April

For Easter weekend, we loaded up the family and dogs and spent the weekend at my mom's in Kerrville/FBG. We also attended Easter services at her church, which had a pancake breakfast and an "organized" an egg hunt. The kids had lots of fun trying to find eggs by color!

Here is a clip of Aidan's latest creation,

in his own words (just ignore the crunching of the leaves under my feet)...

Today, April 20, Aidan turned 9. It's so hard to believe! He is very happy to be 9. We celebrated by having cinnamon rolls for breakfast, he opened some gifts, then off to school. After school, we had dinner at Jim's, his favorite place for pancakes, and our waiter was very thoughtful and sly and brought out a hot fudge brownie sundae for Aidan when we had finished eating! I tipped him big. Aidan was just beside himself! He was so surprised! When we got home, Aidan opened one more gift from Granna and then Will and the kids set up the Catapults and Crossbows game to play before bedtime. Amy got Aidan a COBRA Commando GI-Joe! He also got some snazzy gadgets for his bike. He has no idea what is in store this weekend... We have planned a weekend camping trip, with a few more surprises for him! Let's all hope the weather is good! Happy Birthday Aidan!
Here's Aidan setting up his defense. Is it me, or does he look like Nick in this photo?? Must be the shaggy hair!

Aidan chose to forgo a birthday party in favor of a family camping trip. So, once again, we loaded up (we're pretty good at it now!) and headed for.... Garner! The day we arrived, it was raining, but stopped and cleared for the afternoon. Then both nights were sleepless ones for us grown-ups, with the wind and rain snapping and whipping the tent all over the place. Ugh. The highlight of the trip was the family next to us. There were several girls and one boy (named Aidan!) and the kids spent most of the next 2 days playing together in an area behind the campsites that contained mountains of discarded concrete picnic tables and other unrecognizable, broken masterpieces.

The kids dubbed it "Narnia"!

NARNIA!
The kids also got a surprise visit from Ganny and Pop at lunchtime Saturday. They drove out to celebrate Aidan's birthday and brought Aidan's gifts, which included two super soakers that were a HUGE hit!



Aidan said it was the best birthday week ever!

Happy happy!

Just a little update.... Some of you are aware of our ongoing school issues and the fact that this is their last year at their current school (it is closing due to the "economy"). Today we received the official letter from a charter school that they have both been accepted! We are all very excited about it- it is a science and technology school with an exemplary rating. We have visited over a half dozen schools around town to find the right fit, so we are relieved that the search is finally over! Aidan and Amy are also very excited- they really liked this school when we attended their open house and science fair a few months ago. The school is free and has all grades, K-12. They have a fantastic variety of after school clubs, gifted/talented courses, and specialized classes, like NASA involvement, gifted electronics, robotics club, cooking club, jump rope club, etc. AND, it's only about 5 miles from our house! (Their current school is 23 miles.)

Today their school had their annual Bike Rodeo. Neither wanted to participate, but we loaded up their bikes anyway. To my surprise, when I picked them up after school, both had won first place and an invitation to the city-wide Bike Rodeo, which they are both insisting on attending! Who knew?

6 more weeks of school! We are looking forward to summer.