The Circus is in Town!

I love going to the circus. I mean, I really love going to the circus! When John would take me to the circus before we had kids, I didn't want to take them until they were old enough to love it as much as me. I took Cooper for the first time last year and he LOVED it. He pretty much talked about it all year long, so I knew he wanted to go again this year. I was up in the air if I would take Natalie, but she said she really wanted to go. (and she did great!) We invited Cooper's friend, Cooper and his 2 sisters and his mom to go with us. We went early to the pre-show and saw 11 pachyderms backstage. I learned some interesting facts about elephants:

• They live to be 50-60 years old in the wild and 70+ years in captivity.
• The have the mentality/brain function of a 5-7 year old.
• Only females were in this show, a total of 11. The boys have to go to a special ranch when they go through puberty (behavioral issues).
• They can sleep lying down for only 4-6 hours, then they have to get up or they may crush their internal organs. They can sleep standing up for an hour or so, and you can tell when they stand really still and their trunk is laying down on the ground. (The keeper pointed out one that was 'dozing off'.)
• The females typically have no more than 4 calfs in their life. They have the highest conception rate if they let the elephants get impregnated the old-fashioned way. Artificial insemination is not nearly as successful.
• The females weigh anywhere between 7,000 to 10,000 lbs.
• Each elephant drinks two (2!) 55 gallon drums of water a day.
• When they start goofing off and pushing each other around, they separate them. We watched one of the male keepers, put one of the elephants in a time-out.

We had great seats and got to see 'Belo' up close when he was swinging on the extra tall pole and running around the spinning circle cages. It was a BELOBRATION!!! Lots of fun. I think I love the circus just as much if not more than the kids. I will always 'volunteer' to take the kids to the circus!!!

Our Last Swim Thursday (for this Year)

Sad? Somber? Yes, all of the above. I cannot believe that we are starting the "last"s already. Next Thursday we have a school picnic-drop off supply night for Cooper. Then the next Thursday is Meet the Teacher. After that the pool water is a little too chilly for me to get in just for the fun of it.




However, today was loads of fun! There were 12 kids in the water, having a BLAST! Diving, screaming, jumping, screaming, cannon balling, screaming and a little more screaming. There is just no other way to express your utter excitement when you are under the age of 10 without SCREAMING! (Unless you are 2 years old, then you screech!)
Here is a glimpse of the fun:

Did anyone notice the newest addition to Mary's household??? (Jerry!)

Scrap is Beautiful

Here are some pictures that you do not expect to see everyday. Everything from a water tower with a skirt on it, to a water tower that lost it's top. A grassy cow in downtown to a man on a Segway. (http://www.segway.com/) Seeing an NFL stadium being built to a CareFlite helicopter taking a break: just a few goofy things I have seen this week. Oh yeah, I am now aware that 'Scrap is Beautiful'...

Love the Olympics!

I am quite patriotic. In fact, when I am in an exceptionally good mood, I cannot help but sing the national anthem. It is my dream to one day sign (as in sign language for deaf people) the national anthem at a major event. I cannot sing so good, so signing is the next best thing. Plus you can't be off-key!

All that to say, I LOVE THE OLYMPICS! My favorite is (of course) women's gymnastics. Those little powerhouse girls can do the most amazing things these days. Some things are the same: 4 inch beam, uneven bars and springboards. However, so much has changed: the vault is a different structure, the approach to the vault is backwards AND the scoring within gymnastics is ridiculously modified! There is no longer a perfect 10! Sorry to these up and coming gymnasts, but they can never be a Mary Lou Retton. I find it odd that the scoring is even different from event to event-- higher scores on bars than could be attained on vault. It is still fun to watch though, even if the Chinese are using underage girls. I was sad to see the Americans get the silver, but the all-around is yet to come. What impressive athletes all of these girls are!

No Climbing, Running or Yelling!

I do not want to give credit to where I took the kids for lunch, but it was a place where they could play and not burn the top layer of skin off their legs. I just found it interesting that this sign was posted on the play area. Really? They expect 3 to 10 year olds not to climb (in the play place, how would you get to the top to slide down?), run (how else does a 3 year old get from place to place?) or yell (is their another decibel level to communicate your excitement when you are a toddler?)??? Let me tell you, this was the loudest eating and playing place I have been to in a while. I am seriously thinking about packing ear plugs to put in my ears next time. The refreshing thing was that the extreme noise did not come from my children... now that's a first!

AHHHH! Sibling love!!!

(Cooper was seeing a movie with my mom.)

How about Melissa Lawson?

Melissa Lawson won Nashville Star 2008 last Monday. Why did it take me this long to write about it? Oh yeah, I wanted to include a video if you have never heard her sing. We are blessed at our church to get to hear her sing quite often. I remember at the previous church location, probably around the year 2000 or so, she sang "I Have Been Blessed" by Martina McBride. The power that she sang that song with was almost overwhelming. The pastor got up to preach and humbly said, "How do you follow that up?"

She is such a beautiful singer and a personality to match. If you ever get a chance to hear her sing in person, you will be blessed. Here is a video of her singing, "What If It All Goes Right?" How fittingly appropriate for this mother of 5. May her life for ever be changed... living her dream. :>)

* http://video.yahoo.com/watch/3261970/9192617 *

*

Pantego Bicentennnial Park

After church this morning, we thought we would all go to Pantego Bicentennial Park to let the kids play and wear themselves out. We got about a mile away and Cooper started really exhibiting some bad behavior, so we turned around and went back home. John stayed with Cooper and I took Natalie and Luke on to the park for some good, clean fun. Natalie was bound and determined to show me her 'flip' on a pull-up bar. After briefly playing on the climbing apparatus, slides, swings and huge rock, we made it over to the exercise pavilion. They have all these bars, poles, sit-up boards, etc. to do 32 different exercises. Natalie was feeling exceptionally athletic, climbing on most of them, jumping off every one of them and flipping around every bar she could jump to. She tried to coach Luke on

how to do it, but he has a little bit of a fear factor still in him. I think they had a whole lot of fun!

By the way, Natalie took this cute picture. Attagirl Natalie!!!

Date Night!

We had our favorite teenage babysitter come over tonight. Oh yeah, the kids graciously give up a few hours hanging out with us for a few hours of fun with Kayla! We have to be careful as to when we tell them that she is coming over, lest they ask every 35-45 seconds, "when is she going to be here? When is Kayla coming over? When is she going to be here?" They love Kayla and miss her if she doesn't come over at least once a week.

We went to Gloria's, our favorite restaurant. I love their strawberry margaritas and queso. John loves their margaritas and the whole atmosphere. it is so interesting how much we appreciate 2 hours to talk, carry on a conversation, complete a conversation, etc. I told John 2 or 3 times how much I just enjoy being with him and talking. Granted most of it is about the kids, but not everything. We can actually talk about stuff that we otherwise have to spell out around the kids or they end up asking too many in-depth, follow-up questions. Overall, a great night to reconnect and enjoy each other's company and realize how wonderful our marriage is.

Cooper's Last Storytime

It sounds so somber. Cooper's last story time. I guess once you start kindergarten, it is not 'cool' to go to story times anymore. At least I'll have another year or two to take Natalie and Luke. Just when Cooper started to know all the answers to Ms. Anna's questions, he is all done with the story times. Oh well, I just need to coach Natalie a little better with the answers about baseball, batting, positions, plays, etc.

One interesting thing happened at story time. Ms. Anna asked where does the pitcher throw the baseball? Cooper answered with an expected, "home base, to the batter." However, another child, only 4 years old mind you, said: "unless he is doing a pick-off, in which he throws to first base." Alrighty then!

I looked at his mom and she was extremely pleased with his precocious answer. (As I would have if one of mine would have said it.)

We went up to the learning center and since there were not a lot of people, I let Natalie go over to the dry erase boards while I helped Cooper with the video quiz questions. I thought I would check on her after a few minutes and this is what I found:

There is all this space that they are allowed to write on the walls, and she chooses to write on the part that has the big neon sign demanding a child refrain from writing on the wall. Oh well, I'm sure it is not the first time...

Subtle Swim Thursday

It was a quiet Swim Thursday, but still a whole bunch of fun. I am so glad that John is so tolerant of the children using him as a mobile diving board and submerged jungle gym. They were all over him today and could not get enough of 'Daddy-time'.