a car will be easier)

But in the end, seeing that smile

And hearing her proudly proclaim, "I can ride a bike with TWO wheels!"to nearly everyone we meet (whether we know them or not) makes it worth every second.

 

Although, I will also admit, finally seeing her riding away, so innocent, independent and care-free, was amazingly bittersweet.

(Cue the internal Abba soundtrack...and the waterworks--at least for me.)

"I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness and then I have to sit down for a while.
The feeling that I'm losing her forever--
and without really entering her world.
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter--that funny little girl!


Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute--the feeling in it--slipping through my fingers all the time.  Do I really see what's in her mind each time I think I'm close to knowing? She keeps on growing, slipping through my fingers all the time..."

Go Iron Pigs!

Norah surprised us when she informed us this spring that she'd like to put gymnastics on hold (we currently have a "1-extra curricular activity per kid" rule in our house) and try her hand at softball. Knowing that our life-long good friend (and father of one of Norah's buddies, Kambrie), Brent was coaching, we decided to go all-in and get the full "t-ball family" experience. 

It took some major convincing to get Norah to like her team name (Seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to dub them the Iron Pigs?  I don't care if it IS a legit minor league team...why would anyone want to be referred to as a pig?!) Thankfully, by the time the uniforms came in, she was the second most enthusiastic Iron Pig I've ever met.  (Eli takes first prize, as he started practicing his "Go Iron Pigs!" chant almost immediately after he learned it was N's team name.  He proudly wears his hat almost everyday, regardless of whether or not it's a game day)

He has be the most supportive little brother a sister could ask for.  He loves to help me line up the helmets in dugout, readying them for the players coming in from the field.  And he loves to pick up any wayward bats, placing them neatly on the rack.  He knows the names of most of N's teammates, and routinely will cheer for them when he deems it necessary.  I think his favorite player, besides his sister, of course, is a little boy named "Diego".  (I think he gets a kick out of shouting, "Go! Diego, Go!")

Brent quickly recruited Jason to assist in coaching.  (Maybe I'm partial, but I think he is an awfully handsome coach!) Now that it is toward the end of the season, he is responsible for pitching to the kids  (I had no clue they got to hit without the tee!) and most of them are doing really well with the transition to hitting pitched balls (our daughter, included, who is currently 2 for 2--guess those whiffle ball drills on the camping trip really did pay off!)

Brent's wife, Jamie, and I are also sharing the team mom duties.  That basically means we're the dugout maids.  We keep the kids in batting order, make sure they have on the appropriate headgear (hats for fielding, helmets when batting) and keep up with the gloves and bats.  It sounds pretty mundane, but it's a lot more stressful than I would have guessed it would be.  (Still, it is fun being close to the team and getting to know all of the players.)

I present to you, the 2011 Iron Pigs.  (And one, wayward Mudcat) Aren't they a good looking bunch?  One of the other moms made each player a bucket with his/her name on it.  Before each game, we attach the buckets in their batting order (which changes weekly), so the players know where to sit, and have a place to put their discarded hats and gloves when they are batting.  It has been a HUGE help!  (Our dugout runs like a well-oiled machine!)

Norah's first trip to the plate, pictured left. Yeah, she shanked it...the bat, I mean.  On her very first swing.  Thankfully, no one was standing behind her!  And she didn't give any repeat performances...I think it was just first-time jitters.

First time fielding.  The coaches
 told her to play third base.  (She took them very literally.)

Patient Eli's inaugural post-game snow cone of the season.  He pretty much loved it.

Norah with her prized snow cone.  We are

 starting to wonder if the tee ball board members are financial geniuses.  I think about 75% of our team (our daughter included) signed up to play based on the promise of free snow cones after each game.

Spring Camping Trip 2011

Over and over, throughout the course of our marriage, Jason and I have heard it stated (from various sources) that "One of the best things you can do to promote closeness within a family is to go camping together".  

We took the kids on their first camping trip about a year and a half ago, in a tent borrowed from friends.  The kids were still a little small to get the full effect of the trip, but we still had a great time.  This time around, we decided we were ready to make the investment in a tent of our own, so we are now the proud owners of an 8-sleeper, cabin-style tent.  Sure, it's twice as big as we need, but if we're going to survive in the great outdoors for 2 or more nights, it's nice to be able to have a little room to spread out.  My other favorite purchase for this trip was a $3 door mat, which we kept outside the main entrance of our tent, to wipe our feet and leave our shoes on.  Made a world of difference in keeping the inside of the tent clean(er).

Thanks to friends of our good friends the Hindmans (who, incidentally, are also named "Jason and Angela" and have a daughter and son the same ages as Norah and Eli), or more accurately Angela's dad, Dr. Case, we had an amazing camp site, right on the water at Inks Lake.  (The only down side to this was that Norah and Eli wanted to jump in the water the instant we arrived, and didn't stop asking all weekend long, even after we took a dip)

Another perk to camping with the Hindman/Case clan was the presence of the Case's 2, college-age kids, each of whom had brought along a few friends. (Translation: there was ALWAYS someone fun for the kids to play with, because everyone knows that pre-schoolers think college students are the coolest people on the planet!)  Norah loved her first-ever canoe trip with Helen's Uncle Steven.  (The Daddies also took out all of the kids for a longer row later in the weekend)

There was a group of ducks that hung out around our camp site all weekend long.  At one point, one of the College girls decided to try her hand at duck wrangling while we all looked on, in typical, camp-style entertainment. (That's how we roll)

After watching her several failed attempts, Jason rolled up his sleeves
and decided to show everyone how it was done.

Duck-0, Jason-1.  Total time elapsed, 8 seconds.  (Turns out, when fishing for ducks, a little bit of bread goes a long way :)
 

The kids (and college students) were all impressed with Daddy Doolittle's mad duck charming skills.

After a brief petting zoo photo op, Daffy was released back into the wild (No animals were harmed in the filming of this incident).

Much of the weekend was spent playing washers.
  Eli developed a mild obsession with one of the college girls (Hannah), and followed her around everywhere she went.  Thankfully, she was equally enthralled with him, admitting to us early Saturday morning that one of her goals for the day was to "Score a photo of herself and Eli for her Facebook profile"

We had two night's worth of beautiful, lakeside sunsets...wished I would have taken photos of both nights.  The first was vibrant pink--so different from the second.  It made me stop and think about what a creative God we have....painting a totally unique shade of sunset 365 days a year...and yet most days, they are only an afterthought for me, if I even take the time to notice.  Camping was a good way to remind myself to take time to notice the beauty of the world around me.

The second night, while the adults were cleaning up dinner, we noticed that Eli and Isaac had procured a football and were attempting to play a game of catch.  It was so cute (and funny) to watch them mimicking their Daddies' actions from earlier in the day.  (The Jasons had had a good, long game of toss the football prior to dinner)

Wind up, throw...and chase the ball...over, and over, and over.  It amazed me how they didn't seem to get frustrated that they never made a completion.  They were in their own little world, having a ball...literally.

We even got them to pose for a photo op, which no doubt will be worth a mint when they're both pro ballers in about 25 years.

After their game of catch, Eli was in bad need of some refreshment.  Which quickly lead to his discovery of the magic water jug.  Our little drink-aholic was in heaven, being able to refill his cup over, and over, and over...without asking permission or water intake monitoring.  

 The Jasons...pausing from a heated game of washers

Despite repeated heckling from the peanut gallery, my Jason developed some deadly, pinpoint accuracy with his "disc golf" approach to washer slinging.  (Translation: He smoked them all down)

Eli honed his "baby whispering " skills on Asher and Hope all weekend long.  (Did I mention the Hindmans brought their 7-month old twins?  Talk about some hard-core camping prowess!) Despite countless corrections, throughout the course of the weekend, Eli consistently incorrectly referred to Asher as "she" and Hope as "he", thankfully, the babies didn't really mind.

The kids also played a fair amount of whiffle ball.  The Jasons even taught Norah how to hit a ball on the fly (a skill that will no doubt come in handy when they start hitting without the tee in t-ball in a few weeks)

Just look at that intimidating stance!  Wouldn't you back up to the fences if you saw her coming to the plate?

Our last morning , we had a pancake breakfast, followed by a lakeside time of worship.  Steven Case started off a couple of songs, then said, "If anyone has a song they'd like to sing, just start it, and we'll all come in and sing along." No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a completely uninhibited  Eli burst into a lively rendition of, "I've Got Peace Like a River", and as promised, he was quickly joined by the rest of crowd. 

Another perk to our casual camp-style worship service, was that the kids all took part in our time of communion.  (Back home, in the church of Christ, it is traditional that only those who have been baptized partake in the Lord's Supper, so this was an extra-special treat for our kids) It was such a special time for our family.

After church, we broke camp and headed out, making one, final stop to sample the local fare at Storm's (a burger joint, similar to Texas Burger)

Eli has repeatedly asked if we can "eat at Storms" since we've been home, so we know he was a fan.  It was such a fun weekend, and we look forward to our next camping expedition!

Memories from "The Beach" 2010

Last Summer we took the kids down to South Padre Island, for both of their first beach encounter.  It was a great week (in the company of good friends), and long story short, the kids have been talking about it ever since.

N: Mom, can we go to the beach again this year?

A: We'll see if Daddy says it's ok.  It's a long drive.

A few minutes passed as we drove around town...

N: Those clouds go on forever.  If I could figure out a way to get up there, I bet I could ride those clouds all the way to the beach.

Fast forward a couple of months, as we're loading into the car and getting ready to head out.

E: No!  I don't want to ride in the car.  I want to ride on a cloud!

Day One:  It was a long, but pleasant car ride (to the repeating chorus of "Are we getting close to the beach?" and "The Beach, the beach, the beach.  We're going to the beach, the beach, the beach!"  by our oldest, a tune which was quickly picked up by our youngest, and by the end of the 8-hour drive, they were both singing it in a round...or at least that's how it would have sounded if my life were really a musical, but as, sadly it's not, it was slightly less melodic)

After unloading the car and toting in our luggage, we put the kids down for a cat nap (it was about 4:30) while Jason and I made a menu and grocery list.I do about 90% of the cooking at home, but Jason and I really enjoy being in the kitchen together, even when it's just something simple like making sandwiches, so with that in mind, we thought it would be fun (and cheap) to do most of our own cooking.  With our list in-hand, we hopped back in the car (Yes, all of us...after all, this is a family vacation!) headed over to Port Isabel's Walmart for a quick grocery run.  

We returned home, stocked the fridge, and made dinner.  Then, we watched a movie (Eli's favorite, "Cars") and waited for dark, and my favorite beach-y activity...the crab hunt!

 For anyone who's never been on a night crab hunt, it pretty much goes like this: Walk around on the beach after dark with a flashlight (an adventure in it's own rite!), and scan the sand, looking for slight movement.  Alert the net-handler (in our case, Daddy) of the discovery of any catch-worthy crabs (while chasing them--they're quick-- and keeping them in your flashlight beam), collect, and dump in bucket.  Then repeat, until said bucket is full of feisty crustaceans.  (Which we always release at the end of our adventure)

We brought in a pretty good haul for an hour's worth of crabbing. Norah was scared to death to look at them.  Eli just wanted to hold the flashlight.   And Jason and I had a lot of fun.

 Day two:  Everyone slept late, then we headed down to the beach.  Being the blindingly white complected family that we are, we made sure to coat everyone with a layer of SPF 70 before making our way down.

Jason was also kind enough to set up an easy-up, so we could stay in the shade when we weren't in the water. (Which for Norah was little to no time).

Day three: Well, let's just say our "Water Baby" needed a little break from the sun. So, we decided to go visit "the turtle lady" (a term taught to us by our good friends, the Livingstons, when we went for the first time last year), aka the Sea Turtle Rescue Center.

Eli really enjoyed the turtles this year...especially the ones in the plastic tanks, who seemed to like people as much as people liked them.

Norah enjoyed walking around and looking at the different variety of turtles, and was especially interested in knowing "what was wrong" with each of the turtles she encountered.

We even got had a close up view of one the most loved residents of the rescue center, "Allison", a green sea turtle with only one flipper, who uses a special prosthetic suit to swim. 

After naps for the kids (and some obsessive puzzle working by the adults), we headed over to Pier 19 for dinner.  My favorite memory (though there were many good ones) that night might have been Eli, sitting beside Jason.  He looked up at him with his sweet little face and said, "Daddy, let's hold hands".  I had to take a photo so I would remember it.  Precious boy.

They had some goofy wooden photo boards outside, so naturally, the kids wanted to pose with them.  (Eli thought this one was an "astronaut" and Norah just liked the octopus because it was pink.)

Then, Norah spotted the mermaid and HAD to have her picture made as "Mermaid Norah"...

Which, in turn, led to the "Eli Mermaid" shots.  You wouldn't know it by his expression, but he BEGGED to get to take his picture "with the mermaid" like Norah had.

  Next, we headed down the pier for our first-ever family dolphin-watching experience.  We had originally planned to take the tour earlier in the day, but as it was a Wednesday (the slowest day of the week for them), we were the only ones who signed up for our tour, so they called and offered to upgrade us to the "Sunset Cruise" at no additional charge.  We were happy to comply.  Fair warning: Momma got a little camera-happy on the boat...

Norah was THRILLED when we finally boarded.  Eli, on the other hand, might have a little "land-lubber" blood in his veins...It took him quite a while to decide he was ok with being on the water.

Waiting for our tour boat, the "Double Sunshine" to take off...(Which, incidentally, I thought was a pretty clever name for a double-decker boat that regularly sees the sun reflected on the water)

Still a little uneasy as we were moving through the water...

But then we passed....a PIRATE SHIP!

Now THAT got his full attention!

Finally a smile!  (Although it kinda looks like to me he's secretly thinking "ARRRR!")

They let us get up and walk around once we had left the dock.  Norah LOVED roaming the ship.  She made sure we went up to the top deck (which we later discovered was the "smoker's paradise lounge", so we spent most of the tour down in our happy, nicotine-free zone.

It was a beautiful sunset--and God's majesty was really magnified by watching it reflected over the water. 

 It was a special memory to share with Norah, watching the colors change, and talking about how God made a new sunset every, single day, whether took the time to notice it, or not.

I have to admit, I don't know when the last time I intentionally watched a sunset was, but I really need to make it a point to do it more often.

Finally, toward the end of the tour, we saw a family of dolphins.  (A group of 6-7, one of which was a  baby!) It was fun watching them playfully dive out of the water in a way so graceful it almost seemed choreographed (one more amazing evidence of what a creative God we have!).  They were pretty hard for me to catch on my camera...this was as close as I got.

So, that was the first half of our vacation.  Please check back soon, and I'll try to fill you in on part two!