Last Day of School

 We survived another year as fabulous Thunderbirds!

In fact, we thrived!

Leah with Mrs. Tanner - her math/science teacher

Leah with Mr. Ligon aka B. Liggy 

 These two lovely teachers helped Leah grow so much!  

They encouraged her and helped her direct her leadership potential.  She spent a good portion of the year working on the Tech Team - serving as stage manager for the assemblies and special programs and was promoted to Assistant Director for next year!

Lincoln with Mrs. Marino

 We've been working with Mrs. Marino for three years now... Leah had her in 2nd grade and Lincoln has had her for both 2nd and 3rd!  What will we do next year when we don't get to work with her again?  She is seriously one of the most awesome teachers ever!

Peter with Mrs. Johnson

In theory, the Dual Language students have two teachers, but because of the changes we made to challenge Peter a little bit more he ended up spending the majority of his time with Mrs. Johnson.  Because he reads at such a high level, we switched him to taking Language Arts in Spanish and he flourished!  Mrs. Johnson really understood Peter and helped him to feel comfortable as he adjusted to being in school.

 

Eli with Miss Megan

This was our second year with the fabulous Miss Megan who works on speech with Eli.

Since Eli's birthday misses the school cutoff, we get to work with her again next year!

Thunderbirds ROCK!!!

Resident Poets

Our elementary school encourages each child to write an original poem for "Poem in Your Pocket" day every year.  Those who accept the challenge are entered into a grade level poetry contest run by the school librarian.  This year both Lincoln and Peter won awards for their poems.  So without further ado, may I present this year's submissions:

Rats!

by Lincoln

Round and furry,

A rodent all the way.

Too many in your cellar!

So, do you let them stay?

Round the cellar corner,

A rat is what you see.

Turn around... don't look back.

Scurry! Hurry! Flee!

Science

by Peter

What do you want to learn

In this class not so neat?

Do you want to learn about your body, 

From your head to your feet?

Do you want to build a volcano,

Oozing everywhere?

Or maybe catch some bugs

To see if they have hair?

We can do it all, 

So come on everyone - 

Here's my little secret:

Science is fun!

Globallers for the Win!

For about six weeks in March, April, and May we spend our Tuesday evenings watching Andrew play softball in the UT Staff Intramural League.

The team for the International Office is the Globallers and they usually field a pretty good team.

In fact, I think they've played in the championship game almost every year since Andrew has started working at UT.

The kids have a lot of fun staffing the cheering section and watching their dad play ball. 

(He's number 3!)

This year was particularly fun because we won the championship!

Isn't that a cool trophy?

 I think our team also won in 2010 and 2012.  Not bad!

Our kids always look forward to softball season... in fact, here's a flashback from 2010

 That's a little 2 year old Peter running the bases behind his dad while his pants slowly fall down.

So cute!

Kitchen Remodel

Some of you may remember that a kitchen remodel that I mentioned back in August.  Well, it turns out that when you do a remodel yourself, it may not cost quite as much, but it takes a lot longer!

We still have a bit of painting and little detail work to finish up, but the majority is done so here is the big reveal...

Before and After

 We've been living in this house for almost 12 years now, so we've had a lot of time to figure out how our kitchen should work for us.  

The benefit of doing the remodel ourselves was that we were able to add in quite a few custom touches make the area more efficient and accessible...

The skinny space between the dishwasher and oven

Pullouts in all of the lower cabinets

Spices under the cooktop - easy to see and reach!

Appliance garage

Pullout drawer for otherwise awkward storage space

Half moon pullout shelves to eliminate the dead corner space.

Raised the counter to one height

(previously it had a drop down ledge to table height)

 

 platter storage on the dining room side of the peninsula to eliminate a dead corner

 Pullout pantry shelving!

Now we just have to decide on a color for the soffit and we can say we're finished!

... I wonder what our next project will be...

Art Show and Hailstorm

Leah and Lincoln each had artwork selected for the AISD Art Show this year.

 

Lincoln made the calavera at the top that looks like stained glass.

 

And Leah made two clay tiles, one with a parrot head and one with a funny face.

We spend a family night downtown admiring all the artwork and got home just in time to beat the hailstorm!

The hail wasn't very big, but there was a lot of it! 

Doesn't it look like it snowed?

And it was cold enough (after a week in the 70s and 80s) that there was still quite a bit on the ground in the morning!