Mother's Day Dinner - Homemade Pasta in the Making!

I was very spoiled this Mother's Day.  It is probably the best one ever!  Emily sang at the 9am mass which meant she had to be at church by 8:15am.  My alarm clock rang at 7am and apparently my sweet daughter had gotten herself up super early to decorate and make me breakfast in bed!  Emily said she actually got up at 5:30am because her alarm went off an hour earlier than she had planned (poor thing) and that she had tried to get Lia up to help her but Lia couldn't get out of bed!  So right after my alarm clock went off, I hear "Happy Mother's Day Mommy!" and "I made you breakfast in bed!"  I got cereal with milk on the side (so it wouldn't get soggy) with fresh blackberries.  Emily also wanted Chris to get up early and surprise me with espresso but he didn't cooperate either with her early plan.  He did, however, get up and make my espresso so I could have it with my breakfast.  Am I lucky or what?

And... after church, my crew slaved in the kitchen all day making homemade pasta, Nonna's meatballs, and pasta sauce with hot italian sausage.  Mamma Mia!  I had no idea.

Happy Mother's Day

Cub Scout Camp - Saturday Morning

This morning I got a call from Chris to report that they made it through their first cold night.  David's new adult sized sleeping bag was so big that he could bury himself in it and fold the extra length over himself as a blanket.  Chris said he was like a little heater inside there.  Chris also said the heating pads worked great for his feet.  Looks cozy!

 

And here is the cub scout camp site in the morning.  What a beautiful day!

 

I also got an excited call from my son to report that he spotted a hawk! in a tree, with a nest and 3 hawklettes!  It is difficult to see in the picture, but look closely and you can pick out the babies.  Chris said the mama had gone when he took this picture. 



 

Cub Scout Spring Camput - Friday Night

Today is Saturday, May 4th and I haven't posted a blog entry for 2 months!  What is going on?  Well... I am going to do my best to get caught up on the major events this weekend and try the fancy back dating tool.  We'll see.  But as for the present, we have been preparing for David's cub scout campout at Brazos Bend.  Last November, he went on his very first camp out with his Daddy and his Tiger Cub buddies and loved every minute of it.  This time, Chris and David are better prepared because they learned a lot last time and documented (yes we are a family of engineer types) what they needed to do it better.  What is funny is that it got down to 32 degrees at the fall campout and because of this ultra-strange spring weather we are having, it will be 44 degrees on their first night.  This time they have the flashlights you wear on your head (all the scouts had these last time), walkie talkies, a padded bed roll so sleeping on the ground is more comfortable, a lantern, a second table, heat packs for the feet... and several other items I'm sure Chris will tell me when he reads this blog post.  Regardless, they take a lot of stuff and food to go camping for two nights.  We could not go camping as a family b/c there wouldn't be enough room to put more than 2 people in our car!  Anyway, I got a call that they made it last night and how beautiful the park was.  I also received these 3 photos:

 

 



David was so excited to find this winter tiger cap at Christmas time (since he is a Tiger cub) and knew it would be a hit at the Cub Scout Campout! So next year, I need to find a Wolf theme... what did I start?  Lat year he told the epic story of Gilgamesh around the campfire.  I can't wait to hear what story he shares this year?  He was telling me he was thinking about sharing the Iliad... a shortened version I'm sure.  We spent about 3 weeks reading a lengthy retelling of it last month.  It was full of battle stories and apparently he really liked it!  I love my "classically educated" kid!

These screened in shelters are really nice!  I think 2 families shared each one... but real scouts camp outside, I'm sure.

Chris said there were many beautiful oak trees here.  It looks really peaceful, doesn't it?

David's Circuit Class Elective

Emma's First Communion, April 27

I am writing this on Saturday, May 4, but I am hoping it posts on April 27th because that was the day Emma received her first holy communion.  If it works, I can blog as tardy as I like... and still have it show up in correct time order.  We'll see if it works.  Chris and David went to Emma's first communion mass.  Emily, Lia and I spent the morning at the natatorium for the Laura Wilkerson dive meet... and yes, I will blog that next!  Luckily, we finished at the dive meet in time to see Emma arrive home for her reception and to see her in her beautiful first communion dress and veil.  She was beautiful!

 

Proud family!
 

 And look at this!  My family was able to pose for a group picture with Emma.  Seriously, all family members are looking at the camera and not one of my kids is sticking out their tounge.  This is a serious accomplishment for us.  Peg said we should crop Emma out and use it as our Christmas card next year... but that is just wrong on so many levels!  And if you look carefully, you can see Emily is wearing a medal!  (more on that later)

Opening gifts...

 And I just have to brag about my sweet girls because they both worked really hard to make Emma very special 1st communion cards.

Emily's Card - Front

Emily's card inside.  We all signed it.

Emily's card, back.  It is the sacred heart of Jesus.

Lia's card front.  She did everything but the writing.  We used google images to find nice pictures of crosses.

And again, Lia's original drawing, my handwriting, and google images.  Love it!

2013 Laura Wilkinson Dive Meet

Emily got to attend her second dive meet on April 27th.  Chris took her to her last one so this was my first opportunity to see what a big dive meet was all about.  First of all, these kids are incredibly lucky to get to dive in a facility as nice as our Conroe ISD natatorium.  Everything is state of the art right down to the second story viewing deck equipped with wifi so we don't get bored.  Nice.  Anyway, Emily trains with The Woodlands Diving Flight Academy which is the same coaching staff that took Laura Wilkinson to the olympics in 2000, where she won the gold for platform diving.  Laura was supposed to be at this meet, but we didn't get to see her.  Emily competed in the first event of the first morning and we didn't stick around.  Let's just say 4 hours was enough for me and we had Emma's first communion celebration to attend afterwards.

 



 

Emily is pictured here with her 3rd place medal.  She placed 3rd for her group:  Girls 10-12, 1m, novice.  I think there were 5 girls total in her group... most of the kids are older and/or more advanced.  It is cool to bring home a medal though.  My routine for dive meets, which I will hope to perfect in the future... is to video her dive and then take a picture of the score board so we have a nice record to keep.  I did pretty well this first time but I will definetly sit closer to get better videos next time.  I'm not sure exactly how the scoring works.  I would guess 10 is a perfect score with some points scored for difficulty.  From what I saw, a 7.0 was an outstanding dive.  I only saw 7.0 on the board two times.  A really good dive got a 6.5 and a pretty poor dive got a 4.0.  These are just my amateur assumptions.  If we continue with this, I'm sure I'll learn more.  Emily is on the 1m board, the one that is furthest away from where I am videoing from... figures.

Round 5, back dive
Scores:  6.0, 5.5, 6.0

 

 



 

Round 4, front dive

Score:  5.0, 5.5, 5.0

 

 

 

Round 3, tuck jump

Score:  5.0, 4.5, 5.0

 

 

Round 1, tuck jump

Score:  5.5, 5.0, 5.5