Frisco Storytelling Festival

Caleb's has been selected as a student storyteller to perform at the Lone Star Storytelling Festival in Frisco on Saturday, October 10th. He will be training throughout the summer for the big day and will share the stage with nationally recognized storytellers. Here's the link to his Youtube audition. If you're a local, he'd love it if you would come and support him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbgY7ddnwLM

Good Morning, Mommy!

This morning I went into Madeline's room to wake her up and found a little wall art. (Of course we have flat paint and textured walls.) After months of devotion to the potty training cause, things aren't advancing very quickly. I have a mantra I find myself thinking to get me through moments like these--"only two more months of being two, only two more months of being two..."

Memorial Day Weekend

I think Sierra and Madeline look so sweet in their matching pink gingham hats. This picture was taken on our family hike through the spring wildflowers before everyone got hot and cranky and tired.

Sierra Turns Six

Sierra turned six on May 19th. To celebrate, we had a Hansel and Gretel themed birthday party. Each of the girls decorated her own gingerbread house, and we then went on an adventure that took them through each part of the story. I took the girls for a walk in the woodsy area outside our house where they picked some berries which we hung on bushes. (The premise was that the girls were trying to find food for their poor family. We skipped the stepmother trying to get rid of them.) When we got back to the house, the outside door was covered in candy and the garage doors had large paperdoll gingerbread children that used to be real children before the witch turned them into cookies. The girls were terrified pulling the candy off the door, and then Ted poked his head out and pretended to be the witch. He put Caleb in a "cage" and the girls had to feed him to fatten him up. Then they pushed Ted into an "oven." (The cage and oven were designed by Caleb.) We went outside and they had to turn the gingerbread children into real children by tossing a "magic" ball at the paper dolls, which allowed us to turn them over to the other side that looked like children. We then had a hunt to find the witch's treasure so they could go home and buy food for their families. Sierra got a new dress with a matching dress for her favorite doll as well as Barbie bike that even has a little bike attached for a lucky Barbie to ride along. Happy Birthday, Sierra!


Decorating Gingerbread Houses


Hunting in the forest for berries


The Gingerbread Children


Sierra and Penny


Sierra's Barbie Bike

Sports in Texas

In case you're not from Texas, I should fill you in that sports are a really big deal here. Caleb decided to give baseball a try this season, and after spending the last few months camped in the outfield and not getting any hits at bat, he's decided that games with balls really aren't his thing. I actually think he's okay for a kid his age, but some of the other kids have obviously got a lot of practice and talent. A few weeks ago, I accompanied him to a baseball game. I was a little surprised that they decided to play given the rain shower that was starting, but when it started to come down in earnest and thunder was moving in, I thought surely the game would be called off. But no, the steadfast Texan athletes played on, despite the ball being so wet that they were trying to squeeze it out between pitches and the wind blowing so hard that even those of us under the shelter were getting soaked. Thunder was booming, lightning was streaking across the sky (and coming closer, I might add) and they played on. I was tempted to go pull Caleb out of the game myself, but I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the other boys. Finally when the rain was coming down so hard that the boys couldn't see, they were all called off the field. I ran over to the dugout to pick up Caleb, and the coaches started yelling, "Run to the shelter!" I thought we were having a tornado threat, and while I would have rather made a dash for my car, I decided to follow orders. We huddled under the snack stand, and it was then I found out that the reason they wanted us to go to the shelter was to wait for 15 minutes so they could try playing again! We finally were told we could go home, and by this time we could barely walk to our car from the force of wind and rain. When we got home, we heard reports that The Dallas Cowboys had been playing when the storm blew down parts of the stadium. Here's Caleb after braving out the storm.