AJ's Art and Cooking Blog

It's a go...check it out and be sure to leave a comment. AJ is very excited about comments!

ameliawatts.blogspot.com

Seven And Counting

Our stock pond

This slideshow is mostly for Greg and his family. It is a pretty funny story. As we were walking to school one morning we found a rubber "pond" that was put out with the recycling. Of course AJ was all over that, so we grabbed it. As you can see, it is not a terrible huge container, probably 2 feet deep and 3ish feet across. I thought, "No big deal, I can dig a hole that size in the lawn." Easier said than done. About 6 inches under the surface there is a solid layer of grapefruit sized rocks. We never reached the bottom of the rocks. That little hole took me about 4 days to dig out. SO ridiculous! It is funny now, and I should have included a picture of the new rock mountain in the back corner of our yard.

But AJ is blissfully happy with her pond and she now has a perfect place for the hundreds of minnows she brings home from our fishing trips (see "AJ's favorite thing") The minnows seem pretty happy with the arrangement as well.

Clean Coal

It all pays off...

(And what did I do to deserve such a sweet note?
I got AJ a jar for the butterfly she caught!)

Hands down, no question... AJ's #1 favorite thing:

k

No pinching for this guy...

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Slankets...or are they Snuggies?

The kids saw a commercial for "The Snuggie" and thought it was just the most awesome thing ever. They talked about it for weeks. So while we were in Utah, Brett ordered 2 for them. They got here a couple nights ago, and you would have thought the kids won the lottery.

As you can see they put them to immediate use. Look how unencumbered their hand are using their wii-motes... AND they are machine washable and great for outdoor events!

Showcase Day

Every year at this time, each grade at AJ's school does a special project which is then displayed all over the school along with student's private collections. Today the classes were allowed to walk around the school and view all the displays and the parents were invited as well (and yet again Jack crashed the party.) I was blown away by the depth of some of these projects and the creativity of the students. AJ's class did landforms-clay sculptures of hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, plains and oceans. One class did variations of popular stories and there was one titled, "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" with an awesome illustration to match.

I feel extremely lucky to be in a community which values education so highly. I would have moved here for this school alone!

Are everyone else's kids as weird as mine???

AJ came home yesterday with "a great plan." She wanted to "make a cast with a towel underneath and covered all over with the whitish tape." She had obviously been mulling over it all day because she knew exactly what she wanted.

When it was all done she went around to all the neighbor kids and had them sign her "cast." She did a pretty good job of planning, you almost couldn't tell it was fake, and the way she limped around all afternoon should have won her an Oscar.

Kite Czar

Brett thinks he is some sort of almighty kite-czar. He is always talking smack about how awesome he is at flying kites. So Saturday we went to Zilker. I was helping Jack and Brett was helping AJ, we were standing too close and the kites collided and Jack's kite was doing the spin of death around AJ's. We both start reeling in the kites, and Jack's is just a fluttering mess of knots but of course Brett's kite refuses to come down. Matter-of-factly Brett says:

"I can't NOT fly a kite."

A milestone...

For some sons the struggle to surpass their fathers comes sooner than to most.

And before you make the judgment that Brett was going easy on them, you have to first come try it yourself.

Apparently Brett should have used the week we were gone more wisely (Suggestion: MarioKart practice, so you don't get schooled by your kids!)

And they lived happily ever after...