Florida Vacation

Florida May 2010

Biking at the park

The boys are still enjoying their bikes. If the bikes had fit in our luggage, they would have taken them to Florida too!

Biscuit Brothers

We enjoyed the Biscuit Brothers' concert at the Taste of Austin in the Domain a couple Saturdays back. Ran into several friends there too!

Read to me!

Our friend Sara was trying to read a Sandra Boyton book, but Zach wasn't making it easy!

Summer vacation!

We're sad that the director of Regina Mater will be moving away. She is pictures here leading our last morning chapel outside in the Mary garden. Our last day of classes was May 14th, now we're starting our summer adventures. Loking forward to a fun summer.

No training wheels

Lucas decided he was ready to ride his bike without training wheels, and it was a very easy transition for him. Timmy has also graduated from his tricycle to a bike with training wheels. Now all they want to do is ride their bikes!

Baby love

The kids at Regina Mater just love the babies (and there are seven of them!) This picture was taken after the eigth grade graduation last night.
This is our last week of classes, but the homeschooling continues. Today the boys are getting a lesson on how to put up siding (on our house) from our friend Mr. King and his associate David.

pre-framed picture

For some reason, Zachary thinks this picture frame is the best toy ever. Lucas enjoys it too.

"Up"

We've decided tha Zachary's first word is "up" - although it sometimes sounds more like "ub." Zachary learned to crawl while Doug was in Dublin, but he hasn't stopped there. Right away he began pulling up and cruising. Now's he's climbing everything. He surprised us two days ago by climbing all the way upstairs - five times. Have to keep my eye on him until we teach him to climb downstairs safely. He's also cutting three teeth on the top, so beware his chomper!

Team picnic

Doug's group at work hosted a family picnic. Timmy fell asleep reading on the way there, but we all had fun on the playground.

Under the sea tea

Lucas has been learning about manners from Mrs. Garza at Regina Mater, and he had the chance to practice them when his class hosted an "Under the Sea" themed tea party last Friday.

Deo gratias

Yesterday was one of those days. After sloughing through lessons in the morning, the messy house was getting to me so I decided to try to fit in a walk around the neighborhood before lunch. It was already very warm outside, and the boys could not agree on which way to go. First Timmy wanted to pick dewberries at the dead-end a few block away, but Lucas thought it was too far to walk. After a few streets, Timmy wanted to go home and get a drink, but Lucas wanted to go pick dewberries. Then a lock nut came off the stroller, so it started coming apart. At that point I threw in the towel and we headed home (despite protests).

Well, this morning after the boys left for school, I took the baby out for a walk (in the other stroller) to look for the missing lock nut and see if those dewberries were ripe (we've been watching them for weeks now). Didn't find the hardware, but I did have a handful of berries from the periphery of the bushes. I was surprised that the birds hadn't been eating the berries, they were practically undisturbed. I was just deciding if it was worth braving the scratchy brambles to get that really delicious looking berry way in the back, when I noticed a very large snake sunning itself in the upper branches. Well, all of a sudden that berry wasn't so enticing, and I grabbed the stroller and headed home.

It occurred to me that if I hadn't had such a lousy morning the day before, there's a good chance the older boys might have gone wading in after berries and discovered that snake the hard way. Thank God for lousy days!

by Teresa

Class pictures

Regina Mater had pictures last week. There are six kids in Lucas's class, maybe as many as eleven in Timmy's (with a teach and an assistant). It's nice to be in a place where everyone really does know your name.