Colten as Davy Crockett

Colten did an awesome job reciting his Davy Crockett speech. He said he was nervous, but I think he was one of the best presenters. Here's a video:

Almost Summer!

Colten was insistent - he wanted to sleep in the tent in the yard with his buddy Jason. So we set up the tent and then Ashlyn wanted in on the fun, too, so we found her tent and set it up as well. Jason's sister Kayla was going to stay with her. I knew it wouldn't last long, though, and around 11pm the boys came in and said the cats and the bugs were too loud and they couldn't sleep. The girls said they came in around 3am when they couldn't stand the hard ground any longer. Looks like we need a bit more practice before going on a camping trip further from home ;)

Here's our tent city:


John & Colten found two toads in the yard the other day and Colten really wanted to keep them as pets. So, John went and found an old fish tank that we had and he set up a toad house for them. Colten so far is very enthusiastic about finding bugs for them to eat and cleaning out their water. Hopefully it lasts.

Here's the fish tank. You can see a frog profile in the far left corner.


Here's one of the toads eying a fuzzy caterpillar before devouring it:

It's actually pretty interesting to watch them eat.

This is the last week of school for the kids and it's a busy one! Tuesday is the Notables presented by Colten's class where Colten will dress up as Davy Crockett and recite a speech about his life. Wednesday, Colten's class is going on a field trip to the state capitol and the Imax at the Bob Bullock history museum. Wednesday evening is the 8th grade dance/graduation party. Thursday, the 8th grade is going to Schlitterbahn. And Friday is the 8th grade graduation. Whew! I will hopefully have lots of pictures to share once this week is over!

Mother's Day Weekend

Hope all of you mothers had a Happy Mother's Day! We had a good weekend. Friday, we took the kids to play mini-golf. They had been begging to go for some time and we decided we should go before it gets too hot. It was a nice evening and we were able to meet up with some friends, so it was especially fun for the kids. The boys lapped the girls, but they weren't keeping score ;)

Here's Colten with his friend Jason, way far ahead of us:


And here's Ashlyn just hanging out:


Saturday, Ashlyn went to Fiesta Texas with the band and it was actually kind of cold that day compared to how it was the whole previous week. She still had lots of fun, though. She was getting back around 11pm, so we went to the Peanut Mill's crawfish boil and planned on waiting there until it was time to get her. Unfortunately, John got one of his cluster headaches while we were there, so we ended up leaving early and waiting at school. He's been getting at least one a day for the past week or so. Hopefully they go away soon - not fun!

Sunday we had a nice lunch with our Mom's, Dad, Oma and Danny & Lyla and then went home and relaxed. John got me a water fountain for mother's day - very nice :) He also fixed my broken bench and it looks almost like new - in fact I thought he'd bought a new one!

Here's the fountain - I didn't get a picture of the bench:

Warm Weather

The fishing derby was canceled at the last minute - Thursday night to be exact - which I wasn't too happy about, but at least we had decided not to camp and weren't all packed up already! I was glad we didn't camp anyway b/c some storms came through Friday night and that would not have been fun in a tent! Anyway, that left us with a very open weekend.

Sunday afternoon was very nice so I banned the kids outside all afternoon. I checked on them once to find the scene in the picture below:
Ashlyn was drawing/writing and Colten was reading - not that I'm complaining, I just thought it was funny :) Later on they played with the kittens and made a potion out of random things in the yard.

Monday night was the Spring Band Concert, which was also Ashlyn's last band concert as she decided to opt out of band next year. They really have improved a lot. It was a nice treat! This weekend they will be going to Fiesta Texas to compete and I'm sure play a little, too.

Here's a picture (I ran out of batteries before I could get any video) of Ashlyn playing her trumpet in the concert (below the standing girl's shoulder):